LIVE EVENTS

François Billard keeps accreting chips. It seems like up is only way to go for him. He claimed the driver’s seat from Jouhkimainen and is now sitting on 219.4 millions chips, twice as many as Rabichow, second in chips. It will be interesting to see how his table mates react to his expected increased activity.

Here are the updated counts:

Joni Jouhkimainen was working with an average stack. Although he has lost a few feathers since break, he was still rather healthy with 75.1M chips, until a huge hand came about.

François Billard bumped the big blind to 4M from the under-the-gun position. That bet was called by Castrillon Fontan in the button before it was raised by Kevin Rabichow, the chip leader at the time. Jouhkimainen was in the small blind, and started tanking. Everybody knew at that point, considering the heavy action he was facing, that anything but an instant fold meant a huge hand. He used a time extension card and announced all-in.

The action was quickly folded to Rabichow, who called just as quickly.

Jouhkimainen:
Rabichow:

Board:

In any ordinary game, that river would have caused a commotion, but these guys are no ordinary players. Rabichow barely lifted an eyebrow and started counting 75.1M to hand over to his left. Jouhkimainen, out of respect for the game and his antagonist in the hand, celebrated internally.

This 3-outer was worth 150 millions chips, and the lead for a million-dollar first prize. Just another day.

We can see some very tough play on the final table of the Main Event, and very few showdowns. François Billard continues to do well, gaining chips every hand he plays, sizing his bets perfectly as he does.

Kevin Rabichow also plays an extremely solid game, and just orchestrated Danick Landriault’s elimination. Landriault was crushing the final 2 tables yesterday, but after being on the wrong end of a few battles, started Day 5 rather low. He was on the big blind when he lost his last chips, facing a tough decision.

Rabichow bumped the big blind to 3.2M, and the action folded to Landriault who completed. On the flop, the action was check – bet 2.4M – call. On the turn, Landriault checked again, and watched Rabichow push enough 5M chips to cover his remaining 12M.

Board:

Landriault’s holding:

A tough spot, to be sure. He finally elected to call, and saw Rabichow’s . The river came a , and the local player shook everybody’s hand and went to the cashier to receive his $250K prize.

Congratulations on a nice run and an amazing skill display!

Ruben Perceval has been nursing the short stack on the table for the last hour or so. He dropped down to 21,000,000, about 15 bigs, and with blinds at 700K/1.4M, he picked up in early position. He decided that it was time to do it. He moved his stack forward and announce that he was “all in”.

Action folded to Danick Landriault in mid position, who was sitting on 53,350,000, and he looked down at . He went deep into the tank as he was facing a tough decision. Sitting on 38 big blinds, if his pocket 7’s were good, he would be up to about 55 bigs. If he lost, he drops down to just over 20 bigs. After thinking it through for some time, he let go of his hand.

The situation was different for Kevin Rabichow who not only had a massive stack (123,500,000), he had a massive hand: , and he shoved over the top without any hesitation.

Ruben was drawing to two outs. The flop came which was of no help to him.

Turn: . There was only one card to go and only two outs.
River:

Kevin won the pot to add to his massive stack, and Perceval hit the rail eight place, collecting $150,000, a great deep run, but obviously not the result that he was hoping for.

Eight place, Ruben Perceval, $150,000

The players have just gone on break, giving us a chance to count the stacks:

Armin Rezaei, who had been looking for a spot to gamble on, pushed his chips with a pair of fives in the hole. He was facing kings, and in the absence of help, was forced to leave the party. He made sure to shake some hands first, showing great sportsmanship.

The remaining 8 players posed for the cameras, all smiles, knowing that they are sure to make at least $150,000.

The final table of the Main Event has not lost a member yet, despite 2 short stacks having gone all-in against former chip leader Danick Landriault. Alexandros Kolonias managed to survive when his flopped a queen against Landriault’s .

Later on, it was François Billard who was fully invested. His looked like it was going to fall short against Landriault’s pocket tens, but a queen appeared on the river to keep Billard alive.

Players are now on break. Here are the full counts:

The $10,300 Main Event has just lost Jason James. He went out in 10th with a flopped 2-pair against Paul’s turned set. A brutal run out for James, but he goes home with $60,000, and 9 other players are pretty happy to make the final table, where gargantuan prizes await up top. Play will continue tonight until 6 players remain.

Here is the seating distribution:

Following Upeshka De Silva’s recent elimination, the Main Event is down to 10 players.

All the chips went in on the turn of a heads-up pot between De Silva and Castrillon Fontan. After the flop, the action card proved to be the on the turn. When it appeared, De Silva checked over to Fontan who moved all in. De Silva took a moment before slamming a handful of chips on the felt, and the cards were tabled. It was for Da Silva against Fontan’s . De Silva had a healthy lead with two pair against the over pair. But everything changed on the river. It produced the and counterfeited De Silva’s hand in the process to give Fontan the pot and send De Silva to cashier to collect his $60,000 payout.