We just caught the end of a huge hand in which Anatoly Filatov chipped up very nicely against Rocco Palumbo.
The board showed and Palumbo bet 45,000 into a pot of 44,000, and Filatov proceeded to move all in for his tournament life.
Palumbo held for a flush and he had the winning hand, but Filatov's move with was too strong for the Italian. Palumbo folded and Filatov gained huge traction in this match up.
We just witnessed the first hand between Team Italy and Team Russia over on Table 1. Mustapha Kanit three-bet his Russian opponent and received a call. Kanit made a continuation bet of 14,000 on and Troyanovskiy called.
Both players continued to check the on the turn and on the river. Kanit showed but put those cards on their belly in the muck as Troyanovskiy showed for the turned pair.
Now that the semifinal is done and just Team Russia and Team Italy remain, action pauses and the 10 remaining players (5 for each team) split off into 5 heads-up matches played simultaneously. Each using their teams’ stack as it was at the conclusion of the semifinals.
All remaining players participate concurrently, playing Heads-Up against opposing Team members with each side using their Teams’ end-of 6-Max Semifinal chip stacks to play.
The GPM Finals play out until one of the two remaining Teams’ players have won 3 out of 5 concurrent Heads-Up matches - this team is crowned Champion of the 2015 Global Poker Masters.
The Global Poker Masters starts in 90 minutes at 8 p.m. local time.
Hand 62: Dario Sammartino woke up with on the first hand after the break and he raised to 4,500 from the button. Dan Smith looked down on and three-bet to 16,000 from the small blind.
Anatoly Filatov folded and the action was now back on Sammartino who four-bet to 38,000. Smith went into the tank before he ultimately called for his time bank. Smith wanted to talk to Isaac Haxton, but he had just left the room to go on a little break. After a while Haxton returned, but he was not able to talk to Smith, as he had not been inside the studio since the start of the hand.
Smith was making up his own mind while the time ticked down, and ultimately he decided to move all in and Sammartino snap-called! Filatov's jaw dropped on the floor, as he was now in a position to reach the finals with his team.
The board ran out and Team United States got knocked out! Team Russia and Team Italy will now fight in the finals for who will become the first ever Global Poker Masters World Cup champion!
Isaac Haxton made room for Dan Smith again. Ivan Soshnikov handed his seat over to Anatoly Filatov and Giuliano Bendinelli was exchanged for Dario Sammartino.