Tournament poker can be so cruel. The shortstack grinders for hours today aren't guaranteed to win when they finally get a good hand on its back, and the most experienced players sometimes fail to manoeuvre into Day 2. James Akenhead is no more, and the numbers are dropping increasingly rapidly while the six-figure stacks start to crop up on every table.
Cruel fate can also reward a last-ditch gamble or misinterpretation of strength, but Ilan Boujenah is probably just relieved that he's going to make Day 2 with over 70k. Boujenah just wouldn't let go when Janos Toth started to put pressure on preflop. When Toth four-bet him (15,000) he moved all in for around 40,000 and was snapped by Toth with . The came on the flop along with and the straight possibility brought by the turn didn't materialise on the river.
With barely even a facial twitch, Toth handed over all but 2,000 of his stack and will need serious luck to remain in this competition.
Andreas Wiese opened to 2,500 and got one caller in middle position to see an flop.
Wiese led for 4,000 and his opponent made it 9,000. Wiese set the latter all-in and was snap-called by the other player's . For his part, Wiese turned over and needed running cards to win.
The turn was the and the river changed nothing.
Wiese's foe made several massive fist pumps and jumped out of his chair, even going so far as to call his wife.
"We get it," laughed Fatima Moreira de Melo, "you're excited."
James Akenhead minraised to 2,000 from the button before Alain Roy made it 5,800 in the big blind. Akenhead pushed for about 25,000 with and Roy called with - the latter winning the flip to knock out the former WSOP Main event finalist.
Hugo Lemaire pushed all-in for 22,875 over the top of Tobias Renkemeier's 2,000 raise in the last hand of the level. The German tanked well into the break asking several questions such as:
"Where are you from?" ("Italy!" joked Lemaire when in fact he is French)
"Do you have jacks? Because I can't beat jacks."
"Would you do this with eights?"
Finally Renkemeier decided to go with it and made the call with flipping against Lemaire's , the board coming and the Frenchman doubling to 45,000.
We joined a preflop raising war between Claus Nielsen and Thorsten Schafer to find 11,800 in front of Nielsen and 39,400 in front of Schafer - enough to set Nielsen in. Eventually he called, and there was some giggling between them as Schafer cried, "See? I only have queens!" It was good-natured, but the smile did fade a little from Nielsen's face as he realised the seriousness of his situation.
Schafer:
Nielsen:
Board:
Nielsen couldn't find a knave to save his tournament life, and headed for the door. Schafer meanwhile is up to 105,000 - twice the average right now.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. The 
came on the flop along with 
and the straight possibility brought by the 
turn didn't materialise on the 
river.
flop.
. For his part, Wiese turned over 
and needed running cards to win.
and the river 
changed nothing.
- the latter winning the flip to knock out the former WSOP Main event finalist.
flipping against Lemaire's 
and the Frenchman doubling to 45,000.
