Seth Davies raised it up from the hijack and was called by Ben Heath in the cutoff. They went heads-up to a flop of and Davies continued with a bet of 90,000. Heath called and the landed on the turn.
Davies sized up with a bet of 330,000 this time and Heath still called. The completed the board and Davies used a time bank before tapping the table. Heath quickly checked back and Davies tabled to win the pot.
On his second bullet — $500,000 invested in the tournament — he entered Day 2 with less than half his starting stack. But he quickly built it back up and appeared on track to make a run. And then he ran into one of his toughest hands in what has been a frustrating summer for the poker legend.
Aleksejs Ponakovs opened to 100,000 and got three callers. The flop was and Martin Kabrhel checked to Ponakovs who continued for 110,000. Alex Foxen and Kathy Lehne — the other two players in the hand — both called.
With the action on Kabrhel, he used a time bank before check-raising to 975,000. The other three players all folded.
"Nice bet Aleks," said Kabrhel. "Do you want your 110,000 back?"
Cary Katz then leaned forward and picked up Kabrhel's hippo mascot that sat atop his chips.
"This really does embody you," he said. "It's a good mascot. Mouth open all the time."
Stanley Tang opened to 100,000 in early position and Cary Katz three-bet to 325,000 on the button. The blinds folded and Tang called as they headed to a flop of . Tang checked to Katz who opted to check it back.
The landed on the turn and Tang checked once more. Katz splashed in a bet of 290,000 and Tang responded with a check-raise to 800,000. Katz burned through two of his time banks before dumping his cards to the muck.
After the hand, Martin Kabrhel pleaded with the floor to make a rule that has numbers on the time banks, to determine how many each player has.
"You can call it the Martin Kabrhel rule," Kabrhel mentioned to the tournament floor.
"We already have a rule named after you," the floor's response was which got laughs from the table.
On a board, Henrik Hecklen check-called 400,000 from Phil Ivey.
The river was the . Hecklen checked and after a short tank Ivey checked behind.
"Sixes," announced Hecklen, tabling which was good enough to take down the pot. Nevertheless, Ivey remains the table captain and is in contention for the overall tournament chip lead.
Ben Heath opened to 120,000 in middle position and Adrian Mateos three-bet to 330,000 in the cutoff. The action was back on Heath who four-bet shoved all in for around 1,900,000. Mateos snapped him off and the cards were on their backs.
Ben Heath:
Adrian Mateos:
The flop came and Heath spiked a jack to take the lead. However, the peeled off on the turn and Mateos answered right back. The completed the board and Heath busted to the start-of-day chip leader.
At the next table, Andrew Lichtenberger was seen getting up from his seat after passing the last of his roughly 1,000,000 chips over to Dan Zack in the seat beside him.
Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce owes a poker home game host $180,000, according to a lawsuit filed, but is allegedly refusing to pay it back.
Stephen Carmona, per TMZ Sports, claims he hosted a private game at his house on January 27 and invited the NBA Hall of Famer, who is an avid but recreational poker player. He apparently gave Pierce a $150,000 loan to enter the high-stakes game with the promise of paying it back within seven days.
The lawsuit states that the retired basketball star only returned $10,000 of that money and then borrowed another $40,000 from Carmona to compete in a different game, but allegedly hasn't paid back any of that either. Pierce reportedly made around $200 million in salary and endorsement deals during his 17-year NBA career.