Three of the top fifteen stacks belong to Frenchmen - these players having reached the half point mark of Day 1a in good shape. Elsewhere Michael Tureniec is up over 78,000 and may have sneaked into the lead overall.
A full board reading was out on the felt when we got there; Tom Dwan's perma-rail had increased significantly owing to the fact that he had bet 25,000 to cover Tomer Berda. Berda removed his shades and looked very unhappy. In fact, he looked bereaved. Over the course of the next seven or eight minutes, Berda appeared to go through the following stages:
- incomprehension
- grief
- anger
- back to incomprehension
- then back to grief
Finally, acceptance - he folded. Berda is at 18,000 after that. Dwan is up to around 40,000.
Kyle Bowker, who finished 3rd at EPT London, has been crippled losing a 70,000 chip pot which looked to have gone all in preflop. The board read and his opponet's was the winning hand, Bowker having to hand over 35,000 or so of his once chunky stack.
Jude Ainsworth continues to grind out today, the big blind check-called his bet of 2,600 on a flop of but then tank-folded when the Irishman bet 3,500 on the turn. It's a tough looking table which also contains Word Champion Jonathan Duhamel and also former Snowfest runner-up Russell Carson.
Theo Jorgensen is out of the Main Event after losing his back-in-the-game race that could have seen him double his <10k stack. All-in preflop with vs. the of Anestis Pantazidis. Even for a pro as seasoned as Jorgensen, the river must have been a slight disappointment as after he'd survived a flop and turned a third , the hit to send him to the rail.
Or possibly to the €800 + €200 Random Bounty tournament just commencing on the other side of the spacious room. Or even to rail the Heads Up stage of the High Roller event, where as we write ElkY is heads up with Benny Spindler.
ElkY takes €525,000 in the corner of the room while Benny Spindler settles for 2nd in the High Roller event (winning €316,000). Another rollercoaster final for the French PokerStars Pro who's been quiet on the six figure scores lately. Probably about time for another one.
Arnaud Mattern is no longer among the chip leaders - in fact, he's barely above average.
He told us that he raised in the cutoff with pocket tens and his fellow Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis reraised him from the button. Mattern four-bet, Veldhuis went all in, Mattern snap-called - and Veldhuis' promptly hit to double him up to 50,000. Mattern was left with 37,000.
With his fingernails on the edge of the bustout cliff, Jonathan Duhamel, down to just over 2,000 managed to hold vs. a spin-giving to stay in the game - although his warning light is still on.
Another type of fortune has belonged to Toby Lewis this level, as every time we pass his table his stack has doubled. To be fair he was down to just 9,000 the first time, but this remarkable level has brought him back to 45,000 from which vantage point he can begin to disturb his table once again.
was out on the felt when we got there; Tom Dwan's perma-rail had increased significantly owing to the fact that he had bet 25,000 to cover Tomer Berda. Berda removed his shades and looked very unhappy. In fact, he looked bereaved. Over the course of the next seven or eight minutes, Berda appeared to go through the following stages:
and his opponet's 
was the winning hand, Bowker having to hand over 35,000 or so of his once chunky stack.
but then tank-folded when the Irishman bet 3,500 on the 
turn. It's a tough looking table which also contains Word Champion Jonathan Duhamel and also former Snowfest runner-up Russell Carson.
vs. the 
flop and turned a third 
hit to send him to the rail.
promptly hit to double him up to 50,000. Mattern was left with 37,000.
vs. a spin-giving 
to stay in the game - although his warning light is still on.
