When Ludovic Geilich is one of the tighter, or seemingly tighter, players at the table then you know that the table is worth watching.
In the first hand I saw Alberto Fiorilla had fired out a bet of 59,000 on the river of an board, his lone opponent in the hand was Jonathan Abdellatif, the Belgian made the call but mucked when Fiorilla showed . That boosted Fiorilla to 290,000 whilst dropping Abdellatif to a similar figure.
On the very next hand Abdellatif opened to 8,000 and both Ludovic Geilich (button) and Kamel Boukhalfa (big blind) made the call. On the flop it was checked to Geilich, the Scotsman bet 16,500, Boukhalfa check-raised to 37,000 and Abdellatif folded. Back on Geilich he took some time before electing to fold. "Show the A-9 or K-9," Geilich asked of Boukhalfa and the Frenchman responded by showing the as he took the pot.
Game over for Abdel Boukbir who moved all in for his last 16,000 in chips. It was passed to Joep van den Bijgaart in the big blind who took one look at his cards and quickly called.
Boukbir:
van den Bijgaart:
The board came and the Dutchman's queen-jack high was still good for the pot. Around 100 players remain, just 95 will get paid.
Jamila von Perger opened under-the-gun for 8,000 and it folded round to big blind Alexander Goulder who made the call. The flop was . Goulder checked and von Perger continued for 8,500 which Goulder called. They both checked the turn and saw a very interesting on the river. There was a straight on the board that was beatable; it also brought in a possible flush. Goulder bet 18,000 and a smile broke out across von Perger’s face. It soon disappeared though as she puzzled it out. Discretion was the better part of valour as she mucked her cards.
Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov is running good today. Aurelien Guiglini was all in with and Katchalov called with . The cards ran out and the eights were good enough to send Guiglini home and build a bit more to Katchalov’ sstack.
"Where was the ace?" asked Anders Pedersen as he watched on as Alexandre Amiel stacked some chips that had previously belonged to him. Amiel had raised to 8,000 from under-the-gun and Pedersen defended from the big blind. On the flop Amiel c-bet 10,000 and Pedersen called. The turn checked through and the fell on the river. First to act Pedersen fired out a bet of 22,000 and Amile snap called. The Norwegian showed for the missed straight draw, whilst Amiel had for top pair, top kicker.
"He's been three-betting me and exploiting me all day," said Amiel pointing to Mikolaj Zawadzki who's to his direct left. "I had to get my chips back somehow." Amiel then turned to Zawadzki and said: "It's just a loan, I need them back so the money stays in France."
There then followed a conversation about the relative amount of tax the Norwegian, Frenchman and Pole have to pay on poker winnings.
Hungarian player Norbert Szecsi opened for 8,500 under the gun and was met by a reraise from Frenchman Aurelien Soutchkov on the button to 21,500. Szecsi four bet to 59,500 and was quickly met by a 5-bet by Soutchkov to 110,500. Soutchkov had 266,000 behind at that moment but wasn't willing to invest those chips as well. Szecsi 6-bet to 164,500 and Soutchkov folded after less than a minute of thinking.
"You got aces" he asked Szecsi who didn't answer. You'll never know" said table mate Danny Blair.
98 players remain, those who've just missed out on a payday include: Sam Benoliel, Maximilien Werth, Abdel Boukbir, Aurelien Guiglini, Olivier Piechaczyk, Yury Gulyy, Quentin Lecomte, Iaran Lightbourne, Martin Schleich, Jack Melki, Loredan Hanganu, Ange Besnainou, Olof Haglund, Jorma Nuutinen and Pierre Mace.
On a board reading Ayaz Manji bet 90,000, most of his stack. His opponent Ekrem Sanioglu moved all in. “Queens?” Said a startled and anxious Manji. Eventually he made the call with and a full house. Sanioglu didn’t have queens, he had and his quads bust Manji from the tournament just short of the bubble.
Alex Klimashin from Russia was crippled when his was beaten by the of Danny Blair on a board of . He nursed his short stack for a while before shoving his last 8,000 and was again called by Blair. Klimashin had and his timing couldn’t have been worse as Blair now had it with . The board ran out and Klimashin had to leave with nothing for his troubles.