Heinz Kamutzki opened with a raise, and Matvey Linov made a small three-bet on the button. Kamutzki then reraised him to 53,500. Linov tried again with a five-bet to 118,000. So naturally, Kamutzki responded by six-bet shoving for another 200,000. Linov tanked for long enough to attract a crowd around the table, but eventually, he folded, leaving himself 300,000.
Ali Tekintamgac is a very lucky boy to still be in this tournament, exceptionally so.
Demidov had opened preflop to 11,500 and the small blind, Oleg Makovenko made the call before Ali Tekintamgac reraised to 30,000 from the big blind. Demidov now made it 62,500 to go after some thinking before he then went back to surfing the web on his iPad.
Makovenko folded and Tekintamgac moved all-in, Demidov rechecked his cards, bemused.
"I call, I have aces," said the Russian, turning over . Tekintamgac flipped .
But the fickle poker gods decided to help Tekintamgac out and the board came and Tekintamgac picked up a 600,000 chip pot. Demidov slipped to below 300,000.
With around 30,000 in the pot, we found Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov (small blind) and Day 1 chip leader Perica Bukara (big blind) looking down at a flop. Actually, this is a lie - when we arrived, Demidov was looking at his chips, and Bukara was looking at Demidov. Eventually Demidov bet out 20,500 - but Bukara re-popped to 46,000. Demidov dwelled up for a while, and then called.
The turn was the and this time, after just a short pause, Demidov checked. Bukara thought about it for rather longer as a crowd of media and railers gathered around the table, before checking behind.
The river came down the and Demidov now tanked up for several minutes. He very slowly counted out 76,500, but didn't push it across the line. He sat very still for a while, before putting one yellow T5,000 chip back in his stack, pausing for another minute or so, and then pushing the 71,500 bet across the line. He returned his attention to his ipad, where he was perusing a Russian poker update site.
Now it was Bukara's turn to tank. He spent several minutes staring fixedly at the board, not moving. Eventually he turned to Demidov, who was at least pretending to be engrossed in his ipad. Demidov's eyes weren't moving, but after a while he clicked a link and a new page loaded. All this went on for a very long time, as Bukara continued to stare him down and Demidov continued to look at the internet.
Eventually Bukara folded and the media circle dispersed.
Katja Thater received her trophy for winning EPT Season Six's mixed games award during the break. But the large silver PokerStars star trophy sitting next to her at the table didn't exactly bring Thater luck. She moved all in under the gun, and not-so-friendly Friend of PokerStars Pierre Neuville reraised. Everyone else folded, and Thater showed down pocket queens to Neuville's big slick. Neuville flopped a flush draw, then rivered an ace to eliminate Thater shortly before the bubble. He apologized as she left but won't mind adding her chips to his growing stack.
The other Team PokerStars Pro from Team Germany who made Day 3, Michael Keiner, was eliminated just a few minutes before Thater.
Tomer Berda raised to 12,500 in the cutoff, and Vesa-Petri Juutilainen put him all in. Into the tank, Berda went. Every minute counts as the bubble approaches, and Berda carefully considered what to do with each one of his ten remaining big blinds. He started with sunglasses and headphones on, and by 10 minutes in, both had come off and his face had turned red. By 15 minutes in, the floor had come over to stand by the dealer, ready to act the instant someone called clock. A player who had gone to the bathroom and gotten a bottle of water finally returned to his seat and did the honors, asking for the clock. Berda took most of his minute before folding. Two players from other tables hit the rail during the hand, meaning we're now four from the money.
Michael Keiner pushed for 32,500 from the small blind over the top of a 12,500 raise from Oleg Makovenko. Makovenko made an automatic calling and flipped .
"This is the best hand I've seen all day," said Keiner as he turned over .
The flop of helped neither and although Makovenko made top pair on the turn, it was the meaning Keiner now had a royal flush draw which he somehow managed to miss on the river.
We're not sure how the action went, but our two heroes Mark Dalimore and Frederik Boberg were in the small and big blinds respectively, Boberg all in for his tournament life.
Dalimore:
Boberg:
Board:
No-one hit a thing and Boberg's nines stayed ahead to double him up to 205,000. Dalimore is now in some trouble with just 75,000.
Jose Obadia has just been knocked out by the Russian steamroller that is Ivan Demidov, Obadia made his move from the button and the former WSOP main event runner-up quickly calling from the small blind.
Obadia:
Demidov:
The flop of gave both straight draws but they bricked out on the turn and river, meaning Demidov's ace-high was still good enough to send Obadia to the rail.