Welcome back to the glamorous and sunny Casino San Remo, where things are beginning to get very serious.
After five levels of absolute carnage yesterday, only 66 players remain with the bubble well and truly history. Every player left in the field is guaranteed €13,000 now - but there's a whole world of difference between that and the €1,250,000 up for grabs for first place.
Judging by how things have been going this week, we are predicting a super-fast day. We will be playing down to 24 players today, and don't think it's going to take very long at all.
Chip leader right now is Jakob Karlsson. The young Swede leads the field on 1.8 million. However, still in contention are EP Snowfest winner Allan Bække, EPT Baden winner Thang Duc Nguyen, and serial winner of various things Nick Schulman. Play is due to start shortly, so please stand by.
Allan Baekke called a raise in the small blind from Fabrizio Ascari who had made it 45,000 on the button. The flop came and Baekke checked, Ascari quickly moved all-in, Baekke sighed, rechecked his cards and called.
Baekke:
Ascari:
The turn was the and the river meant Ascari missed his monster draw and was the first casualty of the day.
Players are wasting absolutely zero time in getting their chips in, with, naturally, varied results.
Matthias de Meulder shoved under the gun, and Joe Serock reshoved. Everyone else got out of their way, and the cards were on their backs.
De Meulder:
Serock: very ahead with
Board:
Serock's face only fell ever so slightly as de Meulder turned the straight, but we imagine that he was raging inside. Crippled to just 10,000 or so, he called all in the next hand and once Toni Pettersson had raised and everyone else had folded, they turned the cards over.
Allan Baekke put in a raise to 35,000 and Swede Erik Tamm defended from the small blind. Tamm led out for 50,000 on the flop and Baekke called. The turn was the and Tamm fired again, betting 130,000 this time. Baekke looked a little concerned, as though he was not expecting his opponent to fire again but again he made the call against the Swede. The appeared on the river and Tamm silently thought quietly for a minute.
The interesting thing at this point was that while waiting for Tamm to act, Baekke was not watching his opponent at all, just staring at vacant space as though he had already made a bet himself.
Tamm finally checked and Baekke began to eye up his opponent’s remaining stack of around 510,000. Finally he decided to bet 238,000 and Tamm quickly called, Baekke showed for a rivered straight. Baekke is now the chip leader with over 2 million chips, start making your Baekke to Baekke jokes.
Danilo D'Ettoris is out of the tournament after check-raising all-in on a board for 176,000 after Jakob Karlsson bet 56,000 on the river. With a lot in the pot, the Swede sighed and called turning over forcing D’Ettoris to tap the table and show a missed and hit the rail.
It folded around to Ondrej Vinklarek in the small blind, who announced all in. Michael Piper in the big blind eyed up the amount, and then called.
Vinklarek:
Piper:
Board:
"How can I not bink?" mused Piper, who had clearly got rather excited about the open-ended straight draw he'd picked up on the turn. Nevertheless, Vinklarek doubled up to around 550,000 while Piper dropped to 900,000 or so.
and Baekke checked, Ascari quickly moved all-in, Baekke sighed, rechecked his cards and called.
and the river 
meant Ascari missed his monster draw and was the first casualty of the day.
flop and Baekke called. The turn was the 
appeared on the river and Tamm silently thought quietly for a minute. 
for a rivered straight. Baekke is now the chip leader with over 2 million chips, start making your Baekke to Baekke jokes.
board and instead hit the rail.
and hit the rail.
