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Alex Kravchenko is in some serious trouble.
He got his stack in with 
, but the gentleman who called was holding 
too and they chopped the pot. Kravchenko remains hanging on by the skin of his Russian teeth with 28,000.
Nicolo Calia is no stranger to EPT Main Events. He has cashed in 9 of them since 2008. We caught up with him in a hand that he found very funny – his opponent did not.
Calia opened from early position to 9,000 and his opponent three-bet to his direct left making it 14,000 to call. Calia didn’t disappoint as he did indeed make the call. The flop was 
and Calia checked. His opponent very quickly bet 17,200 and Calia called. The turn was 
and again Calia checked and again his opponent bet very quickly, this time for 27,000. Calia again called. The river brought yet another king – the king of hearts and Calia this time bet himself very quickly making it 22,000 and his opponent was absolutely devastated.
“Show me if I fold?” Asked his opponent.
“Sure.” Said the accommodating Italian.
His opponent mucked and Calia showed him 
and could not stop giggling. We would laugh too if we had Calia’s chip stack which is now 239,300
Kristoffer Thorsson has had been on a rollercoaster ride in the last hour, seeing his stack go to the dizzy heights of 225,000, down to 110,000 and now he finds himself sat with 230,000.
From the middle position, Thorsson made it 6,000 to play, Miltiadis Kyriakides in the cutoff three-bet to 14,000 and when the action returned to Thorsson he made the call.
Flop: 
Thorsson now checked, Kyriakides bet 14,700 and Thorsson, after a few seconds deliberation, just called.
Turn: 
Once again Thorsson check, which prompted a request for a count from his opponent. A simple and stright to the point "125" was the answer. Kyriakides shrugged his shoulders and then bet 26,000. Within a couple of seconds Thorsson had moved a stack of yellow chips into the middle that were worth 100,000 and as quickly as Thorsson had bet, Kyriakides had folded.
The man who made the final table of the recent WPT London now has 230,000 chips in his arsenal.
This is an epic hand. Epic. In every sense.
It opened innocuously enough with a simple standard raise from the gentleman in the hijack. To his left, Salvatore Ferone called in the cutoff. It folded around to overnight chip leader Luis Rufas, who reraised to around 21,000. Both players called.
Now, we'd stopped by Senor Rufas' table largely because he looked at the start of the hand as though he might have regained the chip lead. But by the end of the hand, he would be without a shadow of a doubt our massive chip monster.
So, all three players saw a 
flop. Rufas was first to act, and he spent a few moments contemplating the board before asking Ferone, who had the most chips out of his two opponents, "Excuse me, about 100?" In response, Ferone for some reason started dividing his chips out into stacks of five. This took a long time and eventually Rufas waved his hand to indicate that it wasn't important. Ferone's stack, a trained blogger could tell you, comprised about 125,000 in chips. After another pause, Rufas bet out 37,200.
Back to the original raiser in the hijack, whose stack totalled 90,000 or so. He tanked for a long time, perhaps five minutes, before flat-calling. But to his left, Ferone now moved all in.
Rufas sighed and buried his head in the crook of his arm for a few moments, before smiling, nodding, and making the call. The original raiser tanked up for another couple of minutes, talking to himself, but eventually folded.
Showdown!
Rufas: for the flush draw
Ferone: 
for top set
Turn: bringing in the flush - "Vamos!!!" cried native Spaniard Rufas's enthusiastic rail.
River: 
"Vamos!!!!" the rail went wild. "Si senor!"
Mr. Ferone was gone, and Rufas is our huge, massive, vast, superlatively large chip leader on over 570,000.
Level: 14
Blinds: 1,500/3,000
Ante: 300
Bryn Kenney is hoovering up chips on his table and currently sits with an impressive 265,000, which puts him around third in chips.
Kenney has had seven cashes adding up to $513,657 this year, including five WSOP money finishes and a fourth place in the €3,000 Heads-Up event at EPT Vilamoura. He is around 100 players away from making the money here today.
We were drawn to the sound of screaming and shouting and arrived to see three men on their feet and a lot of chips in the middle of the table. In amongst the chips were three cards 
. The people on their feet were Team Pokerstars Pro Toni Judet, Gaetan Ludovi Milvaque and Leandro Balotin.
We don’t know what the action was because everyone was far too excited to tell us but it resulted in Judet and Milvaque being all-in. There was a third player sat down – not looking excited at all- who was also all-in. The action was on Balotin and faced with three all-in’s in front of him he mucked 
face up for two pair. Initially he thought he had made the wrong decision when Judet turned , the man sat on his bum showed 
and Milvaque showed 
.
The turn was 
and the river 
. Milvaque, who was chasing a flush managed to find a straight and took the majority of the chips and the guy who was sat on his bum was left with a 25,000 consolation prize. Judet was left with a lonely walk to face the media.
Bill Gazes shoved from the button to a raise from the gentleman in the cutoff. It folded back to the raiser, who called. "Snap-call," mused Gazes, "Best I could hope for."
As it turned out Gazes was conflipping with 
against his opponent's pocket 
, but couldn't hit a thing on the 
board. He was standing up by the turn, and although he did hesitate ever so slightly as the river card was turned over, it was not to be.
He may have started the day with a stack of 49,800 but Bryan Pellegrino is now sat second in chips, with aorund 300,000!
We caught a hand Pellegrino was in early this afternoon where he played very aggressively and forced a fold from his opponent. It appears that his aggressive style is now reaping dividends.
Although best known for crushing online heads-up sit 'n' gos, Pellegrino does have more than $155,000 in live tournament cashes, a large chunk of that coming from his 143rd place finish in this year's $10,000 WSOP Main Event.
Keep your eye on him folks, once he has a big stack he is hard to shake off.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
330,000
191,600
|
191,600 |
|
325,000
60,000
|
60,000 |
|
||
|
285,000
150,000
|
150,000 |
|
223,000
183,000
|
183,000 |
|
215,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
200,000
-30,000
|
-30,000 |
|
|
||
|
195,000
-44,300
|
-44,300 |
|
188,000
58,000
|
58,000 |
|
||
|
|
185,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
170,000
-15,000
|
-15,000 |
|
165,000
60,000
|
60,000 |
|
150,000
-30,000
|
-30,000 |
|
||
|
140,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
||
|
135,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
|
125,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
|
|
||
|
120,000
14,000
|
14,000 |
|
|
||
|
120,000
48,000
|
48,000 |
|
115,000
75,000
|
75,000 |
|
110,000
53,000
|
53,000 |
|
110,000
65,000
|
65,000 |
|
105,000
-20,000
|
-20,000 |
|
97,000
39,000
|
39,000 |
|
82,000
-3,000
|
-3,000 |
|
80,000
-45,000
|
-45,000 |
|
74,000
4,800
|
4,800 |
