A giant pot became the focus of every camera in the room as Aleksander Vathne raised preflop, again, and Shaun Needham moved all-in (again, this time for just over 100k). Then Tino Lechich in the small blind went into the tank, and both players interested in the hand were watching as he contemplated the chips in front of him. He called, eventually, for about half his stack.
Back to Vathne, whom we all expected to get out of the way, but he re-raised all in. Tino Lechich dwelled once more, this time for longer, and eventually said that he called. Threeway on-their-backs!
Shaun Needham:
Tino Lechich:
Aleksander Vathne:
Flop: "Yes!" shouted a happy Lechich
Turn: Tino jumps out of his seat, scattering cameramen
River: "YEEEEES!" screams Lechich at a volume we are unused to at this time of the morning.
New chip leader: Tino Lechich - around half a million in chips; Needham - out.
Nicolas Levi moved all in from the small blind and got an insta-call from John Tabatabai in the big blind. It was Levi's up against the of Tabatabai. The flop was , the turn was the , and the river was the , eliminating Levi, who gracefully shook his opponent's hand before making his exit.
We've now paused for the remaining 26 players to re-draw to three tables and move out of the downstairs "Face to Face" poker room to the upstairs gaming area.
Rumours are currently rife that in order to finish today's play as quickly as possible so they can head off to the pub, the tournament directors sneaked into the hotels of the players and injected them with a lethal combination of Red Bull and Lucozade Sport.
It's only hearsay at this point in time, but the players have been particularly antsy in their pantsy today, so a full investigation into the allegations will certainly be undertaken by the poker police.
Dominic Kay's instincts have been spot on for the majority of this tournament, but he bet at the wrong time against Abishek Khaitan, the latter calling Kay's 20k bet on a with .
Over at the freatured TV table, there was a bustout on the first hand since the redraw. Erick Lindgren raised 20,000 and Pat Scanlon called. The flop was . Both players checked. The turn was the . Lindgren checked and Scanlon moved all in.
"That's his signature trademark," joked Annie Duke.
Lindgren called and flipped over . He was behind Scanlon's . The river was the and Lindgren busted out in 26th place. He won £30,770.
1. John Tabatabai
2. Tino Lechich
3. Jakob Paulsen
4. Steven Van Zadelhoff
5. Erick Lindgren (Eliminated in 26th Place)
6. Annie Duke
7. Ovyind Riisem
8. Pat Scanlon
9. Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad
Table 1:
1. Abishek Khaitan
2. Dominic Kay
3. Magnus Persson
4. Theo Jorgensen
5. Andreas Berggren
6. Aleksander Vathne
7. Karl Mahrenholz
8. Marco Traniello
9. Will Durkee
Table 3:
1. Janne Lamsa
2. OPEN
3. Gus Hansen
4. Terry Cook
5. Johannes Korsar
6. James Keys
7. Kenny Tran
8. Matthew McCullogh
9. Henrik Waltersson
A threeway flop was seen by Henrik Waltersson, button Hansen and big blind Johannes Korsar. It was:
Korsar checked, Waltersson bet 35k. Gus Hansen called, and Korsar folded.
Turn: Korsar was all in in the blink of an eye, and a stack of reds which covered him was plonked in front of the Great Dane.
"That was not a good card for you," said Gus, revealing that his opponent was actually drawing dead with his hand being the . Waltersson's lay on the table as the hit the river and he hit the road.
Theo Jorgenson is taking control of his table. He has just reraised his way to a few pots and took a big 100k pot from Dominic Kay. He certainly has his A game poker face on and a chip stack to match.
Its looking very possible a Scandanavian can win this event.