Facing an under the gun raise to 3,200, Tom Koral made the call next to act to see a flop fall.
Koral called the 3,300-chip continuation-bet as the rolled off on the turn and both players checked. When the dealer dropped the on the river and Koral was met with a second check from his opponent, Koral pushed out a bet of 12,000.
His opponent instantly made the call only to muck at the sight of Koral's as he moved to roughly 135,000 in chips.
We heard the call of, "Seat open, feature table!" from the dealer and looked over to see Charles
Sewell claiming the entire chipstack of his opponent. According to Sewell, the other player shoved all in with and he snap-called with his
The flop came , pairing Sewell's big slick and putting him in a commanding position to with the pot. The on the turn was an all-purpose card, giving Sewell trip aces but adding a flush draw to his opponent's hand.
River:
And with that, Sewell made a full house and eliminated his opponent from today's feature table.
While the slow grind of the tournament bubble wore on, we spotted one player who was working overtime to keep his hopes of a WSOP cash alive.
Blair Lyons worked a short stack of only 3,000 chips for nearly an hour, while the 100 antes continued to bleed away his stack each hand, until the bubble finally burst. Lyons earned at least $1,880 for the cash and was eliminated just a few hands later but appeared to be thrilled with his finish nonetheless. To put this feat in perspective, the big blind for this level was 1,000 chips, so Lyons must have maneuvered his stack expertly to remain alive.
Lyons informed us that most of his chips were taken from him after his was sucked out on by the of another player, and from that point on, his only concern was staying alive until he made the money.
From the button, Jason Koon opened to 1,600 only to have Justin Filtz move all in from the big blind. Koon made the call for roughly his last 16,500 as the cards were placed on their backs.
Koon:
Filtz:
The board ran out to see Koon hit the rail as Filtz moves to 155,000 in chips.
With so many tables and so many all ins, we were bound to miss some players who were at risk. We missed the bubble hand but were able to hear the action as told by the victor of the hand. Nick Gibson raised in middle position to 2,700, and it folded around to David Rood in the big blind. Rood put Gibson all in for around 18,000, and Gibson made the call with . Rood had , and it was off to the races for Gibson’s tournament life. The flop was a safe , but the turn came a to put Gibson on the brink of elimination unless one of the two remaining 9s hit. Unfortunately for Gibson, the river was another , making him the bubble boy.
Jack Effel has just informed the Tournament Director on duty that anyone that is caught stalling will have only ten seconds to act on their hand. Otherwise they will be issued a penalty.
The majority of the room applauded with delight while others cheered.