The Proverbial Two Birds
Shaun Deeb opened the betting with a raise to 1,050, and that was only the beginning, as the song says. A couple seats over, the player in the cutoff re-raised to 5,000, and that wasn't the end of it either. On the button, Yakov Nepomnyashchiy made it 12,500 total before Alexey Nikolenko moved all in for 13,500 from the big blind. That was enough to quickly fold Deeb (and his alleged pocket deuces), while the other two opponents both called to see a flop.
In the dark, Nepomnyaschiy insisted on trying to move all in despite the fact that he was not first to act. The dealer repeatedly pushed his stack back to him, but Yakov wasn't understanding the message as he continued to try and bet out of turn. In any event, he and the last live opponent ended up sloppily getting it all in as the dealer spread out .
Showdown
Cutoff:
Nepomnyaschiy:
Nikolenko:
The aces were the covering stack, and Nepomnyaschiy was poised to eliminate two players. When the turn and river came and respectively, he did just that, knocking out a pair and chipping his way over the century mark. He's still stacking those checks, but it appears he's up to about 115,000 now.