There's something about the finality of betting on the river - no more help for hands, only showdown or mucking to look forward to - which draws an audience, especially when a large pot has been created and has just grown even larger with a cheeky check-raise...
Three players made it thus far - Jaafer Sanini (whom I believe was responsible for the in-position 3,500 bet on the turn with the board standing called by the others), Eric Sadoun and Gilbert Diaz. The river card brought a third club, and now Sadoun, first to act, checked. Diaz bet 5k at this point, called after a lengthy think by Sanini. Diaz almost flipped his hand right over then, but was Whoa-d by Sadoun whom everyone had forgotten about. He proceeded to shakily raise to 15k. Back to Diaz, who now had his own decision-dwell, but finally paid the extra 10k (Sanini did not).
Diaz showed the for a straight which was no good against Sadoun's .
David Steicke has been eliminated from the 2010 WPT Grand Prix Paris.
Steicke limped in early position, and Jean Rigal sitting on Steicke's immediate left bumped the action up to 750. Steicke made the call, and the two players saw a flop. Steicke checked over to Rigal who put tossed out what looked to be about 1,200 worth of chips. Steicke made the call, prompting the dealer to peel off the on the turn. Steicke checked again, however when Rigal tossed out his bet of 2,200, Steicke decided to pull the trigger for the rest of chips sliding in a stack of about 10,000 total.
After carefully counting down his chips to see what he would be left with if he made the call, Rigal slid the correct amount into the center and the two flipped over their cards. RIgal was way ahead holding , and Steicke would need to catch one of the two remaining deuces, holding pocket twos.
The river was a brick for Steicke, and he quickly gathered his belongings and made his exit out of the tournament area. Rigal, on the other hand looked to be flourishing with about 50,000.
Unfortunately for him, it was a 5k chip, his last remaining, into change so he could pay his blinds (100 and 200) which he duly did, playing not a hand. A whole orbit's vulturing and he made not one bet, but passed calmly while little pots flew about the table.
One such pot involved Jonathan Layani who's recently been moved on there, calling called a raise preflop from Gilles Boulenger. On the -diamond-diamond flop he check-raised him and Boulenger passed. Layani showed him which might put the warning signs up around this newcomer.
We're currently midway through the latest 15 minute break (there are a lot of these - one at the end of every level). One more 90 minute session after this until the dinner break.
Double bust-aments with Jean Rigal the very happy man in the middle. The board was reading and Curt Kohlberg had moved all-in, Josh Field then moved all-in behind him and Rigal made the call.
Kohlberg:
Field:
Rigal:
Field was already drawing dead and but Kohlberg could catch a nine to treble but failed when the river was the . It all went the way of Rigal as he eliminated the other two to win a fairly substantial pot.
One player has a stack dwarfing his tablemates' - on our list as being the owner of the Seat 1 Table 9 stack is Romanian player Iulian Iacob, with 117,000. He was responsible for most of the carnage in level three (two players had to be moved to fill empty seats on the Table of Doom) and is continuing to grow his stack. Most recently he took most of Casey Kastle's chips (representing just a decoration on a turret on one of his stacks though):
Already somewhat short stacked, Kastle got to the turn vs. Iacob with the board standing . At this point the pot was over 6k, Kastle had checked and Iacob had bet 5,000, leaving Kastle a decision for his 10k stack - or not. Kastle called and the river fell . Now with just one pink chip left he checked again, Iacob put in the 5k to cover him, and he declined to call. Bowl of rice for Kastle, but as ElkY proved, short is not out.
Denis Bahonjic opened to 1,025 and Simon Ravnsbaek flat-called behind him, Alex Kravchenko also called from the small blind before David Tavernier reraised to 6,300 from the big blind.
Here is where things got interesting, Bahonjic flat-called the reraise before Ravnsbaek then decided to push all-in for 31,850 more. Kravchenko folded digustedly, while Tavernier gave Ravnsbaek the big stare down before folding. Bahonjic was much more obstinate though and eventually made the call.
Bahonjic:
Ravnsbaek:
The door card was the and Ravnsbaek could only say "Wow" as the rest of the board came . Bahonjic added an extra 40,000 to his stack and has about 85,000 now.
After struggling with a small stack for the past level or so, we just saw Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier from the 2010 WPT Paris. We'll look to get the details.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
called by the others), Eric Sadoun and Gilbert Diaz. The river card brought a third club, and now Sadoun, first to act, checked. Diaz bet 5k at this point, called after a lengthy think by Sanini. Diaz almost flipped his hand right over then, but was Whoa-d by Sadoun whom everyone had forgotten about. He proceeded to shakily raise to 15k. Back to Diaz, who now had his own decision-dwell, but finally paid the extra 10k (Sanini did not).
.
flop. Steicke checked over to Rigal who put tossed out what looked to be about 1,200 worth of chips. Steicke made the call, prompting the dealer to peel off the 
on the turn. Steicke checked again, however when Rigal tossed out his bet of 2,200, Steicke decided to pull the trigger for the rest of chips sliding in a stack of about 10,000 total.
, and Steicke would need to catch one of the two remaining deuces, holding pocket twos.
-diamond-diamond flop he check-raised him and Boulenger passed. Layani showed him 
which might put the warning signs up around this newcomer.
and Curt Kohlberg had moved all-in, Josh Field then moved all-in behind him and Rigal made the call.
. It all went the way of Rigal as he eliminated the other two to win a fairly substantial pot.
. At this point the pot was over 6k, Kastle had checked and Iacob had bet 5,000, leaving Kastle a decision for his 10k stack - or not. Kastle called and the river fell 
. Now with just one pink chip left he checked again, Iacob put in the 5k to cover him, and he declined to call. Bowl of rice for Kastle, but as ElkY proved, short is not out.
and Ravnsbaek could only say "Wow" as the rest of the board came 
. Bahonjic added an extra 40,000 to his stack and has about 85,000 now.