Marcin Horecki has taken a significant chunk out of Guillaume Darcourt - well, more significant for Horecki than for Darcourt, but a decent sized pot nonetheless. We only caught the tail end of it, but the board was jack-high, Darcourt held and Horecki held . The Team PokerStars Pro is up to around 60,000.
Decision time for Martin Kabrhel just now, as his preflop open (1,225) found a short stack on the button moving in for 13,725 and then Andreas Chalkiadakis following his lead with an all-in over the top for 32,200. Although comfortably covering them both, Kabrhel took a while to make what looked like a tough decision. Finally he folded and let both players show down - although facing the in his opponent's hand, Chalkiadakis had an uncomfortable flop and turn as three hearts threatened a beat.
The fourth stayed away, however, and the two all-in shovers chopped the pot while Kabrhel sort of giggled to himself, implied to Chalkiadakis that he'd let them both live by folding, then stood up and walked over to the table next door where Jan Skampa was sitting and talked at incredible speed at him for half a minute.
Guillaume Darcourt is very definitely our chip leader right now. After those three monstrous pots that sent Jeff Sarwer to the rail, Darcourt called Marcin Horecki's 1,300 raise and then another 1,500 on the flop. They checked down the turn and river and Darcourt took the pot with . He's now on 145,000.
"I had a six," giggled Horecki, then added, "Your kicker beat me," suggesting that he'd had an ace with his six. He didn't show though. Our one and only Team PokerStars Pro is at 33,000.
Sorel Mizzi's Main Event is over and done with, in rather unspectacular style. We joined the table as Mizzi was putting in his last 300 chips, not even enough to make up his 600 big blind! Marc Inizan called and when everyone else folded the players revelaed their hands.
Inizan :
Mizzi:
A jack of diamonds on the flop was more than enough to dispatch the Canadian pro, who vacated his seat and found another just outside the tournament area so that he could finish off his massage.
Matt Widdoes has been on the rollercoaster today, his stack first rocketing upwards, then dropping abruptly in a series of steep falls, before coasting for a short while and finally shooting back up. The last rise came from a straight preflop all-in double through with vs. the of Oskar Ojaveer. No help for the slick on the board and Widdoes is back to 72,000, while Ojaveer drops to just over 40,000.
Atanas Gueorguiev, occupier of the number one spot in the Bulgarian all-time money list, has taken a bit of a hit. He bet out 4,000 on the river of a board and presumably wasn't expecting a call; still, he got one, and discovered that his was no match for his opponent's two pair. Gueorguiev dropped to 29,000, back below the starting stack, and immediately commenced texting someone - presumably telling Bulgaria the bad news.
If Kevin MacPhee takes any more notes then someone in the press room is going to have to give him a notepad to jot his thoughts down in, as he must be running out of space to write anything.
He has just raised to 1,325 from under the gun and then folded when he saw Vitaly Lunkin raise to 4,000 and then the big blind make ot 12,200 to play. This even priced Lunkin out of the pot and as he folded he waved around as if he had just folded kings preflop.
Meanwhile, the studious MacPhee continued jotting down his thoughts on his opponent's play.
Philipp Steiner and Fredrik Forsell have been battling quite regularly - it seems that since the start of the tournament they (the 4 and 6 seats on their table) have been in an interesting hand almost every orbit. They built another big pot heads up just now, with the bet on the turn being around 8k (it was being drawn in as we arrived). This was on the turn, the board .
The river paired the and Forsell checked. Steiner bet 16,300. This card seemed to hold Forsell's horses for a while, but he eventually called with what had been the nuts on the turn: . It was still the best hand - Steiner tabled for the rivered trips. Advantage Forsell...
and Horecki held 
in his opponent's hand, Chalkiadakis had an uncomfortable flop and turn as three hearts threatened a beat.
flop. They checked down the 
turn and 
river and Darcourt took the pot with 
. He's now on 145,000.
vs. the 
board and Widdoes is back to 72,000, while Ojaveer drops to just over 40,000.
board and presumably wasn't expecting a call; still, he got one, and discovered that his 
.
for the rivered trips. Advantage Forsell...