Steve Meling has made it to the final nine and will surely be one of the greatest "rags to riches" stories of all time if he's able to pull off going on to win the Big One for One Drop.
According to Meling, he played in a $65 satellite at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs casino where he won an entry into a larger $765 satellite. From there, Meling won his seat into this event and has so far parlayed it into an appearance at the final table. Still, Meling is guaranteed nothing just yet until he can work his way into the top three.
Upon review, nothing on record can be found for Meling when it comes to live tournament cashes, so storming onto the poker scene with a $400,000 core or better would be an amazing accomplishment. Of course, if he's able to win the seat and then go on to cash in the Big One for One Drop, the story will go down as one of the most epic ones in poker history.
Earlier, we talked about how Sarkiss Osalian and his chance to pull of a miracle, but he busted. It's now up to Meling to hold it down for the amateurs chasing the poker dream.
Alex Bolotin has just fallen in 10th place and the tournament has moved down to nine players. He fell at the hands of Gus Hansen on the following hand.
Action folded around to Hansen in middle position and he opened with a raise to 95,000. From the hijack seat, Bolotin reraised all in for 540,000 and everyone folded back to Hansen. The man known as "The Great Dane" called with the for two overcards against the for Bolotin.
A flop a kept Bolotin in front as he was looking for a double, but the on the turn made his chances very grim. The river completed the board with the and Bolotin was eliminated. Hansen moved to over 2.2 million in chips.
As expected, play has slowed down quite a lot since going to one table. The players can really start to sense the fact that they're just a handful of spots away from some big money and a chance to play in the Big One for One Drop. But, just because the players slow down, doesn't mean the blinds will be. And with that, level up!
From middle position, Will "The Thrill" Failla raised all in. Jason Somerville called from the big blind with the . Failla held the .
The flop was big for Somerville with the falling, but Failla's threes were still in the lead. The turn was the and Somerville picked up more outs, but the on the river wasn't what he was looking for and Failla doubled up.
Action folded to Will "The Thrill" Failla in the small blind and he moved all in to put Sam Trickett to the test. Trickett called with the . Failla held the .
Action folded to Mohsin Charania in the hijack seat and he raised to 247,000 with a T1,000 chip left on his cards. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier called all in from the small blind Gus Hansen was in the big blind and thought.
"I don't know if this is a slowroll or not," said Hansen while thinking. "I don't think I can fold." He then called.
Charania:
Grospellier:
Hansen:
The board ran out and Grospellier won the pot to triple up. Hansen had the better hand than Charania and eliminated him in 11th place.