Big pot just now on Table 1: At least two raises hiked the pot up preflop heads up between Danny Neess and David Frieling - we were alerted to this table due to the yellow glint of 5k chips floating at the top in the middle as the flop was dealt . 11,000 or so to play for already, and out bet Neess, 4,550. A fairly prompt call from in-position Frieling. Both players checked the turn, but out bet Neess again on the river. This time it was a hefty 15,025, and Frieling really thought hard about it (while Neess gave him a great sidelong stare). Finally he called; Neess flipped and won the pot, nearly hitting the 100k mark, while Frieling goes to 22,500.
Manuel Bevand has been eliminated by Ruben Visser, on a table where they seem to be playing a few more hands per hour at a bit of a cracking pace, with the background music being that of William Reynolds talking to whoever's sat near him about poker and betting and money and stuff (probably; the letter we hear most often is 'k').
Anyhow the aggressive Visser had just won the preceding pot threebetting Evgeniy Zaytsev (dressed in an eye-opening shirt which looks like it's been made of hippies' curtains) preflop, and did it again, this time to Visser who'd made it 800 under the gun.
On the flop it all happened so fast - check to Visser who bet 2,900 into a pot just over 4k. Immediately Bevand moved in, around 15k, and Visser beat him into the pot.
Visser:
Bevand:
The little two pair were not to hold for long, however, as the on the turn and river ended the Frenchman's tournament hopes and sent him packing.
Disaster for Lithuania as one of their brightest hopes is extinguished.
Dominykas Karmazinas has had a great 2010 so far. He kicked it off with a sixth place finish in the High Roller event at EPT Berlin, and then went on to take third place in the EPT Grand Final and second place to William Thorson at the PokerStars Baltic Festival, as well as a decent Main Event cash at the WSOP and two side event final tables at EPT Tallinn.
But despite all these final tables, Karmazinas has never managed to go home with a winner's trophy. And he's not going to get one this week.
It looked as though Karmazinas had reraised out of the small blind to a raise from Adam Aitken and then called all in to Aitken's shove. Aitken flipped with an expression of perfect innocence on his face; Karmazinas let out an enormous sigh and turned over . A complete absence of any further queens on the board meant that Karmazinas was bust, and will have to wait at least until London for his first EPT title.
Nevertheless, we still have some fine representation for Lithuania in the field - Kristijonas Andrulis is on fine form after taking down two side events at EPT Tallinn including the High Roller event - and elsewhere we also have the admittedly unfamiliar but intriguing Tadas Peckaitis and Karolis Grybauskas.
Daniel Negreanu checked to Dani Vargas (who is a dead ringer for Tiger Woods) on the turn of a board. Vargas bet 3,000 which Negreanu called with medium speed.
The river was the and Negreanu checked once more, only for Vargas to move all-in for around 11,000.
"I did not like that card," said Negreanu, checking and rechecking his cards before eventually folding, giving the table the briefest flash of the . Vargas turned over for absolutely nothing, Negreanu tapped the table and laughed, "I had ace-nine."
Negreanu still has about 55,000 which above average at this stage.
Well, it's official - this is now the biggest and the richest poker tournament ever held in Portugal. Today's field has been confirmed at 203 players, bringing the total number of runners to 384. This may not sound like a lot to jaded poker fans who are used to 5,000-strong WSOP fields and the like, but nevertheless, there go PokerStars, breaking records wherever there are records that need to be broken.
We will have the all-important prizepool info for you soon.
It looked like Filipe Cardoso had only just moved tables to that of EPT Kyiv winner Maxim Lykov, as his plastic chip-transportation rack was right next to his fairly short stack. He'd raised preflop on the cutoff, and button Lykov came along for the ride.
The flop came A bet out of 1k was raised to 3,300 by Lykov; Cardoso called. Now both players checked the turn. The river didn't look like much but got a bet of 2,100 out of Cardoso, only to find Lykov throwing in 17k - enough to cover his opponent. Immediately he got the call, but his was now a full house, and Cardoso's only good for the muck.
Karolis Grybauskas raised preflop to 1,050 from the cutoff and Ivo Donev reraised to 3,600 on the button.
So far, so standard.
But then Grybauskas 4-bet to 10,000 and Donev moved all-in to cover him. With only around 15,000 behind Grybauskas shrugged and made the call with against Donev's .
The board though didn't favour the Austrian when it came to make Grybauskas a full house. He moved up to 50,000 while Donev drops to just 12,000.
Having started off with a few stack hits, every time we've passed Michael Binger he's had slightly fewer chips, until now, getting into the seriously short level with 7,400, he found what probably looked like a good hand for a shove and a call - . Unfortunately for him, he was up against ! He stood up and went through every motion of the about-to-leave-the-building:
1) Stand up
2) Put on jacket as the flop comes
3) Pick up and close magazine on the turn
4) Back away from the table...until the appears on the river!
. 11,000 or so to play for already, and out bet Neess, 4,550. A fairly prompt call from in-position Frieling. Both players checked the 
turn, but out bet Neess again on the 
river. This time it was a hefty 15,025, and Frieling really thought hard about it (while Neess gave him a great sidelong stare). Finally he called; Neess flipped 
and won the pot, nearly hitting the 100k mark, while Frieling goes to 22,500.
flop it all happened so fast - check to Visser who bet 2,900 into a pot just over 4k. Immediately Bevand moved in, around 15k, and Visser beat him into the pot.
on the turn and river ended the Frenchman's tournament hopes and sent him packing.
board meant that Karmazinas was bust, and will have to wait at least until London for his first EPT title.
board. Vargas bet 3,000 which Negreanu called with medium speed.
for absolutely nothing, Negreanu tapped the table and laughed, "I had ace-nine."
A bet out of 1k was raised to 3,300 by Lykov; Cardoso called. Now both players checked the 
turn. The 
river didn't look like much but got a bet of 2,100 out of Cardoso, only to find Lykov throwing in 17k - enough to cover his opponent. Immediately he got the call, but his 
. Unfortunately for him, he was up against 
appears on the river!
