Jeff Papola was waiting by the table to restart play as soon as break started. He'd been willing to skip it all together, but Men Nguyen wanted a break and had actually been asking to take it sooner. As soon as Men decided he was ready to resume play, he marched up to the table and looked impatiently at Papola. "Let's go. It's too late already." Papola held is tongue and got back to the action.
Despite how late it is, Men still complained about the blind jump from 60k/120k to 80k/160k. "What? There's no 70?" The TD just shook his head. There are now 53 big blinds in play.
Men Nguyen raised to 260,000, and Jeff Papola called to see the all heart flop. Papola checked, and Nguyen checked behind. The on the turn made things even redder, and Papola bet out 300,000. Nguyen called that bet, which was enough to make Papola check the river. Nguyen checked behind, showing a flush with the . That was good enough for the pot, putting Nguyen up to 4.6 million. That gives him his widest lead yet over Papola, who is down to 3.9 million.
This is becoming familiar. Men Nguyen gets short, then he doubles up, no problem. This time, he was down to 2.3 million when Jeff Papola raised to 240,000. Nguyen moved all in for another 2.1 million or so, and Papola looked him up.
Showdown
Nguyen:
Papola:
The flop added a straight draw to Nguyen's better kicker. And with the turn and river, Nguyen successfully doubled up to 4.1 million. That dropped Papola down to 4.4 million, making the two opponents closer than they've been the entire match.