We caught the tail end of the hand in which Jake Balsiger met his demise. The American, who rose to fame with a third place in the 2012 WSOP Main Event, was already saying his goodbyes with his hand face-down in the muck.
His opponent had open on a board and gobbled up the last of Balsiger's chips.
A raising war over on table 31 saw 2015 Aussie Millions champion Manny Stavropoulos all in and at risk for his last 38,850. He had little to fear in a classic setup with versus and the board of was no threat. 2011 champion David Gorr is doing well also, and Australia's poker hall of famer Mel Judah has been climbing the leader board recently, too.
Ize Bourne three-bet to 3,500 and called the shove of his table neighbor for 20,650 to head into the showdown with versus . The board came and Bourne doubled.
One hand later, Max Silver raised to 1,200 and Bourne three-bet from the cutoff to 3,500, which Silver called. The flop of resulted in a check-call for 3,000 by Silver before the turn and river were checked through. Bourne won the pot with ace-queen to boost his stack further.
The same player that had doubled Bourne then also got it in against Kristen Bicknell, who held up with versus and doubled her stack of 17,450.
Srdjan Brkic moved all in from under the gun for 6,000. The player in the next position three-bet to 12,000. Daniel Neilson was on the button and four-bet all in for 23,025. It folded back to the raiser who called.
Srdjan Brkic:
Player 2:
Daniel Neilson:
"You need diamonds," said tablemate Steven van Zadelhoff to Brkic. The flop came giving Brkic a gutshot straight draw. The turn was the but the river the .
"What a time to get them," remarked Neilson's opponent as Brkic was sent to the rail, "You had my suits as well..."
Sam Khoueis raised to 1,500 from under the gun and Michael Egan three-bet to 4,500. Khoueis four-bet all in for what appeared to be 13,500 and Egan called.
Sam Khoueis:
Michael Egan:
As soon as the flop came , Khoueis jumped up from his seat with the words "always the same shit" and took his cards before almost throwing them into the flop. After the turn and river bricked off, Khoueis left the table with some further swear words.
With the pot around 30,000 on a completed board of , action was on Michael Del Vecchio. The American, who recorded a monster cash of $752,196 just one month ago, slid a pile of T-5,000 chips forward. It was more than enough to put Lawrence Bayley to the test, who instantly announced he was going to need some time on this one.
For minutes, Bayley summoned all of his poker skills to try and come to a conclusion. Holding , the Brit eventually settled on a call, but came up short as Del Vecchio turned over for the naked ace of hearts, but accompanied by a jack to make trips and defeat Bayley. The American added the Brit's stack to his own and soared to 156,000.
On a river of Kristen Bicknell was facing an all-in from an opponent for her remaining stack. There was around 30,000 in the middle, with Bicknell's stack just over 25,000.
Bicknell gingerly pushed her cards forwards and released them, folding.
Her opponent turned over for a bluff.
After the hand Max Silver told us that Bicknell got check-raised on the flop, her opponent bet turn and she was jammed on on the river.