William Smith raised from middle position for 1,100,000 and left 6 red chips behind for 30,000. Zlatin Penev three-bet all in. Smith was attempting to hit the pay jump and took as long as he could to decide but eventually threw in the last 30,000 and the cards were tabled.
William Smith: J?9?
Zlatin Penev: A?Q?
The board came out 4?J?10? and Smith had some hope on the turn 5? but then all hope was crushed on the river A?. Penev won with his pair of aces.
Derek Normand opened to 200,000 from early position and action folded around to Shashank Jain in the big blind who then moved all in for 1,050,000.
James Anderson then moved all in over the top and Normand went into the tank.
"Agh, this would be so much easier if it was just me and you," Normand said aloud in Jain's direction.
After thinking for another thirty seconds, he announced a fold and the cards were tabled.
Shashank Jain: A?K?
James Anderson: A?Q?
"See, that's exactly what I didn't want to see! I had pocket eights!" Normand was kicking himself.
He wouldn't kick himself for long, however, as the flop came out A?Q?7? to immediately give Anderson the lead with top two pair. Jain would need a to hit a king or running jack-ten to win, but the runout of 9?5? did not do it for him and he was sent to the rail in 20th place.
Before the flop, Justin Kindred and Marco Bognanni managed to get all of of their chips into the middle, with Kindred covering.
Marco Bognanni: J?J?
Justin Kindred: Q?Q?
Bognanni would need a lot of help to escape this cooler, but the flop of 9?2?Q? left him drawing very slim. The turn 4? left him drawing dead and the 10? on the river sent him to the rail in 22nd place.
Galen Hall moved almost all of his chips in preflop under the gun, retaining one red chip, and Daniel Schill called in the small blind.
The flop came out 6?7?A? and Schill through in 100,000 to put Hall all in who made the call with his last 5,000.
Galen Hall: J?Q?
Daniel Schill: A?9?
The turn and river were 2?Q? and although Hall called for the club it did not come and Schill won the pot and moved up the ladder.
Only 24 remain in Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em and Seth Davies will be starting the day with a commanding chip lead, bagging 9,425,000. This event will take place at 11 a.m. local time at the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas in the Silver section.
After two days of action, 24 players will return out of the 2,070 entries, which created a prize pool worth $4,601,300 and a first-place prize of $682,436 to go along with the elusive bracelet.
The road to gold won’t be easy for the 24 remaining players, especially with Davies having such a commanding chip lead. Although Davies has an impressive resume for poker, he is yet to capture a bracelet and appears to have tunnel vision on this mission after dominating the first two days.
However, the rest of the competitors are not going down without a fight. Trailing behind Davies are Justin Kindred (6,000,000), Ramon Fernandez (5,020,000), and bracelet winners James Anderson (4,360,000) and Rui Ferreira (4,300,000).
Also remaining in the field are bracelet winner Galen Hall, bracelet winner Kartik Ved and grinder and entertaining Nick Palma, who will all give Davies plenty of competitive action.
Nick Palma
Those still in the tournament have locked up a guaranteed payday of $24,635 with the next pay jump coming at 17th place, where the payout increases to $30,356.
The final players will resume play at 11:00 a.m. local time on Level 28 with blinds at 50,000/100,000/100,000 and play will continue until a champion is crowned. Fifteen-minute breaks will occur after every two levels and a dinner break is yet to be determined.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the floor of your favorite events at the 2023 WSOP.
