£10,000 WSOPE Main Event Day 5 | 2009 World Series of Poker Europe

10-01-2009 18:10 UTC+2

Smaller Action, But Action Nonetheless

[user46392]

Wow, all of a sudden things are happening. As if inspired by that Negreanu/Mercier Monster Pot, Markus Ristola raised from the button. In similar spirit, Chris Bjorin moved all in from the small blind. Ristola folded, though.

Picking up that pot bumped Bjorin up and out of the Official Short Stack position -- that dubious honour now goes to James Akenhead.

Tags: Chris Bjorin Markus Ristola

10-01-2009 18:10 UTC+2

Big Pot (Actually, This Time)!

[user46298]

A lot of Daniel Negreanu's hard work building his stack up to the second place level has been undone just now with a big confrontation vs. Jason Mercier. The million+ pot started out as a standard sort of hand, with Negreanu calling Mercier pre and then both players checking the {4-Spades}

flop. So far, so standard for the last four hours.

The {K-Spades}

turn saw another check from Negreanu, and a bet of 220k from Mercier. Negreanu made the call.

The river was the {9-Hearts}

, and now a third check from Negreanu saw a bet of 383k from Mercier. As Negreanu counted out the chips, it looked like he wasn't going anywhere - and sure enough he called, having built the largest pot of the day so far.

Unfortunately his {Q-Clubs}

had always been behind Mercier's {A-Spades}

and the sneaky twosome were left counting their respective stacks:

Mercier - 3,734,000
Negreanu - 1,112,000

Tags: Daniel Negreanu Jason Mercier

10-01-2009 18:01 UTC+2

Another Potential All-in Comes to Naout

[user46298]

Antoine Saout makes it 80k to go preflop, but looks even less enamoured with proceedings than usual as Jason Mercier moves all in... he relinquishes the pot and there's a flash of some Eights, it looked like, but whose they were wasn't announced.

Tags: Antoine Saout Jason Mercier

10-01-2009 18:00 UTC+2

Negreanu Too Stressed to Play Final Table

[user46392]

In fact, further to receiving his over-the-rail massage, Daniel Negreanu now seems to have entirely given up on this final table -- he's seated himself on the wrong side of the rail and appears to be thoroughly enjoying the proper, sitting-down massage he's now getting, only occasionally glancing up to see if anything interesting has happened up on FT. Extraordinary.

Tags: Daniel Negreanu

10-01-2009 17:57 UTC+2

Shulman Wakes Up Again, Saout Still Sleepy

[user46392]

Antoine Saout limped in, and the action folded to Barry Shulman in the small blind. Quiet for some time up until this point, Shulman now raised to around 200,000. Saout dwelled up silently and sleepily, while Daniel Negreanu wandered off to receive a standing massage from one the of the masseuses across the rail. While the logistics of the massage were being worked out, Saout silently folded, and they moved on to the next hand.

Tags: Antoine Saout Barry Shulman

10-01-2009 17:50 UTC+2

Action!

[user46392]

Antoine Saout moved all in!

But nobody called, and we move on to the next hand.

10-01-2009 17:49 UTC+2

No Flops Necessary

[user46392]

The last few hands have been even more mysterious -- they've all been taken down with a single preflop raise. No one player seems to be more aggressive or passive than any of the others. We are beginning to fear that this high-class field has reached a kind of stalemate...

10-01-2009 17:41 UTC+2

Bansi Swerves to Avoid Daniel's House

[user46298]

is the latest flop seen on the final. Small blind Praz Bansi bets out 62k, called by Daniel Negreanu.

Turn: {A-Hearts}

Bansi now checks, and Negreanu checks behind.

River: {7-Clubs}

Check to Negreanu a second time, and he bets 120k. Another decision for Bansi, who opts for the fold. As the pot is swept over to Negreanu, he offers, "Left or right?" pointing at his cards, but then gives the spectators what they want i.e. both of them: {A-Spades}

.

Tags: Daniel Negreanu Praz Bansi

10-01-2009 17:29 UTC+2

No Show Here

[user46392]

Markus Ristola raised, but then gave it up to a reraise from Negreanu.

We can only imagine how ludicrously fascinating this is for the Guys In The Van, who get to see the hole cards. For our part, we'd love to get to see a bit more of what's really going on. Just going to have to wait for it to air...

10-01-2009 17:28 UTC+2

Hoss is Boss!

[user46298]

Matt Hawrilenko just took down some more uncontested preflop chips - he's not going to accept the bottom chipstack position lightly, it seems. No flops for 10 mins, no showdowns since last level - we're seeing stacks increase 50k a hand - sometimes up to 100k if the winning raise is a threebet...

Anyhoo, Mr. Hawrilenko has at least one supporter willing to actually get the pen and ink out to show the world what he thinks of him. After the last break, this gentlement produced a sign saying, "MATT'S ALL THAT!" for waving when he wins chips, and beneath it, another one saying, "HOSS IS BOSS!"

The table all turned round, secretly wishing, I imagine, that there were equally pithy signs waving for them. "Matt Is A Calling Station one under there?" joked Negreanu, while probably realising that wouldn't make the cut as it's more than three syllables.

Tags: Matt Hawrilenko