Jani Sointula Eliminated in 21st Place (£26,400)
Phil Ivey raised to 20,000 from the button, and Jani Sointula three-bet shoved on him for the second time today. Ivey shook his head, possibly a bit frustrated with the decision he was facing.
"How much is it this time?" he asked in that 'here we go again' tone. It was 197,000 total, and Ivey cut the calling chips from his stack. He separated them from the rest of his checks, eyeing up the potential damage to his stack. He shrugged, then smirked, then shrugged again. Finally, he slid the chips across the imaginary betting line to put Sointula at risk.
Showdown
Ivey:
Sointula:
It was a flip, and Sointula was going to like the flop. It came to vault him into a big lead. The on the turn was a blank, and Ivey had just two outs for the knockout. Tournament Director Jack Effel foreshadowed it beautifully over the microphone.
"Phil's going to need to catch a four to eliminate Jani from the tournament. And the river... is a four!"
Sure enough, the peeled right off on the river, cueing the handshakes and sending Sointula out in 21st place.
It's good to be Phil Ivey, even better when you have 775,000 chips.