Strolling by Paul Berende's (pronounced "beer-in-duh", for non-Dutchies) table, we found him to be already in possession of a suspiciously large stack. And indeed, within seconds we were witnessing a little chunk of Berende run-good to put him up to over 50,000.
We caught it on the flop, and we believe that Berende in the big blind position had called a raise from his early position opponent preflop. Said flop came down and Berende checked, then called 450 from his opponent. They both checked the turn, but Berende bet out 2,150 on the river. His opponent called, but raised an eyebrow and mucked when Berende turned over for trips.
Italian Matteo Taddia has just boosted his stack to around the 47,000 chip mark after he represented a monster hand preflop and the rest of his table believed him.
Nicolas Chouity started the betting from early position with a raise to 350, Jani Sointula flat called but the player in Seat 9 three-bet to 1,150. Max Lykov, on the button, asked how many chips the three-better had before opting to simply call.
Next to act, Taddia put in a further raise to 4,700, enough to fold out everyone who had previously invested chips in the pot!
So Dag Palovic had a prop bet with Team PokerStars Pro Martin Hruby. They played 75 heads-up matches, and Hruby won 38 to 37 - as close as you can get. Palovic's forfeit was to have his hair shaved, bleached, and decorated with the PokerStars logo. Owing to the time-consuming nature of hair bleaching (why do you think ElkY's always late for tournaments?), this will be taking place over the next few hours.
Martin Hruby, wearing an inexplicable inflatable Rastafarian hat-type apparatus, comes over to laugh at his victim.
The hairdresser has now followed Palovic back to his table where he looks like a very curious sort of masseur. We understand that the addition of the PokerStars logo to the haircut will take place during the next break.
Stephen Devlin is busto after being teased with preflop Aces, only to be set upon by Max Lykov with his pocket sevens. The preflop betting was finished by Lykov making what was described by a PokerNews informant as 'a large shove,' called by Devlin. A seven on the river sent him packing.
Leading those remaining in is Giuseppe Pantaleo now, with a 77,000 stack towering over his table.
What started of as a hand with plenty of potential after Melanie Weisner opened from under the gun to 625 and received two callers from the blinds, quickly turned into a rather pointless exercise!
All three players checked the flop, then the turn and finally the river. Weisner turned over , which was enough to scoop the pot.
See not all of live poker tournament reporting is watching kings run into aces on the bubble for a 34,000,000 pot! Rock and roll!