
Heinz comes out strong with a $1.2 million raise and O'Dea calls. Being the short stack Heinz has to be careful but he raised again after the flop of Q-6-3 to $1.42 million. O'Dea calls. Heinz checks and the turn is a jack. Both check and the river is an eight. Heinz holds on with another bet for $2.3 million. O'Dea folds and Heinz gets a little closer to a comfortable chip count. The crowd and the commentators seemed convinced that Heinz was on the way out but the surprising win has ignited the audience.
Heinz keeps it up with a quick win against Holden. Next new short stack Banahra folds trying to hold on a little longer. O'Dea raises to $1.3 million. Lamb folds the big bind to give O'Dea an easy victory. The hands are playing out short and fast with players alternating between aggressive play and cautious bets. O'Dea is becoming one of the more assertive players but I would be hard pressed to talk about potential winners at this point. The key with the final table is keeping it together for as long as possible to get through to the next day.
O'Dea creeps up on the chip lead and the short stack and the chip leader go head to head. Bounahra calls Staszko. The cards are j-5-3-8-9. Bounahra decided to fold and increased Staszko's chip lead. Makiievski on the button raises to $1.2 million with pocket queens and wins a quick hand against Giannetti. Giannetti then takes a quick bet against Bounahra. Staszko takes another hand starting to rattle his opponents a little.
Heinz takes a quick hand and has $17 million in chips slowly working his way up the board. Staszko continues to assert himself and Bounahara calls on ten percent of his short stack. Flop is K-K-9. Turn is a 5. Staszko bets again and Bounahra starts posturing. He calls. Its a four on the river. Both check. Bounahra takes it with pocket sevens. This game could keep him in play for a little while longer. Still waiting for the first player to go out.