This time it was James Akenhead's turn to lose to a mighty hand, after his hard-thought-out turn shove failed to dislodge a straight...
There was a 7,800 bet on a turn which started the fur flying. Akenhead sat very still for a long time looking at the 7,800 at him to call (he was in position) and finally announced, "All in."
He was greeted with a response he clearly wasn't thrilled with: his opponent shrug-wince-called instantly with his for the turned straight, paired board or no paired board. Akenhead could only show down which fell more dramatically behind on the river.
Akenhead, with under 3,000 remaining, was out soon afterwards.
Konstantin Puchkov, who reached the final table at EPT Barcelona, has a couple of pots to see him slide down the leaderboard.
In the latest hand the player under the gun limped, Puchkov limped behind as did Francisco Torres in the small blind. The big blind was not liking this limping malarky and made it 3,800 to play, a bet that only Puchkov called.
Flop: - The big blind continued his aggression and made it 6,000 to play but Puchkov was going nowhere and quickly made the call.
Turn: - The jack of hearts on the turn saw the big blind check-call Puchkov's bet of 8,000
River: - Both players checked what appeared to be a relative blank.
WSOP bracelet winner Puchkov turned over but he was beaten by the big blind's , leaving him with 47,200
Peter Hedlund had his coat on and was singing when we arrived on the turn of the board. He was all in already for a very small main pot; the side pot, however, was massive and David Sonelin was betting big - big enough to eventually push his opponent off the hand. Sonelin turned over a modest and Hedlund briefly got terribly excited when he found that his was live. The on the river did not comprise one of his outs, though, and Hedlund hit the rail after several hours of counting his stack in multiples of antes rather than blinds.
Hedlund's 5% is looking pretty good, though - Sonelin has extended his chip lead to 190,000.
Dag Palovic, newly platinum-blond (with of course the red PokerStars logo sprayed on the back of his head) has been eliminated, but took his exit with a smile even though it did involve a fairly frosty deck.
Palovic initially flat called a raise to 2,000, then found the small blind (with under 30k himself) moving all in. The initial raiser folded, but Palovic instantly committed the rest of his chips - turning over . The small blind, however, had picked up and all Palovic's sneaky flat-calling had done was make it more painful for him to be 'squeezed' by Aces.
We found Simeon Naydenov and Jeffrey Hakim involved in one of those very tense hands which are mostly characterized by a lot of tanking, very little actual action, and absolute silence.
Mercifully we only really got interested on the river, the board reading , when Naydenov checked. Hakim bet 6,000 but Naydenov snap-called, turning over . Hakim mucked and dropped to 41,000' Naydenov moved up to 48,000.
Roberto Romanello has just lost a large pot on the flop but may have gained some information from his silent opponent.
I joined the hand just as the flop was about to be dealt, with 26,000 chips already in the middle of the felt. Romanello asked for a count of his opponent's remaining chips, 29,850 was the answer.
"Let's play a big pot," said the talkative Welshman as the dealer put out the flop.
Rather quickly, the under the gun player moved all in for 29,850 sending Romanello into the tank and by tank I really mean into questioning mode.
"You have a big pair but which one?"
"Do I give you respect or not?"
"Will you show if I pass?"
"Do you have ace-king?"
With that last question Romanello mucked his hand and is now down to a not-too-shabby 138,000
The board read and there was over 30,000 in the pot when we arrived. It looked as though the chap in the hijack had checked; either way there was a bet/raise of 13,575 in front of Melanie Weisner in the cutoff. Eventually her opponent called.
At this point tablemate Ran Azor got up from his seat and told us, and several other railers - in fact, anyone who would listen - that he had folded pocket tens in the big blind. We thus discovered that the hijack had raised and Weisner reraised preflop, pushing Azor off there. "F***," he said, with feeling.
The river was the and the hijack checked again. Weisner now bet 20,800, leaving herself just 12,000 behind. The hijack tanked long into the break, but eventually folded. Weisner showed him .
We are now enjoying our final 15 minute break of Day 1b. A color-up is removing the 25 chips from play and quite a few stacks will cast shorter shadows at the end of it.
Most poker players go into a tournament planning to win the thing outright but it looks like Sweden's Kristoffer Thorsson has taken the planning stage that one step further.
Under Thorsson's seat is a book entitled The Intelligent Investor so maybe he is looking for new ways to spend his money and his potential prize here.
Thorsson has won $1,253,239 from live tournaments in his career, helped by his win at the 2009 Amsterdam Master Classics, worth €636,120 ($944,948)
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
turn which started the fur flying. Akenhead sat very still for a long time looking at the 7,800 at him to call (he was in position) and finally announced, "All in."
for the turned straight, paired board or no paired board. Akenhead could only show down 
which fell more dramatically behind on the 
river.
- The big blind continued his aggression and made it 6,000 to play but Puchkov was going nowhere and quickly made the call.
- The jack of hearts on the turn saw the big blind check-call Puchkov's bet of 8,000
- Both players checked what appeared to be a relative blank.
but he was beaten by the big blind's 
board. He was all in already for a very small main pot; the side pot, however, was massive and David Sonelin was betting big - big enough to eventually push his opponent off the hand. Sonelin turned over a modest 
and Hedlund briefly got terribly excited when he found that his 
. The small blind, however, had picked up 
and all Palovic's sneaky flat-calling had done was make it more painful for him to be 'squeezed' by Aces.
flop.
and there was over 30,000 in the pot when we arrived. It looked as though the chap in the hijack had checked; either way there was a bet/raise of 13,575 in front of Melanie Weisner in the cutoff. Eventually her opponent called.