It all went in on an flop in a hand between Jiri Horak and Josef Snejberg. Horak bet 2,200,000 and called instantly when Snejberg shoved his last 14,200,000.
Snejberg's was flipping versus Horak's , with the most interesting card in the deck, the , rolling off on the turn. Horak held on as the dealer put the on the river, knocking Snejberg out in 21st.
The action folded around to Jason Koon on the button who raised to 2.8 million. Troy Quenneville was in the small blind and three-bet to 8.8 million. The big blind folded and Koon stuck in a pile of T5,000,000 chips, enough to Quenneville's stack. Quenneville took a look at the tournament clock and then called.
Jason Koon:
Troy Quenneville:
The board ran out and Koon's pocket fives held on to eliminate Quenneville. Last year at this same event, Quenneville made a deep run all the way to second place, along with winning the $2,500 side event as well. He has had plenty of deep runs in Punta Cana, but this one fell a little bit short.
Preben Stokkan opened with a raise to 2,100,000 from middle position, prompting Jiri Horak to move in for his last 14,400,000 from the small blind. Roberto Vahlis cold-called from the big, with Stokkan quickly moving out of the way.
It seemed this confrontation was unavoidable, with Horak tabling and Vahlis revealing his . There was no king for Vahlis on the run out and Horak doubled up to stay alive.
Damian Lomza opened to 2.3 million from middle position and Andrey Shatilov three-bet to 6.5 million from the cutoff. Michael Malm thought for a over a minute on the button but elected to fold, only to have Diego Zeiter push all in for 12.8 million out of the small blind. Lomza folded and Shatilov quickly stuck in chips to call.
Andrey Shatilov:
Diego Zeiter:
The flop came and Shatilov out-flopped Zeiter with two pair. The on the turn and the on the river changed nothing and Zeiter was eliminated from the tournament.
Action in the feature table folded around to short-stacked Maria Ho in the cutoff, who shoved for her last 8,900,000. She ran into partypoker sponsored pro Jason Koon, who re-shoved from the small blind. With the big blind quickly folding, the cards were on their backs.
Ho had live cards with versus Koon's , but needed a lot of help after the dealer spread a flop. It was all over on the turn, with the river completing the runout as Ho left the tournament and headed to the payout desk.
On the feature table, Preben Stokkan opened with a raise to 2,100,000 from the hijack, with Francois Billard coming in with a 3-bet to 6,400,000 from the small blind.
After giving it some thought, Stokkan 4-bet shoved for his last 35,500,000 and was called immediately. Stokkan's needed some help versus Billard's , which he promptly found as the dealer spread a flop.
Billard picked up outs to a straight, but bricked on the turn, river runout and Stokkan picked up a full double.
Michael Zhang came into the day as the chip leader but was unable to get anything going his way. The action was folded around to Graham Ivany in the small blind who raised to 3.5 million. Zhang called out of the big blind and the flop came .
Both players checked to the on the turn and Ivany led out for 4.0 million. Zhang made the call and the completed the board. Ivany announced all in, putting Zhang to the test for the rest of his chips. He had around 12 million remaining and he tanked for around three minutes. Zhang eventually called and Ivany tabled , which was good enough to eliminate the start-of-day chip leader.
Mike Sexton had been sitting on one of the shorter stacks for much of the day and finally found a spot to get all of his 14.6 million chips in the middle. Unfortunately for him, he was called by Damian Lomza with one of the hands he didn't want to see. Sexton showed but was dominated by Lomza's .
The flop came and Sexton was left drawing slim after Lomza hit a pair of queens. The turn was the and Sexton was left drawing dead to the on the river.