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.
Out of position against fluffy-hatted Roberto Romanello, Anas Tadini gave him a big decision on the turn of a board. Their heads up pot was already of a considerable size when Tadini moved all in for 26,200, drawing a crowd as Romanello’s ensuing ponder period stopped play for a short while. Finally he cut off about a third of his stack and threw it across the line.
Romanello: for the turned flush draw.
Tadini: for trips.
The river…
Tadini leapt out of his seat and a torrent of what was probably French invective followed (at low volume). He stayed around long enough to make his displeasure at this river card known, grab his jacket from the back of his chair and say a few more choice words, then headed to the rail.
Romanello now up just over 100,000.
"You're lucky he didn't throw a chair at you," remarked tablemate Paul Berende, although he was giggling a little bit as if he would have liked to see that.
There was a raise to 1,700 and a reraise to 5,000 before Salvatore Bonavena shoved for around 30,000 from the button. Both players folded, and the Italian Team PokerStars Pro is at almost 40,000.
Some loud clapping alerted us to the fact that Marc Gork was doubling up with pocket against another player's . We're not sure when the chips went in but we would hazard a guess that it was before the flop or on it.
The man who has recently had the PokerStars logo dyed into the back of his head, Dag Palovic, has just doubled up through an overly aggressive Gianni Giaroni. In the hand previous to the double up, John Eames raised to 1,300 from early position, the gentleman in the hijack flat calls him but Giaroni in the small blind makes a huge raise to 40,000, which only results in both of his opponents folding.
The very next hand, the action folds around to Palovic in the cutoff made it 1,500 to play and this time Giaroni min-raises to 3,000. When the blinds muck their hands, Palovic makes the call.
Flop: – Palovic checks but Giaroni makes it 15,000 to play, which is more than Palovic has left in his stack. After around two minutes, during which time I see Palovic's several times, he makes the call and we discover that he has the to go with the card he has been purposely revealing to me stood behind him.
Giaroni turns over and Palovic looks nervous. However, his nerves are calmed when the turn and river come out the and respectively and he doubles up to 31,000, whilst Giaroni slips to around 28,500.
Play seems to be a little slower than you would usually expect at this stage of the tournament, possibly because the players have stuffed themselves with the local delicacies in their dinner break.
Over on Roberto Romanello's table there was a four way limped pot involving Romanello in the big blind, Jonas Klaussen in the small blind, along with the player under the gun and the button.
All four checked down a board reading with the under the gun limper winning the pot with .
At the opposite end of the room, I witnessed the action fold around to the small blind who instantly moved all in for 48,000 chips! The big blind folded and was shown . Well played my friend, well played.
Chaz Chattha has doubled up with against Mercedes Osti's . The board ran out an extremely decisive , and they virtually swapped stacks - Chattha is up to 35,000, and Osti down to 17,000.