Down to seven, and we have four more eliminations to go before the night is over at the Rio in Las Vegas. The field of the 2012 WSOP Main Event was slashed to seven players when Rob Salaburu (pictured) was eliminated in eighth place. After doubling up Jake Balsiger with queens versus kings, Salaburu, the lone controversial figure at the final table, bit the dust.Salaburu, who had been largely quiet throughout the night, was all-in before the flop with pocket sevens against the Q-5 of clubs belonging to Jesse Sylvia. It was a blind-versus-blind situation that saw Salaburu insta-call all-in, stand up, and stretch his arms out.
Esfandiari called Sylvia's play "out of line," but it worked out. Sylvia slowly walked to his rail when the cards were revealed while ESPN poker commentator Antonio Esfandiari reiterated, "There's just no need for that." The flop came 4-A-A with one club, and the sea of red-shirted "Huevos Rancheros" lovers jumped up and down.
The turn was a red deuce, leaving Sylvia (pictured) drawing to a three or queen on the river. Esfandiari called a would-be bust out "really salty" and, sure enough, a queen came on the final card. Salaburu shook hands with his opponents and the crowd went nuts. Sylvia's coach, Vanessa Selbst, clapped loudly in the background.Esfandiari said, "That's salty" once again. Salaburu told viewers in a rather awkward interview with ESPN, "I was really comfortable for sure." On his future in poker, Salaburu forecasted, "I'm going to try to go deep again. We'll see what happens." He took home nearly a million bucks despite an on-screen graphic that he won $1.6 million,
Meanwhile, Michael Esposito sits with under 15 big blinds, the short stack at the table. ESPN poker commentator Antonio Esfandiari dubbed Esposito's position the "danger zone… He has a pretty good 3bet all-in stack."
Sylvia stacked 55 million in chips and was an overwhelming leader at 138 big blinds. On the hand, PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu Tweeted, "Silvia laid too big a price pre-flop with that shove IMO. NO CHANCE Salaburu would shove light. He could raise then fold to Salaburu shove."
Salaburu did not speak to the media after his bust out in a scene that was likely reminiscent of Phil Ivey leaving without an interview in 2009.
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