The board read by the time we got there and Alexander Strauss had bet out 37,500 from the small blind position. Jesus Ramos Vazquez on the button made it 75,000 to go, and then relaxed back into his massage, nodding gently to whatever appropriate tunes were on his ipod.
Strauss spent a long time looking tortured and eventually re-popped to 137,500. He was rewarded by a speedy fold from Vazquez.
Derek Murray shoved with but Ketul Nathwani found and made the call. No miracles for Murray on the board, and while Nathwani moves up to 340,000, Murray is relegated to the rail.
With the flop reading , Jude Ainsworth started counting out stacks of red 1,000-denomination chips by way of a bet.
"I don't mind yellow chips," said William Thorson, his opponent in the hand. So Ainsworth bet some yellow chips too. Thorson went all in for around 200,000, Ainsworth called, and they flipped their cards.
Ainsworth: for a pair of fives
Thorson: for a flush draw
Turn:
River:
With that, Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson was eliminated, while Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth moved on up to 950,000.
Mathias Kuerschner got his whole 230,000-chip stack in with pocket kings against the pocket queens of Eike Seidel. Not a bad spot. The board ran out , and Kuerschner doubled up to nearly 480,000.
Christophe Gross checked the flop of to Lennart Holz. Holz fired 23,500 and Gross made the call.
The turn added the to the board and both players checked before seeing the hit the river. Gross checked again and Holz went into the tank. Eventually, he fired a bet of 75,000. Gross mucked his hand and Holz was able to increase to 350,000 chips.
On the next hand, Holz opened the action preflop with a raise to 17,500. Sven Leu moved all in for about a little over 100,000 and Holz made the call.
Holz:
Leu:
Holz's tens held and he won the race to eliminate Leu as the board ran out to give him a full house. That pot put him up to 495,000 chips.
Holz is a German player who's had some recent success in 2009 on his home turf. In May, he won two events at the Hamburg Poker Masters. The first was worth €12,285 and the second worth €61,824. A few months later in November, Holz topped the €2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the German Poker Championships in Hamburg for €80,000. Those are the only three cashes we can find for Holz on record and they're all wins. If he stays true to form, he'll win this one and keep his cashes nothing but first-place finishes.
Chris "cdbr3799" Dombrowski made a not-quite min-raise under the gun, raising to 17,000. Nico Behling, next to act, three-bet to 33,000. Action folded back to Dombrowksi, who took a minute to make the call.
Flop: - Chris checked, and Nico bet 38,500. After more than two minutes of completely stone-faced contemplation, Dombrowski called.
Turn: - Dombrowski checked again, and Behling bet 125,000, leaving himself 105,000 behind. Dombrowski went even deeper into the tank. A regular Internet player, Chris is used to making decisions in less than 30 seconds while playing 15 tables, but something about live play changes the thinking process for many online players. After over three minutes, someone at the table called the clock. Dombrowski let it tick down to six seconds before giving up his cards. He was down to 165,00 after the hand.