Patrice Poujad opened the pot with a raise from middle position, and Sven Eichelbaum stuck in a three-bet on the button. The initial amount was unclear, but the second raise added an additional 2,600 to the bet. Poujad then four-bet another 5,150, committing about half his remaining stack to the hand. Eichelbaum tanked for at least a minute or two before announcing an all in, and Poujad quickly called, confidently tabling . But it was no good; Eichelbaum showed up , poised for the knockout.
The board ran out , no help for the pocket kings. With a shake of the head and a handshake to his table mates, Poujad made his way toward the exit.
EPT London fourth place finisher Martin Gudvangen will not be improving on that result this time - we arrived at his table just in time to see him shaking hands and leaving.
A preflop raising war between a gentleman in early position and Kenneth Strandli in the small blind resulted in Strandli moving in and Mr. Early Position making a slightly unlikely call.
Strandli:
Mr. Early Position:
Board:
An easy double-up for Strandli puts him up to 40,000.
Tristan Clemencon
Tristan Clemencon started the hand with a raise to 800, and Henri Ojala came along in position.
The two men watched the flop come out , and Clemencon continued out with 1,300 chips. Ojala matched it, and Clemencon fired again on the turn. It was 3,325 this time, and Ojala came along once more, though a bit more slowly this time.
The last card off was the , and Clemencon loaded another bullet and fired 7,800 at the pot. It was another minute or so of deep thought from Ojala, but he eventually stuck in the call with some hesitation.
Clemencon showed for the turned boat, and Ojala's cards hit the muck. That win moves the French pro back up over his starting stack to about 40,000.
During the first break, Gloria cornered Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson to chat about pink shorts. Sorry, salmon shorts. There's a poker hand in there too, but just look at those shorts! Check it out:
David Tuchman check-called a nonchalant-looking bet from Sergio Castelluccio on the turn of a board, before both players checked the river. Tuchman turned over and, as Castelluccio could only boast , took the pot.
"I couldn't do anything but check-call there..." Tuchman was telling the table as he bumped up his stack to 39,000. Castelluccio meanwhile, down to 15,000 now, just sighed.
Carter Phillips
Oh, we've just found a Ziigmund. Ilari Sahamies has been awfully quiet today, quiet enough that we just noticed him at a tough table with ElkY and Carter Phillips. Well, it used to contain Carter Phillips and his chips, but that's not so much the case anymore.
Katalin Jerney opened the pot with a raise, and Sahamies three-bet in the next seat over. Two seats down from that, Carter Phillips squeezed out two queens and moved all in. That was enough to get Jerney out of the way, but Sahamies made the call to put Phillips at risk, turning over the dominating pocket kings.
When the board blanked out, Sahamies locked up the pot, sending the EPT Barcelona champion out the door in the process. We'll figure out how many chips Ziigmund has now once he realizes that they don't stack themselves in live poker.
Kenneth Strandli raised to 800 under the gun and got a call from Giovanni Salvatore in the cutoff. Small blind Marc Naalden, though, re-popped for 3,150 total and raiser and caller alike folded.
"We have a new captain," commented a tablemate. Either Naalden didn't hear, or he liked the sound of it so much he asked the gentleman to repeat himself.