Every time we think James Potter is on his way out of this tournament, he finds a way to win more chips. He moved all in from middle position for a total of 19,000. Action passed to Eric Assadourian, who called all in for less. Potter showed and had Assadourian's dominated. Both players hit their kickers on the flop, then turned aces up with the . That left Assadourian looking for a two-outer on the river. He didn't get it. The river came , sending Assadourian to the rail.
Potter continues to rock the short stack, but he's a bit healthier now with 38,000 in chips.
Ioannis Hristakopoulos found a happy double-up to climb over the 50,000-chip mark. He was involved in a preflop all-in confrontation with Edmund Schwerdt. Schwerdt tabled against Hristakopoulos' pocket jacks. Hristakopoulos emerged victorious on a board that improved neither player: . He's now up to 52,000; Schwerdt is out.
Eighty-nine players remain. Seventy-two will be paid.
Ben Delaney opened with a raise to 5,200 from middle position before he found himself raised by Peter Fien in late position, who made it 16,200 to go. The table folded around and the action was back with Delaney who moved all in, covering his opponent. Fien made the call and the cards were tabled:
Delaney:
Fien:
The race was on but in the end Fien took it down when the board landed . Fien is up to 64,000 while Delaney slips back to 53,000.
That cold, dark cloud is coming down on David Saab. He raised to 6,000 from the button before Steve Bouya reraised to 20,000 out of the blind. Saab quickly moved all in and Bouya just as quickly called.
Saab:
Bouya:
Saab and Bouya found themselves flipping for about 100,000 total chips. Bouya came out ahead on a board of . When the stacks were counted down, Saab was left with a mere 2,200 chips. He's on Death Watch.
Darren King has taken a nice pot off overnight chip leader Dean Blatt.
Blatt had raised under the gun to 6,000 and King made the call. The action checked through to the river on a board where Blatt took a stab at the pot with a 10,000 chip bet. King made the call and tabled for the best hand as Blatt revealed for ace high.
Blatt slips to 125,000 with King now up to 74,000.
All the chips went in preflop between Jim Ghobrial, one of the overnight chip leaders, and Michael Harrison-Ford. Ghobrial had a strong hand, showing down . Harrison-Ford, however, was even better with .
We'd like to imagine that Harrison-Ford asked Ghobrial "You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs," as he turned his hand over. But we'd be lying if we reported that as fact. Instead we'll just tell you that the Ghobrial never improved, allowing Harrison-Ford to double up to 70,000 chips. We're pretty sure that's enough chips for you (old man).
In a battle of the blinds, the action had folded around to Haki Sejnovski in the small blind who raised to 8,000. Martin Harvey then moved all in from the big blind and Sejnovski made the call for his last 24,000 chips.
Sejnovski:
Harvey:
Sejnovski took down the pot when the board delivered for a pair of nines to double up to 50,000. Harvey was down to close to the felt with only 1,100, but he managed to triple up the next hand to stay alive with around 3,000.
Michael Kroger has been eliminated after shoving his last chips in on a flop of . Paul Rochford quickly called with top set holding as Kroger was in trouble with his .
The turn and river blanked out and Kroger was sent to the rail. Rochford is closing in on the tournament chip lead with 135,000 chips.
The shortest stacks have wasted no time mixing it up this afternoon. Eleven players have already busted and several others have doubled up. Sam Khouiss was one of the lucky ones; he moved all in preflop for roughly 20,000 over the top of an opening raise to 5,550 from Christian Heich. Heich snap-called with and was in an excellent position to eliminate Khouiss, who showed . Heich's 3-to-1 edge failed to hold as Khouiss hit top pair on a flop of . The turn and river allowed his pair of jacks to hold.
Khouiss now has about 42,000 chips. Heich is down to approximately 50,000.