With the action folded around to the blinds, David Jaoui limped in from the small, and Alex Fitzgerald slowly tapped the table from the big.
The flop came out , and Jaoui led out with a bet of 3,600. Fitzgerald quickly flicked in an oversized calling chip, and the turn card brought the . Both men checked the action before the hit the river. Jaoui took control again with another bet, 6,500 this time. Fitzgerald paused for just a quick beat before once again calling.
Jaoui was reluctant to turn his cards over, eventually showing an airball . Fitzgerald tabled , his ace-high good enough to add a few chips to his stack.
Shortly after that hand, Oleksander Vaserfirer opened with a raise to 6,600 from the cutoff, then Fitzgerald reraised to 17,500 from the small blind. It folded back to Vaserfirer who reraised again to 40,500. Fitzgerald thought a moment, then announced he was all in. The dealer counted out his chips -- 131,600 total.
Vaserfirer thought for two minutes, then finally folded. "Queens? Ace-king?" asked Fitzgerald's tablemates. He just smiled.
Fitzgerald is up to 180,000, while Vaserfirer now sits with about 135,000.
With the pot already about 50,000 and a flop showing , Michael Naletov (under the gun) checked, Vyacheslav Rotach (button) bet 30,000, and Naletov called. The turn brought the . Both players checked.
The river came the . Naletov took about two minutes to think about it, then patted the felt to check. Rotach did not hesitate at all, grabbing a tall stack of yellow chips and pushing out a bet of 100,000. The bet would nearly put Naletov all in. He thought a bit further, then folded.
Naletov sits at about 115,000 at present, while Rotach has moved up to 322,000.
Alexander Grischuk opened by pushing all in for his last 45,000, and the table folded around to David Jaoui. Jaoui had yet to act when Kirill Boydachenko, sitting in between Jaoui and Grischuk, announced he was calling and exposed his hand -- .
The floor was called over, and first Jaoui was allowed to act. He folded. Then Grischuk showed his hand, tabling . The board came , and Grischuk doubled to 92,000.
It was then explained to Boydachenko that he would be serving a one-round penalty, and must sit out the next eight hands for having exposed his hand with action pending. He'll lose some blinds and antes during that round, but will return to a still-healthy stack of 295,000.
Lika Gerasimova opened the pot with a raise, and she was re-raised all in by an opponent further down the line. She committed the rest of her chips to the pot with pocket sevens, only to see she'd run smack into pocket eights.
A board full of blanks spelled the end of her day, and the end of boyfriend Ivan Demidov's day on the rail as well.
We pick up the action on the turn in a heads-up pot as the board read . First to speak was Sergey Antonenko, and he put out a bet of 15,000. Nikita Lebedov was his lone opponent, and he took his time before making the call.
The last card off the deck was the , and Antonenko fired a small bet of 8,000 into a pot of more than 50,000. After some time in the tank, Lebedov announced a healthy raise to 55,000. Antonenko immediately grabbed calling chips out of his stack, but it would be another two or three minutes before he finally mustered the strength to put them into the pot. When he did so, Lebedov tabled for the stone-cold nuts.
After that win, he is all the way up to 255,000, while Antonenko has slipped all the way down to about 65,000.
The High Rollers event -- a €20,000 + €500 no-limit hold'em tournament -- is just getting started over on the other side of the Sport Arena. Looks like we have just three players battling it out in that one: Shaun Deeb, Andrew Feldman, and Nikolay Evdakov.
We'll keep an eye on how that event goes and let you know who comes out on top.