After struggling through the first couple of levels today, Massimiliano Martinez was down to just 204,000 when he just now open-shoved from the button. Dan O'Brien, sitting in the small blind, leaned forward to check out what kind of stack Mauro Stivoli was sporting in the big blind (about 450,000), then called the raise. Stivoli checked his hand and folded, and the pair tabled their cards.
O'Brien
Martinez
Martinez appeared to be in a tough spot. Then came the flop -- -- prompting an audible reaction from the rail at the sight of Martinez' flopped flush. The on the turn made the river a bit of meaningless trivia, and Martinez had doubled back to about 420,000. O'Brien, meanwhile, still has a good-natured grin and a stack of 386,000.
When we reached the table, there was 80,000 in the pot and Robert Merulla and Wesley Pantling were heads up. After a series of bets, the two were all in, and the hands were tabled.
Merulla:
Pantling:
Merulla was at risk, and did not improve when the turned. The slammed on the river though, and it took Merulla a second to realize it gave him the best hand before he threw his arms in the air in celebration.
It took nearly two minutes to sort out the chips, but after the counts were checked and re-checked, the stacks looked like this:
Matt Jarvis opened to 37,000 from the cutoff, Kevin Iacofano three-bet to 92,000 on the button, and Jarvis called.
The flop fell , and Jarvis checked to Iacofano who continued for 105,000. Jarvis called.
Both players checked when the turned, and the river brought the . Jarvis checked a third time, and Iacofano slid out 170,000. Jarvis asked Iacofano how much he had behind - 248,000 - and went deep into the tank, removing his signature white Oakley sunglasses.
He studied Iacofano long and hard before finally sliding out enough green T25,000 chips to make the call.
"Nice call," Iacofano said, turning over for ace-high.
Not one but two 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event November Niners were among the final 20 players who returned to today's Day 3. Champion Jonathan Duhamel was our most recent elimination, ousted in 15th place. That left fellow Canadian Matt Jarvis to represent last year's ME final table.
Jarvis earned a cool $1,045,743 for his eighth-place finish in the ME -- his first and so far only cash at the World Series of Poker in Vegas. He did pick up another small cash at the WSOPE last fall, finishing 40th in the £1,000 NLHE event.
With Jarvis' cash here, that means that among the 2010 November Niners only Jason Senti and Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi -- nearly last year's WSOP POY -- have failed to cash thus far at this year's Series.
John Dolan and now Duhamel have cashed twice. Joseph Cheong, Filippo Candio, and Soi Nguyen each have one cash. And last year's runner-up John Racener has three cashes this summer, including the biggest by far among the ME final tablists for his third-place finish in Event No. 33, the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship for which he earned $171,122. We'll see how far Jarvis can go in this one, and whether or not his cash here might surpass Racener's score.
Mauro Stivoli was all in and at risk with against the of Hafiz Khan. Khan remained ahead on the flop (), and the turn (), but the spiked on the river, giving Stivoli a pair of aces.
His rail exploded, and Stivoli was jumping up and down in celebration. After the dust settled, the stacks looked like this:
After a relatively slow sequence lasting the nearly the first half of Level 23, we just had some big action, resulting in not one but two knockouts.
The hand began with Robert Merulla opening for 35,000 from the cutoff. Then Brendon Rubie reraised all in from the button for about 550,000. Russell Carson then called with his short stack -- about 150,000 -- from the small blind, and Wesley Pantling promptly folded from the BB. Merulla tanked for quite a while, then called Rubie's reraise.
Carson
Merulla
Rubie
The board came , which meant Merulla's jacks had held, sending to the rail both Carson (in 14th) and Rubie (in 13th, see photo previous page). Merulla pushes into the chip lead with that one with about 1.8 million.
There will be a brief pause while we have another redraw, this time for the final two six-handed tables.
![[user38338]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
-- prompting an audible reaction from the rail at the sight of Martinez' flopped flush. The 
on the turn made the 
river a bit of meaningless trivia, and Martinez had doubled back to about 420,000. O'Brien, meanwhile, still has a good-natured grin and a stack of 386,000.
turned. The 
slammed on the river though, and it took Merulla a second to realize it gave him the best hand before he threw his arms in the air in celebration.
turned, and the river brought the 
. Jarvis checked a third time, and Iacofano slid out 170,000. Jarvis asked Iacofano how much he had behind - 248,000 - and went deep into the tank, removing his signature white Oakley sunglasses.
spiked on the river, giving Stivoli a pair of aces.
