We were just coming into the tournament room after the break when we saw that something big was going on at table 24. And big it was. Pocket aces, pocket kings and pocket queens were all lying on the table face up with the board reading . The "all-in" button that dealers use was there as well meaning someone's tournament's life was at stake.
As it turned out the aces belonged to Mike Watson who had to give away a large portion of his chips to Salvatore Salzano, who was the one holding pocket queens. The big looser here was Fausto Cheli, who's stack wasn't big enough to cover Salzano bringing his tournament to an end.
Jonas Mackoff wasn't supposed to be playing this event. He travelled to Cannes just to rail Chris Brammer at the WSOPE final table. After Brammer busted the two of them and others went out to celebrate. The next day Mackoff realised he'd lost his passport and was unable to board a flight until it was replaced. What you going to do except travel to Saremo and play an EPT! PokerNews bumped into him this morning and suggested it might be his destiny to win here.
He was just involved in a very big hand against Joel Nordkvist that required him to make a call all in on the river. He made the right call and doubled up.
The board read and Nordkvist led for 13,000 on the turn and Mackoff's remaining 35,125 on the river. Mackoff took a long time before calling with . Nordkvist quickly mucked.
Emil Patel just five-bet all in against Shkoyan Tolik. Patel held pocket sixes, but Tolik made a quick call with two kings in his hand. No help came from there, and Patel was eliminated.
Rupert Elder raised to 1,400 from under the gun and Gianluca Mattia three-bet to 3,100 from right next door. It folded all of the way around the table back to Elder and he tossed out a call.
The flop brought and Elder checked. Mattia continued for 3,100 more and Elder called. Both players checked the on the turn and the finished the board. Elder dropped out a bet of 6,300 and Mattia folded his cards.
We don't know much about Stefano Giarrusso, except that for a long stretch today he was crushing EPT Sanremo. PokerStars Blog puts together a (very) short dossier on the tournament's early day 1B chip leader.
We saw Balasz Botond leaving Table 18 and made our way over to discover that he had just been eliminated by Andre Akkari. The dealer had already mucked the cards so we didn't get the hand, but we do know Botond sent about 30,000 Akkari's way.
In the very next hand, Justin Bonomo raised to 1,400 under the gun and received a call from Hauke Heseding on the button. Both blinds folded and it was heads-up action to the flop. Bonomo fired out 2,200, Heseding called, and then both players checked the turn as well as the river. Bonomo tabled and it was good as Heseding mucked.
Ekrem Sanioglu opened with a raise to 1,200 only to have Joseph Cheong three-bet from late position to 3,000. It folded back to Sanioglu and he called.
The dealer pounded the table and spread out a flop of . Sanioglu checked to Cheong and he bet 2,475, leaving himself with only 5,000 behind. Sanioglu announced all in and Cheong called with . Sanioglu showed and did not improve enough to beat Cheong's aces as the turned and the rivered. Cheong is now sitting on roughly 22,000 in chips.
Team PokerStars Pro and two-time NAPT champion Nacho Barbero raised to 1,200 before the flop in the cutoff seat and Michael Schwartz reraised to 3,100 on the button. Nacho called and the dealer opened the flop: .
Nacho checked and Schwartz tossed in 4,200. Barbero fired back for 11,000 and Schwartz laid off his hand. "You wanna see?" Barbero asked the other players at the table. "Yes!", someone answered. Barbero raised his hand and threw into the middle of the table with a huge smile on his face.
MarcC
Sam Trickett informing Chris Sly about his progress.
We ran into Chris Sly (Sam Trickett''s mate) and he briefly filled us in on a few of the details on how Trickett leapt into the chip lead.
He ran aces into kings and also won another healthy pot with kings himself. Apart from that Trickett has been winning a lot of hands without showdown.
Ashley Mason found a timely double up through Artem Litvinov.
Mason raised to 1,500 from under the gun and was called by the Russian in the blind blind. The flop came down and Litvinov check-raised Mason's 1,500 c-bet all in. Mason called off his 15,150 stack and the cards were on their backs.
Litvinov:
Mason:
The board ran out to save last year's WCOOP High-Roller champion.
![[user72235]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. The "all-in" button that dealers use was there as well meaning someone's tournament's life was at stake.
and Nordkvist led for 13,000 on the turn and Mackoff's remaining 35,125 on the river. Mackoff took a long time before calling with 
. Nordkvist quickly mucked.
and Elder checked. Mattia continued for 3,100 more and Elder called. Both players checked the 
on the turn and the 
finished the board. Elder dropped out a bet of 6,300 and Mattia folded his cards.
turn as well as the 
river. Bonomo tabled 
and it was good as Heseding mucked.
. Sanioglu checked to Cheong and he bet 2,475, leaving himself with only 5,000 behind. Sanioglu announced all in and Cheong called with 
and did not improve enough to beat Cheong's aces as the 
rivered. Cheong is now sitting on roughly 22,000 in chips.
.
into the middle of the table with a huge smile on his face.
