We don't really have any access to the featured table, seeing as it's pretty well surrounded by the army of production personnel. Fortunately for us, we've got a fly on the wall in there in the form of the lovable EPT commentator James Hartigan.
Thanks to James, we can tell you that Mario Adinolfi was responsible for the elimination of Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero, and he has since crippled Tobias' Reinkenmaier's stack as well. Just a few moments ago, Adinolfi sent Tim Marsters to the exit when the Italian's queen-ten bested Marsters' ace-queen.
We'll do our best to provide updates on Adinolfi this evening, but for now, all you need to know is that he's the big stack in the room with 525,000.
Our biggest thanks to Mr. Hartigan for the intel; the espresso must be flowing here in Barca.
Alexander Dovzhenko, second in the only ever EPT Kiev, came back today with 31,700 but had just 2,600 when he moved all-in. Jack Ellwood started the hand with an early position raise to 4,000 but he failed to see a flop as Kamal Kumar Choraria isolated with a raise re-raise to 14,000.
Ran Azor limped in from middle position before Mickey Petersen attacked with a raise to 6,000 from the hijack seat. Sam Chartier, 2008's seventh-place finisher in this EPT Barcelona event, raised all in from the cutoff seat for 16,100. Action folded back to Azor and he folded before Petersen called.
Petersen:
Chartier:
The board ran out to give Petersen a straight and earn him the elimination of Chartier.
Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck has been eliminated from the feature table by the very active Mario Adinolfi.
According to our source (James Hartigan), the Italian is involved in 80-90% of the pots. This is probably what caused him to drop 100,00 chips. He's back up to 465,000 though when his ace-three got there against Wahlbeck's pocket nines to eliminate the Finn.
We only saw one action during this hand, a fold, but it was noteworthy enough to tell you about it.
When we walked up to the table, there was a flop out on board, and the pot was heads up. There was about 65,000 piled in the middle of the table already, and Jefri Islam had 20,500 chips out in front of his betting line. In position, Guillaume Darcout had responded by shoving two tall stacks of yellow chips forward, his 200,000 enough to cover Islam.
It was a few long minutes of agonizing tank time for Islam, and he eventually decided to cut his losses and surrender. "Bad fold?" he asked almost immediately.
"I don't know what you had," Darcourt said. "I could have jack-ten..."
He's not telling what he had, so we'll just tell you how many chips he has -- 480,000 of them, good for the chip lead by a few thousand.
We walked up to another shove, joining a heads-up pot between Marvin Rettenmaier and Javier Cacho. The flop was already out on board, and there was a bet of 32,600 chips out in front of Rettenmaier's stack. Cacho had shoved for about 106,100 total, and Rettenmaier spent a long while considering before quietly announcing the call.
Showdown
Rettenmaier:
Cacho:
Cacho needed the hearts or some kind of runner-runner combination to come in to stay alive, but he'd end up bricking out. The turn and river were essentially blanks, and Rettemaier's full house earns him the big pot. When the chips were counted down, the German had 113,500, just enough to cover his opponent, and Cacho has been sent off here near the end of the level.