Jonathan Weekes opened to 7,500, and Ali Tekintamgac three-bet to 17,000. In the small blind, Luca Pagano sat motionless for two minutes before surprising the table with a flat call. Weekes called as well, and on to the flop. It came , and Pagano and Weekes both checked to the raiser. Tekintamgac announced "all in" almost before Weekes had tapped the table. Both of his opponents folded. Tekintamgac flung his at Weekes as he took in the pot. He's back up to 230,000 after losing a big pot, but not exactly making friends with his tablemates.
It's not been a great level for former chip leader Mattias Jorstedt - he's dropped almost 100,000 in chips and is now at 400,000. That's still not bad though.
The man to beat right now is once again Jonathan Weekes. He's had a fine old time in the past hour or so, and is up to a towering 540,000.
Toni Ojala just added to his 100k+ stack busting the Dane Anders Jensen with the old beating the equally old in the as-old-as-poker-since-it-began coinflip situation. The board came ...(at which point everyone looks at both hands checking for a heart) before the blank river.
Matvey Linov has not been having a particularly good day. He started off well enough, with his 193,400 placing him near the top of the counts, and indeed he did manage to get well above the 200,000 mark at one point. However, virtually every time we've passed by his table today we've found one player or another pushing him off a big pot and he's now on a barely average 136,000.
Most recently overnight chip leader Perica Bukara raised under the gun and Linov reraised to 19,400 from the button. Undeterred, Bukara four-bet, and after some consideration Linov folded, looking as though he might cry. Bukara is at 280,000.
Antonio Buonanno opened from late position to 7,000 and Mark Dalimore in his splendidly large amount of Ed Hardy bling defended in the big blind.
The flop came and Dalimore checked letting Buoanno bet 11,000 after much thought. Dalimore gave it several minutes before check/raising to 22,000 and therein was a further few minutes before the Italian folded, declaring the Englishman had "Three queens."
[user140525]
Sarwer needs a drink of a different kind after today.
It's not been a good day for Jeff Sarwer. He's been short for the last several hours and was down to his last 10 big blinds when he ran into to double up the only person at the table whom he covered. The hand left Sarwer with two big blinds. Although he got his money in with a chance to quadruple up, his failed to hit, relegating Sarwer to the rail.
Award for Luckiest Man Of The Tournament must surely go to French pro Manuel Bevand.
If you recall, late in the day yesterday he cracked Pham Thanh Hai's aces, and then on the very next hand he cracked legendary media member Benjo Gallen's pocket kings - the latter of these two hands making him briefly very unpopular in the press room.
Cracking aces and kings in consecutive hands is pretty impressive, but Bevand seems to have got only more lucky since then. Earlier today he flopped quads - must be nice - and just now, he managed not only to flop a king-high straight flush but also to get paid off in full by an unfortunate gentleman who flopped the ace-high flush. He's at 223,000 now.
A massive hand just played out on the back corner table in the tournament room. It's a minefield of a lineup, with many big stacks including Jonathan Weekes, Luca Pagano, Ali Tekintamgac, and Daniel Aldridge. But now, it's just all about Weekes.
We arrived with a lot of money in the middle on a board. Aldridge bet something in the 20,000s, and Weekes called. A lot of river cards could have made things interesting, and the was certainly one of them. Aldridge carefully bet 42,300. He looked ill when Weekes responded by raising to 150,000. Aldridge spent a few minutes in agonized thought. Weekes leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his stomach, trying to appear calm while barely breathing. Finally, Aldridge announced a call. And Weekes got the chance to show for rivered quads.
After shipping a chunk of his stack across the felt, Aldridge was left with 210,000. Weekes is the towering chip leader now with 780,000.
![[user140525]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Pagano and Weekes both checked to the raiser. Tekintamgac announced "all in" almost before Weekes had tapped the table. Both of his opponents folded. Tekintamgac flung his 
at Weekes as he took in the pot. He's back up to 230,000 after losing a big pot, but not exactly making friends with his tablemates.
beating the equally old 
in the as-old-as-poker-since-it-began coinflip situation. The board came 
...(at which point everyone looks at both hands checking for a heart) before the blank 
river.
instead.
into 
flopped a pair and held to best all-in Denys Drobyna's 
board. Aldridge bet something in the 20,000s, and Weekes called. A lot of river cards could have made things interesting, and the 
for rivered quads.