We found Daniel Negreanu checking the river of a board to Ville Mattila on the button, who bet 38,000. Negreanu tanked up for a while, wittering various things, of which the only bit we managed to catch was, "I don't think I'm folding." And indeed, he made the call - and was rewarded by an instant muck from Mattila. Negreanu showed and the pot was his.
Daniel Biro is amassing a huge stack over at table 7 where he is sat in seat 7. Sitting in seat 1 is 2009 EPT Prague final table occupier Anthony Roux and they both clashed in a very interesting hand.
Biro had made a raise from middle position to 5,000 and Roux called from the button. The flop was a hearty one and both players checked. The turn was and Biro bet 8,500 and Roux called from the button. The river was the and Biro bet 14,000 and again Roux made the call.
Just before the break we found young, incredibly popular Dutchman Riekus Wijermars betting 38,700 on the river of a board. Sergii Baranov made the call - but made various sounds which covered a whole spectrum of emotions including amusement, surprise and displeasure when Wijermars revealed for two pair.
"Ace queen?" he enquired of Baranov, but didn't get a reply. Wijermars is up to around 345,000 and in danger of going deep in this tournament - if he does, it will be the whippersnapper's first ever live cash.
Christmas has come early for Wolfgang Beyer as a pot grew around a flop. It looks like Beyer was the bettor, with Andrey Saenko and Barny Boatman the callers on the flop. The turn brought another check from Boatman, and a bet of 22k this time from Beyer. Button Saenko wasn't having any of it, and raised all in, surely thinking that even if he were called he had plenty of outs to win with his .
But no! Beyer had , called like lightning and didn't react at all to his double through to 240k.
"Nice when you get quads on the flop, right?" asked a table mate rhetorically.
"Yeah," murmured Beyer, and that's all he had to say.
The board read by the time we arrived and Surinder Sunar was betting 8,400. It was hard to see from the particular angle we were at, but we think that this constituted All In. And indeed that would make sense, as once his opponent (the awesomely names Bozo Bagaric) had called and Sunar had doubled up, his new stack was only 50,000 or so.
Riekus Wijermars, who we are beginning to suspect may be the most popular man in the Netherlands, has dropped back a little to 305,000. We caught the action on the turn of the board, with Sergii Baranov checking. WIjermars bet and Baranov called, and they were at the river.
Both players checked the river and Wijermars seemed reluctant to turn his cards over but eventually did, showing for a straight draw that never came in, and Baranov's was good enough to take the pot.
Table 10 is starting to become quite an exciting place to spend your time if you like your action. Firstly Ville Mattila doubled up through Robert Werner Zipf when his Pocket Kings crushed Zipfs Pocket Sevens. Then Team Pokerstars Pro Daniel Negreanu won a nice little pot from Szymon Pieszczoch after Negreanu's was good enough to beat Pieszczoch at showdown on a board.
Then we had one of the most significant pots of the tournament so far. Carsten Joh opened from early position to 4,700 and Jack Elwood made the call. Szymon Pieszczoch squeezed from behind making it 14,300 to play and then Stjepan Jokic called from the button. By this time Negreanu, who was in the Small Blind, had stopped eating his Tofu and vegetables and he made the four bet. We couldn't see how much it was in total but it was a large tower of yellow chips each worth 5,000. Joh and Elwood folded before Pieszczoch five-bet enough to put Jokic and Negreanu all-in. Jokic folded and Negreanu called.
Negreanu:
Pieszczoch:
The king did not come off its throne to help Pieszczoch out and Negreanu doubled up.