Chidwick Surges Into the Lead; Behbehani Eliminated

donpeters

Level 20 : 8,000/16,000, 2,000 ante

Stephen Chidwick just won two big pots back to back that saw him surge into the chip lead with 1.15 million in chips. In the process, Salman Behbehani was eliminated and Nicolas Chouity lost a big chunk of chips. Here's how it all happened:

First, Behbehani opened from the button and then four-bet jammed for a little over 400,000 against Chidwick, who had three-bet from the big blind. Chidwick had a big one, though, and called off his stack with the . Behbehani had the .

"Good luck," said Behbehani to Chidwick, who said thanks with a straight face.

"You're going to need it!" Behbehani added, which caused Chidwick to crack a smile.

The board ran out , and Behbehani was crushed, knocked all the way down to just 12,000 in chips while Chidwick soared to nearly 900,000.

Then on the next hand, Behbehani was all in from the cutoff seat for his last 10,000 after posting the ante. Chidwick called from the small blind, and Chouity checked his option in the big blind.

The flop came , and Chidwick bet 16,000. Chouity called, and the turn was the . Chidwick bet again and made it 33,000 to go. Chouity put in a raise to 76,000, and Chidwick called. It was at this point that Behbehani looked over to Jason Mercier and acknowledged that he was about to be eliminated.

Mercier stood up from his table and wandered over just in time to see the land on the river as Chidwick and Chouity still had action pending. Behbehani shook the hand of his neighbor at the table, Benjamin Pollak, and then stood up from his seat just as Chidwick checked and the action fell on Chouity.

"Give me my money!" he joked with the tournament staff watching the action. Behbehani then began to wander around the rest of the tournament area, but the staff retrieved him to let him know he had to wait by the table so he didn't give off any information and to turn his hand over. Needless to say, it was clear Behbehani wasn't winning this pot.

Chouity bet 125,000 on the river, and Chidwick tank-called. Chouity shrugged and tabled the for just a pair of sevens, and Chidwick showed the winner with the .