The small blind checked a flop, and Maxim Lykov checked his big blind. The button bet 2,000, and the small blind called. Then Lykov check-raised to 6,750. After asking Lykov how much he had behind, the button flatted, as did the small blind. The turn brought the , and after the small blind checked, Lykov bet 18,000. That left him with 600 chips, mostly in greens, so he could continue shuffling. The button called all in for just a few chips less, and the small blind slammed his chips down in frustration as he folded.
Showdown
Lykov: for a pair and a flush draw
Button: for top pair, top kicker
Just in time, the river brought the to give the reigning EPT Player of the Year trips and the knockout. He;s up to 57,000 now.
It must really be tough for Pokerstars qualifier Jannick Wrang who had a huge stack disintegrate before his very eyes in just two hands.
First he check/raised Mattias de Meulder's 1,125 bet to 3,000 on a board before firing 4,000 on the turn and 8,000 on the river. De Meulder called both these bets and Wrang showed for a flopped flush but de Meulder turned over for a bigger flopped flush.
Soon after, Wrang was losing another big pot when Frederik Oskar Boberg made the nuts with on the river of a board and doubled up in a huge pot to 66,000. Wrang was crippled and having had a huge stack earlier, is down to just 8,000.
We discovered Kristijonas Andrulis, the young Lithuanian who looks to us as though someone put Benny Spindler and Luke Schwartz in a blender, involved with Damien Krause on the turn of a board. Krause checked, Andrulis bet 3,000, and after just a moment's hesitation, Krause called.
The river was the and Krause checked again. This time Andrulis fired 7,000 into the pot, and sat there in calm, motionless silence while Krause looked rather unhappy. He tanked up for a while, but eventually folded.
Andrulis and Krause were on 25,500 apiece at the end of the hand, one stack heading up and the other heading down.
Just before the break Roberto Romanello has doubled through Ben Wilinofsky after he got his 20,000 chip stack in preflop with against Wilinofsky's with the board coming .
Wilinofsky drops to 43,000 while Romanello moves up to 40,000.
Gustov Ekerot bet 1,250 at an flop, and his opponent, Ilkka Reino Kristian Koskinen, raised to 4,225. Then Ekerot made a small three-bet to 8,750. Koskinen liked what he saw and moved all in. Ekerot snap-called for his last 20,000. Koskinen rolled over and thought he was good. You could see his stomach fall as Ekerot tabled for a higher set. The turn and river didn't change anything, and Ekerot doubled to around 42,000. Ilkka Reino Kristian Koskinen may have the longest name in the tournament, but he's close to the shortest stack with about 8,500.
We strolled by Marc Naalden's table to find the bracelet-winning Dutchman in possession of a massive stack of yellow T5,000 chips. Always helpful, Naalden watched your blogger struggle to count them for only a moment before telling us it was a total of 83,000.
Woefully Mr. Naalden did not share with us the details of how he amassed such a stack, but as far as we can see it is good for almost the chip lead - only one Volodymyr Pilyavsky currently exceeds it, with 85,000.
With 239 playing today added to the 181 playing yesterday, there is a total of 420 players playing in the first ever EPT Tallinn this year with first place paying a hefty €400,000.