This has really been the level to consolidate the many's chips in the hands of the few. And just now Daniel Negreanu picked up Chris Bjorin's stack after an all-in-preflop call.
Negreanu's was comfortably pipping Bjorin's .
Bjorin stood up as the flop came down an audience-pleasing, but not really state-changing ...the turn was the and the river the so we've lost yet another player to the voracious Level 25!
Every time we've seen these two in a pot today, Barry Shulman has had the better of Jaosn Mercier.
This time Mercier made it 100,000 under the gun and it folded right around to Shulman in the big blind, who called to see a flop. Shulman checked and Mercier bet 120,000. Shulman quietly pushed out a stack of white 25,000-denomination chips by way of a raise, and Mercier tossed his cards away with a puff of resignation.
And hand no. 3 involved locals' favourite Praz Bansi. Right after Saout left the table, Bansi moved all in preflop for about 500k over Jason Mercier's raise to 90k. He was called so swiftly the hands were on their backs before Mr. Effel really had time to speak:
Bansi:
Mercier:
The flop brought some "Oooooh"s from Bansi's considerable rail (the whole front row): but there were no upsets on the turn and river so Bansi now has over 1.1 million and more.
The very next hand, Antoine Saout shoved to a raise from Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu made the call, and they were racing for the Frenchman's tournament life.
Saout:
Negreanu:
I don't believe we've seen Mr. Saout look so awake this whole tournament.
Board:
Proving that, in spite of all TD Jack Effel's earlier attempts to get the rail to make some noise, nothing gets a crowd worked up like some good old-fashioned gambling action, a chorus of, "Ooh!" accompanied every street, and a round of applause at the end signified the end of the line for our Last November Niner Standing.
Finally, someone looked up Matt Hawrilenko when he moved in preflop in the big blind - and it was preflop raiser Barry Shulman. Shulman called relatively fast with and Hawrilenko, showing made a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp mixed with one of a bulldog who knows he's at least live...so far.
But the board came a ragtastic meaning that we lose Hawrilenko and are down to seven suddenly.
Chris Bjorin makes a raise to 110k preflop on the button. Small blind Daniel Negreanu uses two hands to push forward enough chips to signify a setting-him-all-in... and reluctantly, it looks like, Bjorin folds.
Barry Shulman and Daniel Negreanu made it as far as the river of the board when Negreanu took the pot down with a bet that Shulman couldn't call. Negreanu pushed his hole cards around on the felt, mixing them up. "Pick a card," he said, "Any card." Shulman pointed to the one on the right -- and Negreanu flipped the .
"A man comes home from a poker game and his wife is angry. 'Where have you been?' she says. 'At the poker game,' says the husband. 'I lost you in a hand, you have to leave.' 'How did you do that?' said the wife. 'It wasn't easy,' replied the husband, 'I had to fold a royal flush.'"
Except for a couple of muted boos, silence reigned.
Then to media doyen Nolan Dalla:
"Nolan, you've got to write better material than this."
It seems the blinds have now reached a level where the shorter stacks (500-700k) are no longer comfortable. Action was predicted to come thick and fast in this 20k/40k level, and so far it really has. Just now it was Matt Hawrilenko's turn to move in twice (no caller). Expect the lower four stacks (him, Bjorin, Bansi and Saout) to be putting the bigger stacks to the double-me-or-bust-me test.
Next hand, Markus Ristola raised again, and Daniel Negreanu called again. Then Barry Shulman called from the big blind too, shattering the illusion that time had merely got stuck on a loop, and we saw a flop.
All three players checked the flop, and TD Jack Effel's microphone suddenly got very loud. "That was loud," he said into it, and he reverberated around the casino at high volume.
As Mr. Effel continued to deafen everyone saying, "Testing," repeatedly into his super-mega-high-volume mic, the players saw a turn and Ristola announced all in. Both players folded and Ristola took the pot, putting him up to 1,455,000.