In a pair of back-to-back hands, Hong Le has moved from 35,000 in chips to 70,000 courtesy to a bit of good fortune.
The first hand saw Le move in over the top of a preflop raise made by Eddy Pitcher holding pocket fives. Pitcher made the call and tabled . The flop came , hitting both players hard, but the turn and river blanked out and sent the pot Le's way.
On the very next hand, Le found himself racing again, this time holding pocket eights against his opponent's . Le spiked an eight on the flop and had his opponent was drawing dead by the turn to improve to 70,000 in chips.
Liad Moshe is now up to 70,000 after he called the all in bet of Stephen Forde who pushed from early position with . Moshe woke up with in the small blind and made an easy call.
The board fell to double up Moshe and leave Forde with only 8,000 in chips. Forde was eliminated a few moments later in 31st place.
Steve Hamilton raised to 12,000 preflop and Dante Juan made the call. The flop landed and Juan moved all in for the last of his chips. Hamilton thought for a moment and, with chips to spare, he decided to make the call with . It proved to be the right call, as Juan tabled for the flush draw.
The turn and river bricked , leaving Juan to exit in 35th place as Hamilton extends his chip lead to 145,000 chips.
Two players were eliminated on the same hand during the hand-for-hand period, which means they'll split 40th place money, earning $232 each, a whopping $2 return on their investment.
The first was Greg Heaver, who was forced all in on the big blind for 3,000 chips. Matt Walker made the call from the cutoff holding and had Heaver's dominated. A king-high board ensued and Walker's ace-high proved good enough to send Heaver home.
Heaver's bubble buddy turned out to be Fotios Pavlidis, whose pocket kings were unable to hold off an opponent's in a preflop all-in confrontation. A single ace hit the board, and that was all it took to crack Pavlidis' kings.
Liad Moshe opened with a raise of 10,000 from early position and Josh Mullane made the call from the small blind.
The flop came and Mullane shoved all in for 17,000. Moshe went into the tank, but eventually folded his face up! A big fold with an open-ended straight-flush draw on the bubble, as Mullane flashed !
We are now officially on the money bubble! The next player eliminated will walk away with nothing but a story to tell as the remaining 40 players will be $464 richer - not a bad day's work.
Play is now hand-for-hand until the bubble bursts!