Julien Di Pace and John Tabatabai seem to have struck up a nice little friendship. They have just been involved in a hand with running commentary from both. We will skip the running commentary and just give you the hand this time.
Di Pace raised to 500 in early position and Tabatabai three-bet to 1,250 to his immediate left. The flop was and Di Pace check-called a 1,500 Tabatabai bet. The turn of was checked through and we saw the on the river. Di Pace bet 1,000 and Tabatabai made the fold. Due to their newly formed friendship Di Pace showed his .
Thierry Gogniat fired 2,500 on the flop. Tenth-place finisher in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event John Hewitt made the call to see the land on the turn. Gogniat fired 4,500 and Hewitt called again.
The river was the and Gogniat bet 11,500. Hewitt made the call, but mucked after Gogniat showed the .
From middle position, Aussie Jonathan Karamalikis raised to 525. Fellow Aussie Ben Delaney reraised to 1,300 from the button and play folded back to Karamalikis. He made the call.
The flop came down and Karamalikis checked. Delaney bet 2,000 and Karamalikis folded.
Hiroaki Harada opened with a raise to 525 and 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event champion David Gorr called from the cutoff seat. Tommy Vedes three-bet to 1,675 from the small blind and action folded back to Harada. He folded and then Gorr made the call.
The flop came down and Vedes bet 2,275. Gorr called.
The turn was the and Vedes fired 3,725. Gorr raised to 13,000. Vedes had approximately 23,000 behind and tanked for a bit before making the call.
The river was the and both players checked rather quickly.
Vedes showed the and Gorr tabled the . The two held the same hand and chopped up the pot.
On a flop, we joined the action as Tommy Vedes was leading out from the blinds with a bet of 2,450. We have a hunch he had made a three-bet preflop, but we can't say for sure. In any event, he was heads up with David Gorr, and Gorr raised to 6,000. Vedes made the call.
The turn came the , and Vedes knocked the table. Gorr fired another 8,000 at the pot, and Vedes spent a long while in the tank before talking himself into the call. On the river , the two men were content to check it down.
Vedes showed his first, and it was good. "You had me scared," he said as Gorr mucked. "You're scary with that Aussie Millions hat on."
We're not sure if Vedes knows it or not, but the man with the Aussie Millions hat on is the defending champion of that event. Gorr has won nearly as much money as Vedes has in the game -- more than $2 million. Both are looking for their first gold bracelets.
We received word that Viktor Blom had been eliminated from the tournament, we headed over to his table to ask intrepid reporter Jon Spinks what happened and here is the story:
Blom had been reduced to 14,000 very early after having his Aces cracked by the Kings of Erik Cajelais. Then after a number of limpers decided to play a pot Blom raised to 1,350 from the big blind and Philippe Ktorza called. The flop was , Blom checked, Ktorza bet 1,350, Blom moved his last 10,000 into the pot and Ktorza called.
Showdown
Ktorza
Blom
The turn and river bricked for Blom and him, and his nice new haircut, were gone.