Mike Guttman was one of the short stacks with 28 players remaining but two big hands made sure he still has a shot at the money. In the first hand he raised to 5,000 from the button getting called only by Alfredo Vega who was in the big blind. The flop brought out and after Vega had checked Guttman put in his remaining 6,100 chips. Hesitantly Vega made the call.
Mike Guttman
Alfredo Vega
The turn, the , and the river, the , did not change the outcome giving Guttman a double up. One of our colleagues told us the following just moments ago. An orbit or so later it was Tristan Clemencon who raised from the small blind, Guttman made the call from the big. The flop brought out and Clemencon bet 3,300. Guttman announced "pot" after which Clemencon went all-in for 26,000 total. Guttman had him covered by 600 chips and called.
Mike Guttman
Tristan Clemencon
The turn was a blank but the river brought out a giving Guttman a full house. Clemencon goes home in 28th place and this gives us only three remaining tables.
Table 78 has to be the table with the most chips at this point. Six out of the seven players got a well above average stack with Uspenskiy leading. Steve Billirakis just moved to this table and he's back to his winning ways.
We just caught the action on the river when there was on the board and Shannon Shorr called the 6,600 bet Billirakis threw out. Shorr mucked his cards when he got to see the his opponent turned over.
As we approached the table, Ville Haavisto was leaving and his chips were being handled by Michele Di Lauro. He had only just finished stacking them when he found action in the following hand.
Oleksii Kovalchuk raised to 3,600 and Di Lauro called in position. The flop was and Kovalhcuk check- called a 6,200 Di Lauro bet. The turn was the and after Kovalchuk once again checked Di Lauro bet pot (22,000). This was one third of the Kovalchuk stack and he decided to pass and wait for a better spot.
Sam Trickett raised to 4,000 on the button and Dermot Blain (SB) and Steve Billirakis (BB) made the call. The flop was and Blain checked to Billirakis who bet 9,000. Tricket snap-folded but Blain made the call. The turn was the and both players checked before the dealer gave us the final card of . Blain counted out a bet of 17,000 and dropped it over the line and after a few minutes Billirakis made the call and it was good.
Steve Billirakis just made a huge fold that cost him a lot of chips, but possibly saved him even more. We caught the action on the turn when the board read . Shawn Buchanan bet out 4,000 from the small blind after which Billirakis decided to raise to 13,500. Michel Abecassis was sitting in the cut-off and gave it some thought before smooth-calling the raise.
Buchanan flashed his cards to David Williams and threw them in the muck giving us heads-up river action. The river card was the and Billirakis tanked for a bit before betting 13,500. Abecassis did some thinking as well and finally decided to shove for roughly 52,000 chips. The look on Billirakis face wasn't pretty and he tanked for minutes and finally said "Allright," as he open-folded his . Only quad nines and a straight flush beat the once youngest WSOP bracelet winner and he's left behind with 91,000 chips. Abecassis is in very good shape now while Shawn Buchanan is also living large.