The first level of Day 4 started with a brisk pace with most players thinking about the money bubble looming today. There are 738 players remaining, all fighting for the 693 spots that pay. Daryl Jace still sits atop the counts with 1,537,000. Marc-Andre Ladouceur joined the million chip club in the last level with 1.225 million.
We've had several notables bust out including Humberto Brenes, Jeff Madsen, Jeffrey Lisandro, David Chiu and Nikolai Senninger.
A perfect made for TV hand occurred between Paul Baron, Nelson Dantas and William Douglas Smith all going all in preflop with big pairs - the three biggest pairs to be exact. Baron held pocket kings and made a set, Dantas had pocket aces and survived and Smith busted with pocket queens.
Daryl Jace continues to push the pace, chipping up to over 1.5 million, courtesy of a low flush.
Patrick Poirer started the day as number two in chips with over 1.1 million. He lost a big pot shortly before the break holding against where his opponent rivered a set of queens and knocked him down to about 870,000.
Interesting hand involving Sargis Sargsian and a short-stacked Jake Cody just now.
The board showed and about 40,000 sat in the middle when Sargsian, playing from the big blind, bet 25,000 and Cody called. The river then brought the . Sargsian asked what Cody had left -- about 58,000 -- then bet 20,000.
Cody thought for about a minute, a small grin on his face as he contemplated how his hand rated in comparison to what Sargsian might have. Finally Cody called the river bet. Sargsian showed for eights full of nines, while Cody exhaled as he showed his for a lesser full house.
Cody preserves 38,000 as we head to the first break of the day. Meanwhile, Sargsian has about 260,000.
We caught up to see David Chiu call the all in of his opponent on a board of . Chiu was holding for a flopped queen-high flush versus his opponent's for an ace-high spade draw and a gutshot.
When Chiu saw his opponent's hand, all he could do was go over to a chair in the corner and sit down. The ESPN camera crew came over to the table and were having a difficult time locating Chiu as he sat in a dark corner, unable to even look toward the table.
The dealer rapped the table and dropped a on the turn, keeping Chiu out in the lead. His opponent would need one of the remaining spades in the deck to make the higher flush. Once again the dealer pounded the table, and this time Chiu's fate was sealed as the peeled off on the river. His opponent clapped his hands and pumped his fists in celebration, ultimately signalling Chiu in the corner of the bad news.
Chiu quickly shook hands with the players at his table and made a speedy exit to the nearest door.
David Barter opened to 8,000 under the gun plus one and was called by the next player to act. On the flop, Barter led for 10,500 and was raised to 27,000 which he called. Both players checked the on the turn and Barter led again for 16,500 on the river. When he was raised to 39,000 this time however, he laid his hand down to drop a bit.
Tony Hachem opened to 9,000 in middle position, Andrew Hinrichsen called in late position, and the flop came down . Hachem continued for 13,000, and Hinrichsen made the call.
The turn was the , and Hachem opted to check. Hinrichsen fired 20,000, forcing a fold from his fellow countryman.
When we reached the table, the board read , and there was about 100,000 in the middle. Jonathan Jaffe fired 40,000, and Phil Collins tanked for a very long time before raising to 120,000. Jon Turner got out of the way, and Jaffe instantly clicked it back, min-raising to 200,000.
Collins tanked again, unafraid to take his time. He eventually moved all in, forcing a quick fold from Jaffe.
"That was the craziest hand I've ever played in my entire life," Collins professed after the hand.
Yohan Zaoui was all in preflop for around 300,000 against former chip leader Patrick Poirier.
Zaoui:
Poirier:
Poirier picked up a gutshot on the flop but the Frenchman Zaoui shook his head in disbelief at the turn, though he now had any five for a chop. The river was the and Zaoui let out a shout of delight as he doubled to over 600,000. Poirier dropped below a million for the first time today.
Jeff Madsen began Day 4 with a below-average stack of 120,000, and just now lost the last of those chips in the first level of play. As Madsen reports (via Twitter, obv.): "Gg. Got coolered vs on a board.. What could I do. In shock."
The action folded around to David Barter who raised to 8,000 from the hijack position before the flop; the player in the button called, as did the player in the big blind, to make it three-handed to the flop of .
The big blind checked to Barter who led out for 6,500 and the button folded, but the big blind check-called, making it heads-up to the turn of the , which both players checked before the big blind check-snap-called Barter's bet of 31,500 on the river of the .
Barter showed down for trip eights and the big blind mucked his hand. Barter, who started the day with 917,500 in chips, is still hovering around that amount.