Jiachen Gong is continuing to apply pressure on the two shorter stacks, slowly increasing his holdings in the process. He now sits with almost 2/3 of the chips in play.
Here are the counts entering level 32:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jiachen | Gong | Seat 10 | 9,750,000 |
| Grant | Pazarka | Seat 9 | 2,975,000 |
| William | Molson | Seat 2 | 2,600,000 |
Action has been a little quite of late here amongst the final three, however Jiachen has found himself on the winning end of a lot of small pots, chipping himself up to a healthy chip lead.
Here is a rough count of the chips in play:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jiachen | Gong | Seat 10 | 8,900,000 |
| Grant | Pazarka | Seat 9 | 3,700,000 |
| William | Molson | Seat 2 | 2,600,000 |
Maxime came into Day 4 of the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event with a under-average stack, and although he played quite a few hands and found a some nice spots to pick up blinds and antes, he was never really able to run his stack up much past his starting point.
In recent orbits, he fell below the 15 big blind mark and was cornered into a push-or-fold style of play. Most of his shoves were uncalled, until this most recent one, where he moved in for 955,000 from utg, finding a call only from Will Molson in the big blind.
Maxime: 
Will: 
Maxime has a very favourable flop given the situation, but failed to improve enough to win him the pot on the 
board. Will, who started the hand with 1,250,000, added some much needed chips to his stack as play enters 3-handed.
4th place: Maxime Lejeune Hebert – $32,000.00
Maxime Lejeune Hebert
There has been no shortage of play in this final stretch of the TonyBet Winter Festival Main Event, and for the most part Grant Pazarka has benefitted – until this hand in which Jiachen Gong took a huge pot from Grant.
Grant got things going with an utg raise to 225K. Jiachen called, Will Molson folded, and Maxime Hebert called as well (from the bb).
The flop was 
. Max decided to check to the raiser, Grant, who bet 275K. Jiachen called and Max called – they were three-way to the turn.
Turn: 
Again Max checked and Grant led with a bet to 350K. This time Jiachen counted out raising chips – he made it 900K. Max got out of the way, and Grant called.
The river was the and again Grant led out – this time for 550K. Again Jiachen counted out raising chips – he made it a cooo 1.6M. Grant thought about it for about 2 minutes… and made the call!
Unfortunately for him, his next move was to insta-muck as he saw Jiachen’s set – he held the 
.
Jiachen has now taken a definitive lead with 7.9M while Grant was reduced to 5,150,000.
After a losing a big pot to Grant Pazarka a few hands ago, Jessie Wheatley was left with a fairly short stack. She waited patiently for a good spot to get her last chips in, until finally she was dealt 
. With only 4.5 big blinds to her name, she moved all-in from middle position. Action folded around to Jiachen Gong in the big blind, who couldn’t find a fold for such a good price, even though he only had 
.
Jiachen picked up a pair on the 
board to knock out his opponent, and bring this Main Event of the TonyBet Winter Festival down to 4 players.
5th place: Jessie Wheatley – $24,500.00
Jessie Wheatley
Grant Pazarka has taken a commanding lead on the tournament as it moves towards a conclusion. With 5 players left at the table he has moved to over 8M in tournament chips – over 50% of the chips in play.
His most recent “haul” of chips was in a hand against Jessie Wheatley. Grant raised to 190K from the cutoff and Jessie called from the bb. The flop was dealt:
Jessie acted first and decided to check. Grant then bet 270K and Jessie check-raised to 600K. Grant made the call.
The turn was the 
, and this time Jessie led out with a bet of 775K – which Grant called.
The river was a and Jessie check-called Grant’s bet to 700K – only to muck with disgust upon seeing Grant’s flopped set of 4s – Grant was playing 
.
The hand left Jessie dangerously short while catapulting Grant even further into the lead.
Grant Pazarka
With a short break in play, we took this time to update the chip counts of the final 5 players.
Here are current counts:
| First Name | Prénom | Last Name | Nom | Seat | Siège | Stack | Tapis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grant | Pazarka | Seat 9 | 5,650,000 |
| Jiachen | Gong | Seat 10 | 3,730,000 |
| Jessie | Wheatley | Seat 4 | 2,785,000 |
| William | Molson | Seat 2 | 1,900,000 |
| Maxime | Lejeune Hebert | Seat 7 | 1,315,000 |
After losing with a pocket pair of kings himself just a few hands ago, Danny Kalpakis was now the one playing against them, as he 3bet his remaining 375,000 from the big blind following an open from Jessie Wheatley.
Danny: 
Jessie: 
Board: 
The kings were second best in the hand once again, but this time it was to Danny’s advantage, as he successfully scored a double-up.
Moments later, Jiachen opened from the hi-jack, and Danny moved in from the cutoff, finding the call.
Danny: 
Jiachen:
The board ran out , and Danny’s attempt at a comeback was cut short by Jiachen, who increased his holdings to just above 4,300,000.
6th place: Danny Kalpakis – $19,600.00
Danny Kalpakis
After an open from Grant Pazarka, followed by a 3bet from Danny Kalpakis, a 4bet from Grant, a 5bet all-in from Danny, and a quick call, we could only expect the two players involved in this betting war to open up premium hands – unless of course one of them was up to something funny.
Both players did in fact table monster hands, however it was Grant and his 
who got the best of Danny and his 
, earning him a double-up worth almost 4,500,000. Grant then went on to win another million or so chips from Jessie Wheatley on the very next hand, putting him in the driver seat at this point in the tournament.
Danny was left with 585,000 behind after losing to Grants pair of aces, while Jessie is down to around 2,200,000. Jiachen is second with roughly 4,200,000, Maxime holds around 1,900,000 and Will sits on just shy of 1,500,000.
Maxime Lejeune Hebert opened to 130,000 from the button, and Jiachen Gong put him to the test by moving all-in from the big blind, last to act. Maxime didn’t flinch and slid forward his stack to represent a call.
Maxime:
Jiachen: 
Board: 
With three-of-a-kind, Maxime doubled his 1,055,00 stack, while Jiachen slid down to around 3 million.
