Poor old Ruben Visser. After doubling up young Brit Dan Carter at the start of the day, the Dutch Team PokerStars Pro then managed to run into someone else's pocket kings no fewer than three times in the course of just four hands. He did not manage to win any of those hands, and he is now busted. Most unfortunate.
Dan Carter, meanwhile, has reason to celebrate - not only is he now in possession of some decent chips, but today is also his 23rd birthday. Happy birthday, Dan. He's told us that, young though he is, he's become bored of poker recently, and this will be the last tournament he plays until next year's WSOP Main Event. Would be nice if he picks up a little something here this week to remind him of what he's missing over the year to come.
Day 1A chip leader and Pokerstars Team Online member Andre Coimbra just picked up another 45k to add to his already towering stack, getting it in well ahead after a short dwell when big blind M. Goncalves moved in for 36k into a pot of 14k preflop. A third player who'd been dissuaded from joining the pot by the vigorous preflop raising now stood up looking more tense than Coimbra and the all-in player, Coimbra then calling and flipping over . Goncalves held and could only watch as the board came an unhelpful . Out he went, while player three made a hissing noise, as if to make clear that had he been in it, he would have won it.
It sounds as though the Dutchies had a very good night by all accounts - and although most of them made it in this morning for roughly the start of the tournament, one seat has remained empty.
Where Lex Veldhuis should be, there is only a modest stack of chips, and a shot of single malt whisky, thoughtfully provided for him by tablemate and fellow Dutch Team PokerStars Pro Pieter de Korver. We hope he makes it here soon.
BREAKING NEWS
Mr. Veldhuis has now appeared. We understand that he did not drink the whisky. We do not blame him.
We arrived at the table just in time to see Antonio Esfandiari investing over 10,000 of his chips on the river of a rainbow board, before mucking with a sour expression when his opponent Ronny Kaiser turned over and dropping to around 90,000.
At this point your reporter was distracted by something across the room, but when we looped back around to Esfandiari's table, we found that his stack had dropped further to 40,000 and his expression had soured even further. This is a most significant downswing for the usually high-volume American - he started the day in the top ten and is now well below average.
Sebastien Bidinger had reraised all-in for around 29,400 against Per Martin Jacobson who made a call with probably fairly happy to be up against the Frenchman's .
The scary Swede-friendly flop came and the on the turn suddenly put Jacobson in the lead and reduced Bidinger to just one solitary out which didn't come on the river.
Grzegorz Cichocki just doubled through to 144k after picking up preflop at the same time as Dario Minieri found . The resulting pot dragged a full 70k from Minieri who's left with 34k and a glum expression, although he did tell his opponent, "Nice hand," as he stacked his chips.
More exits:
Lars Berggren
Francisco Jose Oliveira
Nuno Goncalves
John Strzemp
With the board reading Hans Berggren found himself all-in holding but Alex Kravchenko was holding a pretty strong in opposition. Berggren picked up a few outs on the turn but the came on the river and Berggren was out. Kravchenko with his usual stoic expressionless face, almost broke into a slight smile. Almost.
Jonathan Proudfoot, in what was one of the first hands of the day, doubled up Richard Winnubst with some BB aggression which didn't quite work out... Winnubst raised on the button to 2,200, and big blind Proudfoot made it 7k to go. He got the call and they saw a flop. Out bet Proudfoot - 8,500 - and Winnubst immediately moved in for 15,300 more. Finally he made the call (he had a good 30k plus on top of this), and showed , while Winnubst held . This monstrous pair held and Winnubst is suddenly up over average.
Among those whose attempts at the double have had the opposite effect already today:
Some tense moments for Polish Team PokerStars Pro Marcin as he got his whole stack in preflop with - but they were short-lived as his opponent Guillermo Garcia turned over and following a relatively uneventful board, both players took their chips back.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Goncalves held 
and could only watch as the board came an unhelpful 
. Out he went, while player three made a hissing noise, as if to make clear that had he been in it, he would have won it.
rainbow board, before mucking with a sour expression when his opponent Ronny Kaiser turned over 
and the 
on the turn suddenly put Jacobson in the lead and reduced Bidinger to just one solitary out which didn't come on the 
river.
. The resulting pot dragged a full 70k from Minieri who's left with 34k and a glum expression, although he did tell his opponent, "Nice hand," as he stacked his chips.
Hans Berggren found himself all-in holding 
in opposition. Berggren picked up a few outs on the 
turn but the 
came on the river and Berggren was out. Kravchenko with his usual stoic expressionless face, almost broke into a slight smile. Almost.
flop. Out bet Proudfoot - 8,500 - and Winnubst immediately moved in for 15,300 more. Finally he made the call (he had a good 30k plus on top of this), and showed 
, while Winnubst held 
- but they were short-lived as his opponent Guillermo Garcia turned over 
and following a relatively uneventful 
board, both players took their chips back.
