We walked up to table 11 to see a preflop all in with Paulino Subtil's remaining 10,900 chips piled in front of him. He had been called down by an opponent with a covering stack, and Subtil's plight was not a good one:
Subtil:
Opponent:
The at-risk player was standing from his chair and backing his way toward the door at the sight of the two black aces. The news would get better by the time the river rolled around, though. The dealer ran out a board of . Four hearts plus the queen of hearts equals a flush and a double up for Subtil.
Joris Fontaine was down to his last few chips when he moved all in after a raise and a call. The original raiser declined to call the extra several thousand, but James Sudworth was more than happy to take on Fontaine. Joris started to get up when he saw the hands:
Fontaine:
Sudworth:
"Not yet," said Sudworth, perhaps sealing his own fate.
The made-to-order Aces cracker: .
Queens full gave a somewhat apologetic Fontaine 14,000 to stack.
Alain Taieb raised to 4,000 in the cutoff, but was most put out to find Julien Lang Van making it 16,000 behind. He duly folded, and Lang Van looked most cheerful.
Heads-up do-weller Vladimir Geshkenbein raised to 2,100 in the cutoff and Rui Cao called on the button. Over to small blind Luke Marsh, who moved all in. A speedy call from Geshkenbein, an equally speedy fold from Cao, and a showdown.
Geshkenbein: a pretty premium
Marsh: a rather less premium but still very live
Board:
Marsh doubles up, but no feeling sorry for Geshkenbein! He's still on an extremely chip-leady sort of 150,000 after that.
Rui Cao
Vladamir Geshkenbein appears to be the top stack in the room right now with about 155,000, but he's got his work cut out holding on to them with the aggressive Rui Cao to his left. Just a few moments ago, we caught them involved in a small pot that's a microcosm of what's going on over there.
Geshkenbein was the preflop raiser, and Cao had called with one other player. The flop brought out , and Geshkenbein fired out 4,500 chips as a continuation bet. Cao quickly called as the third player folded, and the two men went heads up the rest of the way.
The turn and river came and went pretty uneventfully, though, as both men checked through the and .
"I have nothing," said Geshkenbein, tabling . Cao showed up , and his aces and eights win him the small pot.
Joris Fontaine couldn't pull off another miracle against James Sudworth. Fontaine got what was left of his money in with offsuit against Sudworth's pocket jacks, and this time, the overpair held. Sudworth hasn't been faring well since Fontaine cracked his Aces last level. After busting Joris, Sudworth has just over 18,000.
Pierre Neuville
We stopped in to check on Pierre Neuville only to stumble on another man occupying his seat. A quick swivel around the room found Neuville lurking along the rail, relaying his plight to a group of his friends in his native French.
I don't speak a bit of French, but it's safe to say Neuville has been éliminé.
. Four hearts plus the queen of hearts equals a flush and a double up for Subtil.
, and Geshkenbein fired out 4,500 chips as a continuation bet. Cao quickly called as the third player folded, and the two men went heads up the rest of the way.
.
. Cao showed up 
, and his aces and eights win him the small pot.
offsuit against Sudworth's pocket jacks, and this time, the overpair held. Sudworth hasn't been faring well since Fontaine cracked his Aces last level. After busting Joris, Sudworth has just over 18,000.
