Daniel Negreanu raised to 150,000 under the gun, David "Doc" Sands called from the cutoff, and Gabe Kaplan came along from the small blind. Brandon Steven then opted to make it 475,000 to go from the big blind, Negreanu folded, and Sands four-bet to 1.12 million. Kaplan got out of the way, and then Steven called the additional 645,000 to see a flop of .
Steven checked, Sands bet 470,000, and Steven check-raised to 2.6 million. Sands quickly folded.
Noah Shwartz opened to 135,000 from the cutoff and it folded all of the way around to Isaac Haxton in the big blind. Haxton flung out a call and the two watched as touched down on the felt. Haxton checked and Schwartz continued out for 215,000. Haxton thought for a moment before dropping out a call.
The fell on the turn, prompting a second check from Haxton. Schwartz moved 475,000 forward and Haxton let go of his cards.
Action folded to Rick Salomon on the button, and he raised to 125,000. In the small blind, Daniel Cates reraised all in for 1.475 million. Salomon made the call with the and would attempt to send the man they call "Jungleman" to the rail. Cates held the .
"Ahhh, f***," mumbled Cates when he saw the bad news.
The board came , and Cates was eliminated. Salomon moved to 6.5 million in chips.
On Hand #39 of the feature table, David "Doc" Sands opened for 160,000 under the gun and Gabe Kaplan called from the hijack. The rest of the players folded, the flop fell , and both players checked, which brought about the on the turn. Sands bet 230,000, Kaplan called, and the completed the board on the river.
Sands paused for a moment before betting 380,000, and Kaplan raised to 1.38 million. Sands swiveled in his chair and let out a sigh before eyeing up his opponent. Eventually Sands released his hand and Kaplan was pushed the pot.
Gabe Kaplan raised to 130,000 under the gun and Doug Polk called from the big blind to see a flop of . Polk checked, Kaplan bet 310,000, and Polk called to see the turn. Both players checked, the completed the board on the river, and Polk led out for 415,000. Kaplan thought for a few moments but ultimately decided to give it up.
On one of the outer tables the main course so far has been the battle between Daniel Colman and Antonio Esfandiari, and the two just clashed again.
It was Isaac Haxton who raised to 145,000 and Esfandiari called from the cutoff. Colman called from the big blind and the flop came down on which the action was checked to Esfandiari. The defending champion bet 215,000 and Colman was the only caller.
The turn brought the and both players checked. On the turn the hit and Colman lead for 675,000 and Esfandiari folded his cards.
Cary Katz tossed out a minimum bet of 60,000 with over a million chips in the middle on a completed board of - a move he's done several times over the last few days - and Christoph Vogelsang put in a raise to 350,000.
Katz mulled the decision over for a bit, then reached into his stack for chips.
"Merry Christmas," he announced, flicking them forward.
Vogelsang turned over for kings and deuces, and Katz revealed to show that his tens and eights were counterfeited.