Steven van Zadelhoff, who surely must be referred to from now on as The Hoff, is one of the players that has remained beyond my field of vision throughout this entire tournament, but now I have joined Pauly over here at the featured table, I have been able to see him action.
I don't know too much about this chap, and, in truth, have never crossed his path before, but I have been reliably informed that he is hugely popular over in his native home of Holland (his 'Neder Poker' hoody is a dead giveaway) where I understand he is being watched by many Dutch poker fanatics.
Since I've been here, he's yet to go deep in a hand, but he must have been busy at some point as he possesses a very playable 330k in chips. Appearance wise, he appears very focused, shades on, head down and very little in the way of table talk. In fact, he reminds me somewhat of a Paul Wasicka or a Stuart Fox - a strong, solid player who just lets the cards do the talking.
Over at the featured TV table, Magnus Persson cotinued his rush. He raised to 26,000 from the button. Abishek Khaitan called from the small blind. The flop was . Khaitan checked. Persson bet 20,000 and Khaitan called. The turn was the and Khaitan fired out 20,000. Persson raised to 100,000. Khaitan moved all in and Persson quickly called.
Persson:
Khaitan:
Persson flopped a set and was ahead, however Khaitan had a flush draw. The river was the and Khaitan busted out in 17th place. He won £34,390.
After that hand, Persson's stack jumped to over 1,250,000. He's the chipleader.
Three players (Riisem, Lechich and Tabatabai) see a flop of . Riisem checks, Tino Lechich bets 35k. Tabatabai lets one go, and when it gets round to Riisem, who seems to have been fairly quiet today so far, he thought for a while and pushed forward one of his three towers of chips (the red one - must have been 250k+). Pass from Lechich.
Over at the featured TV table, Kenny Tran made a stand in his big blind. Magnus Persson raised 20,000 and Tran called. The flop was and both players checked. The turn was the . Persson bet 25,000 and Tran wnet into the tank for two minutes before he called. The river was the and both players checked. Tran showed for a pair of eights. Persson mucked. Tran won the pot and increased his stack to 150,000.
James Keys moved in preflop over the top of Pat Scanlon, who called him with . Keys showed .
Flop:
Turn: All through this process, the Keys Fan Club who are by far the most vocal group around the table were shouting random harmless cards: "Jack of diamonds! Deuce! Deuce!"
River:
And he gets a big round of applause and a more playable 240k stack.
Annette raised it up to 23k, Durkee called, Tran pushed all-in for what appeared to be around 150k, Annette announced all-in behind him and Durkee folded.
Annette =
Tran =
Flop =
Being the enigmatic, energetic character that he is, I fully expected Tran to leap into the air in delight, but he was surprisingly subdued. Perhaps he eared the worst...
John Tabatabai opened the pot for 25,000 from UTG, Pat Scanlon moved all in for an additional 101,000 from the button, and Tabatabai called. Scanlon somewhat sheepishly turned over and looked genuinely surprised to see Tabatabai's . The flop was , pairing Tabatabai's jack, but the turn was the , eliciting cheers from Scanlon's supporters on the rail. The river was the and Scanlon doubled up to around 240,000.