Wow, some five-betting craziness here as popular Dutchie Steven van Zadelhoff turned the aggression up to 11.
Van Zadelhoff opened for 23,000 in the hijack and Konstantin Bilyaver made it 48,500 from the cutoff. In the small blind, Mattias Jorstedt now made it 113,000 to go.
Back to van Zadelhoff, who quickly announced all in for around 460,000. Bilyaver quickly got out of the way and although Jorstedt took a little longer making his decision, he eventually folded too, sighing deeply.
Van Zadelhoff showed the table pocket jacks and moved up to 620,000.
Luca Pagano had his favorite hand when he had Mikko Jaatinen all in and on the ropes. It was Pagano's to Jaatinen's . The flop looked ideal for Pagano - top set is hard to beat. But the turn gave him something to sweat. And the evil river made Jaatinen a runner-runner four-flush of his only live suit to double up to 335,000 and leave Pagano with just 97,000.
When the river hit, one of the players at the table screamed and jumped out of his chair like he himself had been bitten. Luca took a few steps away from the table, stunned and staring without seeing.
The flop was when Matvey Linov checked to Ivan Demidov, who bet 50,000. Linov asked how much Demidov had, but rather than acknowledge the question, Demidov continued to stare down at his iPad. The dealer counted out Demidov's stack while it was hard to tell if Ivan even noticed. He had 154,000 behind, and Linov decided to flat. The turn was the , and Linov checked. Demidov followed suit. Then on the river, Linov bet 200,000, enough to put Demidov all in. Ivan thought for a bit, chatting with Linov in Russian. Of course, we have no idea what was said, but it sounded interesting. Finally, we think Demidov said he was calling, because Linov mucked his cards. Demidov never had to show a card and took down the pot.
"Did you tell him what you were calling with?" one of the non-Russian speaking players asked. Demidov said that he told Linov he had slow-played a queen. We'll never know, but we do know that Demidov is up to 505,000 while Linov has 375,000.
There was around 300,000 in the pot by the time we arrived on the turn of the board. Johan Storakers checked.
The action shifted on to Perica Bukara who dwelled up for some minutes before betting a huge 185,000, leaving himself around 410,000 behind.
Now it was Storakers' turn to tank, which he did for a very, very long time, looking slightly unwell as he squinted alternately at Bukara and the board. Eventually he folded, dropping to below the 800,000 mark.
"One," Bukara told him, and showed the as he scooped the pot and moved up to over 900,000 while his recently busted pal Ali Tekintamgac observed from close by at the rail.
We arrived to see a 60k bet and call in front of Steven van Zadelhoff and Nathanael Filskov on the turn of a board. The river came the , and Filskov fired 90,000. Van Zadelhoff paid to see a showdown, but neither player moved to flip their hands. The dealer seemed confused and checked the board a few times to be sure they weren't waiting for another street. Finally, she motioned to Filskov that he had to show first. "Ace-high," he said. Van Zadelhoff then felt safe enough to show for top-pair, second kicker. He moved up to 850,000 while Filskov slipped to 365,000.
The bearded visage and bright red trousers of Eddie Tasbas will no longer be a familiar sight in the tournament area after former chip leader Jonathan Weekes took possession of his chips. We didn't quite catch the hands before the dealer swept them up and Tasbas headed for the door, but we do know that Weekes is very much back in the game on 540,000.
Having lost that huge pot with aces to jacks, he called a raise in the big blind from Arnaud Mattern from the cutoff. In between them, Jonathan Weekes had also made the call from the button so the flop went three ways:
All three checked the flop before Pagano simply jammed for 120,000 on the turn. Mattern folded instantly but Weekes thought for a moment before folding when he realised the size of the bet.
We were meant to be playing down to 24 today, but it has been decided that we'll be quitting for the night at the end of the next level, come what may.
Until then, it's 15 minutes of milling about in the hall.