Shortly before the end of level 30, with the blinds at 80K/160K, Charles Bidwell got a timely double to bring his chip stack up to well beyond average.

Bidwell opened the action to 340K from early position and picked up a call from Pierre Andre Prevost on the button. Jason Mandanici-Turcot, who had both opponents covered, then moved all in from the small blind. Bidwell called off his stack without hesitation, and Prevost got out of the way.

Bidwell:

Mandanici-Turcot:

Board:

By the time the dealer finished counting Bidwell’s stack, it was more than any of the players at the table anticipated, slightly more than 3.7M. With that double up, Bidwell is now sitting comfortably with over 35 big blinds.

Raphael Verdugo’s run in the Colossus has come to an end, as he fell victim to some unfortunate timing.

With the blinds at 80K/160K, the action was opened by one of the big stacks, Trevor Delaney, to 350K. The opening raise was quickly called by his neighbour, Joshua Frazer, before the action came to Verdugo on the button. Verdugo stacked up his remaining chips and pushed them forward. To everyone’s surprise, the big blind, Nicola Basile, moved all in over the top, chasing Delaney and Frazer out of the pot, and hands were tabled.

Verdugo:

Basile:

Board:

So despite finding a great spot for a squeeze play, Verdugo was unlucky to run into a monster hand from a player who had yet to act. Basile got to stacking up his new chips, and Verdugo made his way to collect his $6,400 ticket for his fifteenth place finish.

There are still 16 players following the redraw, and though we believed that Trevor Delaney was still the chip leader going into the break, full counts of the remaining field shows that Danny Freitas is in fact the current chip leader, the only player with over 10M in chips!

Event #1 – the Colossus – is down to 16 players, which provoked a full tournament redraw as per the rules of the tournament. Play has resumed with about 8 minutes left in level 29. Trevor Delaney continues to enjoy the chip lead, but we will update the counts during the coming break.

The Colossus continues to move at a very quick pace – it’s already down to 20 players, which means that almost half of today’s starting field has already been eliminated.

Here are some photos of the action today.