I'm a sadist at heart, so at the start of every Day Two, I always see who the short stack is and lurk at their table like a blood-thirsty vulture. On this occasion, that man was Swede Nichlas Saarisilta, who with just 2,275 was in need of a miracle of biblical proportions.
Although he survived one all-in (pushing from under the gun and picking up the blinds uncontested), he couldn't duck the next, calling all in from the small blind after Robin Ylitalo had opened from early postion.
Fellow short stack Elsa Lo Chow also shoved from the small blind, and after Yliatalo threw in the extra shrapnel, the cards were on their backs:
Yliatalo =
Chow =
Saarisilta =
Board:
"Another hand perfectly played," complimented Aranud Mattern with a smile as the two early casualties slipped away.
Ash Hussain has doubled up, finding aces at just the right time. Marc Wright was the man with the inferior holding, his unable to deflect the bullets, , despite a cheeky open-ended straight draw on a board.
"Good to see you're loosening up in your old age," joked serial wise-cracker Nik Persaud.
Thomas Merved opened from the button, Yuliyan Kolev reraised in the small blind and Joey Lovelady shoved from the big blind. Merved tanked and folded what he said later was and Kolev was forced to call with against Lovelady's .
The board came with the Scouser feeling he got a little lucky that the small blind was making a resteal and forced the out of the hand
"You'd have snapped me off!" said Lovelady as he stacked the 30,000 or so he had now in front of him.
Marc Goodwin sinks into the felt, his head in his arms as he faces the green of the baize. The others players try to look sympathetic, but deep down they probably wanted that river to hit, if only because, like all of us, they're sick sadists who enjoy the entertainment of a bad beat.
Of course, with every bad beat, there's a recipient, and on this occasion it was Goodwin. Having called an early position raise with from French qualifier Daniel Horvath in the big blind, he then pushed all in for just over 20,000 (15,000 pot) on a flop.
Horvath paused very briefly before calling (leaving circa 20,000 behind) with the adamant tone you'd normally associate with a monster, before turning over a surprisingly paltry .
A few shakes of the head later and the turn was dealt, a safe, harmless , but on the river, the money card arrived in the form of an to award the Frenchman the pot, and the Brummie the door.
"Unbelievable," mumbled Goodwin under his breath, his feet seemingly glued to the floor. "****ing joke."
All-ins in every nook and cranny here at the Burlington, the latest seeing Tommy Wan lock horns with a shorter-stacked Jonas Becker.
With versus , Wan was looking for an ace/king-less board, but his prayers were slapped back as the flop came to serve up both cards. No snowman on the turn and river (6s and 4d to be precise), and Wan's stack melted to 12,000, whilst his foe received a nice, timely double up.