Brendon Rubie Eliminated in 13th Place ($31,315); Russell Carson Eliminated in 14th Place ($13,315)

Shamus

Level 23 : 8,000/16,000, 2,000 ante

After a relatively slow sequence lasting the nearly the first half of Level 23, we just had some big action, resulting in not one but two knockouts.

The hand began with Robert Merulla opening for 35,000 from the cutoff. Then Brendon Rubie reraised all in from the button for about 550,000. Russell Carson then called with his short stack -- about 150,000 -- from the small blind, and Wesley Pantling promptly folded from the BB. Merulla tanked for quite a while, then called Rubie's reraise.

Carson {A-Hearts} {Q-Diamonds}
Merulla {J-Diamonds} {J-Clubs}
Rubie {A-Diamonds} {9-Spades}

The board came {4-Diamonds} {K-Diamonds} {6-Hearts} {2-Clubs} {5-Diamonds} , which meant Merulla's jacks had held, sending to the rail both Carson (in 14th) and Rubie (in 13th, see photo previous page). Merulla pushes into the chip lead with that one with about 1.8 million.