Event #2: £5,250 Pot-Limit Omaha

The same Jeff came out on top in what turned out to be a pretty big pot just now - Jeff Kimber raising preflop to 6k and picking up Jeff Madsen (again) for the ride along the board to the river. It was a bumpy one, with Madsen in the blind betting out repeatedly, Kimber in position doggedly calling. The turn bet was 11,600 with the board standing         and after a small think Kimber called. The river was a pairing  . Out bet Madsen once more, with a deep reach of yellow 1k chips (about 22k). Representing around half Kimber's stack, this decision was fairly important, but when he announced, "Call," it turned out he'd made the right one.

"King high," admitted Madsen flatly, while Kimber showed down         to win the pot.

One of those soul-deep sighs of relief as Yasuhiro Waki doubles up to stay in the running as they near the money here. A slightly unorthodox path was taken to the on-their-backs moment, as Jeff Lisandro raised under the gun to 6,500 and Waki moved his whole stack in. The dealer pointed out he couldn't fit his whole 31,300 as a pot limit bet and would have 8,800 behind - Lisandro opted to just flat call. As expected though, Lisandro put in the extra few thousand on the       flop, which got a very enthusiastic response from Waki who'd flopped top set with his        . Lisandro picked up a little something on the   turn but no draw came in for him with the   river.

We only caught the tail end of this, but it must have been pretty bad as Stuart Rutter was in the process of violently throwing his cards face-down into the muck when we arrived. All of John Racener's chips had gone in at some point before the river.

Board:      

Racener:      - his aces had turned into a straight by the end.

Rutter, who enjoyed a great WSOP this summer, cashing four times including two final tables, was reduced to just 5,000 and looked for all the world as though he might cry. He immediately began texting someone to tell them the bad news.

Racener meanwhile - who of course also had a great WSOP and will be returning for the Main Event final table in November - doubled to a little over 100,000.

Breaking News

Rutter exited just a couple hands later.

OK so they were all in his hand, but still, under 30k to his name at this crucial stage, he was prepared to move in with his         when small blind Jeff Madsen threebet him preflop (officially setting him in, actually). Button Erik Friberg had called Kimber's initial 5k raise too, but passed when it all started spiralling, and Madsen showed down         and expressed disappointment that Kimber also had hearts.

The board:           and Kimber gets a stack of 64k.

Yes, the next level is afoot, after a short break during which Phil Laak was presented with his 6-max bracelet won right before he launched into the PLO tournament he just recently exited... A little private dance to Eminem later and he's one bracelet better adorned, while friends Jennifer Tilly and Antonio Esfandiari cheered on the sidelines. Congrats, Phil.

Jeff Madsen has just knocked out Danny Wong in very fortunate circumstances to move 194,000 in chips. The flop was out as     before all the chips went in. Wong floppped a monster with      for a full-house and Madsen revealed     .

The turn came   and river   for running nines making Madsen a very unlikely bigger full-house. Wong sat stunned for a while and then staggered off.

At the the same time on table one Samuel Stein was taking care of Dan Shak. Shak was very short stacked.

The chips went in preflop, and Rory Mathews went out shortly thereafter.

Mathews:     

Erik Friberg:     

Board:      

Friberg made a flush, and Mathews' tournament life was roasted.

Table 1

Seat 1: Andrew Miles - 32000

Seat 2: Yasuhiro Waki - 142600

Seat 3: Dan Shak - 21000

Seat 4: Willie Tann - 133000

Seat 5: Karl Mahrenholz - 74000

Seat 6: Michael Schwartz - 54000

Seat 7: Robin Keston - 55000

Seat 8: Samuel Stein - 73000

Seat 9: Jeff Lisandro- 51000

Table 2

Seat 1: Jeff Kimber - 43000

Seat 2: Barry Greenstein - 18000

Seat 3: Justin Smith - 62000

Seat 4: Rory Mathews - 30000

Seat 5: Erik Friberg - 40000

Seat 6: Jeff Madsen - 160500

Seat 7: Danny Wong - 52000

Seat 8: Steve Jelinek - 20000

Seat 9: Filipe Ramos - 40000

Table 3

Seat 1: Joe Serok - 45000

Seat 2: Scott Fishman - 60000

Seat 3: Paul Gardener - 34000

Seat 4: Chris Bjorin - 215000

Seat 5: John Racener - 42500

Seat 6: John Kabbaj - 115000

Seat 7: Stuart Rutter - 44000

Seat 8: Christopher Chau - 55500

Seat 9: Sean Dempsey - 18300

A double through to just shy of 100k now for John Kabbaj courtesy of Paul Gardner, who had in the last level performed an extraordinary feat of Comebackship getting over 120k in the process. Many a hand saw him pushing off opponents with timely raises or just winning at showdown and it looked like his earlier shaky period was over. But now a       flop appears to have spelled disaster (I actually caught this hand once they were on their backs and the river was about to be dealt):

Kabbaj:        

Gardner:        

Turn and river:  ...  and a full new stack replenishes Kabbaj's chip meter.

Brian Powell didn't quite make it to the three-table stage, calling a suspicious looking limp-reraise (or possibly min-raise-reraise) from Willie Tann before calling all in with         on a potential-filled flop of      . Tann sort of waved his hand around on the flop to indicate that he was setting his short-stacked opponent in, and when called revealed         which held over the     turn and river to bust Powell, who said something like, "Good luck gents," quietly as he left.

Now, amazingly, 6-max finalist Willie Tann has over 140k himself now, and the table of Previous Finalists keeps on bringing the action, unwilling to let a new batch of players have a go on a WSOPE final table, it appears.