Sometimes, poker can be a very easy game. At least it might seem so to Noam Shtayerman right about now.
The Israeli open-limped with roughly 100 big blinds behind with K♥ Q♦ from middle position. After Jonas Hähnert (BoM final tablist 2 years running) called from the button the player in the small blind moved all-in for 18 big blinds.
Shtayerman double checked his cards, shrugged and called. Jonas folded and Darragh O’Sullivan, the all-in player, turned over J♥ Q♥.
He was dominated but certainly did not expect his opponent to show king-queen after limp-calling an 18-big-blind-all-in.
The flop fell Q♠ 7♣ 9♠, leaving O’Sullivan drawing thin. But the J♦ on the turn completed his suck-out. However … it was no good in the end because the river fell T♠ to give Shtayerman a straight.
Again, Shtayerman shrugged and collected the 75k pot, eliminating his Irish opponent in the process. Speaking of eliminations …
The 2018 BoM Main Event has lost 1,000 players already today in less than 12 levels. That’s more than 2 eliminations per minute!