Catching the action on the board of , Frank Kassela bet out 5,000 and Antonio Esfandiari moved all in for 18,075. Kassela quickly called and Esfandiari was at risk.
Kassela:
Esfandiari:
With Esfandiari in the lead, the river landed the to end his tournament after Kassela four-flushed him while moving to 56,000 in chips.
A few late-level entrants include New Zealander Phil Willcocks, Australian Poker Hall of Fame member Gary Benson and reigning WSOP Asia-Pacific Champion Daniel Negreanu have all recently taken their seat in today's tournament.
The reigning Aussie Millions champion Ami Barer just doubled up after raising preflop from under the gun. His opponent in the big blind defended to see the flop of , where he check-called another bet of Barer. The turn went check / bet / raise and call before the player in the big blind bet the on the river and called the all in of Barer.
It was for the opponent and for Barer, who is back to just over half the average.
Dan Heimiller opened for 700 from early position only to have Brazil's Bruno Politano three-bet to 1,700 from the cutoff. Casey Kastle flatted from the small blind, and then Heimiller came back with a four-bet to 4,200. Politano quickly folded, Kastle called, and the flop came down .
Kastle checked, Heimiller bet 5,500, and Kastle thought for about 40 seconds before conceding the hand.
Before the start of today's day 1b, we caught up with Lauri Pesonen and the Finn said that he was in Sydney for vacation with his girlfriend and then noticed the event here in Melbourne. They flew over yesterday but it wasn't a good day at the office for Pesonen. In his last hand he three-bet shoved for his last 5,000 with pocket queens and Brendon Rubie called with to find an ace on the flop.