Last year's winner Liv Boeree opened to 500 preflop from the cutoff, Lex Veldhuis called in the small blind and Alex Wice called from the big blind.
The flop was and Veldhuis led out for 1,100, Wice called and Boeree folded leaving us heads up for the turn. Veldhuis now bet 2,600 and again Wice called without too much hesitation. The river was the and Veldhuis now bet 12,300 - an overbet of the pot and the usually fast-acting Wice slowed right down.
Tanking for over a minute (that's a Wice minute, roughly equivalent to five of our normal minutes) Wice finally made the call and turned over . Veldhuis flipped for the absolute nuts and the Dutchman is up to about 63,000 while Wice dropped to about 14,000 or so.
Nicolo Calia has been eliminated after being all-in for his last 10,000 with on a flop of against the of Samer Rahman. The turn reduced Calia to an ace or the but the river was the and the Italian was knocked out of his home tournament.
An intriguing hand will remain forever mysterious as a preflop raising war broke out between another of our PokerStars Greek Challengers Alexios Zervos in the cutoff and EPT Berlin champion Ben Wilinofsky in the big blind. There was around 20,000 in the pot when we got there, and Wilinofsky was facing an additional 5,700 from Zervos - what we suspect was a six-bet. Wilinofsky tanked, and tanked, and tanked - and eventually folded, releasing an almighty sigh as he turned his face ceilingwards as if to ask God why.
This proved to be a setback from which he was unable to recover - we're not sure of the details, but he is no longer in his seat.
Lucien Cohen was tanking. He had raised Richard Loth's 1,400 bet to 3,675 but Loth set him all-in for his last 9,000 on a flop of - Finally Cohen sighed and called with but Loth had flopped a flush with , the latter holding on a turn and river for the pot.
There was around 12,000 in the pot by the river of the board when we got there; IPT Female Player of the Year Carla Solinas had checked, and PokerStars Greek Challenger and 2009 EPT Barcelona finalist Georgios Kapalas had bet 6,700. Solinas tanked up for a very long time, but eventually made the call. She flipped , and soon discovered that it was good when Kapalas could only muster . He shrugged as he dropped to 22,000; she meanwhile looked largely relieved as she upped her stack to 53,000.
World Champion he may be, but Jonathan Duhamel is not going to win this EPT.
He was gone by the time we got there, but Liv Boeree was kind enough to fill us in on the manner of his demise. The flop was queen-high and all hearts, and the turn was another queen. This was when all the money went in, Duhamel holding some kind of a queen (Boeree hazarded a guess at ) and Jackson Genovesi holding for a flush. The river bricked out for Duhamel, and that was that. Genovesi is up to around 65,000 and is currently table chip leader.
Alex Wice and Alessandro Speranze do not mess about when it comes to playing poker - everything is done at break-neck speed.
The flop was . Wice was in the big blind and he checked to Speranza who bet 625 and Wice called. The turn was the and again Wice quickly check-called a 1,100 bet by Speranza. The river was the and as quickly as the other two streets Wice check-called a 2,650 Speranza bet.
Speranza quickly peeled over a pair of queens and Wice quickly mucked his hand.