Nick Jivkov raised it up to 52,000 on the button, and Bryan Pellegrino made the call in the small blind. Tommy Vedes let go of his big blind, and the flop went down . Pelleegrino checked to Jivkov, who fired out 64,000. Pellegrino thought for about 20 seconds, before saying "pot", a raise to 226,000. Jivkov only gave it a few moments of thought before releasing his hand, and Pellegrino collected the chips, upping his stack to over 500,000.
The hand began with Bryan Pellegrino, who opened to 43,000 from the cutoff position. Action folded around to Mike Allis in the small blind, who fell into the tank.
"Give me a minute guys," Allis said.
After a couple minutes Allis opted to shove his remaining 120,000 into the middle. Pellegrino reluctantly called and hands were revealed.
Allis:
Pellegrino:
The rest of the table was a bit shocked to see Allis with such a strong hand given his seemingly difficult decision.
"That was some Hollywood," Negreanu commented.
The hand kept Allis in the lead and he doubled to 250,000.
On the very next hand, action folded to Brant Hale on the button, and he raised pot to 70,000. Tommy Vedes was next in the small blind, and he put in a tower of orange T5,000 chips that amounted to a raise of 150,000. Mike Allis folded his big blind, and it was back to Hale. Hale said "well I didn't look so you have that going for you" as he slid the remainder of his stack into the middle.
Hale:
Vedes:
The flop came down , adding an inside straight draw to Hale's outs. The on the turn eliminated his pair outs, and Hale would need a three and a three only to survive. The river brought the , and Hale hit the rail, while Vedes jumped back up to 620,000.
Mike Allis went all in for his last 65,000 from under-the-gun. Action folded around to Tommy Vedes in the big blind, who said, "I'm not sure if I should look." He then tossed in a call and hands revealed a race situation.
Allis:
Vedes:
The flop put Vedes in the lead with a pair of eights. A turn changed nothing and left Allis drawing to a five and only a five.
River:
Bingo!
Allis doubled through to 140,000 and chipped Vedes down to 380,000.
Action was folded around to John Eames, who made a pot sized bet to 70,000. It folded around to Nick Jivkov, who wasted little time in announcing "pot". It got back to Eames, and he committed the last of his chips. The cards were flipped, and it was worst case scenerio for Eames.
Eames:
Jivkov:
According to the Pokernews odds calculator , Eames had just a 6% chance of winning the hand. The flop came down , giving Eames a small glimmer of hope if he could catch running diamonds. However, he was drawing dead when the hit the turn. The meaningless river was the , and Jivkov scooped the pot to up his stack to 375,000, while the British rail cleared out of the thunder dome.
Brant Hale has been the quietest player at the table so far, both verbally and with his play. He is one of the short stacks, and didn't play a hand until he was all in preflop with of spades. Unfortunately for Hale, he was dominated by the of Bryan Pellegrino. The flop came down , putting outs for a chop, along with a world of turn cards that would make the river very interesting. One of those came on the turn, the , giving Hale flush draw outs as well.
The came on the river, and Daniel Negreanu knew immediately what that meant: "chop it up". Indeed both players played aces and nines with a queen kicker, and Hale got a chop to survive the hand.