The host nation made up only 3% of the field for this tournament, and last Estonian standing Vallo Maidla has just succumbed in 10th place. Maidla was the shortest stack at the table full of short stacks, and he been pushing fairly regularly but just picked up the blinds and antes every time. He was in possession of less than 300,000 in chips when he shoved from the cutoff and finally got a call from Mikko Jaatinen in the big blind.
Maidla:
Jaatinen:
Board:
With that, the clock has been paused as our remaining nine condense on to a single table to battle it out for the eight seats available on tomorrow's official final table.
Kevin Stani opened with a raise to 70,000, and in the small blind, Arnaud Mattern reraised to 255,000. Then the big blind, Konstantin Bilyauer, put his enormous stack to use, cold four-betting to 630,000. That mean that Stani really had to make a decision for his whole stack, and he agonized over it. He took his glasses off, staring at the huge bet. After a few minutes, he folded. That left the decision to Arnaud. "You show if I fold?" he asked Bilyauer.
Mattern mucked his pocket jacks face up, and Bilyauer tabled . Stani looked ill. "I folded the best hand," he said. If Stani had queens like he claimed, Bilyauer likely saved Mattern some money.
After the hand finished, everyone moved to their new seats at the nine-handed last table.
There has been no messing about so far at this unofficial final table.
First hand back at the felt and it folded around to chip leader Konstantin Bilyauer on the button who raised to 75,000. Small blind Steven van Zadelhoff folded, but big blind Kevin Stani promptly announced all in for around a million - not a short stack by any means.
Bilyauer stood up and scratched his head. Then he sat back down and riffled chips for some time before turning his attention to the giant tournament clock on the wall, staring fixedly at it and occasionally muttering something we couldn't quite catch. Eventually he folded, showing Stani the .
Bassam Elnajjar opened for 92,000 and to his immediate left, Dmitry Vitkind quickly but very calmly pushed his last 293,000 across the line. It folded back around to Elnajjar who made the call relatively swiftly, and they were on their backs.
Vitkind:
Elnajjar:
Board:
Elnajjar picked up an inside straight draw on the turn but it didn't come in on the river and Vitkind's pair of jacks was good enough for a double up to around 680,000. Elnajjar dropped to 820,000, and we continue nine-handed.
[user76023]
Bassam Elnajjar, the opposite of a 'happy bunny.'
A hand was dealt out until, having given each player two cards, the dealer realised she had accidentally dealt to the button first. Bassam Elnajjar was furious, turning over while Konstantin Bilyauer laugh loudly, he had !
But if the hand had been dealt properly, it would've been Dmitry Vitkind picking up aces with Steven van Zadelhoff getting the queens which may well have seen the short-stacked Dutchman going broke.
Ahh, the power of the 'official' final table bubble. Arnaud Mattern just used that to help apply a little extra pressure after Kevin Stani raised to 100,000 from late position.
Mattern got a count of Stani's remaining 1.1 million stack before 3-betting to 255,000 out of the big blind. Stani thought long and hard through complete silence from the watching players, media and public before eventually releasing his hand.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Stani looked ill. "I folded the best hand," he said. If Stani had queens like he claimed, Bilyauer likely saved Mattern some money.
.
while Konstantin Bilyauer laugh loudly, he had 
