This final table are like limescale, it's hard to get rid of any of them. The latest player to survive by the skin of his teeth was short stacker Isaac Settle, his chips inevitably flying in with . Initial raiser Deepak Bhatti, whose stack has gone up and down like a kangaroo on a bungee, had .
The flop favoured Settle, but left backdoor straight and flush possibilities for Bhatti, neither of which arrived on the turn and too-little-too-late river.
As a result, Bhatti drops to 900,000, whilst Settle shoots up to 1,500,000, the first time, I believe, that he has broken that one million mark.
Bart Davis pushed his last 240,000 across the line from under the gun, and one by one the other players folded - until it got to Cory Brown in the big blind, who decided to make the call.
What is it with the diamonds today?
Davis:
Brown:
Brown moved into the lead on the flop and stayed there on the turn, but the river came down the to keep Davis in the game.
Just a few hands later, and the unfortunate Dash Dudley shoved for his last 250,000 in early position and it folded all the way around to Isaac Settle in the big blind.
"250,000 to call?" said the also short-stacked Settle, as though he couldn't quite believe it was so little. "Call."
So, on their backs.
Settle:
Dudley: not quite as live as he presumably thought he would be, with
Flop:
"Seven, seven," said Dudley quietly, but even he didn't believe it was coming.
Turn:
"Hey Nikki, jack of clubs!" one of the pro-Mitchell railers shouted at the announcer, apparently thoroughly enjoying Dudley's suffering.
River:
With that, Dudley's bracelet hopes were dashed and he exited in eighth place. Settle's stack increased to around the 700,000 mark.
Dash Dudley counts his chip relentlessly, but it's clear that he'll only have two or three hundred thousand remaining if he calls. His button raise to 135,000 has just been reraised all in by Nicholas Mitchell in the big blind, for a big ol' hefty amount: 1,260,000.
Dudley feigns moving his stack, but then returns to recounting his chips to ensure his calculations were correct. After another minute or two, he nods his head and does indeed push his stack across the line.
As Dudley shows , and Mitchell , Mitchell's fans in the crowd shout, "Slowroll!" and chant for, "Jackball, to teach him a lesson for slowrolling." The flop duly obliged: , and despite the lesser (or less vocal) Dudley faction requesting a gutshot straight, the turn and river come and respectively to deliver Mitchell a fortunate double through.
After the pot, the Mitchellites continued to show their disapproval, celebrating raucously and, again, labelling Dudley a slow-roller. Despite being left with a bowl of rice, Dudley remained cucumber cool (although I imagine he was seething inside) and simply continued with the game.
It folded around to Aadam Daya in the small blind and he eyed up the remaining stack of Isaac Settle in the big blind - it totaled around half a million.
"All in," said Daya with a flourish of his hand.
"Call," said the already standing Settle.
So they flipped their cards.
Daya:
Settle:
Board:
Both players ended up with king high, and they chopped it up. Settle settled back down in his seat, still short but still in for the moment.
Isaac Settle raised to 210,000 from UTG+1; Deepak Bhatti called in the small blind. On the flop, Bhatti check-raised Settle's 210,000 continuation bet all in and Settle released his hand. Settle now struggling with circa 500,000 in chips.
Cory Brown raised to 150,000, but to his immediate left barring the dealer, Dash Dudley made it 400,000 to go. Brown peered around the dealer to ascertain that Dudley had around a million chips behind, and after a few moments he gave it up.