It looked as though Sami Kelopuro raised from the cutoff and Yevgeniy Timoshenko shoved from the big blind; either way, classic cooler, here we come...
Timoshenko:
Kelopuro:
Board:
The king on the river was just salt in the wound for Timoshenko, who busted just a few places off the money. Kelopuro was up to 560,000 after that.
Ake Olsson is the unfortunate person to play the longest in the tournament yet leave with an empty wallet.
The Swede was short-stacked and pushed all-in for 15,500 from the small blind. Giles Haddad made a fairly automatic call from the big blind and the crowd dashed over from the Rui Cao hand to this table.
Tournament Director Thomas Kremser made his way through the crowd to announce the bubble.
"The all-in player shows and he has been called by ..."
The crowd sensed it was not much more than a coinflip and they cheered when the flop came out .
"The has hit two pair," Kremser continued with cold efficiency, "the all-in player needs running cards to stay alive."
The turn prompted a few "Oohs" and "Aahs" as now any Queen, Jack or Five would save Olsson from elimination.
But the river was the and a mixtures of cheers and applause filled the room as Olssn was officially confirmed as the 129th place finisher.
We're now playing out the rest of the level before finishing for the night.
No quads and no shouting this time, but Nathan Tuthill is still running well.
Rui Cao opened for 13,000 under the gun and Tuthill made it 28,500 behind. The short-stacked gent in the small blind shoved for his last 59,000, Cao folded, and Tuthill made the call.
Showdown.
Tuthill:
Small Blind Shortie:
Board:
With that, another one bit the proverbial tournament dust and Tuthill took possession of his chips.
We've managed to lose another seven players since the bubble burst, and Mr. Thomas Kremser has ordered the clock paused as we deal the last three hands of the night.
We came back today with 413 players and didn't really expect even to make the money, but in the event we smashed that bubble at 128th place in no time at all. After seven levels the number on the board when we went to our last three hands was 117, meaning that somewhere in the region of probably 115 will be returning tomorrow when we start to battle it out for the serious money.
Chip leader as we head into Day 3 seems to be Nick Schulman, who wrote the princely sum of 742,500 on his bag as he headed to bed. Close behind him, though, are Jean Francois Talbot on 635,000 and David Sesso on 642,000, and among those still in the running are Vicky Coren, Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro and Chris Moneymaker.
Players, press and tournament staff alike are now heading to their respective hotels and slumping into their respective beds after a long and intense day of poker, but we'll be back here in the Salle des Etoiles tomorrow at noon CET to see how this turns out. 'Til then from Monte Carlo it's bon nuit et au revoir.