Govert Metaal just told us that he has been quite lucky today. He cracked aces with his pocket tens, and hit a two outer on the river with jacks versus kings early on.
Kevin MacPhee was also pretty lucky, but his luck came in the form of strong starting hands. He got kings back to back, and got kings again a bit later and flopped top set versus middle set on with two diamonds. Another opponent in the hand folded which would have gotten there. MacPhee isn't complaining, that's for sure.
Matt Stout, across from MacPhee, has a good stack in front of him as well. "I had to work for my stack bro" he laughed. "I had to shove the river as a bluff against an old guy." That hard work paid off for Stout who plays about 27,000.
Garry Gates was all in and at risk. His opponent flipped over . Gates had his flipped up but was still holding onto the cards.
Gates commented on how the board was going to run which was bringing kings or aces. The flop did not bring an ace or king but instead a monster chance for Gates's opponent. The flop came . Gates was still holding onto his cards but praying a club was not to come. The turn paired the jack with the . The river came the and somehow Gates dodged the barrage of outs.
Gates was happy to still be in the tournament and he doubled to 4,000.
We were having a chat with Athanasios Polychronopoulos when he casually called 1,400 from a guy who pushed all in preflop. Polychronopoulos woke up with and had his opponent deeply in trouble with . The board ran out . Just like that Polychronopoulos easily knocked out another opponent.
Polychronopoulos is on a tear and already won a $1,500 not but a few weeks ago. With 12,600 already today it must be nice to be Mr. Athanasios Polycronopoulos.