Mr. Walthaus raised to 800 under the gun and got a call from Erik Tamm.
Walthaus bet out on the flop and again on the turn; both times Tamm flatted. When they reached the river, Walthaus checked and Tamm put in a considerable bet - perhaps 8,000. Walthaus squinted and squirmed and finally made the call - and was rewarded when his pocket threes turned out to be good to beat Tamm's . Wow.
After that very excellent call, Walthaus is up to 55,000.
We just caught the tail end of a pot between fellow-Danes Peter Eastgate and Martin Skanborg. The two played it relatively slow, building a small pot of just over 4,000 chips on a board that came , putting a full house on board.
When the last card hit the board, Skanborg checked it over, and Eastgate paused for a long moment before checking it back. Skanborg flashed and almost mucked his quads before the dealer reminded him to table his hand to win the pot. He did that, and the two men exchanged a few good-natured remarks in their native tongue as the chips went to Skanborg.
Toni Ojala opened for 825 and got one caller to see the flop. Ojala bet out 1,150, and his undeterred opponent made the call.
The turn was the and Ojala now opted to check-call the 2,700 bet from his opponent, and when the fourth heart came on the river in the shape of the they both checked. Ojala half-heartedly flipped - but once his opponent had quietly mucked, Ojala took the pot and boosted his stack to 38,000.
Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy came back from the dinner break carrying with him a big queso-burger and fries on a plate - and was promptly sent to the rail by one of the TDs. "You have just had a one hour dinner break," said the TD. "There is no food in the tournament area."
Collopy duly took his burger to the rail and returned sans snacks, deciding it wasn't worth missing any more play after missing the first couple of levels today. He continues without his greasy sustenance.
On the last hand before dinner, Sebastian Ruthenberg managed to get himself rather involved, and came out on top to bump his stack up to 70,000 as everyone else headed for the door.
The flop read by the time we got there and Ruthenberg, in the under-the-gun position, bet out 1,700. The gentleman in the hijack attempted to less-than-minimum raise; he was put right. Two other players folded, but Ruthenberg made the call and they continued heads-up to the turn.
Ruthenberg checked and his opponent bet 3,500. Very calmly, Ruthenberg called and they saw a river.
The river came down the and Ruthenberg now bet out 3,700. His opponent looked irked but decided not to risk anything before dinner. He folded. and Ruthenberg is up to 70,000.
With that oh-so-familiar EPT music now firmly stuck in our heads, the fourth level of Day 1b has concluded. The players are headed off for their one-hour dinner break, and we'll be doing the same. We'll be back right around 7:30 to get back down to business.
We were parked near Table Rutter for a few minutes trying to catch a hand in progress. As the chips were pushed to one of the players on the far end of the table, Peter Hedlund came breezing past the table at a half-galloping pace. Hedlund played his opening flight yesterday, and he's back to check on his mates here just before dinner.
Without slowing down at all, Hedlund chatted to Rutter on his way past. "Keep working, guys! We have been drinking!" And with that, he was off to the other side of the room.
The table chuckled together, and Rutter piped up. "That's better. He was sober earlier today. It was all wrong."
Viktor "Don't-Call-Me-Isildur1" Blom is conspicuously absent from his chair. The few chips he had left are gone too, and we don't see him lurking anywhere else amongst the field. We think it's pretty safe to say the mysterious Blom has been eliminated.