$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 33: 100,000/200,000/25,000 Ante

Chips were flying pre-flop and it all started with Joe Ebanks raising to 550,000. Andre Crooks made it 1.1 million to go and the action was back on Ebanks who put in another raise – this time to 2.35 million total.

Crooks wasn’t done yet though as he put in yet another raise, for 4.8 million which was nearly half of his remaining stack. Ebanks didn’t think long before moving all in and he was immediately called by Crooks who had the second best starting hand in poker with his . Ebanks had a pair of his own, nines again, as he held .

To say nines have been treating Ebanks well today would be an understatement as the flop came causing the crowd to let out some “ooooohhhhhs” and “aaaaaahhhhhs” as Ebanks had seized control of the hand with his set.

Someone on the rail yelled “deuce” as the dealer put out the . “Deuce,” came the yell again as they paused the action for dramatic effect. Finally, they burned and flipped over the river card.

It was the and that was the end of Andre Crooks tournament life who could at least take some consolation in getting it in with the best hand and the $383,000 payday he took home for his third place finish.

They are taking a brief break to set up for the money presentation. Here are the chip counts as we enter heads up action:

Seat 1: Griffin Paul 17,750,000 (89 bb)
Seat 2: Joe Ebanks 26,475,000 (132 bb)

Andre Crooks – 3rd place