James Akenhead has just turned up to play, and his presence requires the opening of a new table. Table 14 is now in play, and players were pulled from the rest of the field to make a full table, and it's another tough one.
Akenhead is in the one seat over there, and he's joined by PCA High Roller champ Alex Bilokur, EPT8 Loutraki champ Zimnan Ziyard, and EPT6 Warsaw finalist Oleksandr Vaserfirer. Yikes.
We've ticked up over 120 players so far for Day 1a. Registration for this flight is open until the end of the first break, just about 40 minutes from now.
EPT Loutraki winner Zimnan Ziyard fired out 1,775 on the river of a in a three-way pot before the player to his left made it 3,600. The other player folded and Ziyard made the call, only to be shown for trips by his opponent. Ziyard drops to about 27,000 as a result.
It was a limped pot that saw five players take a . The action checked all the way around to Eoghan O'Dea last to act, and he put out a smallish bet of 450. Two players folded, two players called, and it was three-handed to the turn. It brought the and another bet from O'Dea — 1,300 this time. One player folded, one player called, and now it was heads-up to the last card, the . When the first player checked, O'Dea checked it right back and showed down his . It was no good, though, as Mr. Opponent rolled over for the nuts.
O'Dea did what he could, betting when he was in front and checking it back once his opponent caught up. Minimizing his losses, he's slipped back close to 23,000 now.
JC Alvarado was just bluffed off a hand but still has more than his starting stack.
He opened to 300 from early position and Markus Lehner defended his big blind to see a flop. The Mexican c-bet for 650 and Lehner check-called before leading for 1,350 on the turn.
Alvarado thought about for a while and folded, only to be shown for a bluff by the cheeky German.
In a multiway pot, it was checked to James Dempsey in the cutoff who fired a bet of 1,800 on the flop, Dobromir Nikov was the only caller on the button to see the on the turn. Dempsey bet 2,100 this time and Nikov made another fairly quick call before the came on the river.
Dempsey checked and Nikov checked behind, the Englishman showing but he lost out to his opponent's .