John Kabbaj, just prior to this hand having raised to 400 and taken some blinds, was in a talkative mood: "Four! Four is the number! Every time I raise to 350 I lose..."
Now on a fourway flop (spooky) of , small blind Danny McHugh checked and big blind Jude Duffy bet out 425. Kabbaj called, but button Niall Campbell raised to 1,500. Duffy folded, and Kabbaj made the call. He gave it up, however, when Campbell (whose stack is a comfortable 22,000) bet 2,200 on the turn.
David Saab has moved tables and seems a little out of his element -- his new table is populated by very quiet, very serious-looking folk who are absolutely refusing to rise to his cheerful banter.
Nevertheless, he has been getting involved. He checked a flop to Jesper Petersen, who bet 700. Saab raised to 2,000 -- and Petersen grimly pushed his whole stack into the middle. Saab insta-folded. "Nice hand, whatever," he said happily. Noone else said anything at all. Saab down to 5,000.
Hans Eskilsson, one of a small number of players including last year's winner Neil Channing who seem to be talking into dictaphones after every hand they play, has doubled up to 8,000. Eskilsson's pocket tens holding up against Chris Rentes' .
A very heavily bearded and beaded Andy Black is our latest casualty. With the board reading X, he seems to have check-raised all in with , but his opponent called pretty swiftly with and it was a black day for Andy.
David Saab is a blogger's dream, as every time anything happens on his table we are alerted to it by shouting and laughter, giving us just enough time to sidle over and see what's going on.
This time it seemed he got involved with Nick Goodall on a board, but it ended in a split pot as Saab turned over and Goodall showed . Nevertheless, Saab is on a not-so-hot 3,000.
A few dominating stacks are starting to emerge from the pack now. Here are a selection of some from the top, garnishing some others:
Maurice Harmon - 40,000
Michael Tureniec - 26,000
John Larkin - 23,000
Albert Iversen - 21,000 (yesterday spotted in the big cash game with Gold, Chufty and Helppi)
Kara Scott - 20,000
John Tabatabai - 20,000 (receiving perma-massage)
Rumit Somaiya - 18,300 (his tiny Rubix cube adorning his chips)
Marc Goodwin - 17,200
Nik Persaud - 15,000
Jeff Kimber - 14,200
Fintan Gavin - 12,200
Mick McCloskey - 11,800
Padraig Parkinson - 10,600
Alan Smurfit - 8,700 (his WSOP bracelet displayed in front of him)
Andy Black - 7,000
Ludovic Lacay - 5,500
Fabio Caputo gets to breathe more easily after doubling up through John Larkin. He got it in with the commanding vs on a flop. It took four bets to get there, though, as Larkin was quite prepared to pressure the shorter stack even after Caputo had check-raised the flop. A fourth spade sealed that double up deal.
Elsewhere, John Tabatabai doubled up a short stack, out-kicked to his with top pair on the flop. His masseuse doesn't skip a beat as he said, "Nice hand," and gave up a few thousand from his still-comfortable stack.
Another double up, this time for Paddy Hicks. Bradshaw was talking half to himself, half to the table, while staring at a board which read . "...'Cause I'm a fish...okay, I call."
"Well played, sir," Bradshaw said as Hicks showed down , which had his beat.