A three-way preflop all-in awarded Keith Littlewood a large pot, as he picked up just in time to get full value from a short stacked Dean Hughes taking the plunge with and another player with behind him. The board ran out without even too much of a sweat: the other two were drawing dead on the turn.
A few hands after doubling with aces, Keith Littlewood won another giant pot after outflopping pocket queens with pocket jacks. Again, a short stack in the small blind was all in for just a few thousand chips, and it was the main pot that shipped the majority. Preflop, the short stack had moved in for 5,400, called by Joseph Bergh and Littlewood.
The flop: . Now 50,000+ in both of the remaining active players' stacks went in via three bets - an initial 7,500 lead, raise from Littlewood, and three-bet all in; call. Bergh showed the , Littlewood the and the turn and river provided no help to the pocket queens.
Dan Heimiller limped from the hijack, and the button and both blinds came along. The flop came , and the action checked through all four players.
On the turn, the blinds checked and Heimiller led out for 2,000, and got calls from the button and small blind. The river came the , and the action checked to to the button, who fired for 5,500 chips. The big blind folded, and Heimiller took a minute before putting in the call.
"Good call," said the player on the button, as Heimiller showed for top pair. The two-time bracelet winner is now up to 55,000 chips.
Allan Rosen has built a lead-challenging stack in Level 8 - over 160,000. During the short time his stack was being counted, he picked up two pots in a row with three-bets preflop (to 6,400 and 6,500) from the cutoff and then the button worth 4,000 each.
Tables are breaking elsewhere, moving new friends (and separating some big stacks in the process). Ken Lipscombe and Peter Fenn were the last to tray up their stacks and disperse from the latest table in the Pavillion Room to break - probably because they had quite a few chips to move each.
"Guys from Texas are always fun," said Lipscombe to Fenn, who presumably hails from that state.
"You haven't met 'em all," replied Fenn, before shaking his erstwhile opponent's hand and heading to another table.
After an opening raise to 2,500, a player with 10,000 total chips (the blinds about to rise to 500/1,000) moved all in preflop. Mark McCluskey, after a moderate tank, then three-bet over the top to 42,000. This covered the initial raiser by a few thousand, and after about half a minute he folded, showing face up. The all-in player held and McClusky . The tens held over the run-out and the experienced British player (both online and live) adds 14,000 to his stack.