End of Day Overview

Duhamel and Racener advance; Cheong, Candio, Mizrachi fall in Level 40 Play

We are all done for the day, with Cheong, Candio, and Mizrachi all going out within the last two and a half hours. Here\’s the end of day overview:

Winners

  • Jonathan Duhamel (2-0-3): Another level, another player given a world of hurt by Duhamel. A double up from the chip leader with QQ gives Duhamel 180m. Its his main event to win…or lose.
  • John Racener (0-2-3): Patience is a virtue. And for John Racener, watching Cheong punt his stack was probably the best thing that ever could have happened to him. He walks into heads up at least a 6:1 dog, so he\’ll have his work cut out for him.

Coinflip

  • Our feelings about killing Jack Effel whenever he was over-enthusiastic: We know its wrong, and its probably because we are all tired, but at times it felt that it would be so, so satisfying.

Losers

  • Michael Mizrachi (4-1-0): The way this ended was almost sad. Grinder\’s play in the last two hours was really disappointing, and he was looking frustrated toward the end. While he got it all-in in what would normally be a decent spot, Duhamel\’s crafty plan with his aces proved too much. We all expected great things out of Mizrachi, a combination of bad luck and bad situations ultimately led to the Grinder\’s demise. Congratulations are certainly in order for Michael Mizrachi\’s 5th place finish, the Redemption of the Grinder is certainly complete.
  • Filippo Candio (0-1-4): Candio\’s end was even weaker. After playing almost no hands for 2 hours, he shoved KQdd against Joesph Cheong, who called with A3cc. An Ace on the flop put Cheong in command, and the blank on the turn sealed the deal. Candio\’s lack of play may have been because he was caught bluffing a few times in a row. An amazing finish for the Italian though, 4th place, $3 million (or 2 euros) and a great run!
  • Joseph Cheong (3-0-2): All I\’m gonna say is A7 6-bets all in are not gonna be in Cheong\’s arsenal ever again. He was on the losing end of the biggest pot in poker tournament history. He fought back to get to 17m, but couldnt quite close it out when Q-high lost to A-high. Congratulations on a 3rd place finish nonetheless!

Interesting Notes

  • Bustouts came fast and furious at the beginning of level 40, players with under 30m in chips were feeling the pinch and had to take a stand. Unfortunately, the Cheong-Duhamel hurricane could not be stopped, claiming Mizrachi and Candio within 2 hands. Then the Duhamel hurricane became stronger and knocked Cheong off the face of the earth…eventually.
  • Caffeine is overrated. Especially when you have a bunch of all ins at the end.

On behalf of Pokerati, I hope you\’ve enjoyed our coverage of the final table up until this point. We\’ll be covering some other random stuff in the lead up to heads up, as well as the heads up coverage itself.