Francesco Testa is out. He was already gone when we got there but the cards were still on the table - Testa's against the of a gentleman who awkwardly is in possession of an ID card that does not exist according to our list. The board read and we understand that the chips went in on the flop - Testa shoved, and apparently it took the unnamed gentleman four minutes to call. There was no suggestion that this was an intentional slowroll, but it still can't have been nice for Testa.
Fabrice Soulier has certainly read the poker instructional manual, "how to gather a big chip stack in a tournament."
He always seems to near towards the top end of the leader board and although he has just lost a pot that takes him below the 400,000 mark; he still remains a very strong contender.
He raised to 5,500 from the hi-jack and Aleksandr Khizhnyak defended his big blind holding . The dealer gave us a flop of and Khizhnyak check-called a 9,500 Soulier bet with his teeny-weeny top pair. Both players checked the turn before we saw the last card which was a river. Khizhnyak pushed out a value bet of 10,000 and as people bolted for the doors and the break Soulier paid him off before mucking his cards.
Georgios Manousos, whose proud dad is eagerly railing him and sneaking into the tournament area whenever possible, is up to 270,000.
He was in the big blind and betting out 16,600 when we arrived on the turn of the board. Fabrizio Cataldi tanked for a while in the cutoff and then made the call. They saw a river - the - and Manousos now bet out 26,300. There was another tank from Cataldi, but this one resulted in a fold. Manousos' dad was overjoyed.
Brian Roberts appeared to have check-raised all in on a after Piero Piave fired out 16,000 (having flatted Roberts preflop). Piave tanked for a couple of minutes before calling with a surprisingly strong but he was behind to Roberts , the latter staying ahead on the turn and river.
Poor old Florian Schleps is going to take some time to get over this one!
Ramzi Jelassi started of this epic hand when he raised from early position. Kevin Vandersmissen, Florian Schleps and the big blind all called and the dealer gave us a flop.
Flop:
The big blind checked to Jelassi who bet 12,000 and Vandersmissen cold-called in the hi-jack. Schleps was seated on the button and he raised to 40,300. The big blind and Jelassi folded and Vandersmissen called.
Turn:
Vandersmissen quickly checked and Schleps counted out a bet of 36,000 and pushed it confidently across the line. Vandersmissen made the call.
River:
Vandersmissen snap-checked and Schleps moved all-in so confidently we thought he was a lock. Then Vandersmissen snap-called and flipped over for aces-full. A distraught Schleps flipped over for nines-full.
Vandersmissen is now our chip leader with 520,000.