Once again our short stack, Asa Smith raised to 155,000 under the gun. To his left, massive chip monster Carter Phillips made it 385,000 to go. Folds all round back to Smith, who eventually folded too with a sigh.
MIhai Manole had just finished raising about 75% of his stack from under the gun to pick up the blinds and antes when action folded to Marc Goodwin in the small blind. Goodwin raised to 180,000 and then Manole moved in again. This time, he was called, and quickly by Goodwin.
Goodwin:
Manole:
The flop brought a big fist pump from Mihai when it came , nailing him with two pair. The turn added to the sweat with the , but the river wasn't too eventful when the fell and Manole doubled up. Goodwin took a moment away from the table to gather himself before returning.
Carter Phillips raised preflop and Marc Goodwin called from the button.
They saw a flop and Phillips bet out 170,000. Call. They moved on to the turn and now Phillips made it 235,000; again, a flat call.
They saw a river and now Phillips bet out almost a whole stack of orange 25,000 chips, 450,000 in total. Goodwin peered at his hole cards, perhaps to check whether they had magically changed into different, better cards. He folded.
To chants of, "USA! USA!" from the rail, Phillips raked in the hefty pot.
About 200 yards away from the final table stage, there's a back room dedicated to all of the live commentary broadcasts from the various companies, including PokerNews.nl and PokerStars.
Amongst the clutter of wires and mountains of television screens in the production room are the people hard at work. This is also where the guest-pro commentary goes down. Some of those to stop by are Jason Mercier, Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken and Vanessa Rousso.