Daoxing Chen raised it up to 80,000 and the table folded around to Dermot Blain who decided to give us some action as he called in the big blind.
The flop arrived and Blain was first to speak. He checked and Chen fired 150,000. Blain made the call as we sat up in our chair at the prospect of a big pot going down.
The turn brought the and Blain checked again, but this time Chen checked behind.
The river was the , completing quite a few draws, and Blain decided to lead out with a bet. He made it 325,000 and we didn't have to worry about entering "Bobo Time" on this hand as Chen instantly called.
Blain revealed for the flush which was good as Chen mucked his cards. The luck of the Irish appears to be present today as Blain surges back up the leaderboard.
It took us a while to get to a winner, but Darkhan Botabayev dragged another pot. He was in the blinds preflop and called a raise to 70,000 made by Dermot Blain. On a ten-high flop, , Botabayev checked and then called another 90,000. The turn fell . Botabayev calmly surveyed the table and then fired out 125,000. Blain snap-folded.
With action being so sparse, Jicheng Su tried something different. He made a minimum-raise to 60,000 and found one caller, the big blind Daoxing Chen. Chen checked dark a flop of , then called another 30,000 from Su. Both players checked the turn. When the river fell , Chen ld into Su for 150,000. Su was playing a total of 300,000 left in his stack. Calling the bet was a huge risk for him if he was wrong. He stood over the table, trying toget a read. Chen started slurping down his lunch, which looked like some sort of soup. Su ultimately folded, flashing the as he did.
Dermot Blain raised to 75,000 from the cutoff position and Darkhan Botabayev made the call in the big blind.
They saw a flop of and Botabayev checked to Blain who made it 100,000 to play. Botabayev decided the price was right and tossed out calling chips.
The turn brought a repeat and both players checked. The river was the and Botabayev deliberated before splashing 125,000 into the middle. Blain made a quick call.
Botabayev flipped a monster, for a full house as Blain flashed .
Botabayev collects a nice pot but you have to think that Blain would be somewhat relieved to have gotten away from that situation relatively cheaply.
Action has been fleeting here at the final table, but we just witnessed a big hand between Dermot Blain and Daoxing Chen. Blain had the button and made a standard open to 70,000. After Mike Kim folded the small blind, Chen put in a reraise to 230,000 from the big blind. Blain wasn't finished though. He raised again, this time to 620,000. And that brought us to Bobo Time.
The raise back to Chen was 390,000. He tanked for three minutes before taking the same action he has taken every other time he has tanked -- folding. Blain rubbed some salt in the wound by showing .