$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 22:  10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante
Players Remaining:  5 of 202

Aaron Thivyanathan raised under the gun to 40,000, Mike Vela reraised from the cutoff to 125,000, and Thivyanathan quickly moved all in for 295,000.

Vela quickly called with , but Thivyanathan turned over .

The board came , and the pocket queens held up for Thivyanathan to win the pot and double up in chips.

Aaron Thivyanathan  –  620,000  (31 bb)
Mike Vela  –  130,000  (7 bb)

Two hands later, Vela moved all in under the gun for 130,000, and it folded to David Shaw in the big blind. Shaw peeled a look at one of his cards, and called based on that one card as he flipped it over — the .

Then Shaw flipped over his other card and woke up with .

Vela turned over , and he needed to improve to stay alive.

The board came , and the pocket aces held up for Shaw to win the pot and eliminate Vela in sixth place.

David Shaw  –  1,115,000  (56 bb)
Mike Vela  –  Eliminated in 6th Place  ($7,828)

After the hand, Vela smiled and said, “When I saw the ace of spades, I figured the worst case was that we were tied. Oops.”

With five players remaining, the average chip stack is about 810,000 (41 big blinds), and the next player to bust will earn $9,444.