The blinds getting up over 300/600 means that we've now started to see short stacks moving in, or doing so over the top of a pesky preflop raiser. Also confrontations between averagely stacked opponents can quickly snowball into stack-engulfers and the last 15 minutes have seen practically every table experience fewer flops.
Looking round the room it appears that Tom Marchese is out, as Claudio Checchi is now in his seat. He just re-raised Joaquin Culebras off preflop making it 5500, while simultaneously on the next table along Rob Hollink was button three-betting Andrew Malott off his initial 1,600. Hollink, meanwhile, is in the running for Grinder of the Day as he appeared to start the day with 18k, and keep on trucking with 40-80% of the EPT starting stack all day long.
Max Lykov has been having a fine old time since he burst on to the scene last summer, coming third in the WSOP $5,000 Shootout and, of course, taking the top spot at EPT Kyiv. He came 13th at EPT Snowfest, came fifth in the €5,000 Heads Up event at Monte Carlo, and had three respectable cashes at this year's WSOP.
Although he is not among our chip leaders, Lykov has been steadily grinding all day and is now up to 52,000. Most recently we witnessed him take down a pretty big pot with a 6,250 bet in mid position on a board. His opponent on the button folded and looked rather dejected about it. 52,000 is right about average now, and it wouldn't surprise us if he goes on to make a deep run in this here EPT.
Jeff Sarwer has been knocked out, he pushed all-in with over the top of Lothar Maier's raise but got called by the German's and couldn't extricate himself from the coinflippy situation he was in on a board.
Also eliminated are Carlos Mortensen and former EPT Prague winner Jan Skampa.
We have just realised that we have gone almost a whole day with EPT San Remo winner Liv Boeree in the field and never managed to find an excuse to publish a photo of her. Truth is we haven't seen her do that much today - and indeed, she is on a just-slightly-over-starting-st ack 35,000.
Estonian player Henri Kasper is rather happy right now, he was just all-in preflop with against Timo Pfuetzenreuter's but the board came and Kasper doubled up to 29,000 with Pfuetzenreuter dropping to 23,500. He's probably the biggest name in the tournament though, 15 letters!
So suggested Jeff Sarwer as a bizarre board came out for heads up players William Thorson and Giacomo Maisto to ponder - the flop, on which Maisto bet out 1,500 and Thorson called, on the turn which saw no action (but a query from Thorson: "What do you have, seven-three?"). This was clearly not the case, as the river brought the fourth .
Now out bet Maisto, 5k out of his remaining 15k or so. Now Thorson talked to himself for a while.
"I don't have an Ace, I'll tell you right now," he began, before starting to talk himself into doing something or other. "One part of me believes you..." he continued.
Now Maisto piped up, "You have a lot of chips, call!" and this seemed to have the opposite effect. "You should have said fold," he reasoned, "Then I call you." But he folded and then pestered Maisto to show him one card - "The worse one."
Maisto obliged with the and Thorson said, "I could beat that," before letting that smallish pot drift away.
Meanwhile tablemate Jeff Sarwer seemed rather excited by the table quads, saying, "High card! It's like Casino War!"
Ivo Donev has now just doubled up against Dani Vargas, it looked like all the money went in on the flop with Donev holding and Vargas looking for one of a multitude of outs holding .
The turn and river stayed red and paint free with the and appearing and Donev doubled up to 40,000. Vargas dropped to just 5,000.
The rollercoaster day experienced by Pokerstars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu has finally come to an end, the safety harness has risen and he has followed the Exit signs out of the tournament.
At one point with over 55k, the last levels had not been kind to him, and at last count he was down around 25k. Further than that, we expect, when a preflop raising war vs. Ivo Donev (him under the gun to 1,325, re-raise to 7k, move in, call) saw his stack at risk with vs. . The bigger pair stayed in front, and abruptly that was the end of Negreanu, who beat a swift retreat. No photos in the gift shop, though, this is Portugal.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
board. His opponent on the button folded and looked rather dejected about it. 52,000 is right about average now, and it wouldn't surprise us if he goes on to make a deep run in this here EPT.
over the top of Lothar Maier's raise but got called by the German's 
board.
against Timo Pfuetzenreuter's 
but the board came 
and Kasper doubled up to 29,000 with Pfuetzenreuter dropping to 23,500. He's probably the biggest name in the tournament though, 15 letters!
the flop, on which Maisto bet out 1,500 and Thorson called, 
on the turn which saw no action (but a query from Thorson: "What do you have, seven-three?"). This was clearly not the case, as the river brought the fourth 
.
and Thorson said, "I could beat that," before letting that smallish pot drift away.
flop with Donev holding 
and Vargas looking for one of a multitude of outs holding 
and 
. The bigger pair stayed in front, and abruptly that was the end of Negreanu, who beat a swift retreat. No photos in the gift shop, though, this is Portugal.
