In a preflop confrontation Bradley Anderson was all in from early position for 15,000, Nick Schulman was all in for the small blind for around 40,000 and they were up against Maksim Kniter who had both players covered from the button.
Bradley Anderson: A♥8♥
Nick Schulman: K♣K♦
Maksim Kniter: A♠A♦
Kniter's aces held up on the 2♠10♥7♦7♥5♣ runout to send both opponent's to the rail and take the pot.
Erik Seidel opened from under the gun and Shuofei Geng called from the hijack.
On the J♣7♥2♣ flop, Seidel continued for 20,000. Geng contemplated for a while before he moved all-in as the covering stack and Seidel snapped it off for 61,000 effective.
Erik Seidel: K♠K♥
Shuofei Geng: Q♣10♣
Seidel was ahead with his overpair but Geng had a flush draw. The A♥ on the turn gave Geng more outs as he picked up two gutshot outs. However, the Q♠ bricked off on the river and Seidel collected the full double.
Three-ways to a turn with the board reading K♦8♠6♠4♣, Luther Tran led for 9,500 from the big blind. Byung Shin, who opened the pot from under the gun, put in the call next to act. With the action on Jonathan Newman in the cutoff, he decided to raise to 40,000. Tran tanked for some time before he decided to lay it down, while Shin called again.
On the 7♠ river, Shin deliberated for a while before he decided to lead for 40,000 and Newman did not take long before he put in the call. Shin tabled A♠4♠ for the rivered nut flush as he dragged a large pot multiway.
Matthew Cosentino shoved for 9,000 from middle position and Jon Swift called from the cutoff. Mitchell Halverson re-shoved for a bit under 70,000, forcing a fold from Swift.
Matthew Cosentino: A♣10♠
Mitchell Halverson: A♠K♦
Cosentino was dominated and couldn't catch up on the J♣5♣2♠6♥4♣ runout, resulting in his elimination courtesy of Halverson who took the pot.
Landen Lucas raised to 7,000 in early position and Lance Hendricks three-bet to 17,000 in the big blind. Lucas then moved all in for 65,000 and Hendricks snap-called.
Landen Lucas: Q♠J♠
Lance Hendricks: A♦A♣
Hendricks had picked up aces to leave Lucas at serious risk of elimination, while the A♥Q♥9♥ flop then improved Hendricks to top set. The board ran out 6♦2♠ and Lucas was sent to the rail.
Life Outside Poker is a new podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.
In the 18th episode, Connor speaks with author and psychologist Maria Konnikova about her family leaving Russia to come to the US, writing her first story in kindergarten, being mentored by Steven Pinker at Harvard, meeting Erik Seidel for the first time and her 2020 bestseller The Biggest Bluff that explored her poker journey.
Konnikova, a PokerStars ambassador, also talked about her research for an upcoming book into cheating in poker and other games, as well as game integrity rule changes implemented at EPT Barcelona that Konnikova said needed to go even further.
"I think what PokerStars has done is amazing. I think you need to go a step further and not have any electronics anywhere on the table," said Konnikova. "Like, I think phones need to be on the floor, in your bag."
"I would actually also ban sunglasses because ... there's so much technology that (that can enable cheating)."