The last level saw the field carved down to 45 players as the rapid pace of eliminations continued.
It was during Level 18 that the last woman remaining in the field was eliminated when Chile’s own Miryam Murga at last fell in 56th place ($3,200) following a hand against start-of-day chip leader Fernando Mazzeo.
That hand saw Murga open with a raise from middle position then watch the table fold around to Mazzeo who then fired a hefty reraise from the big blind.
The pair exhibited quite the contrast as Mazzeo sat leaned back in his chair in his usual pose while Murga held her head in her hands deciding what to do. Finally she tossed forward calling chips. The flop came 6♥ 5♣ K♥ and when Mazzeo immediately announced he was all in, Murga seemed almost to exhale when agreeing to call and commit what was left of her short stack.
Murga had Aâ™ Kâ™ and had paired her king, but Mazzeo’s A♥ A♦ had her in dire straits. She shook her head with a wry look as the 9♥ fell on the turn to snuff out any river comebacks in the hand, and exchanged well wishes with the table before departing to collect her $3,200 in winnings.
Both Team PokerStars Pro David Williams and Ken Aldridge are battling with short stacks at Mazzeo’s table at the moment. Aldridge has pushed all in on a couple of occasions, getting no callers, while Williams has been more cautious to protect his below average stack.
Meanwhile up at the top of the counts Jefferson Melo continues to chip up, up, and up, now sitting with more than 1.1 million. He and fellow big stack Pedro Padilha who has 770,000 have been moved to the feature table to start Level 19. (See below for links to watch.)
Melo added a few more a short while before the break arrived after watching Ivan Luca open-raise all in for 35,000 from middle position (about six big blinds), then just calling from a couple of seats over. The rest of the table folded, and Melo showed Qâ™ 10â™ to Luca’s A♦ 6♦ .
Alas for Luca, Melo is in full-on can’t-lose mode at the moment, and the 3♥ 10♦ 9♥ Q♣ 9♣ board paired Melo twice to send Luca railward in 46th.
The plan tonight is to play down to 32.
Photography from LAPT7 Chile by Carlos Monti. Follow live streaming coverage throughout LAPT7 Chile in Spanish at PokerStars or via Facebook as well as in Portuguese, also at PokerStars or via Facebook.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
Back to Top
