It took exactly seven levels of poker to whittle today's starting field of 133 down to the final 24, but we managed to get there on the last hand of the night. The action was intense, multilingual, and somewhat smelly as chips were flying around the felt right from the word "go".
It was during the second level of the day that the bubble burst, guaranteeing 104 players a payday upon their exit. A full 70 of them would cash in their stacks today, though nobody's ever really happy to receive that check. Still, they had to be happy to fare better than Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth and Tristan Clemencon who, among others, made it to today but exited pre-bubble.
When the bags were brought out, Teodor Caraba almost needed to ask for an extra. Courtesy of a few late pots, Caraba amassed a mountain of chips totaling well over 3 million, and that'll be easily good enough to put him atop the pack come Day 4. Other notables still in the mix include Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Peter Eastgate, as well as Mike "Timex" McDonald and Craig Bergeron.
The penultimate day kicks off at high noon local time on Saturday, and we'll be right here to give you all of the action as it unfolds.
Our intentions today were to play down to 24 players or until the end of this current level, whichever came first. As it turns out, the two events arrived at precisely the same time as our 25th player was eliminated on the final hand of the night.
The preflop action isn't 100% clear thanks to the great crowd of spectators and media who had packed themselves around the perimeter of the table. What we do know is that Stefan Fuchs ended up all in with in multi-way preflop raising action. Hugo Lemaire was the man who put Fuchs to the test, and with good reason; he tabled , and Fuchs had one foot out the door as the staff paused the clock to signal the end of the night regardless of the outcome.
As odds would have it, the aces would hold on a board of . Queens are no good here, and Stefan Fuchs becomes the final casualty of Day 2.
Mike McDonald raised to 45,000, and Shane Schleger ended their evening of friendly banter by moving his short stack all in for another 352,000. Peter Eastgate thought for a few seconds before calling.
McDonald didn't think at all before almost whispering, "All in."
"I call." No time needed for Eastgate. Whoa. Game changer here. Or not.
Showdown
Schleger:
McDonald:
Eastgate:
Board:
Schleger shook hands with the table and made a disappointed exit while McDonald and Eastgate chopped his money.
We caught up with the action on a flop of . After a series of bets and raises, Craig Bergeron ended up all in against former chip leader Andras Nemeth. It was another good sweat; Bergeron showed up for the set, and he was looking to fade the draw of Nemeth's .
The on the turn was a safe card for the all-in Bergeron, and he would also appreciate the blank on the river. Bergeron was all in for just about 650,000 total, so he'll double his way well over 1 million, back up there for the first time in a couple hours.
Ladies and gents, this long, long day is about to come to a close - and just in time, as the card room temperature feels like it's topped 120 degrees now. Please stand by for the last-minute action...
"Didn't I tell you you do it again I call?" Fratty asked him. He had - we witnessed it just minutes before. "Tell me to call."
"Call," said Calia.
"Ok," agreed Fratty.
He folded, to much laughter.
To Fratty's immediate left, Dragan Jovanovic seemed interested. "You give me a cigarette, I call," he ventured - but no smokes were forthcoming and he folded too. Indeed it passed all the way around, and Calia is still in and still short for the moment.
Under the gun, Nicolas Levi squeezed out and moved all in for about 150,000 or so. Action folded all the way around to Mike McDonald's big blind, and he would find something better than queen-high. "Call," he said flatly, showing up .
The flop was a swing and a miss for the at-risk Levi as it came out . We need some drama here; what would be a good sweat card? How about the ? Bink. The turn card gave the Frenchman a myriad of outs to try and rally for a double. The river was a rather ugly , though, and that's not going to help anybody. Unable to improve, the start-of-day chip leader has been shown the exit in the waning minutes of Day 3.
We arrived just at the tail end of the hand so the action is a little hazy, but we are assuming that Andras Nemeth raised and then went over the top of a reraise from Teodor Caraba, who called all in. The hand kind of makes sense that way. Kind of.
Caraba:
Nemeth: that classic preflop monster
Board:
Former chip daddy Nemeth is down to around 1.25 million; Caraba meanwhile enjoys a full double up to 1.7 million.
Samuel Touil raised to 35,000, and Mike "Timex" McDonald defended his big blind.
Flop:
McDonald checked, and Touil bet a tiny 33,000. Timex managed to communicate in a very articulate sigh that he was unhappy to waste the chips but simply had to call such a small bet.
Turn:
Ok, I'll bluff at it, feigned McDonald, sticking 95,000 into the pot. "All in," said Touil quickly, risking about another 100k. Not a tough decision for Timex. He tabled for the stone cold nuts. His poor opponent could only show down . And that, kids, is how it's done.