Particularly interesting right now is the French domination of Table 19 - Marc Inizan seems to be chip leader on 68,000 and Fabrice Soulier two seats over is just a shade behind on 65,000. The big losers at the table seem to be Fernando Brito (19,000) and Ivo Donev (just 5,000).
Ludovic Lacay now has 31,800 chips after winning a relatively straight forward pot. A player in early position opened with a raise to 550, a bet that Lacay decided to flat call from the hijack seat.
Flop: - both players checked their option and tapped the table
Turn: - Again, the initial raiser checked but Lacay was in no mood for checking back and took a stab with a 1,100 bet. The stab worked as his opponent folded, leaving Lacay to pick up the pot.
Lacay is a fantastic player, one with almost $1.8m in live tournament winnings, helped along the way by his two WSOP final tables at this year's series.
Some curiousness as EPT San Remo runner up Jakob Carlsson checked the turn of a board before calling an 800 bet from his opponent. Carlsson checked the river as well and his opponent bet another 1,100, but this time Carlsson check-raised to 4,000. His opponent tanked up for a bit and then re-popped to 11,000 - but he instantly mucked when Carlsson made the call, and Carlsson upped his stack to 44,000 without having to show his hand.
Jan Skampa has been active in the early levels, as might have been predicted by anyone who's come across the aggressive Czech pro at an EPT before. Hoping to make it a double (he won €682,200 right here last year when he took the Prague trophy) he is not, however, on a table which is failing to put up a fight. His most recent odd clash was with Hugo Lemaire, who re-raised him preflop (to 1,850). Skampa made the call while the button who had been interested in seeing a flop suddenly wasn't all that interested any more.
The flop: . Out bet Lemaire - 2,275. Skampa called after a brief hesitation period. The turn was the and now both players checked with minimum dwelling. The river brought the and a bet of 1,900 from Lemaire. This, too, Skampa called, turning over high. Lemaier showed and they chopped the pot, looking as if this was exactly what both of them had expected all along i.e. with permanently aloof expressions.
By the time we arrived at Jeff Sarwer's table, the flop read and there was 5,000 in the pot already. The two players to Sarwer's right both checked; Sarwer himself bet 3,600 from the cutoff, getting a call from one Tim Kahlmeyer in the hijack.
Heads up to the turn, Kahlmeyer checked again and Sarwer bet again, this time to the tune of 7,500. Kahlmeyer thought about it rather longer than on the flop, but eventually made the call.
The river was the , and Kahlmeyer checked again; this time the bet from Sarwer was 12,500, leaving himself just 6,500 behind. Kahlmeyer spent an impressive amount of time shaking his head and emitting various huffs and puffs until eventually he folded a set of nines. Sarwer declined to show his hand and bumped his stack up to 46,000. Kahlmeyer continued sighing long after the hand was over, and with good reason - he's down to 18,000.
Dominik Nitsche is currently sitting on a pile of chips worth 37,400 after winning a substantial pot, whilst seated in the small blind.
Joining the hand on a board reading , Nitsche bet 2,200 out of position, forcing a fold from his opponent on the button.
Nitsche burst onto the live poker scene when he won the 2009 LAPT Main Event in Mar del Plata for a cool $381,000 and since then he has added almost $500,000 more to his bankroll. His recent 23rd place finish at EPT Barcelona was followed up with an impressive final table appearance at WPT Marrakech and another third place finish in a €3,000 buy-in tournament in Spain.
The man is on form and with chips at his disposal he is a real threat in this tournament
Right at the back of the tournament area (a very large conference centre/ballroom/event cavern with plenty of room for both cash games and the EPT Main and side events) is a table shared by Joao Barbosa and Atanas Gueorguiev (the latter in position). Barbosa has $1,000,000 in tournament cashes, most of them on the EPT, including one title at EPT Warsaw in 2008 for €367,140. Most recently he won the €2,000 side event at EPT San Remo this year for another cool quarter of a million, and seems to be in good form. However the consistent Gueorguiev is going to be problematic for him - just now taking down a pot preflop with a big blind three-bet after the button had raised and Barbosa called in the small blind.
An unknown player has just scooped a rather large pot, whilst short on chips, after tangling with pros Sorel Mizzi and Marvin Rettemaier.
The action folded to our hero in the hijack and he opened the betting with a raise to 400. Next to act in the cutoff was Mizzi, who made the call, as did Rettemaier on the button. Both blinds folded.
Flop:
Our hero continued his aggression with a bet of 700 chips, a bet that Mizzi quickly and nonchalantly called by literally tossing in a single red chip. After around 20 seconds pause, Rettemaier came along for the ride too.
Turn:
After betting preflop and on the flop, our unknown hero kept his foot firmly on the gas and fired a bet of 1,200, enough to fold out Mizzi but Rettemaier looked as if he was in for the long haul as he made the call.
River:
Following on from the previous streets, the hijack bet 2,200, leaving himself less than 10,000 behind and after around a minute of thinking time, Rettemaier mucked his hand.
Whilst counting the chip stacks at the end of the hand, out hero informed Rettemaier that he had flopped a set of three, to whch Rettemaier tapped the table and acknowledged his opponent's "nice hand."
Mizzi drops to 30,000, Rettemaier to 26,800 whilst our hero moves up to 15,625