Sam Stein opened with and a short-stacked Maximiliano Gallardo moved all in for his last 91,000 holding .
The flop fanned out giving Stein a straight draw which was completed with the on the turn. Gallardo did pick up a flush draw but the bricked out and Gallardo was forced to wait in line at the payout booth.
Dominik Nitsche has mostly been recognized for his online poker skills. Nitsche started out playing online in 2006 and amassed over $3 million in earnings doing so. In 2009, Nitsche took to the felt for the first time, winning an LAPT event for $381,000. Since then, Nitsche has gone on to win three WSOP bracelets and accumulated over $6.7 million in live tournament winnings.
We caught up with Nitsche in the middle of a hand with the board reading . There was around 130,000 in the pot and the action had been checked to Nitsche who bet 150,000. His opponent slid forward a stack of chips for a call and the showed up on the river.
Both players checked the river and Nitsche tabled for the best hand. Nitsche scooped a decent-sized pot and has built him a stack to sit among the chip leaders.
Sarah Herring caught up with him and Sofia Lovgren on the break.
The player on the button raised to 25,000, Marcel Luske called from the small blind, and the big blind called as well.
The three players saw a flop of and action checked around.
The turn brought the and Luske bet 40,000. The big blind folded and the button went into the tank for over a minute before he raised to 140,000. Luske tossed his cards into the muck and his opponent took the pot.
The action was folded to Chris Johnson in the cutoff who raised to 20,000. The big blind called and saw a flop of .
The big blind checked and Johnson bet 15,000. His opponent check-raised to 40,000 and Johnson called. The turn was the and the action was checked to Johnson again who bet 75,000. His opponent tanked for a couple minutes before flashing the and throwing his cards away.
Patrick Lavecchia started as chip leader, but he has lost about half his stack. Meanwhile, Damian Salas has chipped up considerably to join David Woo in contention for one of the chip leaders behind Eugene Kotlyarevskiy.
With about 100,000 chips already in the pot and the completed board reading , Ankush Mandavia checked from the big blind and the player on the button bet 51,000. Mandavia check-raised to 290,000, sending his opponent into the tank. After about a minute, he ultimately called and Mandavia instantly flipped over for a flopped set of fives. The button mucked and Mandavia took the pot to put his stack over the 1,000,000-chip mark.