After Jeff Gross' double up in the last hand, Mats Gavatin was left as the shortest stack at the table. He went all in for 358,000 from middle position and got a call from Nicholas Heather.
Heather:
Gavatin:
Gavatin wasn't able to get any of the help he needed as the flop fell giving Gavatin a huge lead in the hand. A meaningless came on the turn, and a arrived on the river, which meant Gavatin was the first player to bust on today's final table.
Matt Vance was in middle position when he raised to 65,000 only to have Jeff Gross push his last 392,000 into the middle. Vance called and the two went to the first all-in flop of the day.
Vance:
Gross:
Gross was in a good position to double up, and managed to do so when the board fell . After the hand Gross was up up to a much more comfortable 785,000.
Matt Vance was in the hijack when he bumped it up to 65,000 with David Baker in the big blind being the only taker.
The flop came: and both players checked through. When the came on the turn, Baker bet 93,000 and Gavatin called.
The river was and Baker made one more bet of 264,000. Vance called and showed for the second nuts, which was good enough to boost him to into the chip lead with 2,153,000, while Baker is left with 2,131,000.
We've gone through introductions, learned that it's Daniel Thomas's birthday, and the dealers have been given that famous instruction to "shuffle up and deal."
Five days after it started, Event #13 is just hours from coming to an end. At 2:30 local time, our final nine players are set to sit down and play to a winner. Oh yeah, there's also a $472,479 payday coming for whichever one of our contestants is able to outlast his opponents.
It was a huge playing field with 3,024 people ponying up $1,000 for a shot at a bracelet. Along the way, many big names, and many more amateurs would fall. So who do we have left? We've got a seasoned veteran in "The Original" David Baker. Matthew Vance has two cashes under his belt less than two weeks into the series, not to mention the four he made last year. Nicholas Heather won over $10,000 in a previous event this year, and is bound to collect the largest live win of his career.
Oh yeah, we've also got Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby looking to bag another win and add to his over $1 million in career winnings. Mats Gavatin is looking to improve on his second place finish in a recent WSOPE event and score his first big live win since the 2005 EPT Irish Masters.
Make sure to stay with us through the day as we see the final table through to a winner and another bracelet in this year's World Series of Poker
Here's how our players are looking heading into the day:
David Baker - 2,553,000
Matthew Vance - 1,731,000
Steven Gee - 1,540,000
Nicholas Heather - 993,000
Kyung Han - 613,000
Daniel Thomas - 602,000
Jared Hamby - 423,000
Mats Gavatin - 393,000
Jeffrey Gross - 281,000