A dangle over the busto abyss just now for American Tim Finne. He picked a spot to move in on the small blind (for c.60k) over a button raise, but it was big blind Morton Czuczor who asked the dealer to make his stack apparent, and then moved in over the top...
The button wanted no part of this and Czuczor showed all in vs. . The first card visible had Finne up and out of his chair - the - but there followed making a flush for both players on the board. Wide eyed with the closeness he smiled and sat back down as the dealer gave them half the pot each.
This has gone unbelievably quickly - we're down to just 82 players from the 221 we started with today. The average stack is around 140,000 - that'll be around 47 big blinds apiece when we return and start the next level - and it seems likely that play will have to slow down eventually, although apparently not yet.
Max Lykov doubled up just before the break, all-in on a flop with and finding a player simply called "Goncalves" in the player list making the call. Goncalves made the call with but couldn't catch a king on the turn or river and dropped to 16,000. Lykov now up to 150,000.
Oscar Pelayo has recently been feeling the chipstack pressure and was down to around 40k when he found a good spot for a double up. In the big blind with , he moved all in over button Allen Bække's preflop raise, which Bække duly called with a dominated . The board ran out however, making a two pair with an Ace the best hand for them both. A disappointed Pelayo stood up shaking his head and sat the next hand out.
A very helpful Scott Montgomery pointed out that Bruno Pedro Fonseca Pocas had been eliminated after failing to magic up a king when he held against Guillermo Garcia's and the Portuguese player fell to the Spaniard.
[user46392]
Imagine a triple crown on that head...
As the last level of the night gets properly underway, Brandon Cantu remains our chip leader. After winning a WSOP bracelet in 2006 and another in 2009, and picking up a WPT title in 2008 as well, he has now decided to take a shot at the EPT circuit in the hopes of joining Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin in the super-exclusive club of Triple Crown Winners. He told Gloria earlier, "I'm actually calling my shot here. I'm guaranteeing a final table."
Coming from the mouth of another player this might have sounded like a hubristic challenge to the poker gods - but coming from the softly spoken American pro, it somehow seemed just, well, believable. And indeed, as he sits now behind a vast pyramidal fortress constructed of chips - it's hard to tell but we reckon it's around 500,000 - receiving a massage and looking incredibly relaxed and in his element, we would not be in the least bit surprised if Cantu ends up achieving his ambition here in Portugal this week.
Luca Pagano opened to 7,500 and Alexey Golodyaev pushed all-in from the button for 56,600. Pedro Guedes then made the call from the small blind and Pagano folded.
Golodyaev:
Guedes:
The board was and Guedes increased his stack to roughly 350,000.
Fabrizio Ascari nonchantly said, "You're very lucky..."
"I was born lucky," replied Guedes, "I look good, I run good...haha!"
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
all in vs. 
. The first card visible had Finne up and out of his chair - the 
- but there followed 
making a flush for both players on the board. Wide eyed with the closeness he smiled and sat back down as the dealer gave them half the pot each.
flop with 
and finding a player simply called "Goncalves" in the player list making the call. Goncalves made the call with 
but couldn't catch a king on the 
turn or 
river and dropped to 16,000. Lykov now up to 150,000.
however, making a two pair with an Ace the best hand for them both. A disappointed Pelayo stood up shaking his head and sat the next hand out.
and Guedes increased his stack to roughly 350,000.