Benny & Gone
It was a dreadful day for Benny Spindler all round, and he has now succumbed entirely. We're not sure how it happened, but GG, Benny.
It was a dreadful day for Benny Spindler all round, and he has now succumbed entirely. We're not sure how it happened, but GG, Benny.
Alex Gomes is the latest Team PokerStars Pro to be knocked out by Thomas Bichon, Goems had against the Frenchman's but the board came .
Bichon, who has had more good flips than an Olympic gymnast, now has 800,000.
2009 EPT Grand Final finalist Eric Qu found himself in an unhappy place as he went all in with and found that he was up against Mattias Lannermark's . No help from the board, and he was gone. Lannermark is up to around 350,000.
There had been a variety of raises already, when we found Joel Nordkvist pushing from the small blind. Behind him, (we think) original raiser Salvatore Bonavena re-shoved, and Alex Gomes called.
Three-way showdown!
Nordkvist: all in for around 90,000 with
Bonavena: all in for around 270,000 with
Gomes: covering them both with
Board: ...!
The ace from space landed on the river and Bonavena punched the air as he picked up the side pot to put him up to 360,000. Nordkvist tripled up to 270,000, and the luckless Gomes dropped all the way down to 140,000.
Phillippe Ktorza opened preflop to 16,000 and Joe Hachem moved all-in for 110,000. Kyle Bowker then pushed all-in behind Hachem and Ktorza made the call.
Ktorza:
Bowker:
Hachem:
"Baby clubs please?" requested Hachem and he was rewarded with a flop of . Hachem laughed as though he already knew what was coming but the turn was a and Bowker now took the lead. Ktorza was down to one out but Hachem still had a few and caught the on the river to win the main pot.
Bowker took a small side pot while Ktorza was eliminated. Hachem up to about 350,000.
A huge hand erupted between Jamie Brown and erstwhile chip leader David Vamplew. We must confess we missed that one, but our Dutch friends filled us in on what they saw. Thanks, Dutchies!
It turns out that Brown was holding pocket tens and Vamplew . There was a ten on the flop, and an ace on the river. Brown was at over 600,000 before the hand, and he's at almost 1.3 million after it - our new chip leader. Vamplew doesn't look terribly happy, but the 950,000 he's left with is still good enough for second place at the moment.
We didn't see the action, but John O'Shea was in the cutoff and Daniel Rudd on the button, so we are envisioning some sort of raise-push-call scenario.
O'Shea:
Rudd: all in with
Board:
O'Shea: "Hard luck."
Rudd, conversely: "Good luck, guys."
Kayvan Payman managed to double up through Phil Ivey, his holding against Ivey's on a board. He's up to 300,000, Ivey has about 450,000 remaining.
Fintan Gavin got in with and was up against [Removed:413]'s .
Board:
"Alright guys," said Gavin and tapped the table before standing to leave - and was held back by his tablemates who had noticed that the board made a full house, and they were chopping it. Gavin sat back down, laughing with relief, and the man who went heads up with Sebastian Ruthenberg at EPT Barcelona in 2008 stays in the game.
Fernando Brito is like a nimble but useless caddy at the moment as he's managed to avoid all the clubs thrown at him. He was all-in with on a board against Tomas Macnamara's for a straight flush draw AND overs. Macnamara was a 2:1 favourite here but somehow managed to miss on the turn and river. Brito doubles his short stack to about 300,000.