Earlier we reported on a hand between Team Pokerstars Pro Max Lykov and an opponent where neither player looked at each other once throughout the entire hand. People are different and we all have different styles. Take this hand for example over at Table 3.
A player opened from early position to 400 and two people called behind including Roberto Romanello. Mike Binger was in the big blind and also made the call. The flop was and the original raiser made the continuation bet, making it 750 to play. The action folded around to Binger in the big blind and he made the call. The turn was the and the original raiser fired a second barrel making it 2,750. Binger went into the tank and stared straight into the raiser. The raiser stared straight back into BInger. For a long time the two of them refused to break their connection until the player in seat 1 indicated to the Dealer that he should hurry them up.
"Give them more time, it has not been that long." Said Romanello.
Not long after Binger, not even breaking off his stare, called the bet.
The river was and both players, still staring into each other, checked.
The original raiser showed and Binger quietly mucked his hand.
We saw Team PokerStars Pro Matthias de Meulder make it through the day yesterday, but woefully his identical twin brother Christophe doesn't seem to be playing this event.
Similarly we have been denied a second shot at seeing identical twins at the final table - Daniel Zink is here, but sadly his identical twin brother Sebastian is not. Still, Daniel seems to be doing well enough for the both of them - he's just knocked out a relative short stack who got his last 13,000 or so in with while Zink found . The board ran out a completely harmless (although the dealer insisted on dramatically hovering the river card over the felt before he turned it over) and Zink is up to almost 40,000.
Never has a title been so apt because Team PokerStars Pro, Liv Boeree, the poker player with a degree in Astrophysics, has just run into rockets.
The player seated in early position raised to 450, which was small enough to see four other players, including Max Lykov call. Seated on the button, Boeree raised it up to 2,100, only to see the initial preflop raiser move all in for a total of 16,800 chips.
This monster sized raise folded everyone out but sent Boeree into the tank. When she emerged from her deep thought, she wanted some answers to her questions.
"Why such a big shove?" was the first question poised to her statuesque opponent, he replied something along the lines of he did not think she had a hand that. Another minute or so passed and Boeree tossed in a pile of chips, more than enough to make the call.
Boeree:
Mr Overbet Shove:
The was no help at all to the EPT San Remo winner and when the peeled off on the turn she was drawing dead. The inconsequential fell on the river, knocking Miss Boeree back down to 21,200
Dario Minieri is still hanging in ther ethough he now only have ten big blinds to his name after he raised first in from middle position to 450, the player directly to his left called and both players saw a flop. Minieri bet 1,000 but as soon as the chip hit the felt, his opponent raised to 6,000 and the diminutive Italian released his hand, leaving him with 2,250 chips.
We are just waiting for confirmation but it looks as if EPT founder, John Duthie has been eliminated. Whilst visiting his table to see how he was doing, I was surprised to find Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth sitting there, counting out his 14,200 chips!
Elsewhere, "Elky" has been busy building his stack up to the dizzy heights of 60,000 chips
While we here wonder at the logistics of around 500 (mostly male) poker players all trying to use the bathroom at once, you at home have 15 minutes to go make a cup of tea or whatever it is you do when we're not bringing you live updates.
Team PokerStars Pro, Dario Minieri has been on life support from an early stage in this tournament but has just bought himself a little more time after cracking kings to double up.
Finding himself with around seven big blinds, he moved all-in under the gun and picked up the 450 blinds.
The very next hand a player in late position limped in, the cutoff also limped and the small blind completed. Minieri then looked at his cards and instantly moved all in, with only the cutoff coming along for the ride.
Minieri:
Cutoff:
The flop was no real help to Minieri, though he did pick up some outs to a gutshot straight draw. However, they were not needed as the breautiful, for him anyway, peeled off on the turn to flip this hand right on its head. The on the river completed the hand and saw Minieri double to 3,850, which will be just short of ten big blinds when the players return from a break.
Here is some action from table 20 where we have Team Pokerstars Pro Max Lykov doing battle.
There were two limpers up front before the cut off made it 500 to play. The button called the raise before Lykov squeezed from the small blind making it 2,275 to play. The limpers and original raiser folded but the button called making it a two man flop.
The flop was and Lykov bet 2,750 and after a long pause the button made the call. Both players stared intently at the flop never once averted their gaze to each other.
The turn was and Lykov checked and again the button took a long time to deliberate his decision before betting 3,8000 and this time Lykov took a pause before making the call. The river was the and both players checked. Lykov showed for to pair and his opponent mucked his hand.
We arrived tableside to find the board reading and the gentleman in the big blind betting out 8,000 into the already hefty pot. Johnny Lodden in mid position gave it some thought and then made the call.
The dealer dropped the on the felt by way of a river, and this time the big blind bet out 12,000. Lodden paused briefly again before making the call - and was rewarded by his opponent turning over for a flopped flush draw and a turned gutshot draw that never came in. Perhaps it says something about Mr. Lodden's reputation that the look on his opponent's face suggested that he thought there was a chance he could be ahead - but Lodden revealed for just a pair of eights and a very good call.