We picked up the action after a flop of , and we watched Antonio Esfandiari move all in for the remainder of his ~700,000-chip stack. We can't say for sure what the betting action was that led to the chips going in, but we can definitely say that Peter Gilmore made the call to put Esfandiari at risk.
Showdown
Esfandiari:
Gilmore:
Upon seeing Esfandiari's aces, Gilmore flung his cards high up into the air and onto the felt face-up, a bit disgruntled by his wrong call. The turn changed nothing.
Fifth street, however, was quite the game changer. Esfandiari wasn't watching as the dealer sealed his fate with a river . The sizable group of railbirds all reacted in unison, and The Magician knew what happened before he looked up to catch a glimpse of the river card that had just ended his day.
"Oops," Gilmore said, shaking his head.
Esfandiari stood up and shook the hand of each of his table mates, wishing them all good luck. When he came to Gilmore, the young man said, "Sorry."
"Don't say sorry," Esfandiari instructed. "Very nice hand."
Always a gentleman, Antonio Esfandiari is out in 12th place.
On the very next hand, Antonio Esfandiari opened to 51,000 and Amit Makhija moved all in for 277,000 total. Esfandiari quickly called with , and Makhija rolled over the same ace-queen, this time.
Things were a little friendlier to Makhija this time as the dealer saved his tournament life, running out a board of .
A pair of queens is good this time, and Makhija is back to 596,000.
We missed the first raise from James Carroll, and we picked up the action just as Amit Makhija was sticking in a three-bet to 153,000 straight. Carroll promptly four-bet to 331,000, committing about a third of his stack to the pot. Makhija tank-shoved, and Carroll snap-called all in for his last 904,000.
Showdown
Makhija:
Carroll:
The board was a lot of red, but not enough diamonds as it ran out to hold Carroll's aces. He's doubled his way up into a challenge for the chip lead with close to 1.9 million. Makhija, on the other hand, is now the short stack with just 280,000.
Antonio Esfandiari raised the button to 51,000 and Jeff Williams again defended in the small blind with a call.
They saw a flop of and Williams checked to Esfandiari who fired 81,000. Williams made the call. The turn brought the and again it was checked to Esfandari who fired a second barrel worth 201,000. Williams quickly slid out a call.
The river was a repeat and Williams checked for a third time and Esfandiari whacked the table in frustration as he also checked. Williams showed and Esfandiari wasn't too thrilled.
"That's so sick!" he said as he stood from his chair and eventually tossed his cards into the muck.
Esfandiari is down to 960,000 while Williams is now up to 1.65 million.
There's been plenty of three and four betting today, and so far they've been pretty successful as most players have released to the aggression of their opponents.
Just recently we saw Perry Friedman raise to 55,000, and Jason DeWitt re-raise to 150,000. Friedman put in a four-bet by moving all in and DeWitt folded.
At the same time on the other table, there was a raise to 42,000 from Jesse Chinni before James Carroll made it 125,000 from the middle. Antonio Esfandiari then came over the top for all of his chips and both opponents gave it up.
Play folded around to Nico Behling in the small blind and he moved his entire stack into the middle. David Benefield asked for a count and the bet was determined to be 332,000. Upon hearing that news, Benefield made a quick call.
Behling:
Benefield:
Benefield needed to connect but missed on the board to be sent to the rail in 13th place. He'll take home $39,159 for his efforts. Meanwhile Benefield is now sitting behind a stack of 1.26 million chips.