The previous hand had seen four players limp in, then check down all of the way to the river where Cornel Cimpan fired out a pot-sized bet, causing all to fold. Cimpan turned over a bluff as he dragged the pot.
Then Najib Bennani opened with a raise to 60,000 from UTG, and Cimpan called behind. "Maybe I can bluff this one, too," he said.
The two of them checked the flop and turn. When the river card was dealt, the board showed . Bennani checked, then Cimpan checked behind.
Benanni turned over -- he'd turned a wheel, and might've been trying to get Cimpan to bet there on the end as he had done before. Cimpan mucked, saying he had 9-9-x-x as he did.
Cimpan has about 520,000 right now, while Bennani has a little more with 531,000.
Cornel Cimpan raised to 100,000 from under the gun (a.k.a. the hijack here five-handed), and Daniel Makowsky reraised to 250,000 from the small blind. Cimpan pushed his remaining 299,000 in and Makowsky called.
Makowsky turned over and Cimpan . The board came , and all of those orange and pink chips retreated back to where they had started the hand.
Rami Boukai raised to 90,000 from under the gun, then Najib Bennani reraised to 315,000 behind him. It folded to Ben Grundy who asked for a count of Bennani's remaining chips, then folded. Boukai folded as well.
Bennani showed . He trips up past the half million mark.
Earlier when Cornel Cimpan asked that question about how much the non-elimination of Najib Bennani had cost him, more than one player quickly replied "$18,000." That's roughly the difference between a fourth- and fifth-place finish. Players are obviously well aware of what a good finish here could mean.
Here are the payouts for the remaining five spots:
Just before the break, Daniel Makowsky opened with a raise to 70,000 from the button, and Rami Boukai folded from the small blind. "What do you have?" asked Najib Bennani of Makowsky from the big blind. A wordless grin was all the response he got. He made the call.
The flop was . Bennani bet the pot, leaving himself just 12,000 behind. Makowsky thought a moment, then reraised to put Bennani all in.
Bennani showed , and Makowsky . The turn was the , and Makowsky was ahead with kings and nines. But the river was the , giving Bennani a full house and the pot.
"How much did that card cost me?!" asked Cornel Cimpan good-naturedly. He's now the table's short stack (by just a tad).
Bennani doubles up once again, and now is right back in the thick of things with 464,000. Meanwhile, Makowsky slips to 662,000.
the cutoff spot, Cornel Cimpan opened the pot to 70,000. Next to act, Ben Grundy made the call, and the blinds folded out of the way.
The board came out with the two players check-checking it all the way down. In the end, Cimpan was first to show, but he pump faked and hesitated. Grundy went ahead and showed .
From the smirk on Cimpan's face, it was clear that he was ahead until the ace fell on fifth street. From across the table, Najib Bennani quipped, "River Ben!"
The five men are all laughing and joking with each other, but the situation is becoming serious for Cimpan. Since counting himself at over one million, he has dropped well over half of his stack in short order.
First into the pot from the small blind, Najib Bennani came with a pot raise to 84,000. In the big blind, Cornel Cimpan flat-called, heads up to the flop.
The dealer spread out the first three community cards, revealing . Bennani had moved all in dark, and Cimpan called the extra 64,000 to put his foe at risk. He tabled for second pair, while Bennani was in good shape to double up with . When the turn and river came and , he did just that, sitting now with 296,000.
He's not a big stack by any means, but he's out of the danger zone for now at least.