Martin Jacobson continues to lay siege to the rest of the table. He raises to 130,000 from the button and Kaspars Renga and Alex Wice get out of way in the blinds so he can add another 120,000 to his collection.
Next it is Hnatow's turn to steal the 120,000 on offer as he takes down the blinds and antes uncontested after a 140,000 raise.
Jacobsen then raised again to 130,000. This time Kenny Hallaert called in the small blind and we saw a very draw heavy flop of . Hallaert check folded to a 145,000 continuation bet from Jacobson.
Julien Claudepierre raised to 170,000, but to his immediate left Martin Jacobson made it 460,000 to go. Back to Claudepierre, who stared silently at the felt for a moment, before four-betting to 1,060,000.
Jacobson dwelled and dwelled, and after perhaps three or four minutes he decided it wasn't worth it and folded. He's down to 6 million now.
By the by, it looks terribly exciting every time a player wins a pot - not because the pots are actually large in real terms, but because of the unusual chip denominations in play.
Usually at EPTs, by this stage the chip denominations would be 100k, 25k, 10k and 5k. But here in Deauville, they are currently using the denominations 100k, 50k, 10k and 1k. With the ante still at 5k, that makes for an awful lot of tiny denomination green chips in the middle at the start of every hand. There were some 5k chips in play, but they were removed yesterday on the grounds that they are almost exactly the same colour as the 100k chips, which could have hilarious consequences. So until the ante increases to 10k, every pot is going to consist of a vast mountain of almost worthless chips.
Lucien Cohen doesn't seem to want to fold many hands at the moment. He just called Julien Claudepierre's raise to 130,000 from the big blind and then a further 180,000 on the flop. This brought the turn and Cohen checked again before tank-folding when Claudepierre put out a bet of 460,000.
Less than a couple of hands later and Cohen was tangling with Martin Jacobson this time, calling 130,000 preflop then another 130,000 on a flop and 250,000 on the turn. The river was checked down and Jacobson turned over which no good against Cohen's for a flopped flush.
There is such a fine line between winning and losing in this wonderful game. This cannot be better demonstrated than in this following hand which was the largest of the tournament so far.
Martin Jacobson raised to 130,000 and Kaspars Renga moved all-in for 614,000 behind. The action was on Alex Wice who called. Jacobson then had a really long hard think before also calling. The flop was and Renga was nothing but a spectator. Jacobson checked and so did Wice. The turn was the and Jacobson pushed 1 million chips over the line and Wice quickly called.
The river was the and Jacobson bet 2 million. There was an audible sound from the casino hall when this bet was made. Renga stood up and put his hands on his head. Wice asked the dealer how many chips Jacobson was playing and he was told 2 million more plus loose change. Wice then put Jacobson all-in and there was nother round of oohs and aaghs from the crowd. Jacobson did not look happy with this decision and started to drink some water. Wice was bobbing his leg up and down uncontrollably and Renga justed paced backwards and forwards without the ability to do anything.
After a short while Jacobson folded a pair of tens for a flopped set. Wice turned for the straight that had hit a monster draw on the turn. Renga punched the air in delight because he also had the straight
Anthony Hnatow only had 1.3 million chips at the start of level 28 which made him the second shortest stack just ahead of Kaspars Renga.
In the first hand of the level he raised to 170,000 and Alex Wice three-bet from the small blind making it 600,000 to play. Lucien Cohen moved out of the way in the big blind and Hnatow moved all-in and Wice immediately called.
Hnatow turned over and Wice surprised everyone when he turned over .
The flop was and Wice had a glimmer of hope with his pair and backdoor flush draw. The turn was the and Wice had even more outs. Then the hit the river and there was an incredible silence through the entire hall. Even the Commentator did not realise that Hnatow's aces had been cracked.
When your running good you are running good and so far today Alex Wice is running good and playing good. A recipe for EPT Deauville succes?
Julien Claudepierre opened with a raise of 170,000 and Lucien Cohen called in the big blind. The flop was and Cohen checked to Claudepierre who made a bet of 240,000; action back on Cohen. Cohen then check-raised to 540,000 and Claudepierre made the call without too much thought.
The turn was the and both players checked as they did when the arrived on the river.
Claudepierre took home the chips with and Cohen did not with only second pair .