Kagawa made it 24,000, and Michael Watson re-popped him for 72,000 total. Some serious Kagawa consideration followed, before he went all in for 130,000, and got the call from Watson.
Kagawa:
Watson:
Board: a full-of-possibilities-but-ultimately-no-cigar , sending a clearly dismayed Kagawa to the rail, donning his jacket with an air of resignation as he went.
With the demise of Kagawa, we are now down to an exclusively North American final six.
Michael Watson open-shoved from the button, only for David Benyamine to look him up in the blind.
Watson =
Benyamine =
Board =
The flop and turn increased his outs, but the miracle straight failed to arrive on the blank river and Benyamine was gone. Benyamine's demise means that there are no European players remaining in this EPT event.
Masaaki Kagawa, down to just 61,000, does the decent thing and goes all in. It folded all the way around to big blind Michael Watson, who didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know what to do; he called.
Kagawa:
Watson:
Flop: -- "Ooooh"s in the press room, a lone shout of, "Yes, Masaaaaa!"
Turn: -- Kagawa: "No club!"
River: Kagawa gets his wish with .
A delighted Kagawa claps with joy as he doubles up to 130,000 or so, while Watson is down to 115,000.
Down to just 50,000, David Benyamine pushed all in preflop and awaited John Juanda's decision in the big blind. "Let me analyse the situation here," he sighed after revealing he had 10 high. After mulling it over, Juanda folded, saying "Queen high, I call" in the process.
Masaaki Kagawa raised to 25,000 preflp, but Isaac Haxton pushed all in behind. Kagawa only had 78,000 left, but he deemed he had enough behind to make the fold. No cards were shown.
Jason Mercier makes it 22,000 and John Juanda calls. All good.
Flop: -- an interesting flop, which they both check.
Turn: -- now Juanda leads for 30,000, and Mercier calls.
River:
Juanda nods sagely, and bets out another 30,000. Mercier appears irked, and has a peek down at his hole cards. "I would have called a big bet," he sighs.
"Oh yes?" says a cheerful Juanda. "I'll re-do it, how much do you want me to bet?"