It's been Kiet Tran's turn to raid the table. He three-bet Greg Pohler from the big blind and earned a fold, dropping Pohler to 550,000. Next hand, Tran shoved from the small blind and won the pot. The third hand, he moved all in from the button and took it down. And the fourth hand in a row, Tran raised to 85,000 from the cutoff, which was enough to earn the blinds and antes. He's up to 2.85 million.
2010 World Series of Poker
The seats around the secondary final table stage are just about full now, and spectators are shuffling by the outer rail to check things out. Bracelet winners Blair and Grant Hinkle are in attendance sweating Jeffrey Tebben, and Grant is live-blogging his friend's performance via twitter. Check out Hinkle's account of the action here.
Jeffrey Tebben must be wearing an invisibility cloak. It seems like no one can see him raiding their stacks. He's raised pre and stolen more blinds and antes than all of the other players combined. In the last hand, JD McNamara raised to 90,000, and Kiet Tran three-bet to 255,000. From the small blind, Tebben four-bet shoved for an extra 595,000. McNamara folded, and Tran followed suit. Tebben gave a quick fist pump as he chipped up to 1.25 million. We still haven't seen a flop other than those two all ins, which is just fine with Mr. Tebben.
We are now 30 minutes into the final table, and we've seen two flops. Both were all-in preflop hands, one resulting in a chop and the other causing the elimination of David Gross. Other than that, it's either been raise-and-take-it or raise-shove-and-take-it, with one or two walks thrown in.
The lack of flops isn't all that surprising given that the average stack is 30 big blinds and four players have under 20.
No one seems willing to play sheriff against Jeff Tebben. He just moved all in preflop another two hands in a row and stole the blinds and antes. He's up to 880,000 now.
Level: 25
Blinds: 20,000/40,000
Ante: 5,000
The last few three-bet shoves at the table got through, but Michael Gross wasn't so lucky. Kiet Tran raised to 85,000 from middle position, and Gross quickly moved all in on the button for a total of 462,000. Tran called, and it was time for showdown. Gross was in great shape with to Tran's . The flop, however, didn't look quite as great. Tran took the lead with , and the and that fell on the turn and river didn't do anything to save Gross. Instead, he is the table's first casualty, and Tran is up to 2.8 million.
Jeff Tebben moved all in and took the blinds and antes uncontested.
Next hand, Tebben moved all in and won the pot.
Third hand in a row, Tebben shoved and took it down. He's up to 700,000 now without so much as a flop.
They're really not going to waste any time today. The first shuffle, the first deal, and the first all in happened in under a minute. Greg Pohler raised to 85,000 from early position, and Denis Murphy moved all in. Pohler said, "Could be an early dinner," before shrugging and making the call.
Showdown
Pohler:
Murphy:
Oh. The board fell and they chopped it up.
"You're going home soon if you keep shoving with ace-queen!" Pohler told Murphy. Maybe they can join each other for dinner then.
The players have been introduced and our final table is under way. There are 18 minutes left on the clock in Level 24.