Seeing three limpers ahead of him, George Danzer raised to 1,200 from the cutoff. He was called by the player in the small blind, Hermann Pascha under the gun, and the player in the hijack.
The flop came down and the first to bet was the player in the hijack seat, making it 1,500. Danzer popped it to 6,000 and the lone caller was in fact the player in the hijack seat. The turn brought a check-call from the hijack seat, 7,000 to be exact.
When the river fell, the hijack seat player bet 10,000, about what the Team PokerStars German Pro had left. Danzer gave it up, saying he folded a high pair.
Mr. Hermann Pascha is not the shy retiring type. He made his presence known even before the tournament had started, shouting random things at high volume that we woefully (or fortunately, who knows?) could not understand.
But we really took notice of him when Ramzi Jelassi was spotted leaving the room, while Mr. Pascha took possession of his chips. Jelassi looked like he was going to cry so tablemate George Danzer filled us in.
It seems that Pascha had raised to 600 and Jelassi had made it 1,600. Pascha called and they saw an flop with two clubs on it, one of them the ace. Ramzi bet out 2,700 and Pascha called, and they saw a turn. This time Jelassi check-called 2,300 from Pascha.
Come the blank on the river, Jelassi checked again and then called all in for his last 12,000. Pascha turned over two clubs, one of them the king, for the nuts. Jelassi mucked, although later he told us that, "He's insane, and I had top pair." He'd been at that table just three hands when he smacked into Pascha.
Jelassi is not the only one at the table who's been having a rough time at the hands of the exuberant Austrian. The Duc Ngo is also down to 14,000, and George Danzer has been reduced to 11,000. Everyone at the table who is not Mr. Pascha looks extremely disgruntled.
Mr. Pascha is up to 90,000 and is clear chip leader by a country mile.
It looks like Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is in for a nice long week of relaxing snowboarding - he's busto in level 2.
He bet out 1,550 on a flop and Gabriele Lepore called to see the turn. ElkY bet out another 3,300 and this time Lepore made it 9,000. ElkY went all in, Lepore called, and they were on their backs.
Evgeniy Zaytsev and Luca Cainelli, both of whom made the last two tables at EPT Berlin, are seated next to each other today. Although at Berlin Cainelli placed higher (11th place) than Zaytsev (13th), Zaytsev has position today and has so far had the upper hand.
Just now we witnessed Cainelli raising to 1,200 in the cutoff only for Zaytsev to make it 2,850 from the button. Cainelli called and they saw a flop. Cainelli checked, and then swiftly laid it down to a 2,050 bet from Zaytsev, looking rather flustered.
Yesterday afternoon, EPT founder and all-around swell chap John Duthie took a few minutes to chat with Gloria Balding. They talk a bit about how this EPT Snowfest came into being, and Duthie also discusses the best way to spend the morning before sitting down to play a poker tournament. Check it out:
Roberto Romanello raised to 350 in early position, only for another player to make it 1,000 to go from mid position. It folded back around to Romanello, who called.
They saw a flop, which Romanello checked. His opponent bet a cool 5,000 - over twice the pot, and over a quarter of his remaining stack. Back to Romanello, and after a pause and a rather theatrical sigh, he raised to 27,000 to cover. His opponent called all in for his last 13,500, and they flipped the cards.
Mr. Opponent: for an overpair
Romanello: for a flush
Turn:
River:
Once the newly-busted unfortunate had got up and collected his things, Romanello quietly thanked the giggling dealer. Must be nice.
We arrived just in time to see Hanh Tran knocking out another player on a ten-high board. Whatever the unfortunate bustee was holding, it wasn't good enough to beat Tran's set of tens.
Tran is up to 60,000 now and in all likelihood chip leader.