Defending Champ Coleman Building a Stack

Ryan Gray

Level 5 : 300/500, 800 ante

Rahul Karpy raised 1,500 from under the gun, Krisd Gabrialian three-bet to 4,500 from middle position, cutoff Maxx Coleman cold called, and Karpy threw in the extra 3,000.

Karpy drew one, and both Gabrialian and Coleman stood pat. Action checked to Coleman who continued for 6,000.

Karpy folded, and Gabrialian resignedly called. Coleman tabled 7x6x4x3x2x and Gabrialian mucked with a glance at his dwindling stack. "Thank god I paired," said Karpy. "I was drawing to an eight-six, I didn't know I was drawing dead."

Gabrialian would recoup some of his losses on the next hand when his nine-eight bested an opponent's ten-eight.