Pocket aces had been working wonders for Chris Moneymaker throughout the 2021 Main Event. Well, until a hand he played after the dinner break on the PokerGO livestream.
PokerGO caught the action with the 2003 world champ three-betting to 335,000 with , but he was up against the of Keith Lehr, who reraised to 700,000.
Action back on Moneymaker, who was put in a tough decision with a premium hand. He opted to put Lehr all-in for a 680,000 effective stack. Lehr snap-called and they both watched the board run out and Lehr shipped a monster pot. For Moneymaker, it was the first major setback for him in four days.
The former Main Event winner told PokerNews during the first break of Day 4 that he expected some fireworks against Lehr, a player he's faced numerous times in the past. He wasn't kidding.
Kyle Arora opened to 33,000 in middle position and Roongsak Griffeth three-bet to 90,000 a couple of seats over. The action folded back to Arora who called to see a flop of .
Arora checked to Griffeth who continued with a bet of 100,000 and Arora called. The turn brought the and Arora checked once more. Griffeth shipped all in for 349,000 and Arora asked for a quick count before calling.
Griffeth flipped over for a set of aces and Arora was down to just once out with for a set of nines. The river was the and Griffeth scored a big double up.
Meanwhile, Barry Greenstein, Kitty Kuo, and Danny Chang were all missing from their seats and have been eliminated from the tournament.
Omar Saeed was in middle position and ended up getting his 378,000 stack in preflop against the cutoff.
Omar Saeed:
Cutoff:
Saeed was the victim of a classic cooler as the flop came . The dealer then put down the turn which caused the table to roar, and the completed the board to transform Saeed from victim to victor as he stayed alive and doubled his stack.