João Paulo Simão is like the Brazilian Dario Minieri, which means he is very aggressive and a hell of a lot of fun to watch. His image was shot pieces after that hand with Levi, and this enabled him to get maximum value with a big hand.
He opened to 39,000 from the button and was called by Jean-Pierre Petroli in the small blind before Siyu Sha three-bet to 109,000 from the big blind. The Brazilian doesn't like to fold or call and showed that by four-betting to 204,000. Petroli folded but Sha moved all-in for a little less than a million. Call.
Simão:
Sha:
The board ran to make Simão quads! The smile is well and truly back on his face now.
The tournament is down to two tables now. There will be a short break while the tables are balanced. We'll post the seating plan as chip counts very shortly.
Under the gun, Nicolas Levi opened to 33,000, and both João Paulo Simão and Siyu Sha flatted. Sha was in the small blind.
The three gents took a flop, and Levi continued out with 51,000 more. Simão called very quickly, Sha ducked out of the way, and it was heads-up to the turn. It was the , and Levi paused for about two minutes. When he finally did reach for chips, he settled on a bet of 93,000. Simão wanted to play for more, though, and he slid out a tall tower of yellow chips worth a total of 500,000. Levi quickly made the call for his tournament life.
Showdown
Levi:
Simão ... ... ... ... ...
On seeing the bad news, Simão mucked his cards, but he's not allowed to in this situation. Both all-in hands must be tabled, but Simão grabbed his cards back and protested. He insisted that he did not want to show, but the floor came and reaffirmed the rule.
"Can the hand be dead?" Levi asked.
"It touched the muck," Clayton Mozdzen chimed in.
That doesn't actually factor into this scenario, and the EPT rules allow for the retrieval of mucked all-in cards whenever possible. But Simão continued to disagree. He eventually realized that his bet may not have covered Levi, so he asked them to count it down. If Levi had more than 500,000, Simão would be allowed to muck. It was only 420,000 for Levi, though, so Simão finally (and very reluctantly) tabled his .
The river was a mere formality, and Simão has been parted with a big chunk of his stack. Levi moves up over a million, and he and the Brazilian are almost dead even in chips now.
They're dropping like rock stars here in Madrid. Short-stack Ruben Setien Herrera is the latest to go on the feature table after he ran his into Ilan Boujenah's preflop, the board coming .
Jason Duval raised to 35,000 preflop and Ben Spraggons moved all in from the button for 124,000, Ivan Tikhov made the call and Duval got out of the way.
Spraggons:
Tikhov:
The board came and Spraggons is joining our rush of exits to the rail.
Mike McDonald has leaked a few more chips after doubling up the shortest stack at the feature table. He called Ruben Setien Herrera's shove for 126,000.
McDonald:
Herrera:
The board ran .
Herrera still has a lot of work to do, but this is a good start.
PokerStars Team Online player Javier Dominguez pushed all in over the top of a late position raise from Frederik Jensen, only to be snap-called by the Dane.
Dominguez:
Jensen:
The Spanish rail called for a jack but their cries went on deaf ears as the board went the way of Jensen coming .
From the cutoff seat, Bruno Lopes came in raising to 34,000, and Yordan Dimitrov three-bet shoved from the big blind. It was 214,000 total, and Lopes spent some time in the tank before making the call with his covering stack. He'd run into a monster, though.
Showdown
Lopes:
Dimitrov:
Lopes could not have asked for much better on the flop, and Dimitrov sunk a bit as he realized he needed to fade about half the deck with two cards to come. The turn was safe, but he was still a coin flip to stay afloat.
River:
That's in Lopes' neighborhood, and his full house overcomes aces to tally the knockout. It's Dimitrov who goes under in 22nd place, good for €13,000.
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
to make Simão quads! The smile is well and truly back on his face now.
flop, and Levi continued out with 51,000 more. Simão called very quickly, Sha ducked out of the way, and it was heads-up to the turn. It was the 
, and Levi paused for about two minutes. When he finally did reach for chips, he settled on a bet of 93,000. Simão wanted to play for more, though, and he slid out a tall tower of yellow chips worth a total of 500,000. Levi quickly made the call for his tournament life.
.
was a mere formality, and Simão has been parted with a big chunk of his stack. Levi moves up over a million, and he and the Brazilian are almost dead even in chips now.
into Ilan Boujenah's 
preflop, the board coming 
and Spraggons is joining our rush of exits to the rail.
.
was safe, but he was still a coin flip to stay afloat.
