Start-of-Day Chip Leader Crippled by Gaines

Chad Holloway

Level 15 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

A huge pot just went down at Table 16 between two of the top six chip stacks from the beginning of the day��Erek Gaines and Aryeh Cohen. The latter began as chip leader, but now he's sitting on a rather short stack.

It happened when Kurt Jewell opened the action with a raise to 4,200. Cohen responded with a three-bet to 12,500 from the hijack, the cutoff called, and then Gaines four-bet to 30,000 from the small blind. Jewell folded, Cohen shipped, and the cutoff got out of the way. Gaines, who had 109,400 total, called off.

Gaines:
Cohen:

Cohen was crestfallen upon seeing the cards and with good reason. According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, he had just an 18.23% chance of winning the hand. That dropped to 8.38% on the flop, and the turn knocked it down even further to 4.55%. Cohen needed a ten on the river to eliminate Gaines and take down the monster pot, but it wasn't in the cards as the peeled off.

Cohen was knocked down to approximately 45,000 on the hand while Gaines vaulted to 240,000. Meanwhile, Aaron Masey has been eliminated from the tournament.