Raul Mestre raises to 2,500 from early position and Constandinos Alexiou reraises to 7,000 next to him. And if that wasn't enough, action Igor Rejdovjan now cold-calls this bet before Niko Hanninen moves all-in on top of this action!
Mestre quickly folds, as does Alexiou but after some serious deliberation, Rejdovjan makes the call with and Hanninen shows . A queen comes on the flop and Rejdovjan celebrates as the Finn is drawing dead by the turn, allowing the Slovakian to rake in a pot in excess of 100,000.
Oskar Silow has doubled up. He found himself all in with versus on a . A raggy turn and river leaves opponent Milan Kojnok with 10,000, whilst Silow jumps to 42,000.
Jose Luis Navarro must have been caught pinching, as when I joined the action, a desperately short-stacked Lars Johan Persson was all in from the small blind with versus the of Navarro on the button.
The missed both players, but the hit Navarro smack in the face before Persson returned the favor with a dramatic on the river.
Navarro, still flying high with 77,000, around 15,000 above the current average.
Here's one to write down, and it involves Hungary's Daniel Biro. He's just doubled through Leonidas Androutsos, with all the chips finding their way in on a flop. Biro had his man pipped with versus , the turn and river changing nothing and increasing Biro's stack to a rather more pleasing 40,000. Androustsos, on the other hand, is on 4,000 and about as happy as an Eskimo in the desert.
The look of disgruntlement on the face of Martin Jacobson says it all really, the young Swedish online qualifier getting it in with the best of it, but ultimately seeing his pocket kings outdrawn by Benjamin Mirsaidi's ace-queen on an ensuing ace high board. Jacobson still in good shape though, boasting a circa average stack of 60,000.
Casey Kastle has been knocked out of the tournament, though I arrived too late to see the board or Kastle's cards. All I saw was the of Toni Gomez Ribera and the Spaniard happily raking in the pot.
Oh dear, things just are not going Christer Johansson's way today. After rebuilding his stack back up to around 70,000, he got into a chunky pot holding on a board. His opponent, whose number card seems to have disappeared, moved in over the top of his bet and Christer made the call, heartened by the fact he was shown just . But a on the turn and a meant the big pot went sailing the way of his opponent.
"Well played," said Christer with a tone that suggests the opponent won't be getting a Christmas card from Johansson this Christmas...
The opening couple of levels today saw more action than a night on the tiles with the Devilfish, but now that we're half way through level three, the pace has really settled down as large stacks begin to emerge.
The largest of those is still Constandinos Alexiou (Alex to the bloggers), with a mammoth chip-leading 182,000. He's currently sharing a table with Dario Minieiri, who is similarly dangerous with around 70,000.
Meanwhile, new names are beginning to crop in the shape of Henri Kettunen (139,000), Raul Mestre (135,000), and Jonathan Duhamel (99,000).
With a lying patiently on the felt, Tome Moreira (big blind) led for 14,000, only for Petter Pettersson (button) to push all in for around 60-70,000.
With the crowd swarming in in anticipation of the tournament's biggest pot so far, Moreira rose from his seat and began shaking his head. In the meantime, Johnny Lodden left his seat on the neighbouring table and began guessing the holdings of the two players. "I reckon he's got A-J," he whispered. "It's easy."
A moment later, and Moreira released his hand, indeed showing face-up. "You've folded," asked Petterson requiring confirmation, before tabling for the bluff. Moreira applauded his opponent.
After the hand, Thomas Kremser, who had overheard Lodden's commentary, pulled out a red card from his pocket and jokingly showed it to Lodden. "What," laughed Lodden, "I normally get a warning first."