Bulgaria’s Dimitar Yosifov is the man to catch as Event #30 of the 2013 World Series of Poker progresses to its third and final day.
Day 2 saw 216 players take their seats in the cavernous Amazon Room and by the time 10 one-hour levels were completed only 13 players still had chips in front of them that required bagging up.
Each of the returnees sat down safe in the knowledge they would receive at least $1,935 for their efforts because the money bubble burst as play ended on Day 1. During the course of Day 2, the tournament lost the likes of Andrew Lichtenberger (133rd), Jonathan Aguiar (112nd), Xuan Liu (103rd), Nam Le (102nd), Todd Terry (98th), Mark “Pegasus” Smith (49th), Kevin MacPhee (42nd), Randy Lew (39th), John Racener (36th) and the overnight chip leader Antoine Saout (34th).
Despite losing a plethora of marquee players we were still treated to some intense poker action as the tournament reached the latter stages of Day 2. Some such action resulted in the aforementioned Yosifov becoming chip leader.
The hand in question, the largest of the tournament so far, saw Main Khoury open to 24,000 and Yosifov three-bet to 65,000. Khoury then four-bet to 115,000 only to see Yosifov stick in a five-bet to 200,000! The betting didn’t end there, either! Khoury moved all in and Yosifov snap-called creating a massive 1,234,000 chip pot!
Khoury turned over and was in big trouble against the of Yosifov. Khoury’s plight worsened as the flop came down followed by the turn and river. This hand left Khoury with just 6,000 chips (he was eliminated on the following hand) and saw Yosifov soar into a substantial chip lead.
Play resumes at 1:00pm local time and continues until one man has won all of the 6,324,000 chips that are currently in play. Who will be Event #30’s champion? Keep your browsers locked to PokerNews.com to find that answer out.
Jesse McEuen raised from under the gun. Action got to Brad Libson and he pushed his stack out which equalled 223,000. McEuen snap called for all the chips and the cards were flipped.
McEuen:
Libson:
McEuen was in great shape to eliminate Libson. The board ran out . With that Brad Libson was eliminated in 14th place.
Jed Hoffman was all in with against Mathew Moore and his . Hoffman would need some help and a king. The flop came . The turn was the . The river the and that would be the end for Hoffman. He did add $15,822 to his already impressive three cashes this year.
In what has been the largest pot of the tournament, two of the biggest stacks went up against each other, and there was indeed a war.
The war started harmless with Mazin Khoury raising to 24,000 preflop. His battle was against Dimitar Yosifov. Yosifov 3-bet to 65,000. The rest folded and action was back on Khoury. He 4-bet to 115,000. Now it was the Yosifov warrior who had to combat the raise. Yosifov stuck out a load of orange equaling over 200,000. Khoury looked back at his cards and announced "all in". Yosifov snap-called and the battle was to be played out on the board with all 1,234,000 going to the victor.
Khoury:
Yosifov:
Yosifov was well ahead. The flop came . The turn the . The river and the final stab was . That did it for Khoury as he only had 6,000. His amazing run ended the next hand.
The victor, Dimitar Yosifov, won the biggest pot of the tournament. He turned his big stack into a monster stack with 1,234,000. He is all but surely heading into the final table.
Gary Robinson's tournament has ended, and although he is obviously disappointed he walks away with $12,635 and a great story to tell his friends.
Chris Dombrowski opened and quickly called when Robinson moved all-in for around 70,000. Robinson was narrowly ahead with his to Dombrowski's but that all changed on the flop. Dombrowski's hand stayed best as the and fell on the turn and river.
"I'm going home," said Robinson, "I'm going home but it has been a pleasure and I have gone further than I could ever have imagined."
Chris Bolek, who has WSOP bracelet winner Max Waxman on his rail, has just made a big laydown judging by the look of pain that was on his face as he mucked his hand.
On an flop, Bolek bet 26,000 from the cutoff and Mathew Moore (button) called. The turn put four spades onto the board and it was unsurprising that both players checked.
The river saw Bolek tank for close to 90 seconds before betting 62,000. Moore's eyes never left the community cards until he looked towards the dealer and said,
"I am all in."
Bolek exhaled loudly and scrunched up his face, stood from his chair before sitting back down. He sat with the hood of his green jacket over his face, before removing it and folding.
Simon Cremniter raised it up to 8,000 preflop. Mazin Khoury re-raised from the small blind to 20,000. Lew next to act in the big blind went all in. Cremniter folded but Khoury called. Lew held and needed to hold against Khoury's to stay alive.
The flop would crush Lew however as it came . Lew would need a remaining nine. The turn did not help. Neither did the river . With that Lew busted and Khoury became the chip leader with 407,000.
Randy Lew opened to 4,000 from the under-the-gun plus two position and was confronted with a push from the player on the button for 27,000. His neighbor, the player in the small blind, wanted an exact count and then made the call after some moments of thinking. The player in the big blind folded and the table stared at Lew who's move it was. Lew checked how much the small blind had behind (around 60,000 it looked like) and pushed all in for 66,100 total. The odds were good for the small blind but after about two minutes of thinking he decided to fold for the 39,100 more.
Lew showed his and was up against . The flop was rather harmless but the on the turn gave the player on the button four clean outs to beat Lew. The on the river was a blank though and Lew eliminated a player - almost doubling in the process.
Randy "nanonoko" Lew opened under-the-gun to 2,400 and had more than enough action behind him. The player in the hijack position pushed his stack forward (about 15,000) and the cut off committed his stack as well (7,800). The button and both blinds folded and the decision was back on Lew. He thought about it for a couple of minutes and eventually decided to call.
Randy Lew
Hijack
Cut off
Lew had the worse of it but that would soon change: on the flop. After the on the turn and on the river the dealer shouted "Pay outs table 427!" and two players got up from the table.
Lew is foremost an online player, a thing we could tell by the speed of his stacking abilities. To stack his newly acquired chips in twenties took him as long as his pre flop decision.
and was in big trouble against the 
of Yosifov. Khoury’s plight worsened as the flop came down 
followed by the 
turn and 
river. This hand left Khoury with just 6,000 chips (he was eliminated on the following hand) and saw Yosifov soar into a substantial chip lead.
. With that Brad Libson was eliminated in 14th place.
against Mathew Moore and his 
. The turn was the 
. The river the 
and Seer the 
.
board, Seer winning with his club flush.
flop. Dombrowski's hand stayed best as the 
and 
fell on the turn and river.
turn put four spades onto the board and it was unsurprising that both players checked.
and needed to hold against Khoury's 
. Lew would need a remaining nine. The turn 
. With that Lew busted and Khoury became the chip leader with 407,000.
on the turn gave the player on the button four clean outs to beat Lew. The 
on the river was a blank though and Lew eliminated a player - almost doubling in the process.
