We're down one pint-sized Italian professional. Dario Minieri started the hand in the big blind. Roland Lee opened the pot from under the gun with a raise to 3,000. Everyone passed to Minieri, who reraised to 10,700. Lee took about a minute to move all in; Minieri took about a second to snap-call.
Minieri:
Lee:
A safe but not great flop of turned into disaster for Minieri on the turn when the hit. He couldn't salvage the pot; the river gave Lee the victory. Minieri grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and raced out the door.
Peter Gould bet 5,500 from the cutoff on a board and the gent on the hijack who had checked to him spent some time thinking about it -- before calling the clock on himself. Merriment all round the table. It still took him until around the 15 second mark to fold. Gould seemed extremely pleased with the result.
Cort Kibler has just doubled up through Pieter de Korver, after a traditional 'hand on button' vs. 'big stack with slightly less good hand on big blind' confrontation. Kibler raised, was reraised to 12,700 which was just about perfect for him to shove with his 33,000. He got a call from de Korver who held , in bad shape against Kibler's . No shock on the board which could only manage rags and one spade, and Kibler's up to 70k.
Arnaud Mattern is out. He pushed all in for 15,100 to a 3,000 raise from Jan Hlobil, and he was actually ahead, but Hlobil flopped the straight and off he headed to the rail.
Mattern:
Hlobil:
Board:
As he was leaving, Mattern paid off his masseuse with a €50 note. He stood there for a moment. "Oh, did you want change?" said the surprised lady. "Well, I did," said Mattern. He let her keep it.
We came to Marcel Luske's table to see a slew of chips going into the middle. Luske had his opponent covered and tabled , a nicely matching hand for the board. His opponent was disgusted to see Luske's hand, as he turned over a set of his own -- . Luske stood up and gave a short fist pump with the river . He eliminated his opponent and, after starting the day with just 13,500 chip, climbed up to roughly 150,000 chips. He's sparring with Leo Fernandez for "Climber of the Day" award.
Will Fry raised to 10,000 in the cutoff, only for Eric Liu to move all in for 21,400 from the big blind. Fry propped up his in front of him and studied them intently. Eventually he folded.
"How were my nines?" he asked Liu as he was raking in the pot. "You had nines?" asked Liu. He did. "You had nines?" chimed in Ami Barer. "I would have snap-called that so fast."
George Danzer's stack has suffered an unfortunate setback. Danzer was in prime shape to build himself a nice stack when he got all in for 65,000 chips with pocket jacks. His opponent had ace-king, a hand that turned into a full house by the time the board was out. As a result, Danzer is now hurting for chips -- but not out yet. Maybe he can take some advice from Leo Fernandez and Marcel Luske.
Chad Brown is busto after a dwell-call river combo on a board of . His opponent Liviu Toderita had moved all in, and Brown was considering making the call. He did, muttering something about aces, but stared at the of Toderita before mucking his own hand, "good game"-ing the table and heading off.
Quite an interesting battle is shaping up in the middle of the room. All seated at the same table are:
Ami Barer - 250,000
Michael Tureniec - 228,000
Sami Kelopuro - 180,000
With the average stack at approximately 73,000 chips, that's a boatload of chips that are in play at one table. Yesterday, when David Williams and Nenad Medic each built up impressive stacks early (oddly, at the same spot of the room), a stalemate ensued until Medic was broken away from the table. Today we could wind up with a monster chip leader, since none of the three players is known for a lack of gamble or aggression.