An hour has passed and it's time for the remaining players to take their two hour dinner break. After the break players will finish the one hour left in Level 17, take a short break and then play one level, two hours, then bag and tag for the night.
Sitting on the top of the counts are Sam Barnhart (1,997,000), Daryl Jace (1,516,000), and Ben Lamb (1,491,000).
The hour saw a flurry of short stacks busting out once they hit the money. Joining the rail were Mickey Appleman, Kristy Gazes, Steve O'Dwyer, Kenny Nguyen and Lee Childs.
In the very last hand before the dinner break, Dennis Phillips was all in for his last 95,000 or so with and up against an opponents' .
The board ran out , and Phillips shook hands with his tablemates -- as well as a couple of other players passing by on their way to dinner -- before hitting the rail.
That makes Phillips' third WSOP Main Event cash in four years, following his third-place finish in 2008 and 45th in 2009.
After having just won back to back hands with Big Slick against big pocket pairs, Ben Lamb was the one with a chance to knockout a player holding who was all in for around 170,000. Lamb held and when the board ran out , Lamb won yet another flip to bust an opponent. Let the run good continue for Lamb who has stormed back up the leaderboard that he was on top of a few days ago.
From the UTG +1 position, John Hewitt raised to 13,000 before the flop and the action folded to Martin Kabhrel who called from middle position to make it heads-up to the flop of .
Hewitt led out for 18,000 and Kabrhel called, then Hewitt fired out a second shell worth 39,500 on the turn of the , which Kabhrel also called before Hewitt checked his option on the river of the . Kabrhel pushed out 116,500, but Hewitt shoved, sending Kabhrel deep into the tank before he called all-in.
Hewitt showed for the full house and Kabhrel mucked before departing the Amazon Room. With the completion of the hand, Hewitt is now holding more than 1.2 million as we approach the dinner break!
Patrick Poirier opened preflop from the hijack and Fried Meulders raised all in for 87,000 with , Poirier made the call with about 200,000 behind holding and caught a third trey on the flop. That was all she wrote for the Belgian, having to be comfortable with a relatively small min-cash.
We found Jamie Kerstetter all in preflop for around 190,000 and at risk against Ben Lamb.
Lamb:
Kerstetter:
Kerstetter was racing for her tournament life but this was no ordinary race as it was against Lamb who seems to run pretty good at these things this summer. Lamb was indeed good when he pulled ahead on the flop and stayed ahead for the knockout on the turn and river.
The very next hand, Lamb raised to 13,500 from early position and received calls from the next player to act and the big blind. All three players checked the flop and the big blind led out for 15,000 when the hit the turn. Lamb was the only caller and both players checked the river. The big blind turned over for a pair of queens which was no good against Lamb’s for top-top.
Afterwards, Lamb told the big blind, “You could have gone bust that hand” referring to if the big blind had re-raised pre. In any case, the win gave Lamb wins with Big Slick on back to back hands against big pocket pairs and he is rolling.
The board showed and there was already more than 150,000 in the middle. Frank Cerminara checked, and after pausing for several moments Jean-Robert Bellande bet 84,000, almost half of his remaining stack. Cerminara considered the situation, then set out stacks of orange, thereby raising enough to put Bellande all in.
Bellande began to stack and restack his remaining chips as he thought what to do. He took a swig of water, and leaned back in his chair.
"It's a helluva play if you've bluffed me," he said. "It's a helluva play if you have it, too," he added.
Finally, a couple of minutes and several shrugs later, Bellande made the call, tabling for trip nines. Cerminara shook his head and complimented Bellande as he showed his .
The former "Survivor" star jumps up to about 490,000 after making that correct decision, while Cerminara slips to around 400,000.
Daniel Negreanu was all in preflop for his last 15,500, and received four calls. The flop came down , and two players got into a raising war that ended with one putting in 100,000. The other player folded, and Negreanu tabled his hand.
Negreanu:
Opponent:
Negreanu was in terrible shape, but the turn () and river () were both spades, giving him a winning flush. Negreanu jumped from his chair, shouting with excitement.
"I like this table a lot better than the other one," he said after calming down a bit.