€10,000 EPT Grand Final Main Event Day 4 | 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final

05-02-2009 20:19 UTC+2

Annette - Always One Step Ahead

By the by, Annette Obrestad is today sporting a salmony-orangey shade of nail varnish that perfectly matches the color of the largest-denomination 25,000 chips. Almost as though she was expecting to be collecting a lot of those today...

05-02-2009 20:17 UTC+2

Back From the Beach

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Back in the entirely not-on-the-beach shadows of the card room, play is underway.

Marc Naalden has been getting busy, raising in early position and finding a caller in Eric Qu in the small blind. Qu checked the {4-Hearts}

flop, though, and swiftly gave it up to a 200,000 bet from Naalden.

Level: 27

Blinds: 30,000/60,000

Ante: 5,000

05-02-2009 20:05 UTC+2

Play Resumes

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Dinner was at a lovely little spot, right on the beach. Wine and beer around the table, along with an assortment of pizzas, salads and veals. Very tasty.

05-02-2009 18:34 UTC+2

Dinner Time

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The remaining 13 players have been sent to dinner. Play will reconvene at 8pm local time, in 90 minutes.

05-02-2009 18:32 UTC+2

Johannes Strassmann Eliminated in 14th Place (€77,000)

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Strassmann - lady behind him horrified by something she has seen

No sooner had I posted that nothing was likely to happen before the dinner break then we lost Johannes Strassmann from the feature table.

He shoved under the gun, and it folded around to Peter Traply, who re-shoved for 3,000,000. All fold.

Strassmann: {A-Diamonds}

Traply:

Flop:

"Ah, scheisse," said one of Strassmann's railers.

Turn: {10-Spades}

Strassmann stood up and pushed his chair in, ready to leave.

River: {Q-Diamonds}

Just before dinner, we are down to 13.

Tags: Johannes Strassmann

05-02-2009 18:24 UTC+2

Tight as a Poor Man in Monte Carlo

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Chips - these are not moving around a lot

Play has tightened up considerably since the last couple of eliminations, with almost every pot on both tables being taken down by a simple raise preflop. Players have even given up taking down pots preflop with a reraise, as seemed to be the trend an hour or two ago. Perhaps what our remaining runners need right now is a dinner break to perk up and reset. Looks as though that's exactly what's going to happen in around 10 minutes. We'll keep you up to date with any unlikely fireworks that take place before then.

05-02-2009 18:16 UTC+2

Problems for Strassmann

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Back-to-back hands have decimated bright-eyed Johannes Strassmann's stack. He tangled first with Daniel Zink, calling a raise to 125,000 from the small blind. Zink fired out a bet of 175,000 after Strassmann checked the {6-Clubs}

flop. Strassmann called that bet, then tank-folded to a bet of 425,000 when the turn paired the board {2-Clubs}

.

The next hand, Strassmann was on the button and called a 125,000-chip raise from the under-the-gun player, Peter Traply. Traply was first to act on a flop of {Q-Hearts}

. He bet almost the full pot, 245,000. Strassmann called and got a free card when both players checked the {Q-Diamonds}

turn. That brought the action to the river, which was a blank, the {2-Spades}

. Into a pot of roughly 850,000, Traply bet 665,000 chips.

Strassmann tanked for several minutes, playing with his chip stacks and faking moving them into the middle, perhaps trying to get a read on Traply. Traply was stock still. With a deep breath, Strassmann finally pushed in a call. Traply turned over {5-Clubs}

for a full house, fives full of queens. Strassmann looked ill, then mucked his hand.

Tags: Daniel Zink Johannes Strassmann Peter Traply

05-02-2009 18:09 UTC+2

Russia: 1 Netherlands: 0

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Pieter De Korver made it 130,000 preflop, and Mikhail Tulchinskiy in the big blind, currently being railed by countryman Alex Kravchenko, called. Come the {7-Spades}

flop, Tulchinskiy bet out 160,000, eliciting a long dwell from De Korver, his eyebrow muscles twitching furiously behind his sunglasses. Eventually he passed. De Korver is down to 1,700,000 currently.

05-02-2009 17:48 UTC+2

Here's Looking At Shah, Kid

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It folded around to Alem Shah, freshly moved over from the feature table, in the small blind. He shoved without a moment's hesitation. Marc Naalden in the big blind chuckled, and called.

Naalden: {A-Spades}

Shah:

Shah looked grim as he waited for the TV crew to arrange themselves around the table and the board to be dealt, but he had nothing to worry about.

Board: {Q-Diamonds}

With a "Yah!", a fist pump and a high five to his buddy at the rail, Shah is up to 1,500,000, while a sanguine Naalden is down to 2,500,000.

Tags: Alem Shah Marc Naalden