Alexander Petersen got the rest of his short stack in good, holding to Jose Carlos Da Silva's . The board would from on the at-risk Petersen, though, coming . That queen on the flop was too much to overcome, and Petersen's day is done.
Da Silva is a PokerStars sponsored player, and he's putting that to good use, having built a stack of about 65,000 thus far.
With the flop reading , the action checked around to Johnny Lodden on the button who bet 2,500.
"May I see your chips, Johnny?" asked a very polite Dario Minieri in the big blind position. "No," said Johnny, but Minieri peeked anyway. He called, as did a third player in mid position.
The turn was the and again it checked around to Lodden. This time he bet 8,500. Minieri folded, but Mr. Mid Position flat-called before checking the river as well. After a long pause, Lodden checked behind - and promptly mucked when Mr. Mid Position turned over for a turned set. Lodden sighed and looked up at the ceiling as though the poker gods might tell him what he'd done wrong. He didn't seem to get any response, though, and is left with 65,000.
We walked up to one of the far tables to see the first four cards on board, reading . Jonathan Weekes checked, and Anton Wigg fired out 3,150 into a pot of about 5,000. Weekes shrugged and announced an all-in check-raise, sticking his ~14,000 remaining chips into the middle. Weekes practically beat him into the pot with the call and the covering stack.
Showdown
Weekes:
Wigg:
Wigg was well ahead with his aces up, and Weekes would need to find one of the three remaining kings in the deck to stay afloat. The river was paint, but the was definitely not a king, and that's the end of yet another player. The big board shows 147 players left.
The Zhappelin flies high
The flop read and Yury Kerzhapkin in the big blind position bet out 5,000. His opponent on the button shoved, and after a moment, Kerzhapkin made a slightly reluctant call.
Kerzhapkin: for top pair with a nothing-y kicker
Mr. Button: for an open-ended straight draw
Turn:
River:
Kerzhapkin is up to 65,000, and there's an empty seat where his opponent used to be.
A bit of a Dario disaster, as the smallest Minieri raised to around 1,800 from the cutoff. The small blind re-popped to 4,000, and Minieri now made it 10,700. Mr. Small Blind flat-called, and they saw a flop.
Flop:
Both players checked, and they proceeded to an eyebrow-raising turn.
Mr. Small Blind checked again and Minieri bet around 10,000; undeterred, Mr. Small Blind called.
They both checked the river and Mr. Small Blind tabled . It was presumably good enough to win, as Minieri mucked and dropped to 60,000.
Some loud swearing alerted us to the fact that Martin Wendt had doubled up his opponent, Wendt's pocket queens failing to hold up against when an ace came on the flop.
"Un-f***ing-believable," he growled, as he re-stacked his remaining 49,000. Such is life, Mr. Wendt, such is life.
First off, here are some randomly assorted chip counts from around the room:
Ruben Visser - 54,000
Yury Kerzhapkin - 42,000
Thomas Bichon - 18,000
Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro - 29,000
Johan van Til - 30,000
Andrew Pantling - 83,000
We walked over to check on Annette Obrestad, and she noticed us eying up her chips. She began to cut them down and count on her own. "Wow, forty!" she said, looking shocked. "I'm average!" still very surprised. It's the first time Annette's had an average stack since the first level.
As we kept walking around the room, we came upon Peter Hedlund and his healthy stack of 85,000. Just as we approached his table, a new dealer was pushing into the box, and the new guy struck up a conversation with an attractive lady on the rail. "Hey, hey," interrupted Hedlund. "Are you hitting on women or working here?"
"Both. Why?" came the reply from the dealer.
"You can do both," Hedlund joked. "With your tie, you can do both!"