Alexander Kostritsyn was in a pot with Minh Ly that Ly bet and Kostritsyn called on fifth and sixth streets. After sixth street, the boards were as follows:
Ly:
Kostritsyn:
As the river card was being dealt, Kostritsyn bet out of turn. He was then informed that Ly was high with a pair of sevens. Kostritsyn tried to quickly take the bet back but the dealer would not let him. Kostritsyn was informed that if Ly bet out, Kostritsyn would be allowed to take the bet back if he wanted to. Ly was paying attention to this whole exchange and had the look on his face of "do I look like I want to bet now?" Ly finally checked so that the "bet" would come from Kostritsyn and then begrudgingly called the bet.
Kostritsyn turned over ( ) for a set of three's. Ly did not look surprised as he mucked his cards.
Erik Seidel has shifted gears since the break, but things haven't gone his way. After losing two medium pots to David Oppenheim and Alexander Kostritsyn, Seidel found himself involved in another clash with the chip leader.
Seidel had completed with the and Kostritsyn raised with the . Seidel called.
On 4th street, Kostritsyn led out with the and Seidel called with the .
Kostritsyn and Seidel both checked 5th street.
On 6th street Seidel led out after he paired the and Kostritsyn called with the .
On the river Seidel check-called the bet of Kostritsyn who revealed his board as () to show trip fives on the river as Seidel gave a wry smile at the beat which sends his stack plummeting to only about 40,000 chips.
During the break, I had a chance to speak with Eric Brooks about his background in poker and about his decision to play in this event. ��I used to play a lot more stud in the past. I played some out here in Vegas and in Atlantic City, but I don��t play much anymore. Once in a while I will go out and play a tournament or something.�� He proceeded to tell me that he entered this $10,000 Stud World Championship on a whim. He plans to donate all of his tournament earnings to the Decision Education Foundation.
According to Brooks, the purpose of the Decision Education Foundation is to ��teach the science of decision making to students in grades K through 12. Teaching proper decision making is important and very applicable to poker.�� Brooks also told me that he has been able to convince Annie Duke to join him on the board for the DEF to help further their cause.
��I hope to get lucky for them and win them some money�� was the last thing he told me before returning to play. He has a tough field ahead of him, but regardless of where he finishes, the real winners at the end of the day will be the children and young adults that his organization will be able to help as a result of his winnings.
After the first two levels of play Alexander Kostritsyn has jumped out to a healthy chip lead with 880,000 chips, with overnight leader David Oppenheim still the short stack with about 225,000.
Players are just coloring up some of the orange 1,000 denomination chips to make life easier with betting (and chip counts!). Play will recommence momentarily.
Vassilios Lazarou committed the last of his chips in on 3rd street against both Alexander Kostritsyn and David Oppenheim. Both live players checked 4th street before Oppenheim bet on 5th street to force Kostritsyn out of the pot. The boards ran out as follows:
Lazarou: () ()
Oppenheim: () ()
Oppenheim had rolled up deuces which held to send Lazarou to the rail in 8th place after a fine tournament for $48,269 in prize money.