Action was joined on a board of 5♦A♣8♦8♣ and there was an all in bet from John Fagg to 6,475,000. Abdulrahim Amer was in the tank and only had Fagg covered by a few million chips. Eventually he landed on a call and the cards hit their backs.
John Fagg: K♦J♦
Abdulrahim Amer: A♠Q♠
The river landed a clean K♠ and Fagg hit the rail just before break.
Three players were all in and Andre Clarke had both Brian Lamanna and Derek Romanowsky at risk in what was assured to be a massive hand.
Brian Lamanna: Q♥Q♠
Derek Romanowsky: J♣J♥
Andre Clarke: A♠K♠
The type of hand the whole table can't help sweating had the entire table craning their necks as the dealer rolled, 5♥5♠2♥, the turn was also little with the 4♥, giving Clarke a wheel draw and both other players a flush draw.
The river paired the board with the 2♣ and Lamanna clapped his hands in celebration as he more than tripled his stack. Romanowsky cam pretty close to breaking even on the transaction as he won the side pot against Clarke.
Mitchell Smith also chimed in to say he had folded AxKx preflop to the heavy action.
Phil Hellmuth now has 17 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, seven more than anyone else. He's won enough bracelets to likely hold onto that record throughout his lifetime. But he'll almost certainly tack on some more before he calls it a career.
The record alone is tournament poker's greatest accomplishment, and yet there's so much more to his WSOP resume than perhaps you even knew. Take, for starters, the fact that he's the only player to win bracelets in five separate decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s) and one of two players, along with Josh Arieh, to win at all three host venues (Binion's, Rio, and Bally's/Horseshoe).
Darrick Arreola was speaking with PokerNews to let them know how he had accumulated his stack, which included the elimination of two players. At the very start of the day he got one when his AxKx held against the Ax10x of his opponent. A while later he ended up making a straight against a flopped set to push him further up in the counts.
At the same time, Konstantinos Nanos bet 2,300,000 on a river reading 8♥J♠6♦7♣2♣ and when he faced an all-in raise from Ghadi Akari, he was visibly upset. A long tank, a concerned face, clenched hands, and an eventual frustrated call saw him SLAM the table when he saw his opponent's 9♠10♠, causing a loud knock and startling some of his neighbors. Akari had made the nut straight on the turn and still had the nuts after the river fell.
The floor quickly approached the table to warn Nanos for his behavior but not before Arreola expressed himself as feeling unsafe. The floor assured Arreola that he would be speaking with Nanos, but he reproached Arreola first for being delicate.
Tensions can run high when there's half a million on the line.
Action folded to Gary Yee in late position who limped. It made it to Nikhail Nair in the big blind, who checked, and the two were off to a flop.
The 4♥Q♥8♦ flop landed and Nair checked it over to Yee. He went into the tank for a moment and eventually went all in for 1,550.000. Nair took a moment and then made the call as it was only a few big blinds.
Gary K Y Yee: 3♥3♣
Nikhil Nair: 10♦8♣
Yee was in bad shape and only drawing to two outs. Right on time the 3♠ hit the turn and Nair was suddenly drawing dead. Yee would scoop the pot after a huge suck-out to keep his tournament alive.
Action folded to Jonathan Edmondson in early position who went all in for 2,250,000. Then Andre Clarke in late position went all in for 5,125,000. The remaining players folded and the cards hit their backs.
Jonathan Edmondson: A♠6♠
Andre Clarke: 10♥10♣
The full board ran out 8♥8♦5♥Q♥5♦ and Edmondson would not be able to get past the pair of tens of Clarke.
