We overheard Phil Laak mention that if he could get at least 15th place in this tournament, then he would qualify for the Epic Poker League. Laak's needs $20,298 to qualify and 15th pays $20,299 which would get him in by a single dollar.
As the current chip leader, we'll see if Laak can hold on as this is certainly something that he's been striving for all WSOP.
We caught up with the action on the flop where Phil Laak potted to 10,500 from the small blind. Joseph Silverman then re-potted to 43,500 which got the hijack out of the way but Laak came back with another re-pot. Silverman went all in and Laak called to put his tournament life at risk as the players flipped their hands.
Laak:
Silverman:
We didn’t catch Silverman’s suits but Laak had coolered him with set over set. Silverman would now need the last two in the deck or a couple of cards to give him a low in order to not get scooped. The on the turn was of no help and neither was the on the river as Laak won the monster pot and Silverman was crippled down to 17,000 while Laak catapulted into the chip lead. Shortly afterwards, Silverman was eliminated.
Nick Schulman, Alan Sternberg, and Brett Shaffer went to battle in a three way pot that has seen Schulman emerge with a top five chip stack. Shaffer was short and all in for around 12,000, but the big action was between Sternberg and Schulman, who got in a raising war preflop. Eventually, all 80,000 of Sternberg's chips got in there, and Schulman made the call having him covered.
Schulman:
Sternberg:
Shaffer:
The flop brought plenty of action, coming . This gave Sternberg middle set, but gave both his opponents the nut low draw. That came on the turn, the , and it was looking like a split pot. That was until the hit the river, giving Schulman a seven high straight and knocking off Sternberg. Shaffer survived the hand, splitting the low pot, to drop him to 10,000, while Schulman jumps towards the top of the leaderboard.
While the action is unknown, Daniel McNally just lost all it all to chip magnet Bryce Yockey. With that pot he has retaken the chip lead from Schulman with 310,000.
Kirill Rabtsov raised to 10,000 and Nathaniel Wiesner announced pot as he went all in for 15,000 total. Rabtsov looked confused for a second until he realized it was only 5,000 more to him and then made the call.
Rabtsov:
Wiesner:
Wiesner was ahead until the flop came down to give Rabtsov bottom set. Wiesner would need the last remaining ace in the deck or some form of runner runner to survive. The on the turn gave him some low outs to go along with the last ace but the on the river sealed the knockout as Rabtsov made a full house. Wiesner, last year’s 13th place finisher in this event, fell slightly short of the money this time around.
The title says it all. We are down to 45 players, and of that, only 36 will be paid. We will be sure to keep you posted on all of the bust outs as they come.
Gary Bolden limped in middle position and Brandon Paster raised to 11,000 in the hijack as the next to act. It was folded back around to Bolden who made the call as the two checked the flop. They both checked the on the turn as well but it would be like the 4th of July when the hit the river as there were fireworks.
It started out with Bolden betting 20,000 and Paster announcing raise. Paster then slid out two giant piles of yellow T1000 chips totalling 80,000. Bolden then counted out the chips for a call and went into the tank. He got up from his chair and asked Paster how much he had left. Paster counted out his stack and it looked like he had an additional 80,000 behind. Bolden finally announced all in and Paster folded as fast as humanly possible. As Bolden raked in the pot, he showed for a turned royal flush and said that he wished his opponent had held at least aces full. Nevertheless, Bolden, who started the day atop the chip counts, is once again sitting near the top of them as Paster blew quite a few of the newfound chips that he had won a few pots ago.