Guillermo Garcia Gomez de Barreda opened the pot to 2,100, and Andre Akkari flatted in position. That brought the action around to Matt Waxman, and he squeezed his last 18,000 or so into the middle with . That folded the initial raiser, but Akkari took just a minute to consider before dropping the call into the pot, turning over pocket threes. Race!
The board was a big, blank desert for Waxman, and his failure to improve the overcards means his EPT Barcelona Main Event is history. He's still loitering around here though, flipping through his iPhone and waiting for the 4:00 PM side event to get here.
Koen De Visscher opened with a raise to 2,300 from under the gun and Martin Schleich called from middle position. Everyone else folded and the flop came down . De Visscher fired 3,800 and Schleich raised to 9,400. De Visscher made the call and the turn brought the . De Visscher checked and Schleich bet 20,500. De Visscher mucked and was left with 90,000. Schleich improved to 198,000 in chips.
We didn't see much of this pot, only walking up when the drama was already over, really. The board showed , though, and there was already about 70,000 in the pot when the betting action exploded. Vinogrodskij got himself all in for another 98,300, and Gustavo Kein was right there with the matching amount to put an enormous pot up for grabs. We could see Vinogrodskij's laying face-up on the table as the winning hand, and the floorman was laboriously counting out the big double up. If our Spanish is any good, it sounds like Kein flopped top set with pocket nines, but that cooler has robbed him of nearly everything.
Vinogrodskij is now in a challenge for the chip lead, sitting pretty with about 270,000 now.
From under the gun, Todd Charles Jatras raised to 2,500 to start things off. Action didn't go much further before getting kicked up even more as Ivan Starostin reraised from the next seat to 6,400. Sam El Sayed was in the next seat and flatted before play folded all the way back around to Jatras. He called as well and the three playrs went to the flop.
The flop came down and everyone checked to see the land on the turn. Again, everyone checked. The river then double paired the board with the . Again, everyone checked and it didn't seem like anyone wanted to win the pot. When the hands were tabled, here's what we saw.
Jatras:
Starostin:
El Sayed:
As you can see, all three players held an ace and that went along with the two pair on board. They chopped up the pot three ways and wound up profiting just a third of the blinds and antes each.
A total of 28 players busted in the first 30 minutes of play today. Those we have loved:
Markus Lehmann
Sergey Shchiptsov
Alex Balaguer
Lukas Bjorn Berglund
Peter Verbeek
Andre Fiedler
Nicholas Newport
Asgar Dharamshi
Laurence Houghton
Vitaly Lunkin
Almira Skripchenko
Arnaud Mattern
Anatolii Ozhenilok
Matt Waxman
Lothar Meier
Nicolo Calia
Victorio Alexandru Piturca
Richard Schaapsmeerders
Fabio Lanzafame
Jose Manuel Rebolloso Salvador
Wolfgang Haag
Mihai Manole
Kewin Lambert
Robin Lindqvist
Miahi Cristian Zaharia
Francesco Brambilla
Juan Maceiras Barros
We've just confirmed the schedule with the floor staff, and we find it favorable.
We'll be playing six levels today with a 15-minute break between each. All except Level 4, that is, which will be followed by an extended 30-minute "snack break". A level, a break, and one more level after that, the bags will be out on the tables at the end of the night -- right about 9:30 PM local time.
Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern just popped by the press area to fill us in on his unfortunate demise.
He raised to 2,500 from under-the-gun before Anatolii Ozhenilok three-bet to 5,300 from two seats along. Mario Adinolfi was one more seat along and he flat called. The action was folded back to Mattern who waited 30 seconds before moving all-in for 21,400. In turn the two players behind him both moved all in as well to create a big showdown.
Mattern:
Ozhenilok:
Adinolfi:
The Italian was behind to both players but he had a live ace and it found a friend on the board to scoop the lot and eliminate both opponents.
Filippo Candio just sent a player to the rail, Victorio Alexandru Piturca. The money went in preflop and Candio's queens held against Piturca's tens as the board ran out .
With around 7,000 chips in the middle on the flop of , Joseph Cheong, Dmitry Gromov and Jeremie Corcia were in action and Cheong was up first. He checked and Gromov fired 3,100. Corcia raised to 6,700 and that knocked Cheong out of the way. Gromov came back with a reraise to 10,100 and Corcia called.
The turn brought the and Gromov bet 30,000, which had Corcia covered by just a little bit. After a minute or so in the tank, Corcia folded and Gromov moved to 173,000 in chips.
Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano is up to nearly 40,000 after ace-high was good against Haykel Cherif Vidal.
He raised to 2,500 from early position and was called by the Spaniard from the small blind before the flop fell . Pagano c-bet for 3,000 and Vidal called before the two player checked through the turn and river. Pagano tabled and it was good.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. That folded the initial raiser, but Akkari took just a minute to consider before dropping the call into the pot, turning over pocket threes. Race!
. De Visscher fired 3,800 and Schleich raised to 9,400. De Visscher made the call and the turn brought the 
. De Visscher checked and Schleich bet 20,500. De Visscher mucked and was left with 90,000. Schleich improved to 198,000 in chips.
, though, and there was already about 70,000 in the pot when the betting action exploded. Vinogrodskij got himself all in for another 98,300, and Gustavo Kein was right there with the matching amount to put an enormous pot up for grabs. We could see Vinogrodskij's 
laying face-up on the table as the winning hand, and the floorman was laboriously counting out the big double up. If our Spanish is any good, it sounds like Kein flopped top set with pocket nines, but that cooler has robbed him of nearly everything.
and everyone checked to see the 
land on the turn. Again, everyone checked. The river then double paired the board with the 
. Again, everyone checked and it didn't seem like anyone wanted to win the pot. When the hands were tabled, here's what we saw.
.
, Joseph Cheong, Dmitry Gromov and Jeremie Corcia were in action and Cheong was up first. He checked and Gromov fired 3,100. Corcia raised to 6,700 and that knocked Cheong out of the way. Gromov came back with a reraise to 10,100 and Corcia called.
turn and river. Pagano tabled 
and it was good.