Martin Staszko opened to 950,000 from early position, Anton Makievskyi three-bet to 2.5 million on the button, and Staszko put in a monster four-bet to 6 million straight. Makievskyi released, and Staszko shipped the pot.
Badih Bounahra started things off on the first hand back from break with a raise from the cutoff seat to 1.2 million. Eoghan O'Dea reraised from the button to 4.8 million. Everyone folded back to Bounahra and he turned his chair to the left in order to give O'Dea the stare down. After a minute or so, Bounahra folded and O'Dea won the pot.
We've reached the end of yet another level of poker. That's 34 two-hour levels in the books… 68 hours played by these 10 survivors, over the course of two grueling weeks. Just one more elimination and the November Nine will be set.
Since the dinner break we've seen numerous four- and five-bets, and more than a few all-in shoves. Two players failed to survived their all-ins, Bryan Devonshire (finishing in 12th) and Khoa Nguyen (11th).
In Devonshire's elimination hand, he pushed his short stack in with and was up against Eoghan O'Dea's . The board brought no help to Devonshire, and he hit the rail. Shortly thereafter it was Nguyen all in with pocket tens and behind Martin Staszko's pair of kings. No ten came to save Nguyen, and he hit the rail just a couple of spots shy of the final table.
Eoghan O'Dea continues to maintain the lead, with Samuel Holden, Badih Bouahra, and Matt Giannetti the ten-handed table's short stacks. It's a big ol' bubble we're looking at here. The next to go out wins $607,882, but misses out on the chance for that $8.7 million-plus prize awaiting the winner, as well as the poker world's attention over the next four months as we await the completion of the Main Event.
As Khoa Nguyen was eliminated on the other table, this hand was going down on the main feature table.
Matt Giannetti raised to 675,000 from the button after beginning the hand with 10.25 million in chips. Badih Bounahra reraised to 2.075 million from the small blind and then Giannetti began to tank. The two are seated right next to one another and began staring intently at each other for a solid minute or two without either flinching. Eventually, Giannetti folded and Bounahra won the pot.