Level: 21
Blinds: 6,000/12,000
Ante: 2,000
Level: 21
Blinds: 6,000/12,000
Ante: 2,000
Phu Truong of France opened the action with a standard raise from middle position. It folded to a super-short-stacked Eduards Rakuss of Russia who called with his remaining chips from the button. The blinds folded, Truong showed , and Rakuss .
The flop paired Truong, coming , and Rakuss was looking for a five to save him. The turn was the and the river the , however, and Rakuss is out in 14th place.
Truong now has 365,000, which with 13 players left leaves him still below the average (about 512,000).
Dominik Nitsche raised to 20,000, and Phu Truong moved all in. Nitsche called to see that his had run into a much bigger pair. Truong's held strong on the board, and he doubled to 304,000. With 1.24 million, Nitsche is still neck-and-neck with Sebastian Homann for the chip lead.
French rap star Bruno Lopes -- a.k.a. "Kool Shen" of NTM -- had hung on valiantly with a short stack ever since the cash bubble burst, but his deep run here at Marrakech has finally come to an end.
After Daniel El Keslassy had opened with a raise to 24,000 from middle position, it folded to Lopes who reraised all in from the cutoff with his last 135,000. It folded back to El Keslassy who called, showing , well ahead of Lopes' .
The board came , giving El Keslassy a full house and eliminating Lopes in 15th place.
Sebastian Homann raised to 20,000 from the hijack, and on the button, Jean Philippe Rohr shipped in his 109,000-chip stack. Homann looked him up, and it was showdown time.
Rohr:
Homann:
The flop pretty much sealed the deal, and the turn made it official. Homann notched his second elimination in a row, sending Rohr packing in 16th.
We're not exactly sure how it happened, but moments after the break, Paul Pires-Trigo ended up all in for around 200,000 with . Sebastian Homann had him at risk with . The flop wasn't quite what Pires-Trigo was looking for. The turn had him drawing dead. The river was meaningles. Pires-Trigo's 17th-place fate was already sealed, and Homann moved up to 1.22 million in chips.
Level: 20
Blinds: 5,000/10,000
Ante: 1,000
The 17 players still fighting to reach the eight-handed final table have all been given 10 minutes to stretch their legs, get something to drink or eat, and/or have themselves a smoke.
Let's join them.
Nicolas Levi opened with a minimum-raise to 16,000 from middle position, and Julien Labuissiere called behind him in the cutoff. It folded to Felix Oberauer in the small blind who then reraised to 50,000. The big blind folded, then Levi reraised again to 250,000, leaving himself just 85,000 behind. Labuissiere folded, and Oberauer called, but then said he was going all in blind before the flop was dealt.
The dealer burned one and turned over a highly-coordinated flop. Levi called the Oberauer all-in bet, and Oberauer turned over . Levi tabled his hand -- -- and was hoping to see a nine or ten. But the turn was the and the river the , and Levi is out in 18th place.
Oberauer is up to 800,000, in third behind Dominik Nitsche (1.3 million) and Sebastian Homann (1.01 million).
Not a redraw, but for those of you scoring at home, here's where the fellows from Table 3 have been moved:
Table 1
Seat 1: Patrick Muleta
Seat 2: Joel Benzinou
Seat 3: Bruno Lopes
Seat 4: Sebastian Compte
Seat 5: Johan Williamson
Seat 6: Guillaume de la Gorce
Seat 7: El Mehdi El Mimouni
Seat 8: Guillaume Cescut
Seat 9: Daniel El Keslassy
Table 2
Seat 1: Phu Truong
Seat 2: Sebastian Homann
Seat 3: Nicolas Levi
Seat 4: Jean Philippe Rohr
Seat 5: Eduards Rakuss
Seat 6: Julein Labuissiere
Seat 7: Paul Pires-Trigo
Seat 8: Felix Oberauer
Seat 9: Dominik Nitsche