Ludo plays the game
Oh my lord, shortly before the break we witnessed the biggest hand of the tournament so far.
It looks as though the chips went in preflop, and the cards were as follows:
Andreas Hoivold:
Ludovic Lacay:
Board:
After spending some time counting the two players' chips, the dealer decreed that Hoivold busted, and Lacay was up to an almost-chip-leading 1,200,000. The amiable Hoivold was extremely polite and gentlemanly in defeat, although once he'd turned away from the table to leave, a quiet, "F***," escaped his lips.
As he told me his new chip count and I informed him that he was in second place, Lacay replied cheerfully, "At least I don't have the chip leader pressure."
[Edit -- looks like he actually is chip leader at the moment, by a whisker.]
Now that we're into the money, an excitable group of poker players is becoming even more excitable. How else can we explain the reaction of Patrick Sacrispeyre upon eliminating Andreas Flury? With 200,000 in the pot, Flury was all in for an additional 31,500 on a board of . Sacrispeyre, with several hundred-thousand behind, actually tanked long enough to draw some muttered comments from the rail. He did finally call, tabling an unimproved against Flury's pair of eights, . The turn blanked , prompting Sacrispeyre to point at the river, as if asking for his ten-ball. He got it with the and immediately jumped out of his chair and started shouting (in French, so you 'll pardon us for not transcribing his remarks). A friend nearly knocked this reporter over in an effort to run in from the rail, shout with Sacrispeyre and clap him on the back.
A bemused Flury gave one brief sidelong glance at the spectacle, then very slowly stood out of his chair and put on his jacket. A member of the tournament staff escorted him to the payouts table.
Walid Bou Habib lives to fight another day after the board came down on his side when he got it in with against Sebastian Ruthenberg's rather superior .
Peter Traply: 1,130,000 and our chip leader by a long way
Annette Obrestad: 870,000
Marc Naalden: 830,000
Matthew Woodward: 715,000
Jaime Vilela: 680,000
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard, there may be many others but they haven't been discarrrr-verrrred.
Bruce Yamron had the button when he saw Asa Smith open a pot from early position to 23,000. He asked the dealer to confirm the amount of the bet and then called. Smith quickly checked the flop to Yamron, who fired out 38,000. Smith called that bet, then checked a second time when the turn fell . Yamron moved very quickly to his chip stack and cut out a bet of 80,000. That display of strength was enough for Smith; he folded his hand.
It's disaster for young Tristan Clemencon. We saw him tanking on a board of after just-as-young Daniel Zink moved all in for 163,500. Clemencon counted down his stack several times. Making the call would leave him with just 38,000. After an agonizing three minutes, Clemencon did call, with . ZInk turned over , leaving Clemencon looking for a five, nine or deuce on the river. The river fell , giving Zink the double-up to more than 400,000 and leaving Clemencon in a perilous position.