After finding himself with a very short stack and spending a while folding as a result, Antonio Esfandiari finally got his last in with against immediate neighbour JP Kelly's preflop.
Board:
Esfandiari flopped a queen, but Kelly turned a ten and following the absence of a jack on the river it was all over for Esfandiari. The continual chatter and endless prop-betting of Day 1a long over with, Esfandiari said nothing as he walked away form the table, and Kelly didn't even look up as he helped himself to Esfandiari's stack. Kelly's up to around 250,000.
[user76023]
Fabrizio Ascari - Close to the chip lead, equally close to being insane.
As Fabrizio Ascari was forced to fold his 3-bet to a shove, the dealer checked if the self-styled "Mad Italian" had actually folded.
Ascari launched into a little speech, "I have king-king off, it's an impossible call against the second chip leader here...hahahahhaa."
The next hand saw Luca Pagano raised to 5,700 and Andras Nemeth moved all-in from the button to cover. Pagano asked, "You have something like tens, jacks?" He then called all-in for 59,000.
The flop was helping neither player as suddenly Ascari began to sing, "Forever young, I want to be, forever young."
Unperturbed by this outbreak of Alphaville, the dealer put out the turn and river and Pagano, the EPT's record casher doubled to 120,000. Also, he managed to get Ascari to temporarily stop singing for a few moments, an even more impressive feat.
Threeway to a flop of and only multiples of three bet to start with - Eliran Argelazi in the small blind betting out 3,900 first off, called only by William Thorson. The turn was the and Argelazi made it 9,000. Again he got a swift call from the Swede. The river was the . A third bullet, 17k (alright, not divisible by three) came straight away, and now Thorson paused to consider. He stared at Argelazi; Argelazi stared right back. If someone had thrown a chip between them, it might have been vaporised.
Finally Thorson gave up on this pot, but took the next one preflop, leaving Argelazi sneaking closer to 200k.
Grzegorz Cichocki is involved in a good number of pots, aware that his stack dwarfs most of those on his table. He won 20k from his right hand side neighbour in one blind-on-blind confrontation (in which the neighbour rather unconventionally bet 6k on every street) and then raised the very next hand, now the small blind. The 5,200 represented a much higher percentage of the big blind Nicolo Calia's stack, but he made the call quickly. The flop came . Check to Calia, who moved in. The old chip leader gave it just a moment before giving up on this pot and waiting for the next hand.
[user46392]
Paul "Pab" Foltyn - here's looking at you
As we've already mentioned, the British invasion is in full swing, and these chaps are not in the slightest bit afraid to get involved with one another.
Just now we caught just the very tail end of a board - and we had just enough time to see Paul "badpad2" Foltyn turning over . Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick had an unhappy expression on his face and was down to 100,000. Foltyn's stack was increasing to 160,000.
Over on the next table along, James "Flushy" Dempsey is long gone but fellow Brits JP Kelly and Toby Lewis are still doing battle. With two EPT titles going to the UK in Season 6 (Jake Cody in Deauville and Liv Boeree in San Remo), we could be looking at another great poker year for Britain.
A whole heap of betting between David Klar and Brandon Cantu saw the former 4-betting for what looked like 16,800 more on top of an estimated 30,000 already in the pot. Klar had roughly 110,000 behind and Cantu made the call, covering.
The flop was , Klar bet 30,000 and Cantu moved all-in which found a snap-call from the German.
Klar:
Cantu:
Cantu was in trouble, needing to spike against his opponent's bullets. The turn thinned his outs to just six cards but the river was one of these. Klar could only shake his head as he was eliminated, Cantu up to 313,000 and looking to complete a triple crown having already won a bracelet and a WPT. In fact, you should check out the interview with the lovely Gloria Balding as he explains why he hopes to be playing more EPT's in the future.
[user46392]
Sam Trickett with small, apparently parasitical, Dmitry Stelmak on shoulder
Ayaz Manji opened for 4,700 and Young British Big Stack (there seem to be a lot of them about today) Sam Trickett called on the button.
They saw a flop - or Manji did at least. Trickett was busy talking to a waitress instead. Manji thought about it for a while and eventually checked. Trickett must have been paying attention out of the corner of his eye, as he very casually dropped in a 5,800 bet while attempting to pay for the drinks he'd ordered. Manji folded pocket sixes face up.
"Maybe you have better pair," we think is what he said. Trickett shrugged.
"I'm always making moves," Trickett was saying a few moments later. Then inexplicably, "Like Steven Spielberg."
The move that Trickett has made most recently is an upward motion in the chip counts - he's at around 200,000.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
against immediate neighbour JP Kelly's 
preflop.
helping neither player as suddenly Ascari began to sing, "Forever young, I want to be, forever young."
turn and 
river and Pagano, the EPT's record casher doubled to 120,000. Also, he managed to get Ascari to temporarily stop singing for a few moments, an even more impressive feat.
and Argelazi made it 9,000. Again he got a swift call from the Swede. The river was the 
. A third bullet, 17k (alright, not divisible by three) came straight away, and now Thorson paused to consider. He stared at Argelazi; Argelazi stared right back. If someone had thrown a chip between them, it might have been vaporised.
. Check to Calia, who moved in. The old chip leader gave it just a moment before giving up on this pot and waiting for the next hand.
board - and we had just enough time to see Paul "badpad2" Foltyn turning over 
. Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick had an unhappy expression on his face and was down to 100,000. Foltyn's stack was increasing to 160,000.
, Klar bet 30,000 and Cantu moved all-in which found a snap-call from the German.
river was one of these. Klar could only shake his head as he was eliminated, Cantu up to 313,000 and looking to complete a triple crown having already won a bracelet and a WPT. In fact, you should check out the interview with the lovely Gloria Balding as he explains why he hopes to be playing more EPT's in the future.
flop - or Manji did at least. Trickett was busy talking to a waitress instead. Manji thought about it for a while and eventually checked. Trickett must have been paying attention out of the corner of his eye, as he very casually dropped in a 5,800 bet while attempting to pay for the drinks he'd ordered. Manji folded pocket sixes face up.