PokerNews watched as Erik Seidel played three hands in an orbit. Anthony Mowad opened for 1,000, his neighbour Tobias Wagner called and Seidel put the squeeze on with a raise to 3,300. No takers and score one for Seidel. A couple of hands later Wangner tried his luck with an open to 1,000, Seidel wanted the price to be 3,000 and again he took it down. Next hand Siedel was the opener for 1,025, no raisers no callers. Seidel has the most 25 chips at the table so he can be the change guy too.
We found Nikolaus Teichert, Szabolcs Mayer, and Maxim Lykov each with cards in front of them while they looked at a flop of . Teichert checked and Mayer fired 1,400. Lykov flat called while Teichert folded.
The hit the turn and Tiechert slowed with a check. Lykov tapped the table back and the hit the river. Two more checks prompted Mayer to show . Lykov flipped up for a rivered pair of jacks and was able to scoop up the pot. Lykov now has about 40,000 in chips.
PokerStars player Paul De Kort opened the betting for 450 and was three bet by Szabolcs Mayer in the big blind to 1,250. De Kort called. They saw a flop of . Mayer continued for 2,500 and De Kort called. The turn was the . Mayer checked and De Kort said “Three thousand nine hundred.” and threw out a blue T5000 chip. There was a few moments confusion as Mayer tried to call for 2,900 but Full Tilt Ambassador Dermot Blain helped confirm he had heard 3,900. Mayer made the call. The final card was the . Mayer checked and De Kort looked like he was considering a bet but thought better of it. He was right as Mayer turned over and won the pot.
While the Main Event rages on, a special space in the front of the tournament area has been sectioned off for an event with Brazilian football (or soccer, to those in the US) legend and member of Team PokerStars SportStar, Ronaldo. Ronaldo, a legend in the football world, is considered by many to be one of the greatest to ever play the game. Today, Ronaldo has stopped by the Casino Barcelona to test his competitive nature in a different aspect.
Ronaldo, members of Team PokerStars Pro, and three PokerStars.es qualifiers are currently participating in a single table event called the Phenomenon Table. This table, named after the popular moniker of "the phenomenon" that Ronaldo adopted due to his stellar football skills, also houses the likes of Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Vanessa Selbst, Leo Margets and 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel. As the event began, an excited Duhamel tweeted the following:
This special event has been put on to promote Ronaldo's appearance here at the EPT Barcelona. Fans around the room have been excited to see the football legend and may even have the chance to play with him later in the week, as he'll be participating in Event #8: €2k No-Limit Hold'em Turbo.
While we missed the elimination of Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, we did get a few details from Andrew Moreno, who had been seated to Negreanu's direct right the whole day.
According to him, an under-the-gun player opened for 600 and Negreanu three-bet shoved for 3,800 from middle position. Action folded around to the original raiser and he made the call.
Negreanu tabled the , which was well out in front of his opponent's . Unfortunately for "Kid Poker," the flop brought a to put him in dire straights. Neither the turn nor the river helped Negreanu, and he fell just shy of the dinner break.
Three players put in 2,300 each preflop and took a flop of . Aage Ravn checked from the small blind, Nadar Kakhmazov did the same from middle position, and then Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero bet 3,500 from the hijack. Ravn called and then Kakhmazov check-raised all in for 7,650.
Barbero asked for a count and then dropped in a call, prompting Ravn to move all in over the top for 31,150 total. Barbero thought for a bit before reluctantly folding the , and it was a good thing he did as Ravn held . Kakhmazov then tabled the for a flush draw.
The dealer wasted little time in completing it by burning and turning the . Ravn was drawing dead, and after the was run out on the river, Kakhmazov collected the robust pot.