Constantin Raducan opened for 26,000 under the gun and to his immediate left Salvatore Bonavena called. Ion Pavel called on the button as well, and they went three-way to the flop.
Flop:
Raducan bet out 43,000, but Sal Bon promptly raised to 109,000. Pavel tanked up for some minutes and counted out his chips in a manner that made it look as though he might go all in - but in the end he folded. Back to Raducan, who now folded in disgust, and he was shown pocket by Bonavena.
Raducan dropped to 200,000, Bonavena moved on up to 550,000.
Guillaume Darcourt (who spent much of the last level with his sweater over his head) has made a great comeback in the last twenty minutes, rising to over 280,000 after making a call all-in vs. Jan Bendik (and rising further in subsequent hands). The big decision against Bendik came on the turn with the board standing . Bendik had immediately moved all in and Darcourt on the button had a long think about it before committing the rest of his stack.
He had a pair: . Bendik had picked up the biggest drawing card with the Jack, holding . A sweat then, for the river, which was giving Darcourt a new lease of life and Bendik a deep frown.
Luca Pagano has been eliminated at the hands of Melanie Weisner, to record a record 17 cashes on the European Poker Tour.
Finding himself short-stacked, Pagano open-shoved on the button for around 65,000 chips with and Weisner called in the big blind with . Although Pagano spiked a five on the flop, the rest of the board was no help to him and he will have to wait until next year for his first EPT win.
Pagano's first EPT cash as back in 2004 when he came third at EPT Barcelona, the first of his six EPT final tables. An amazing record by any standard. GG Mr Pagano
What a crazy end to a hand which started fairly tamely. Rob Hollink had raised preflop (as is happening more and more now that he's a big stack) to 23,000 and Kaspars Renga called all-in. Now over to Liviu Ignat in the big blind, who repopped it (61k). Hollink called instantly, and they saw a flop of .
Into the small but already present side pot, Ignat bet out 51,000. Hollink expressionlessly called. The turn brought the and another bet out from Ignat, this time 115,000.
Hollink instacalled.
The river was the . Now came the biggest dwell of the day, after Ignat checked Hollink immediately moved in. Ignat was covered, but still had 270,000 to play with. He sat thinking for over eight minutes before finally letting his hand go.
The large side pot went to Hollink who showed down . He now has over 800k.
"I've only looked at one," admitted Renga - the - but he had the with it to make the straight and stay alive.
A reliable informant closer to Ignat's side of the table let us know that he had been thinking, all that time, of calling with Ace high. Which would have won.
Short-stacked for some time, Marc Gork finally kicked the tournament bucket with against Salvatore Bonavena's . The board ran out and Sal Bon is at a roughly average 400,000. The 2008 EPT Prague champion has come close to a second title before - 11th at Monte Carlo last season was his next best EPT result - and he looks very comfortable as the money starts to get really interesting.
Another hand, another elimination, this time Ruslan Prydryk is the man heading for the rail, all thanks to Dutchman Rob Hollink.
From under the gun Hollink made it 23,000 to play, his standard raise during this level and something he has been doing a lot too may I add. Despite him being very active the entire table folded around to Prydryk in the small blind, who took a second peek of his hole cards and moved all in for a total of 116,000 chips.
Liviu Ignat sat riffling chips for over a minute as if he was going to call, though he does this every single hand anyway, before he folded, leaving Hollink to announce he was calling.
Hollink:
Prydryk:
The flop missed both players but Hollink picked up a gutshot straight draw to go with his two overcards. The turn was the , completing Hollink's straight and rendering the on the river meaningless.
With that the tournament is down to 44 players and Mr Hollink finds himself with a healthy stack of around 700,000
Some poor luck for Marius Heiene as he found pocket right at the same time that Nikolay Losev woke up with . The chips went in, Heiene busted out, and Losev is now flying high on 870,000.
Mikhail Lakhitov open-shoved from the cutoff with and got looked up by Kiril Zahariev in the big blind holding . First card out of the deck was a king, and Lakhitov gets €10,000 while Zahariev ploughs on with 360,000.
The ever-popular Rob Hollink has just added more than 100,000 chips to his stack by giving Denis Kipnis a taste of his own medicine.
Early today Hollink raised a Kipnis bet only for Kipnis to insta-shove over the top of it, causing Hollink to fold and see Kipnis show . But in a recent hand, Hollink didn't show is cards but still won a nice pot.
Hollink opened the betting with a 23,000 bet from the cutoff and only Kipnis in the big blind called. The flop of was met with a check from Kipnis, a 34,000 bet from Hollink and a quick check-raise to 80,000 from Kipnis. Hollink instantly moved all in and just as quickly, Kipnis folded
Under the gun perma-shortstack Ronan Monfort just shipped it in (95k) under the gun and sat back to wait and see if anyone called. It folded round to small blind Roberto Romanello, who thought briefly before re-raising all in to get rid of the big blind.
Romanello:
Monfort:
Board: . Monfort goes from reporting on the action to being in the thick of it.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
in disgust, and he was shown pocket 
by Bonavena.
. Bendik had immediately moved all in and Darcourt on the button had a long think about it before committing the rest of his stack.
. Bendik had picked up the biggest drawing card with the Jack, holding 
. A sweat then, for the river, which was 
giving Darcourt a new lease of life and Bendik a deep frown.
. Although Pagano spiked a five on the flop, the rest of the board was no help to him and he will have to wait until next year for his first EPT win.
.
. Now came the biggest dwell of the day, after Ignat checked Hollink immediately moved in. Ignat was covered, but still had 270,000 to play with. He sat thinking for over eight minutes before finally letting his hand go.
- but he had the 
with it to make the straight and stay alive.
against Salvatore Bonavena's 
. The board ran out 
, completing Hollink's straight and rendering the 
on the river meaningless.
. First card out of the deck was a king, and Lakhitov gets €10,000 while Zahariev ploughs on with 360,000.
. But in a recent hand, Hollink didn't show is cards but still won a nice pot.
was met with a check from Kipnis, a 34,000 bet from Hollink and a quick check-raise to 80,000 from Kipnis. Hollink instantly moved all in and just as quickly, Kipnis folded
. Monfort goes from reporting on the action to being in the thick of it.