Elie Payan and Frank Peelen continued playing their own personal game and this time Peelen was the victor. After pushing for his last 60,000 or so chips, Payan looked to take his nemesis out and called with the .
The Frenchman was in bad shape against Peelen's and when the board rolled out Peelen scored the double-up with his pocket kings.
While we were covering the all in of another player at the other table we failed to see Ryan Welch get eliminated.
Luckily Jeff Sarwer was able to give us some insight into what happened. He was able to tell us that he was the one to eliminate Welch while holding , while Welch had . Sarwer held and busted Welch.
With the board reading and a small pot up for grabs, Elie Payan continued his hyper-aggressive play by betting 20,000 in the dark. The turn came and Roland Isrealashvili made the call. After the river came Payan kept pushing with a pot-sized bet of 60,000 and Isrealashvili insta-called.
The Frenchman quietly sighed and said "good call" while Isrealashvili tabled his and two unknown cards for trip eights. While punishing the table has been working for the last few hours, perhaps Payan has pushed it to the limit with his blind betting.
Since moving to the final two tables, Elie "Punisher934" Payan has more than tripled his stack by using an aggressive strategy premised on power poker. Sitting to the direct left of Frank Peelen, who previously angered Payan for his perceived stalling during earlier stages of the tournament, may have prompted Payan to punish his opponent with repeated reraises and all-in moves.
We have witnessed at least four hands which saw Payan play back at Peelen, forcing him to muck his hand. The Punisher has not discriminated, however, and has made similar plays against the entire table and he has eliminated multiple opponents in the last hour. With two extreme short stacks still sitting at Table 286, we expect Payan to keep up the pressure and exert his will as he pushes forward to the final table.
In a raised pot we found Cody Munger and David Sands fighting it out on the a board. After a series of betting Munger moved all in and Sands call. Cards were then tabled at it was Sands who was ahead.
David Sands:
Cody Munger:
Sands had a pair of aces and was ahead of Munger's pair of kings and flush draw. We still had a river to go though and it was one Sands would like to run twice as a rolled off the deck. Munger won the hand with a flush and has essentially crippled Sands.