We picked up heavy action on a flop of . Alain Roy and Lucien Berrebi checked, and the third player stuck out a bet of 2,600. The fourth player in the hand made the call, and Roy did as well. When it came back to Berrebi, though, he announced a check-raise to 17,000. That was enough to fold the initial bettor, but Mr. #4 called all in for his last 12,500 chips. Roy folded away too, showing as he did. With a player at risk, the cards were turned up:
Barrebi:
Opponent: and a look of utter disgust.
The player with the overpair was still drawing to two outs, but not for long. The hit fourth street, ending all of the drama right there. It's hard to beat quads, and Barrebi has notched another knockout. He's up to about 80,000 right now, and appears to be the big stack in the room.
A few hands ago, Willy Korchia flopped a set of queens on an A-Q-T board. He would double up through Adam Lounis, a PokerStars sponsored player who was stuck with pocket tens and bottom set.
Just now, Korchia got the rest of Lounis' chips in sick fashion. Three players were involved in a preflop raising war, but the monkey in the middle was smart enough to duck out and let Korchia and Lounis go at it once again. With all of the chips in the middle of the table, the cards were on their backs:
Lounis:
Korchia:
The flop was a huge sweat for both men as it came out . Korchia had found his set, but he'd need to fade the two aces plus the nine remaining hearts in the deck to win the pot. The turn was a safe , though, and the on the river sealed the deal. The dealer counted down both stacks and gave the unfortunate news to Lounis: "Covered."
The frustrated young man made his way slowly to the rail as his day is already over.
Rui Cao raised to 475 under the gun and picked up calls from Anatoly Gurtovoy on the button and also Fabian Gentile in the big blind.
This seemed very exciting, but all three checked the flop, and come the turn it checked to Gurtovoy, who bet 650. Cao made the call and they moved, heads-up, on to the river, which both players checked again. There followed a brief argument over who should turn their cards over first, and in the end Cao turned over . Gurtovoy mucked, and Cao made a small recovery to 23,000.
Vlad "Vlad From Ukraine" Zguba has suffered a hit, calling a big bet from Sounder Cannoussamy on the river of a board - but Cannoussamy turned over and Zguba mucked, leaving himself with 18,000.
Alain Roy opened the pot to 600 from middle position, and he was called by the small blind to go heads up the rest of the way.
The dealer ran out a flop of , and both men checked. The on the turn drew another check from the small blind, and Roy figured it was time to bet 800. His opponent quickly called, and the filled out the board. Roy put out 1,500 chips this time, and his opponent check-called on the river as well.
Roy tabled for top two, and it was good enough to earn him the pot. He's up to about 37,000 at the moment, and we've just realized he's sitting at a table with another gregarious Frenchman, Antonin Teisseire. Roy and Teisseire have shared the felt before -- most notably at the 2008 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event where they both made the final table.
We've played two levels of poker, and we're 2/9ths of the way done with the day as a result. This calls for a celebratory break of 15 minutes. Back shortly.
We arrived tableside to witness an enormous and mysterious pot taking place.
With the flop reading and a fair few chips in the middle already, Cyril Berdah bet out 2,000 and was swiftly called by Vasily Dovedov on his immediate left.
They saw a turn and this time Berdah checked. Dovedov bet out 4,600 without hesitation, and after a while Berdah passed.