Fintan Gavin pushed all-in for his shrapnel on a and Scott Palmer made a tentative call with only to find he was ahead of Gavin's . The turn and river changed nothing and the Irishman, who was runner-up in Barcelona to Sebastian Ruthenberg, is now out.
After paying of a 200,000 chip bet on the river of an board to Per Ummer who showed , Jamie Brown got into a raising war with the bleached blonde-haired man once again.
Ummer made it 40,000, Brown made it 100,000 to which Ummer shoved and Brown called. Again, Brown had the worst of it with to Ummer's .
The board came and Jamie Brown, who at one point was the chip leader today, is now out.
Rumit Somaiya (who the Pokernews team must thank for an excellent Indian restaurant recommendation) made it 37,000 from the button and John Juanda moved all-in for about 240,000 more.
Somaiya admitted he didn't have much but decided to gamble with his against Juanda's .
The gamble didn't pay off though as the board came and Juanda is back up to almost 600,000.
Tom Marchese was one of the late returners from dinner, arriving midway through this hand when he would have been in the small blind.
As such, Thomas Bichon raised to 35,000 from the button, and lone blind Keven Stammen called to see a flop.
It came , and Stammen check-called a bet of 45,000. The turn was a blank , and Bichon fired again, 110,000 this time. Things changed now, though, as Stammen check-raised all in for 456,000 total. Cue a long spell in the tank for Bichon.
After several minutes of agonizing with the decision, he asked, "You have something like ace-ten of spades?"
"Nope," Stammen said with a half-smirk.
"Will you show if I pass?"
"Sure," still smirking. "I've been showing everything today."
Eventually, Bichon did pass, and Stammen opened up his , good enough to take down that big pot. He's up to 735,000 now, back above average.
The players are back in their seats -- well, 29 of them are, anyways. We still have eight unattended chip stacks, but the cards have gone back in the air. We understand we'll be playing two more levels or down to 24 players, whichever comes first.
We're heading off on our 90 minute dinner break now. We're actually not sure whether we're going to play one level or two when we return (it depends on whether the seven minutes of a level we started the day with counts as a level) but either way, we'll be back at 9.20pm.
The last former EPT champion is out, Salvatore Bonavena has been eliminated after pushing with and running into of Keven Stammen, the board sealing his fate.