Dinner and a Double
by Court on 10.01.09, 5:11 pm
The final four came back from the dinner break and it didn’t take longs for the chips to be in the middle. After Daniel Negreanu and Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier split a pot where both were holding K9 the next major action was between local favorite Praz Bansi and Barry Shulman.
Bansi had raised preflop and both Barry Shulman and Jason Mercier made the call. On the 8
6
4 flop the chips went in and Shulman was drawing for his tournament life with his A9 against the KK
of Bansi. The spade blocker took away one of Shulman’s outs but he still had 8 spades and 3 aces left in the deck. The A hit on the turn and amidst the squall of an excited supporter of Shulman he raked in a pot that put the 4 players on near even footing. Bansi looks to still hold a slight chip lead but everyone is in the 2.5 million range for the time being. The 25k / 50k 5k ante blinds will keep some chips in the middle, but all of the players are deep enough now to feel no immediate pressure.
Shulman has his one enthused supporter, Mercier has the fan that latched onto him earlier in the day at the urging of Jack Effel, Negreanu is Negreanu and has plenty of people rooting for Kid Poker and Bansi has pretty much everyone in the Casino at the Empire rooting for him. As the day turns into night the casino is filling up and the crowds are growing. Play will continue until a champion is crowned, which last year at this event was well into the next morning. Play doesn’t look like it will take that long tonight but the players are deep enough for a long and drawn out battle.
