In a battle of the blinds, the flop came , Cornel Cimpan checked, Ben Grundy bet 32,000 (the pot), Cimpan check-raised the pot, and Grundy called.
The turn was the , and Cimpan quickly bet pot, increasing the total size of the pot to 288,000. Grundy went deep into the tank. After a minute or so, Cimpan decided to call down in there and see how his neighbor was doing.
"Don't do it, man. Don't do it. You've got plenty of chips. Look, you've got what... 300,000?" Grundy actually had more like about 250,000 left. "If you do it I'm gonna steamroll this table. None of these other guys want me to have all those chips."
After a while, Cimpan was done waiting. "All right, let's get the clock," he said. He stood up, one hand in his pocket, the other holding his water bottle. And a sneaky smile on his face.
Finally, Grundy folded. As Cimpan tossed his cards to the dealer, some of the others feigned as if to check them out. "No, no, no, no, no," said Cimpan, still grinning. He's now approaching the million-chip mark, while Grundy still has his 250,000 with which to battle anew.
Cornel Cimpan raised to 60,000 from middle position, and it folded back to Paul Parker in the small blind who repopped it to 140,000. Rami Boukai folded in the BB, and Cornel folded as well, showing K-Q as he did.
Players continue to alternate between nine hands of PLO and nine hands of PLH. Now that the game has become short-handed, that means it is no longer the case that we are seeing one game played for just a single orbit, but now the same game carries on into half of a second orbit.
Significant? Could be. Now we have a situation where (for example) a particularly strong PLO player might get to play hands from late position twice during a single round of PLO, rather than just once.
Rami Boukai limped from UTG, then Pawel Andrzejewski raised pot to 70,000 from late position. It folded back to Boukai. "How much do you have behind?" he asked. About 150,000 came the reply. Boukai called.
The flop came and Andrzejewski announced he was all in. Boukai paused just a beat, and called.
Andrzejewski showed , while Boukai turned over . The turn was the and the river the , meaning Boukai's tens and sevens were best.
Andrzejewski is out in 7th, and Boukai is now way up to 920,000. He's now taken the chip lead from Cornel Cimpan.
"You beat three aces with two pair," cracked Cimpan as the next hand was being dealt.
In early position, Ben Grundy came in with a raise to 32,000. Action folded around to the button where Rami Boukai re-raised the pot. Grundy had about 300,000 chips left, and he went deep into the tank. He leaned back in his chair as the cocktail waitress delivered his drink to the table. Grundy took another long look at his cards before letting out a big sigh. When he looked up, Boukai called the clock, and the Tournament Director came tableside to give the countdown. As he ticked through 10...9...8... Grundy finally laid his hand down.
Continuing the friendly nature of this final table, both players openly discussed the contents of their hands, now being shuffled by the dealer. If you can trust two poker players, Grundy folded ace-king, sparing himself from near-certain elimination to Boukai's ace-ace.
Cornel Cimpan raised to 40,000 from the button, and Daniel Makowsky -- never too happy about giving up his big blind -- made the call.
The flop came . Makowsky checked, Cimpan bet 75,000, and Makowsky made the call.
The turn was the . Makowsky again checked, and Cimpan asked how much was in the pot. "238,000," said the dealer. Cimpan took some time to cut out 238,000 from his stack, and it looked a lot like he was about to push them forward. But he refrained, and checked instead.
The river was the , and both players checked. Makowsky turned over -- he'd turned the straight and was hoping to trap Cimpan, but Cimpan didn't bite. The paired board kept Makowsky from firing on the end, and he complimented Cimpan as he dragged the pot.
Makowsky now has 695,000, while Cimpan is at 805,000.