The completed board read with Christopher Lockhart and Mustapha Kanit engaged in heads up action. With well over 300,000 in chips already in the middle, Lockhart checked to Kanit who shipped all in. This was a bet for Lockhart's tournament life and he went into the tank for several minutes while he pondered this important decision.
In the end, Lockhart dropped out a call and a frustrated Kanit showed for ace-high. Lockhart tabled for a pair of jacks and scored the double.
Ankush Mandavia had been eliminated in 43rd place. Play folded to him in the small blind, and he raised all in. Matias Jansson called from the big blind with the . Mandavia had the .
The board came , and Jansson busted Mandavia in 43rd place.
Play folded to Mustapha Kanit in the small blind. He raised to put Byron Kaverman all in from the big blind. Kaverman called and put himself at risk for 155,000 with the . Kanit had a dominated .
The eliminations have been coming fast and furious, and here's a batch of a few more.
Included in this bunch was Andrea Dato, who was eliminated at the hands of Martin Finger. Dat had moved all in with the and was up against the for Finger. The board gave Finger the win and sent Dato out the door in 45th place.
Following the conclusion of Level 19, play was momentarily suspended for tournament staff to address the players. According to the staff, they had crunched the numbers and because of the size of this tournament, it will likely play well into the early hours of the morning on Day 3. According to the math done by the tournament staff, the event should finish around 6 a.m. The tournament staff then informed the players that they would need to end around 2 a.m.
In order to combat this, the staff announced that they needed to take action.
Tournament staff gave the players the options of either extending Day 2 play by one level or two, or decreasing the length of the levels on Day 3. Each player had their own opinion on the matter, so this obviously turned into a somewhat lengthy process.
In the end, it was decided that one extra level would be played tonight and the levels on Day 3 would decrease from the standard 60 minutes to 55 minutes.
In what ultimately became a hand that lasted more than ten minutes, Thomas Muehloecker and Raoul Refos looked down at a board of . Muehloecker bet 139,000 on the turn and Refos thought for about three minutes before moving forward a call.
The river was the and Muehloecker thought for some time before moving out 325,000. This sent Refos deep into the tank for well over six minutes. Ultimately, Muehloecker called the clock and Refos was given 60 seconds to act on his hand. The time ticked all of the way down and Refos' hand was sent to the muck. Muehloecker took the pot and brought his stack up to 980,000.
Christian Jeppsson moved all in from under the gun for 102,000 and it folded around to Kevin MacPhee in the big blind. He tossed out a call and the hands were exposed.
Jeppsson:
MacPhee:
The board came out , allowing Jeppsson to score the double with a set of queens.
The completed board read and there was already over 300,000 already in the middle. Dominik Nitsche moved out a bet of 200,000 only to have Mustapha Kanit announce an all-in raise. Nitsche only had about 110,000 behind and he let out a sigh. After about a minute in the tank, he called for his tournament life.
Kanit showed for trip treys, besting Nitsche's . Kanit scooped up the pot and brought his stack up to 1.37 million in chips.