As if to echo how incredibly serious things are getting inside the casino, it has just now started to bucket down outside. Perhaps the inclement weather will persuade our final eight to stay in and get an early night before they come back at noon to battle it out.
Local boy (actually thoroughly grown man, but that doesn't have such a nice ring to it) Antonio Matias remains our gigantic chip leader, as he has been since knocking out overnight chip daddy Antony Lellouche early in the day. Jeff Sarwer is hot on his heels, though, as is Pierre Neuville who missed his flight home to play on, and Ryan Franklin who recovered admirably from a near-fatal crippling a few hours back.
This is what we'll be dealing with tomorrow:
1) Ryan Franklin - 1,047,000
2) Jan Skampa - 926,000
3) Jeff Sarwer - 1,983,000
4) Antonio Matias - 3,003,000
5) Andrei Vlasenko - 371,000
6) Joao Silva - 780,000
7) Michel Abecassis - 488,000
8) Pierre Neuville - 1,027,000
Exciting stuff. Join us back here at Pokernews.com tomorrow from noon W.E.T. for all the action, live from the floor.
Claudio Coelho spent a really long time deciding what to do, before announcing all in for his last 83,000. It folded to Jeff Sarwer in the small blind, who reraised to 200,000. With big blind Antonio Matias being got rid of thus, they were on their backs.
Coelho:
Sarwer:
"You know, that's like a 99% split pot..." a particular member of the French media was saying, when the board came down like so:
Ladies and gentlemen, we have an official final table.
Ryan Franklin raised to 50,000 from the button, and Santiago Terrazas made it 147,000 from the big blind. Franklin now announced all in, Terrazas called all in, and they were on their backs.
Terrazas:
Franklin:
Board:
And with that, we lose our last Spaniard.
Once Terrazas had made his exit, Jeff Sarwer turned to Franklin. "Isn't that nice when you;re a loose player and then you get kings?" he said. Indeed.
It folded around to Jan Skampa in the small blind, who raised. In the big blind Antonio Matias made the call.
The flop came down and Skampa bet out 52,000. Matias min-raised to 104,000. Back to Skampa, who made it another 118,000 to go. And then back to Matias, who four-bet an amount that we didn't quite get, but looked large. Eventually Skampa passed, to delirious applause from the rail. To their endless delight, Matias quietly showed .
With the action folded around to the blinds, Jeff Sarwer raised to 45,000 from the small. In the big, Tome Moreira stuck in a re-raise to 120,000, sending Sarwer into the tank. He stared at the man next to him for a long minute or so before either of them moved. Apparently a bit put off by his opponent's gaze, Moreira stood up from his chair. After just another few seconds, Sarwer announced an all in, and now it was Moreira's turn in the tank. He had about 300,000 behind, and he was facing a decision for his tournament life. After another minute or so, he called to put himself at risk.
Showdown
Sarwer:
Moreira:
The flop was in Mr. Sarwer's neighborhood, rolling out . Moreira was still drawing live to his overcards, but the turn and river would show him no love. The and that filled out the board did nothing to improve his plight, and Tome Moreira has become our 11th-place finisher. Sarwer clearly had mixed feelings about coming from behind to take that pot. He reached for the right words as Moreira prepared to depart. "Nice... nice call," he said as they shook hands.
The former chess prodigy is now challenging for the chip lead once again with more than 2.2 million.