Back out we go on to the balcony with our cameras and our sunglasses and whatnot. When we return we will be playing just two more levels before calling it a day.
Yury Kerzhapkin just flopped a double up courtesy of his big blind with which he'd presumably called the early-position preflop raise of Martin Wendt. The board fit him like a glove - - and his straight move all in for just under 15k on the flop was called by Wendt who tabled and then made a noise like a kettle hissing as he saw the turn and river brick and most of his stack go to his right. Not best pleased, and now with just 8k, two hands later Wendt got a few chips back when Kerzhapkin raised to 1,025 on the button but passed when the big blind Dane moved in.
Alexander Dovzhenko made an opening raise which Jose Maria de Noronha flat-called. On the button, Dario Minieri reraised. Dovzhenko folded and de Noronha flat-called again.
They saw a flop which de Noronha checked. Minieri pushed an apparently random collection of chips across the line, which on close inspection turned out to be 4,950 in value. We had time to conduct this inspection because de Noronha spent some time sitting back in his chair, wondering what to do. Eventually he folded.
"Why didn't you reraise me?" Minieri asked him in his frankly fantastic heavy Italian cadences.
"Next time I reraise all in," promised de Noronha. They both laughed. Minieri was not done with his lesson in how to play cards, though.
"You raise and I reraise and you call," ("You RISE an I RERISE an you COLL,") "You raise and I reraise and you call again. Three-bet!"
Self proclaimed Crazy Italian Fabrizio Ascari has barely stopped talking (to himself, opponents, the dealer) since the start of play today and is never far from the action either. Just now he had to interrupt himself mid-flow - in Spanish no less - "Oh - I raise!" to up it to 800 preflop. Button Dempsey made the call as did the silent big blind. This of course sparked him off:
"Uh oh - just a call. Is this a problem for you? Or a problem for me?"
"A problem for you," replied a confident Dempsey.
The flop was the and instantly Ascari bet 5k when the big blind checked. Dempsey: "What would happen if I go all in?" - but this was sort of drowned by Ascari telling him repeatedly, "I don't have a Queen. He (the BB) has a Queen but I don't have a Queen. How much do you have? I don't have a Queen."
Finally Dempsey just threw in 15k getting a pass from the big blind who evidently did not have a Queen, and from Ascari too, who showed him saying what sounded like a weird toast: "Very good hand to you! I don't have a Queen!"
"You don't lie," admitted Dempsey, raking in the pot. He was given a warning finger: "Only one, eh, only one!" And the next hand progressed to the accompaniment of hearty Italian laughter which appears to be infectious.
It's all going rather swimmingly for the two Team PokerStars Pros at the top of the chip counts.
Arnaud Mattern has increased his stack to 99,000 after calling a 3-bet with suited and proceeding to check-raise his opponent's 2,800 bet on a board to 6,200. The latter moved all-in with , Mattern made the obligatory call and his two pair held on the turn and river.
Meanwhile Dario Minieri has broken the 100,000 chip barrier very early after an insanely odd hand. Minieri had raised to 800 from UTG with one caller before José Vicente Besalduch reraised to 2,900 from the big blind. Minieri called while the other player folded and the dealer put out a flop.
Besalduch bet 5,000 and Minieri moved all-in, the Spaniard tanked before calling all-in for his remaining 16,000.
Minieri: for trips.
Besalduch: Err... for a gutshot but actually already drawing dead bar perfect perfect for a straight flush.
The gave Minieri a full house but an actual glimmer of hope as Besalduch now had improved to actually having an out.
But sadly for Besalduch, the tree of hope that had suddenly sprung up was equally quickly chopped down on the river.
Minieri moved up to 105,000; elsewhere across the room Antonio Esfandiari is in possession of a similar amount.
Vicky Coren, not sitting idly by, has been recently involved in a stack-halving sort of pot after giving it three barrels of bluff but failing to dislodge Alexandru Cezarescu. She'd raised preflop (to 700), bet out 1,500 on the flop, and again (3,500) on the turn. It took Cezarescu a little more time to call this bet, and action slowed further as the fell on the river.
"I honestly don't know whether to bet or not," admitted UK Pokerstars Team Pro Coren, before settling on Yes and throwing out 6k (leaving herself 10,425 behind). Over to Cezarescu, who gave this one some more lengthy thought - but finally called.
"If you call, you must win," said Coren, or words to that effect, showing for just a pair of fives. She mentioned she'd been considering his holding the flush draw, and that's precisely what he had, but his was also a pair of Aces and good to take down the decent pot and leave her with just over the old-school EPT starting stack (10k).
Our friends at PokerStars would like everyone to know that the EPT Facebook group is now an EPT Facebook page! No, we don't really know what the difference is either, but it's full of fun EPT-related stuff, and it's well worth having a peek and hitting the little thumbs up button on there.
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
with which he'd presumably called the early-position preflop raise of Martin Wendt. The board fit him like a glove - 
- and his straight move all in for just under 15k on the flop was called by Wendt who tabled 
and then made a noise like a kettle hissing as he saw the turn and river brick and most of his stack go to his right. Not best pleased, and now with just 8k, two hands later Wendt got a few chips back when Kerzhapkin raised to 1,025 on the button but passed when the big blind Dane moved in.
flop which de Noronha checked. Minieri pushed an apparently random collection of chips across the line, which on close inspection turned out to be 4,950 in value. We had time to conduct this inspection because de Noronha spent some time sitting back in his chair, wondering what to do. Eventually he folded.
and instantly Ascari bet 5k when the big blind checked. Dempsey: "What would happen if I go all in?" - but this was sort of drowned by Ascari telling him repeatedly, "I don't have a Queen. He (the BB) has a Queen but I don't have a Queen. How much do you have? I don't have a Queen."
saying what sounded like a weird toast: "Very good hand to you! I don't have a Queen!"
suited and proceeding to check-raise his opponent's 2,800 bet on a 
river.
flop.
for trips.
for a gutshot but actually already drawing dead bar perfect perfect for a straight flush.
river.
for just a pair of fives. She mentioned she'd been considering his holding the flush draw, and that's precisely what he had, but his 
was also a pair of Aces and good to take down the decent pot and leave her with just over the old-school EPT starting stack (10k).