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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 
.
Just 17 players remain.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,065,000 | 272,000 |
|
|
Busted |
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.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,060,000 | 661,000 |
|
1,050,000 | -804,000 |
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.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
2,110,000 | 1,060,000 |
|
Busted |
We're down to our final 16 players, and we're on a quick break while we redraw the final two tables.
We'll be right back with the lay of the land for you.
We've just restarted with about 35 minutes left of this level.
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Frederik Jensen | 542,000 |
| 1 | 2 | João Paulo Simão | 2,110,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Jean-Pierre Petroli | 157,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Andrei Stoenescu | 318,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Juan Navarrete | 516,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Ivan Tikhov | 801,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Fraser Macintyre | 1,491,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Jason Duval | 1,184,000 |
| 3 | 1 | Clayton Mozdzen | 687,000 |
| 3 | 2 | Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes | 1,135,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Ricardo Ibanez Rodriguez | 1,493,000 |
| 3 | 4 | Ilan Boujenah | 1,094,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Nicolas Levi | 1,035,000 |
| 3 | 6 | Tristan Clemencon | 278,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Taylor Paur | 770,000 |
| 3 | 8 | Mike McDonald | 702,000 |
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
2,110,000 | |
|
1,493,000 | 61,000 |
|
1,491,000 | 553,000 |
|
1,184,000 | -184,000 |
|
1,135,000 | -90,000 |
|
|
1,094,000 | 29,000 |
|
|
1,035,000 | -25,000 |
|
801,000 | 111,000 |
|
770,000 | -23,000 |
|
702,000 | -29,000 |
|
687,000 | 46,000 |
|
542,000 | -63,000 |
|
516,000 | -19,000 |
|
318,000 | 14,000 |
|
278,000 | -363,000 |
|
157,000 | -111,000 |
First round of shots is on Neil Stoddart. Cheers.
Andrei Stoenescu needed to find a hand, a spot, or anything to get his tournament heading in the right direction, and he found all of it to more than double.
He opened to 32,000 from under the gun and was three-bet to 74,000 from Ivan Tikhov in mid position. Our friend, João Paulo Simão, wanted in on the action, and four-bet 153,000 from the small blind. He had to fold 
though when both opponents moved in behind.
Stoenescu:
Tikhov: 
The board ran 
. The Romanian's aces held up.
Did anyone notice three clubs on the board? Simão certainly did!
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
800,000 | 482,000 |
|
|
420,000 | -381,000 |
Juan Navarrete raised to 35,000 under the gun, and the action fold around to Jean-Pierre Petroli in the small blind. He only had 135,000 total, and he quickly slid them across the line. Navarette asked for the count, then made the call with a chance at the knockout. He was well in front.
Showdown
Navarrete: 
Petroli: 
The flop turned the tides in a big way. It came rolling out 
to send Navarrete spinning away from the table in frustration. Petroli's set of deuces put him right back in the match, and the turn and river 
locked up his double to move him just across the 300,000-chip mark. Navarrete was left with about 375,000.
Two hands later, though, the Spaniard got them all back. Petroli opened to 36,000, then called the shove from Navarrete. It was a big coin flip with Petroli's 
a small favorite against Navarrete's . The board was clean until the river, but the dropped off the deck to sent Petroli off to the cashier in 16th place.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
725,000 | 209,000 |
|
|
Busted |
Ivan Tikhov raised to 34,000 preflop, Fraser Macintyre called behind him and João Paulo Simão called out of the big blind to see a dry looking 
flop. Simão checked, Tikhov bet 56,000 which Macintyre called but then, perhaps a little surprisingly, Simão check-raised to 135,000. Tikhov folded but Macintyre made a second call to see the on the turn.
Simão now fired out a bet of 215,000 which had Macintyre muttering, "You can't have a two..."
Despite this, Macintyre made the call once more and the river was the . Simão thought for a couple of minutes and then checked, but the second surprise (to the watching crowd) was that Macintyre did not check back but instead fired out a bet of 400,000.
Simão now was tanking and asked Macintyre if he would show, should the Brazilian fold, Macintyre responded in the negative.
After about two or three minutes (and five minutes into the break), Macintyre suddenly stated, "Come on, you're going to fold anyway. I was so sure you were raising with air on the flop."
Simão responded, "Thank you for saying that last bit, I was almost going to call..." and with that he mucked his hand and we went on break.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,834,000 | 343,000 |
|
|
1,577,000 | -533,000 |
We're on another 15-minute break. #brb
