Welcome to the Swissotel here in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
It is Day Four of the European Poker Tour Season Eight kick-starter and we have 24 players left and today they will be aiming for that final table berth. Leading those 24 is Swiss pro Ronny Kaiser who already has a final table chip stack of 1,194,000 after winning a huge cooler late on Day Three against Liutauras Armanavicius. Hot on his heels is Polish Pro Grzegorz Cichocki who was the chip leader for the large majority of yesterdays play. Cichocki will have direct position on Kaiser when we start todays play so that should throw up some interesting spots.
There are four PokerStars Qualifiers in the hunt for a final table berth: Michael Graydon (455,000), Stuart Fox (115,000), Oleg Epp (111,000) and Petri Vuolle (89,500). Vuolle qualified for just €2 and has never played a live tournament before!
There is also some local interest with Raigo Aasmaa and Lauri Meidla both still in field. Other people to keep a watchful eye on are Praz Bansi, Johan van Til and Jeff Sarwer.
All of the action will be brought to you right here at 12.00 Estonian time so don't miss it.
The top two players in the chip counts are seated next to each other and it is Cichocki who has position on the chip leader. Yesterday Cichocki amassed a huge chip advantage by constantly applying pressure with the three and four bet so it was interesting to note the first hand of the day.
Kaiser raised to 12,000 on the button and Cichocki three-bet from the small blind to 26,000 and after the big blind moved out of way Kaiser made the call.
Flop:
Cichocki bet 33,000 and Kaiser laid down the hand.
Michael Graydon is our first casualty of the day, his executioner? Ronny Kaiser of course.
Kaiser opened from the cutoff and Graydon three-bet from the small blind to around 100,000. Kaiser tanked for a minute before putting Graydon all in and the Irishman snap-called.
Graydon:
Kaiser:
Graydon was around a 70% favourite to double up and he was still in great shape as the flop came down . But when you are in a hand against a player who is running hotter than the sun anything can and will happen so Graydon should not have been surprised when the showed its ugly face on the turn to improve Kaiser to an unbeatable straight. The inconsequential landed on the river and with that we lost our first player.
Johan van Till opened up to 12,000 from early position and Praz Bansi three-bet to 60,000 (leaving 30k behind) and van Til let it go.
Lauri Meidla raised to 12,000 on the button and Jeff Sarwer moved all-in on the small blind for 160,000 and Meidla tanked, sipped water and then folded.
Vitaly Grigoryev raised to 13,000 from the hijack and Vojtech Ruzicka three-bet to 27,000 and Grigoryev folded.
Whilst most players are drinking water or fruit juices, Kjartan Bergur Jonsson has chosen to have a beer instead. It seems to be a good choice as he has just scooped a pot containing more than 120,000 chips.
Joining the hand on a flop, Jonsson checked, Lari Sihvo bet 13,000 and then called as Jonsson check-raised to 52,000. The turn saw the come into play and Jonsson instantly moved all in. He took a drink of his beer and said "This may be my last beer in Tallinn," but he still has time for at least one more as Sihvo folded his hand.
It's becoming a little unfair now. Will Ronny Kaiser allow anyone else any fun? We've lost our second player today and Kaiser has taken the scalp again. He was the only caller after Petri Vuolle moved all-in from early position.
Vuolle:
Kaiser:
The board ran .
Vuolle won his seat for EPT Tallinn in a freeroll so he's had a pretty good return on his investment.
Kjartan Bergur Jonsson has always had a smile on his face throughout this tournament and he raised to 14,500 from the hijack beaming like a Cheshire Cat. Lari Sihvo defended his big blind and we had a pair of them seeing a flop.
Flop:
Sihvo checked, Jonsson (rocking to some music on his cans) made the bet of 23,500 and Sihvo called. Both players checked the turn before we were given the on the river. Sihvo once again checked to Jonsson and a 35,000 bet did the trick.