By the time we arrived, the board read and most of Rasmus Nielsen's chips were across the line, easily enough to put his relatively short-stacked opponent all in.
Nielsen sat calm and still while his opponent squirmed, and after some minutes of torture the hapless gentleman called all in - only to muck his hand when Nielsen turned over for a full house.
Jeff Sarwer, who came third a few months back at EPT Vilamoura, has exploded rather spectacularly.
There was an initial raise to 800, before Sarwer shoved for a somewhat disproportionate sum from the cutoff - we think it was around 18,000. Unfortunately for him, the button woke up with aces, and Sarwer's pocket sixes failed to spike.
Rasmus Nielsen opened the pot to 800 from early position, and Ruben Visser three-bet to 2,100 on the button. Nielsen called, and the two men watched the flop come out . When Nielsen checked, Visser continued out with another 2,500 chips, announcing the amount very clearly as he flicked an oversized chip into the pot.
Nielsen didn't waste much time calling, and the landed on fourth street. He knocked the table again, and Visser made it 6,500 to go. Nielsen asked for an estimate of his remaining chips before sticking in a check-raise to 16,200. Visser quickly said, "All in," pushing his final 30,925 chips across the line. It was less than 15,000 for Nielsen to call (getting nearly 4-to-1 on his money), but he wasn't so sure. After a minute of debate, Visser piped up: "That bad?"
"Yeah, that bad..." said Nielsen, trailing off. He continued to mumble quietly to himself for another minute or so before sliding his cards muckward. Visser told him he could pick a card to see, and Nielsen drew the . For what it's worth.
Visser is up to about 57,000 after dragging down that pot without the other half of a showdown.
Andrey Lapin had a stroke of luck as a preflop raising war led him and one opponent to see a flop. The opponent went all in, Lapin called, and there ensued the traditional showdown.
Unfortunate Opponent: for an overpair
Lapin: for a set
Turn:
River:
His opponent merely looked irked and walked off; Lapin, although he is what we in the poker blogging world call a "dirty stacker", seems to have in the region of 110,000.
The final numbers are (finally) in. Today's Day 1a flight officially saw 191 runners take their seats for play. We expect to see that number increase tomorrow to put the total field comfortably over the 400-player mark for this event.
It's always interesting to see where players draw that shovey-foldy line, and for Thor Drexel it seems that the line is at around 25 big blinds.
Drexel has found himself toeing this line and seated rather uncomfortably to the direct right of Arnaud Mattern. Most recently the two of them were involved in a blind-on-blind confrontation that saw Drexel bet out 2,800 on the turn of a board, only to fold instantly to a raise from Mattern that would have put him all in.
The next hand, Drexel open-shoved for 10,700, but got no takers. He remains on roughly 25 big blinds.
By the time we joined the action, the board read and there was almost 25,000 in the pot. Rasmus Nielsen was staring down at his opponent's 15,300 bet and considering his options.
"I think I have to call," he muttered, and tossed in the chips - but he was already standing when his opponent turned over for a full house, and Nielsen quickly mucked his cards and walked off in the general direction of away.
When Nielsen returns to the table, he will find that he has roughly 37,500 in chips remaining.