Ryan Buckholtz was all in for his last 141,000 and was called by Kevin O'Donnell.
Buckholtz was at risk with and stood up in his chair as O'Donnell tabled pocket queens.
"I'll be happy with a chop," smirked O'Donnell. The flop came and Buckholtz flopped a flush. The turn was the and O'Donnell was drawing dead to the on the river.
Yuriy Boyko was short and got his remaining 174,000 in the middle before the flop. Jimmy Tran was also short and called.
Boyko tabled and was flipping against Tran's .
The flop came , allowing Boyko to pull ahead with a pair of aces. The turn was the and the river was the , giving Boyko the double-up he was looking for and leaving Tran with less than five big blinds.
Ralph Perry moved his giant leading stack to the table that had been captained by former November Niners, Joe Cada and Kenny Hallaert.
It was Perry who kicked off a battle that featured all of the three aforementioned players. They are all grinding a very healthy stack and Perry's early open to 52,000 caused some serious fencing.
Hallaert, sitting in the lowjack, three-bet to 145,000 and the action stopped at Cada in the big blind. The 2009 WSOP Main Event champion paused and then cut out 385,000, waking up with a cold four-bet.
Now it was Perry's turn again, and he didn't give up without thinking about the spot for a minute. In the end, he mucked, leaving the decision to Hallaert. The Belgian player scanned Cada's chips but eventually released his hand, too.
Cada took this one but one can feel in the air that some more action is about to follow on that star-studded table.
Michael Falcon Ravn was under the gun and raised to 75,000. Scott Vener was in middle position and three-bet to 225,000. Ravn called and the flop was . Ravn checked and Vener bet 300,000. Ravn moved all in for roughly 400,000 and Vener called.
Vener tabled and Ravn showed .
The turn was the and the river was the sending Ravn to the rail and Vener into a healthy chip position.
According to the table, there was a hand prior to the bustout hand involving the same two players almost exactly one orbit earlier.
Vener had raised preflop and been called by Ravn in the big blind. The flop was and Ravn bet 75,000 which Vener called. The turn was another and Ravn check-called Vener's bet of 175,000. The river was the and Ravn shoved into Vener who snap-called with quads . Ravn had shown . This got Vener's stack up to a million before the fateful hand for Ravn.
Igor Zektser moved all in for 265,000 from late position and Jessica Dawley called from the big blind.
Zektser was at risk with and was well behind the of Dawley.
The flop came and Dawley was still well ahead with two kings. The turn was the , giving Zektser a straight draw, but the river was the and Zektser hit the rail.
Dawley has now peaked and sits on 1,200,000, almost double the chips she started the day with.
In one of the first hands of today's play, Matt Affleck found pocket kings to double through Brian Rast, whose queens came up short.
Affleck peeked at the second strongest pair once more just before the second break, and he got the max value from the premium hand again.
With the board reading , Affleck's hade made a full house. Affleck tangled with Harald Sammer whose hand was already in the muck by the time we arrived.
What happened became evident as the dealer started counting Affleck's chips. He had 378,000 total and that was exactly the sum he received from Sammer.
The equation seems to be pretty clear in this tournament: Matt Affleck + kings = double.
Hector Martin was in late position and raised to 95,000. Kevin Schulz defended his big blind.
The flop was and both players checked to the turn which was the . Schulz led for 130,000 and Martin called.
The river was the and Schulz moved all in for 355,000. Martin peeked back at his cards and called. Schulz tabled for two pairs and Martin showed for the Broadway straight to the ace. Martin now has over 2 million in chips after starting the day with 550,000.