"Nice comeback," someone at the table said while the dealer announced a double seat open. A short stack was all in and at risk with , and another player held . Lykov had them both covered and dominated with to see the board run out ten-high.
Phil Hellmuth and Casey Kastle already had purchased their entry to the Monster Stack Day 1b and showed up fashiuonably late after the cards were already back in the air. Hellmuth sat down at a table with Jeff Lisandro and Maxim Lykov, and will try to run up a stack in the upcoming six levels.
Two-time bracelet winner Eduard "Eddy" Scharf, Robert Zipf, Martin Kabrhel and Erich Kollmann jumped into Day 1b at the very last minute with a fresh stack of 20,000. The registration is now closed and action back underway for level nine.
The tournament screens show 92 players out of 158 entries remaining and they have all been sent into a 60-minute dinner break. Action resumes at approximately 9 p.m. local time and the registration for the second of three starting days is open until the cards are back in the air.
With Ryan Hughes being the only Player of the Year contender able to advance to Day 2 yesterday, there were three other players expected to return for Day 1B. John Racener and Alex Foxen have both entered into the field day but unfortunately, they have both been eliminated.
Racener took a hit early in the day and was soon after eliminated, while Foxen was grinding an around average stack. He recently busted before the dinner break and both of these players are expected to return for a third shot tomorrow. Chris Ferguson has just arrived at the dinner break and will be taking his seat when they return.
Ethem Tosun had more than half of his stack in already and then called all in for 6,500 on the river of a board river. Gudmundur Sigurjonsson turned over for the flush and Tosun shook his head, said "I knew it" and flashed for the inferior straight before exiting the tournament area.
The next hand, Brandon Cantu opened to 1,600 and picked up no fewer than four callers including Pierre Neuville, Viktor Kovachev and both players in the blinds. On the flop the action checked to Kovachev and his bet of 2,800 was called by Neuville only. The turn and river were checked and Kovachev won the pot with .
After a raise and a three-bet to 4,500 by Luigi D'Alterio, the action was on Mario Mosböck in the small blind and he four-bet to 13,500. The initial raiser folded and D'Alterio counted his stack before tossing in the additional chips. The flop of was checked by both players before Mosböck made a delayed continuation bet for just 4,500 on the turn, D'Alterio called.
The river completed the board and Mosböck checked. D'Alterio moved all in and Mosböck snap-called to catch his opponent with the fingers in the cookie jar. D'Alterio had complete air with and Mosböck's for the nut flush scored a massive pot. The stacks were counted and Mosböck had 30,825, which covered the Italian.
"It is nice when someone represents the hand that you have," another player joked while Mosböck was busy stacking his chips.
The main pot had around 6,000 in the middle and there were four players alive on the side pot of 2,600. The flop came and the action was checked to Pierre Neuville who led out for 3,200. Viktor Kovachev called from middle position and the button called as well.
The turn was the and Neuville checked this time. Kovachev bet 7,600 and the button folded. With the action on Neuville, he had a look on his face of disappointment and eventually laid down his hand as well. The side pot was shipped to Kovachev and he tabled . The all-in player rolled over and was drawing dead to the river. Kovachev took the main pot as well to climb back over 50,000 chips.