Isle Open Championship (Day 3): Nassin Vaknin Eliminated In 4th Place ($33,597) By Paul Balzano

2017 Isle Open | Event #21
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em Isle Open Championship| $500,000 GTD
Level 30 (Blinds 60,000/120,000/20,000)
Total Event #21 Entries: 404
Event #21 Players Remaining: 3

It was a crazy day for Nassin Vaknin (Davie, FL), who was down to just two big blinds earlier in the afternoon.

An unorthodox move earlier in the day led to a big pay jump for Nassin Vaknin...and almost ended up the story of the tournament.  Vaknin played a hand earlier where he started with 650,000, and after getting 400,000 of that stack involved pre-flop, he folded after a bet from William Valladares on the flop.  The move was eye-opening for others at the table, but Vaknin ended up running that stack of two blinds up to over 3,300,000.

Unfortunately Nassin would find himself the shortest stack though, after just one level, and would open the most recent pot to 350,000 (from the button).  Paul Balzano made the call out of the big blind, and would then lead 360,000 after a K♥ J♥ 10♦ flop.  Vaknin had only 1,000,000 left, and would shove all-in fairly quickly.  After getting an exact count, Paul would make the call, ahead with K♠ 6♥ against Nassin's Q♦ J♠.

Paul asked for a ten on the turn, and that's exactly what he got (10♠), helping strengthen his lead.  The river would bring the 4♣, and Nassin's roller-coaster day came to an end.