The board read when we arrived and it looked as though Rob Ferrey in the small blind position had checked it. In the cutoff Fabrice Soulier bet 11,100. Eventually Ferrey muttered something about a flush draw and made the call, but was soon wishing he hadn't as Soulier turned over for the rivered full house.
"I like the river," said Soulier, somewhat stating the obvious. He's up to an impressive 115,000.
We reported earlier than Team Pokerstars Pro Daniel Negreanu had set himself a new goal after having his chip stack decimated early on in the competition. His new goal was to climb back to his starting stack of 30,000. He has found the day difficult and has been spotted falling asleep in between hands on several occasions. Then just has he reached his goal he was eliminated when his top pair and flush draw ran into a set in a hand we unfortunately didn't witness.
Luis Rufas, who narrowly missed out on an EPT final table back in Barcelona, has suffered a nasty setback, and he was cursing furiously under his breath when we arrived at the table. We believe that he bet out on the river of the board and then called the push from his opponent; either way his opponent's for a full house turned out to be good, and Rufas dropped to 35,000.
Team Pokerstars Pro Viktor Blom is very unconventional in so many ways. What is conventional about him is his ability to change gears and he has just moved up a few at the start of Level 7.
When we arrived at the table Blom was all-in. Every single one of his chips were stacked very neatly in four separate piles in front of him. The decision was back on Jean Noel Thorel. Thorel came 2nd in the 2009 High Roller Event at EPT Deauville so we assume he is comfortable mixing it up at this level. The action that preceded Blom's all in was as follows.
Thorel bet 2,025 and Blom called. Before the flop came down Thorel checked in the dark. The flop was and Blom bet 3,200. Thorel check-raised to 12,000, Blom moved all-in and here we are!
Thorel eventually folded what must have been a clear bluff because we are not sure of numbers but it wasn't a large all-in bet by Blom.
Blom was still stacking his chips when he threw out a raise of 1,500 and Almira Skripchenko and Thorel both called. The flop was and all three of them checked. The turn was the , Thorel checked and Blom bet 4,550 forcing two folds.
In the third consecutive hand the action folded around to Thorel in the small blind and he limped in. Blom was in the big blind and he made it 1,200 more. Thorel physically shook his head before making the call. Again Thorel checked in the dark and the flop came down and Blom bet 2,100. Thorel again check-raised when he made it 6,000 to play and this time Blom folded.
It's official! A total of 891 players coughed up their €5,000 to play this event, well up from last year's 768, and they have between them generated a €4,276,800 prize pool. 128 places will pay out, with 128th place paying a comparatively measly €7,500 and first place paying a rather more mouthwatering €880,000. Please check over at the payouts tab for the full list of available moolahs.