The players are dropping like flies at the moment, with a constant stream of players leaving their tables and going to collect their winnings.
Haykel Cherif Vidal raised from early position to 20,000 and then Kirill Telezhkin made a very strange play indeed. He put in a raise to 65,500, which left him with less than 5,000 chips behind! When the action folded back to Vidal he bet enough to put his opponent all in and he quite obviously called.
Vidal:
Telezhkin:
By the river the board read and Telezhkin sped away from the table and had to be caught by one of the floor staff so they could pay him his money, which stands at €9,000 at the moment
We arrived to find Melanie Weisner (big blind) betting out 16,500 on the turn, the board reading . Rasmus Nielsen (under the gun) called.
The river was the and this Weisner bet out 37,500. "Ace eight?" Nielsen enquired with a smile, but this elicited zero information from Weisner. Eventually he called, and Weisner did not turn over - instead, she turned over for the straight flush. As you do.
Micro-stacked Omri Sason has held on to his tournament life with a mini run of cards he probably wished had come back when he had 96,000 rather than 11,500 (under two big blinds). His last chips went in as a call of Denis Kipnis' preflop minraise, and the big blind came along for the ride.
Sason's tiny stack sat over the line with a Kinder MAXI on top doubling its height.
The two players with stacks behind checked quickly all the way to the river: and Sason turned up the mighty . We didn't see Kipnis' cards but they didn't beat Queens, and the big blind showed and said, "I tried!"
There seems to be a new trend of cracking aces going on in the poker room today, the latest victim of this being Tayfeh Sokor Mohsen Jalal who just had them cracked by Salvatore Irachi, on the very last hand before the break.
Jalal opened the betting under the gun with a min-raise to 12,000, everyone folded around to Ronan Monfort in the small blind who made it 28,500 to play. Irachi, in the big blind, moved all in and was instantly called by Jalal, though Monfort folded.
Irachi:
Jalal:
The very first card out on the flop was the , prompting some sort of whooping noise from the man with the set of fives, the other two flop cards were by the way.
The turn was the and when the peeled off on the river and completed the hand, Jalal headed for the rail whilst the rest of the players went on a 15 minute break.
Paul Knebel opened to 14,000 and Francisco Torres in the small blind pushed his whole stack and his little toy train card protector into the middle. To his left in the big blind, Josh Prager announced, "Um, I make it... I min-raise this one," indicating Torres' stack. Knebel fodled, and they were on their backs.
Torres:
Prager:
Board:
The pot and the train headed back to Torres, who is back in the game on 180,000.
Filip Nechansky got it in good with from the small blind against big blind Sergio Rodriguez Sanchez' pocket , but it worked out badly for him in the end as the board ran out and he hit the rail. Sanchez moved up to 250,000.
Besim Hot has not been able to live up to his name sake and is now outside in the cold after being eliminated from this tournament.
Team PokerStars pro Richard Toth opened with a raise to 13,000 from early position and this was met with a re-raise to 50,000 from Hot in the cutoff seat. Paul Knebel, on the button, asked Hot for a count and when he was informed he had 118,000, Knebel moved all in. Toth quickly folded but Hot stuck around and made the call for his tournament life.
Knebel:
Hot:
The final board ran out and Hot was eliminated and the €640,000 first prize draws a little closer for the rest of the players
button in Safari
and Telezhkin sped away from the table and had to be caught by one of the floor staff so they could pay him his money, which stands at €9,000 at the moment
. Rasmus Nielsen (under the gun) called.
and this Weisner bet out 37,500. "Ace eight?" Nielsen enquired with a smile, but this elicited zero information from Weisner. Eventually he called, and Weisner did not turn over 
- instead, she turned over 
for the straight flush. As you do.
and said, "I tried!"
by the way.
peeled off on the river and completed the hand, Jalal headed for the rail whilst the rest of the players went on a 15 minute break.
from the small blind against big blind Sergio Rodriguez Sanchez' pocket 
, but it worked out badly for him in the end as the board ran out 
and he hit the rail. Sanchez moved up to 250,000.
