The players are sated with buffet, and are slowly returning to their seats. Gus Hansen's table includes a stack which looks like it might be ready to overtake his -- that of John Tabatabai, who now boasts over 800,000. Meanwhile, the last hand before the break saw James Keys lose yet another pot to Tino Lechich, dropping him into the danger zone with just 100,000.
If there aren't pork chops at the upcoming buffet, then at least we got a taste of a chop here at the featured table on what turned out to be the very last hand of the level.
It was a relatively straightforward affair, Annette's 117k preflop raise with being reraised all in by Steven, who also held Big Slick, .
"Are you calling?" asked Steven.
"Of course I am," laughed Annette.
Annette called the extra 70k and it was on their backs, most of the crowd fully expecting a split pot. However, it appeared as though the dealer had other ideas, swiflty spreading out an flop.
With a few hearts in mouths, the dealer dealt a black turn, but it was a spade, the , before a blank hit the turn to save Annette from a cardiac arrest.
Choppy choppy, and the continually short-stacked Hoff makes it to din dins unscathed.
The outer table hasn't seen very many hands shown down (apart from one optional stone-cold bluff from Tabatabai), but there has been a measure of risk from the small stacks. Both Matthew McCullough and James Keys have reraised preflop raisers off hands by moving in. On the former's shove, Tino Lechich really went into the tank, face in hands, before passing, but that's the closest we've gotten to any big action. Dinner tends to loosen people up for some reason -- we'll have to see when we get back.
John Tabatabai has recently gotten the better of his neighbor Gus Hansen in several pots. Most recently, firing out two shells on the turn and river of a
board.
Gus called the turn but mucked the river, at which point Tabatabai showed a and no fear.
As we approach the break, the current chip leader is Johannes Korsar with 1,375,000 in chips, only one of two players to have broken that elusive one million barrier.