Out on to the smoking balcony!
2011 EPT Deauville
Last hand before the break saw Fabrice Soulier raise to 59,000 with about 210,000 behind only to make a very big fold when Julien Claudepierre set him all-in from the blinds.
Soulier tanked long and hard before folding
, Claudepierre showed him
.
Meanwhile on the other table William Johnson had raised Lucien Cohen's 65,000 turn bet on a
board to 200,000, prompting the Frenchman to get his life-size fake rat out once more... Eventually though, he elected to fold.
23 left as we go on break.
Kevin Keosomphet check the 

flop to his neighbour Anthony Hnatow, who bet 61,000. Keosomphet flat-called.
Keosomphet check-called 206,000 from Hnatow on the
turn as well, and they got to see the river - a dangerous-looking
, meaning that a man would only need an ace or a six to make a straight. Keosomphet checked one last time, and Hnatow, who'd been pointedly peering over to assess Keosomphet's remaining stack since the flop, promptly went all in to cover.
Keosomphet now commenced several minutes in the tank, head in hands; eventually he folded 
and presumably was now fervently wishing that he hadn't played them quite so slowly.
Hnatow is up to 2 million now. Keosomphet is reduced to 850,000.
We have had our first elimination of Day five and the unlucky player is Emile Petit.
Martin Jacobson raised to ~54,000 from under the gun and Petit three-bet to ~165,000. Everyone folded and it was back to Jacobson to act who announced he was all-in and Petit called immediately.
It was a case of the right hand at the wrong time as Petit showed
and Jacobson showed Petit his worse nightmare with
. It then went from bad to worse as the dealer spread the flop on the deck and the first card to be seen was the
. The
followed and Petit was out.
Alex Wice is continuing his stranglehold on this tournament, it was passed to him on the button and he simply pushed his large stack of 50k chips over the line putting Riccardo Giacalone and Fabrice Soulier to the test. Giacalone quickly folded, but Soulier tanked for several minutes before eventually admitting defeat and surrendering his big blind.
Didier Mazairac has doubled up to about 900,000 through Anthony Hnatow after he was all-in preflop with
against the Frenchman's
. The Belgian hit the board hard when it came
to dent Hnatow's 2.3 million stack, he has about 1.8 million remaining.
Meanwhile at the corner table (which can be viewed by leaving the tournament area, going all the way around to the door, coming back up some stairs and then peering over the banister), Kevin Lambert raised under the gun. Martin Jacobson called behind, and both Julien Claudepierre and Emile Petit in the blinds made the call.
The flop came down 

and it checked around to Lambert, who bet. Jacobson called, the blinds both folded, and they were heads up to the turn.
Both players checked the
turn and they proceeded to the
river. Lambert bet out 88,000, but Jacobson made it 222,000 to go and Lambert let him take the pot.
Lambert - 1.4 million
Jacobson - 1.6 million
We catch the action on a flop of
and Franck Pepe and Anthony Hnatow and in the hand. Pepe checks to Hnatow who bets 36,000 and Pepe check-raises to 127,000 and Hnatow makes the call. The turn is the
and Pepe slides a big stack of 251,000 across the line and Hnatow calls. The river is the
and Pepe slows right down and checks. Hnatow ponders for a second before announcing he is all-in. Pepe goes into the tank before folding and we think it was a good fold as Hnatow flashed
for the flopped set.
Lucien Cohen opened to 53,000 and Andrzej Nowak-Rogozinski flat-called. William Johnson, however, repopped to 210,000. Cohen flat-called and Nowak-Rogozinski gave it up.
The flop came down 

and Cohen quickly announced all in for a little over 300,000. Equally swiftly, Johnson folded. Cohen, who's been using a tiny plastic rat as a card protector throughout the tournament, now reached into his bag and pulled out an enormous, larger than lifesize black plastic rat. We suspect that French gaming law does not permit rats of that size on the tables, though, as a few moments later it disappeared back into his bag.
Cohen: 850,000
Johnson: 1,050,000
Kenny Hallaert has just won a huge pot from Andrzej Nowak-Rogozinski and this is how the action developed.
Hallaert raised making it 53,000 to play and Nowak-Rogozinski called in the blinds. The flop was
and Nowak-Rogozinski check-called a bet of 71,000 from Hallaert. The turn was the
and again Nowak-Rogozinski checked. Hallaert, looking like a little version of the Terminator, fired a second barrel and it was a substantial one, Nowak-Rogozinski called the 169,000 bet.
The river was the
and the Pole checked for the third consecutive time and Hallaert bet for the third consecutive time. This time the bet was 444,000 and a call would mean that Nowak-Rogozinski would be left with around 700,000 behind should he call and lose.
After going into the tank for a very long time he eventually did make the call and tabled
. Hallaert took the hand down after he tabled a flopped set
