Bruno Portaro raised from the cutoff to 6,000 and Dean Blatt popped it up to 9,000 on the button. Portaro called and opened his hand to show thinking that Blatt was all in. Blatt, however, still had 1,000 in chips behind.
The flop was and Portaro bet out the 1,000 to put Blatt all in. Blatt sighed, tossed in his last chips, and revealed .
The turn was the and river the , making Blatt the final table bubble with a 10th place finish for AU$2,100.
Our final table is now set! We'll be taking a ten-minute break and will have the final table re-draw and updated chip counts for you shortly.
Interestingly, with a final table of nine players required, play at the moment is currently being played as two five-handed tables. This generally is a good thing, as it stimulates more action than a full ten-handed table. The only problem is that due to the money jump between 10th and 9th place, play is currently hand-for-hand on both tables to ensure one table does not gain an advantage by playing less/more hands than the other.
This in turn slows down the entire tournament which is not really what anyone wants as we approach 1am and the 13th hour of this tournament.
Jesse Maguire raised from the cutoff before Emad Tahtouh three-bet from the button. Maguire put in another raise, which was enough to put Tahtouh all in for his last chips. Tahtouh made the call.
Maguire:
Tahtouh:
The board favored Maguire when it fell , pairing his queen and eliminating Tahtouh in 11th place.
Tim Guerin raised from middle position and Grant Levy called out of the big blind.
The flop came down , and Guerin found himself all in after a series of raises.
Levy tabled for two pair and had a commanding lead over Guerin's . The turn gave Guerin hope with the , but the river signaled an end to Guerin's tournament. He finished in 12th place for AU$2,100 in prize money. Levy is now in great shape with 140,000 chips.
Craig Bergeron raised to 6,000 and Dean Blatt made it 9,000 to go. David Bach then capped it at 12,000 and both opponents called.
The flop was and Bach's flop bet was called by two spots. The turn was the and Bach fired another 6,000. Bergeron folded and Blatt tanked for several minutes before calling, leaving himself only 100 in chips behind.
Bach threw out the 100 and Blatt called in the dark as both players remarkably tabled pocket queens! Blatt was very relieved as the meaningless river meant that both players chopped the pot and Blatt stays alive!