Being a true gentleman, Mr. Govert Metaal, who recently and spectacularly doubled through Peter Hedlund, bought the Swede a €200 bottle of wine to make up for it.
Hedlund was not interested in the sandwiches that casino staff brought him by way of apology for their slowness in delivering his booze and instead he distributed them among players at the surrounding tables, all presumably hungry owing to the absence of a dinner break today.
No Blain, no gain
We caught up with Dermot Blain on the turn of the board, just in time to witness him check-calling a bet from Mauro Cracolici. They saw a river and again Blain checked; Cracolici bet again, this time to the tune of 26,000 and leaving himself just 50,000 behind.
Blain tanked up for an age before eventually folding. "I had an ace," he told Cracolici as the pot headed the Italian's way. No feeling sorry for Blain, though - he's still on a very hefty 380,000 after that.
Liz Lieu raised preflop to 8,000 and Fabio Salvatore Di Stefano reraised all-in for 21,200 in total. An automatic call when it came back to Lieu as she tabled to his for a bit of 57/43 action. The board came and Di Stefano doubled up to about 50,000, still rather short. Lieu takes a knock but she still has about 80,000 or so.
Steve 'gboro780' Gross thought for a little while on the turn of a board while facing a 22,000 bet from Maurizio Baravalle. Gross folded face up and Baravalle reciprocated, flashing to his American opponent.
Alexander Roumeliotis raised only for Jeroen Brokkar to shove from the button and Peter Krikkay to reshove from the small blind. Big blind Humberto Brenes got out of their way and, eventually, so did Roumeliotis. On their backs.
Brokkar:
Krikkay:
Brokkar doubled to a very respectable 175,000, while Krikkay dropped to 60,000 - just 20 big blinds.
With around 100,000 in the pot by the time we arrived on the river of the board, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier bet 44,400. Across the table, Luca Ascani checked his hole cards and dwelled up. He counted out the call and put it to one side, then mentally assessed the size of ElkY's remaining stack (105,000) and then dwelled up some more.
"Either you are bluffing or you are lucky," he told ElkY. Actually that seems to sum up an awful lot of situations in poker as a whole. But we digress. Ascani continued to tank, and eventually got involved in some kind of discussion with Michel Abecassis that resulted in the floor being called (presumably Abecassis called time at some point during the discussion) but before the floorman had got there, Ascani had called.
ElkY turned over . "Ahhhh!" said Ascani as though suddenly everything made sense. He mucked.
With that, ElkY is back in serious contention with 295,000.
board, just in time to witness him check-calling a bet from Mauro Cracolici. They saw a 
river and again Blain checked; Cracolici bet again, this time to the tune of 26,000 and leaving himself just 50,000 behind.
against Maurizio Baravalle's 
.
for a bit of 57/43 action. The board came 
and Di Stefano doubled up to about 50,000, still rather short. Lieu takes a knock but she still has about 80,000 or so.
board while facing a 22,000 bet from Maurizio Baravalle. Gross folded 
face up and Baravalle reciprocated, flashing 
to his American opponent.
board, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier bet 44,400. Across the table, Luca Ascani checked his hole cards and dwelled up. He counted out the call and put it to one side, then mentally assessed the size of ElkY's remaining stack (105,000) and then dwelled up some more. 
. "Ahhhh!" said Ascani as though suddenly everything made sense. He mucked.
