We picked up the action on fifth street as Meikle Partin was getting awfully short on chips. His board showed (x-x) / , and Tad Jurgens was working with (x-x) / . On fifth, Partin bet, and Jurgens tanked and called. On sixth, Partin bet his , and it left him with just 300 lonely chips. Jurgens pulled the , and he announced the call before he realized the remainder, so the two men just went ahead and put the rest of the money in. Partin didn't like it, but he was well ahead. He showed in the hole, and Jurgens could only muster . On seventh street, Partin drew the to make two pair and take some of the sweat off, needing only to dodge a jack now. Jurgens flipped over the , though, and Partin has doubled up to around 40,000 with that life saver.
Jared Davis started the day with just 9,800 chips, and he's worked that up over 100,000 here as the night goes on. The last pot was just sick. Davis opened with a raise from the button, and the player in the small blind had 3/4 of his chips committed already. He went ahead and called all in for 4,000 dark, and he was heads-up with Davis.
Davis announced that he had jacks ( ), and the all-in player didn't like it. Until, that is, he turned over his cards for the first time, revealing ! How quickly things change. And then change back. The flop ripped off , and the whole table reacted with stunned a unison, stunned, "Ohhhhhh!" The turn and river came and , and the short stack has been eliminated.
With that pot, Jared Davis climbs to 112,000 and into the realm of the big stacks.
Cyndy Violette brought-in with a king showing before McNamara completed from the four-seat; Berman called and Violette got out of the way. McNamara bet out on fourth, fifth and sixth streets and Berman called before both players checked their option on seventh street. McNamara's hand was best and he took down the pot, but both players are now hovering around the 110,000-chip mark as a result.
Travis Erdman is standing up behind his chair with his head on a swivel, and it appeared he was waiting around for his payout slip. We hustled over to the table to see Erdman's square vacant of chips and Shaun Deeb re-arranging a massive tower in front of him. Deeb saw us peeking and filled us in.
"Ace-king versus pocket sixes. All in preflop. Ace on the river."
We couldn't have said it any better ourselves. With that knockout, Deeb is all the way up to 225,000 and out in front of the pack.
No sooner had we had written up our last post, we got up only just in time to see Stefan Rapp walk out the door. We weren't able to catch any details of the hand, but we're sure that the 42 players that remain aren't that fussed about it - all they care about is the fact that they're guaranteed to make some bank!
Matt Vengrin would like the world to know he has the chip lead... in black chips. They're actually the gray T100 chips, the lowest denomination in play. Vengrin has cornered the market on that color, sitting with more than 45,000 worth of them.
Brian Powell had been near the top of the chip counts at one stage, but after taking several hits, he's just managed to triple up through Steve Sung and John D'Agostino.
Sung raised from under the gun and D'Agostino reraised from UTG +1 before the action folded around to Powell who four-bet it from the big blind. Sung called, but D'Agostino capped the action. Powell and Sung both called and they each took one card in the first draw while D'Agostino opted for two.
Powell bet and both Sung and D'Agostino called, then on the second draw, Sung stood pat while Powell and D'Agostino each swapped one card. Powell checked, Sung bet and D'Agostino called, but Powell check-raised all-in for another 500.
Both Sung and D'Agostino called, and while Powell and D'Agostino drew one more card each, Sung stood pat again and checked his option to D'Agostino, who also checked. Powell quickly showed down and that was plenty good to triple up.
Sung is down to 71,500, but D'Agostino is sitting pretty with 115,500 in chips.