In one of the very first hands of the new level, we've got an all in.
Gus Hansen got his last 259,000 into the middle with , and Marafioti was racing with the covering stack and the .
Hansen was very much a fan of the board as it ran down to keep him afloat. He's doubled up his first stack to over 500,000, knocking Marafioti down under 300,000. As the dealer was shuffling for the next hand, Marafioti cashed in both add-on chips to take 800,000 more fightin' chips. He's got just less than 1.1 million in front of him now.
Just seconds after losing a massive pot, Eric Froehlich got his last 388,000 in the middle with after a flop of . The turn and river came and , giving Froehlich top two pair. Nikolay Evdakov mucked his hand with a smile on his face and Froehlich now has approximately 760,000 chips.
The Hansen/Maraifioti match has begun to loosen up a bit, and the two have begun to speak to each other in small, quiet phrases. It's not much, but it's a step up from the yawning silence of the first two levels.
Gus Hansen limped the button on the last hand, and Matt Marafioti took a free flop. Marafioti checked, and he called a bet of 8,000 from Hansen. On the turn, Marafioti checked, and a puzzled look came across Hansen's face. He began to talk to himself in the third person.
"Can he fire another bullet without looking?" he wondered aloud. "Theoretically, he can..." He couldn't, though. Hansen uncapped his cards and took a peek, then continued out with another bet of 22,000. That sent Marafioti into the tank a bit, and the two men exchanged a few more quiet comments. Eventually, Marafioti snuck in a big check-raise to 160,000, then added, "I looked," as Hansen sat pondering.
It took about five minutes of Hansen talking to himself before he was convinced. "That would make the most sense..." he said a bit louder, repeating it one more time before kicking his cards into the muck.
That's one of the bigger pots we've seen the two men play as they continue to tug-of-war back and forth. Marafioti is up about 485,000 to 315,000 now in their current counts. Again, both men are still hanging onto those reserve stacks for the moment.
In a match that has seen repeated all-in shoves and snap calls, Nikolay Evdakov again had the upper hand, calling an all-in bet by Eric Froehlich on a flop of . Evdakov showed his and was in great shape against Froehlich's bluff of . The turn and river came and respectively, giving Evdakov two pair and a commanding 2,000,000 to 400,000 chip lead.
With the final board reading , Eric Froehlich called an all-in bet and was disgusted to see Nikolay Evdakov show for a flopped top set. Froehlich was visibly upset with either the cards or his own play and quickly cashed in his first 400,000 add-on. Evdakov has a mountain of chips in front of him at the moment, suggesting that he won another big pot after this one.
We caught the action with board reading and over 75,000 already in the pot. David Paredes bet 87,000 and Yevgeniy Timoshenko made the call. The fell on the river and Paredes continued his aggressive line, pushing his entire stack of 347,500 into the pot. Timoshenko exhaled loudly and fidgeted in his chair before staring intently at his opponent for nearly 5 minutes. After confirming that his last add-on lammer was worth 400,00 chips, Timoshenko decided to make the call. The dramatics proved to be unecessary, however, as Timoshenko showed and Paredes flipped for the same straight. The players chopped the massive pot as Paredes playfully told Timoshenko "slow rolling right there."
We picked up the action on the turn as the board showed . Jake Cody checked, and Anthony Guetti put out a bet of 16,000. Cody proceeded to check-raise to 47,000, and Guetti called to see the last card.
It was the , and Cody wasn't slowing down for the scare card. He put out 90,000, and Guetti tank-called. Cody tabled , and it was good. That pot moves Cody back to about 1.04 million, still slightly trailing Guetti's 1.36 million.
We missed the action that prompted this move, but Yevgeniy Timoshenko has now utilized his first 400,000 add-on, which means David Paredes is obviously off to a good start.