Three players limped (under the gun, hijack, and cutoff), the button, folded, then Jean-Robert Bellande made it 1,300 to go from the small blind. The big blind folded, and the three limpers each hastily beat a retreat.
"Ah, well," said Bellande wearily. "Wanted a call," he added. "Love a shove."
A late-starter, Bellande is looking to gather chips sooner than later, as he currently sits with 3,650.
PokerStars Team Pro Victor Ramdin may be one of the chip leaders in Event #44, the $2,500 Seven Card Razz tournament, but that isn't stopping him from working his stack in this event!
After the player in the cutoff raised to 450, Ramdin moved all in on the button for a little over 3,000. The cutoff tanked for a bit and Ramdin said "you can phone a friend" which elicited a chuckle from the table. Eventually the cutoff decided to call and the hands were revealed.
Ramdin:
Cutoff:
Ramdin's tournament life was at risk and after the turn the board read , leaving little hope for Ramdin to survive. The dealer then flipped over the on the river giving Ramdin the best hand and the win. He doubled his stack to 7,500 but was seen dashing out of the Pavilion room shortly thereafter to head back to the Razz tournament.
Antonio Esfandiari continues to build his chip stack. He is currently sitting with over 20,000 in chips.
He raised to 600 from the big blind and the player in the small blind made the call. The flop ran out . The player in the small blind checked and Esfandiari bet 775. His opponent made the call. The hit on the turn and the player in the small blind checked again. Esfandiari threw out a bet of 1,500 and his opponent folded his cards into the muck.
We watched Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari call his opponent's all-in raise of 1,000 more with his . After already building a huge stack of chips, Esfandiari could easily afford the call with a chance to bust a fellow player. The opponent held and would need to dodge the deck's aces and diamonds to survive.
The final board rolled out and The Magician's ace-high was bested by the queens of his opponent. Esfandiari took a small hit to his stack while the opponent doubled through and retook his seat.
Jonathan Little has been accumulating chips at a healthy rate this afternoon. He'd already moved up over the 20,000-chip mark when the following three-way all-in hand occurred.
A player in middle position opened with a raise, then Little reraised from late position. The button then pushed all in for about 3,000, and the original raiser reraised all in himself for about 5,000 total. Little promptly called, showing . The short-stacked player held , and the initial raiser .
The flop came , bringing the case king and a set for Little and all but ending it right there. The turn was and river the , and Little scored two knockouts and a nice pot.
A player in middle position raised to 450 and got two callers behind him, including Blair Hinkle in the cutoff. The flop came . It checked to Hinkle who bet 775. The initial raiser folded, but the third player stuck around. The turn brought the and a couple of checks from the players.
The river was the . This time Hinkle's opponent led, tossing out a bet of 1,500. Hinkle considered a moment, then let it go.
With a field of 2,890, this event sports a nifty $2,601,000 total prize pool, to be divided among the top 297 finishers. Finishing in the top 36 gets one five figures, and those landing in the top five will realize six-figure scores.
Check the Payouts tab for all of the details regarding who gets what. Here are the payouts for those making the final table:
With all of the hair-touching shenanigans going on around him, Tom "durrrr" Dwan lost his last chips and busted out a few minutes ago.
In what could be seen as a tune-up for the upcoming headline attractions, the Main Event and the Player's Championship, perhaps Durrrr was simply getting his run-bad out of the system before the big ones arrive.