A super-short Andrea Ferrari finally made his all in move preflop when it folded to him on the button. With just 58k total, it seemed likely that this would be his moment to double or bust, but somehow big blind Emilliano Bono dodged out of the way.
"You have a monster?" Bono asked. "Ace-deuce? Ace-three?"
"Ace-banana," someone else offered.
Finally Bono let his 20k big blind go, which was slightly surprising; Ferrari now has four big blinds.
We found Manuel Bevand (big blind) checking an flop. Melanie Weisner (under the gun) bet 49,000 - but Bevand now check-raised to 130,000. A short spell in the tank later, Weisner called.
The turn was the and Bevand now bet out 180,000. Weisner gave it some though but after a while she folded, dropping to 830,000. Bevand is now up to almost a million.
Ion Pavel opened for 46,000 and Richard Toth made it 110,000 to go from the cutoff. Back to Pavel, who tanked up long enough for whole continents to rearrange themselves. Entire species became extinct before Pavel flat-called.
The flop came down and Pavel checked. Toth bet 135,000, and Pavel settled back into the tank for even longer this time. Wrinkles started to form on the attendant bloggers' faces and hands. The rest of the room zipped by as if on fast-forward. The other players at the table started flashing glances at the rail as if they might be able to do something about it. But eventually Pavel folded, and the pot went to Toth.
Rob Hollink has just locked horns with Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki and emerged with an extra 130,000 chips. Hollink opened from the cutoff to 42,000 and only Horecki in the big blind called.
Flop: - Horecki check-called a 55,000 from Hollink.
Turn: - Horecki checked but folded as Hollink kept up the aggression with a 125,000 bet.
Hungarian Team PokerStars Pro, Richard Toth may be multi-lingual but it appears that he does not speak Italian.
Over on Table 2 the action folded around to Andrea Ferrari in the small blind and he moved all-in for around 160,000 chips. Toth, in the big blind, was the only person who could call him and he sat considering making the call.
Ferrari spoke to him in Italian, prompting the dealer to enforce the "English Only" rule but Toth said he didn't understand a word his opponent said. In the end, Toth folded and Ferrari moves up to 200,000, still the shortest stack in this tournament by a long way.
Nikolay Losev started the day with 971,000 but he is now down to around half of that after the first level of play.
He has just lost another chunk of his stack after raising from the cutoff to 45,000 and then calling Peter Skripa's reraise to 145,000 from the big blind. The flop came down and Skripa lead out with a 130,000 continuation bet, a bet that Losev quickly called.
The in the turn, pairing the board, didn't seem to bother Skripa and he bet again, this time upping the amount to 250,000. After two minutes thinking time, Losev folded. A familiar action from him of late.
Skripa is now sitting on around 1,782,000 whilst Losev has dropped to 600,000
Quite a few acts of aggression preflop have built certain players' stacks recently, notably those of Richard Toth and Peter Skripka. Skripka took 45k (plus blinds and antes) with a preflop three-bet of Nikolay Losev to 130k, while Toth four-bet Jean Souleiman preflop to win an even bigger pot without the hint of a face-up card. The betting in that hand: Toth raised to 45k, Souleiman made it 90k, Toth raised to 185k and that was the end of it.
Each decision, however, is counted in the minutes rather than seconds, and there's plenty of thinking going on, flops or no flops.
button in Safari
flop. Melanie Weisner (under the gun) bet 49,000 - but Bevand now check-raised to 130,000. A short spell in the tank later, Weisner called.
and Bevand now bet out 180,000. Weisner gave it some though but after a while she folded, dropping to 830,000. Bevand is now up to almost a million.
and Pavel checked. Toth bet 135,000, and Pavel settled back into the tank for even longer this time. Wrinkles started to form on the attendant bloggers' faces and hands. The rest of the room zipped by as if on fast-forward. The other players at the table started flashing glances at the rail as if they might be able to do something about it. But eventually Pavel folded, and the pot went to Toth.
- Horecki check-called a 55,000 from Hollink.
- Horecki checked but folded as Hollink kept up the aggression with a 125,000 bet.
and Skripa lead out with a 130,000 continuation bet, a bet that Losev quickly called.
in the turn, pairing the board, didn't seem to bother Skripa and he bet again, this time upping the amount to 250,000. After two minutes thinking time, Losev folded. A familiar action from him of late.
