Seventeen out of the last 30 players in Sanremo have never cashed in an EPT main event. Who knew that some rookie named Isaac Haxton was one of them?
Read more at the PokerStars Blog.
Artem Litvinov has just put another of his performances here at Casino Sanremo after Ludovic Lacay had called time on him and Litvinov didn't realize that he had just a few seconds to act.
With the board reading 
and Inge Forsmo in the cutoff seat and Litvinov in the big blind still in play Forsmo bet 115,000 and Litvinov went into a long tank. After thinking for a minute or so Litvinov picked up his coin card-protector and flipped it high into the air. Litvinov obviously didn't like what came out of it and kept thinking with his head down looking at his stack.
Ludovic Lacay asked the dealer to call time and the floor told Litvinov he had only one minute left to make the decision. Litvinov didn't respond and kept his eyes down. It wasn't until the floor started counting the last ten seconds out loud that Litvinov actually realized that the time was called on him. Litvinov burst out saying he had no idea about him having only one minute to act blaming Lacay for calling time and claiming that he had pocket tens and needed more time to make the decision.
Eventually the floor was able to calm Litvinov down, but the Russian seemed to be left steaming bad.
Laurent Polito, who recently won the €10,000 High Roller at the 2012 EPT Barcelona, moved his short stack all in from under the gun. It folded all of the way around the table to Negjdet Avdylaj in the small blind. He announced a call and the big blind folded, prompting the two to table their hands.
Avdylaj: 
Polito: 
Avdylaj struck gold when the flop of 
paired his queen and put him in the lead. Fourth street was the 
and fifth street was the 
, ensuring that Avdylaj would reduce the field by one player. He's now sitting on a stack of about 1.4 million.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,400,000
540,000
|
540,000 |
|
Busted |
We didn't catch the action until the river in what turned out to be a big pot (thanks to an uncalled all-in shove at another table), but we do know that Ludovic Lacay is now up to nearly 2 million.
With approximately 500,000 in the pot, Lacay had checked and Michele Di Lauro fired out 202,000. Lacay was in the tank for quite some time before someone called a clock, and shortly thereafter he spiked in a call. Di Lauro didn't like it and mucked his cards, and Lacay tabled 
before raking in the big pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,950,000
970,000
|
970,000 |
|
||
|
500,000
-1,400,000
|
-1,400,000 |
At exactly the same time on two tables there were two pre flop showdowns with pocket queens battling pocket jacks.
Matt Salsberg opened to 40,000 with pocket jacks from under the gun and called when Michael Benvenuti three-bet all in for 380,000 from the big blind. The latter had the queens and held through a nine high board.
We raced over to the other table where Isaac Haxton was all in from the small blind with pocket jacks. A cold deck gave the shorter stacked Giuseppe Cefalu pocket queens in the big blind and the board ran 
. Haxton is the tournament short stack now.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
876,000
-424,000
|
-424,000 |
|
790,000
354,000
|
354,000 |
|
724,000
339,000
|
339,000 |
|
150,000
-590,000
|
-590,000 |
Andrea Furlanetto has been short-stacked all day and he is working hard to make Day 5. He recently moved all in before the flop for his last 168,000 and found a call from Ludovic Lacay.
Furlanetto: 
Lacay: 
The board ran 
, allowing Furlanetto's king-high to hold and scoring him a double up late in the day. We're only two eliminations away from the end of the day, so this pot may be his ticket into making Day 5.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,800,000
-150,000
|
-150,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
350,000
215,000
|
215,000 |
And if that doesn't get your motor running then you can also take a sneak preview of what the EPT Sanremo final table looks like.
Click through to the PokerStars Blog to watch the videos.
Level 23 has come to an end, which means it's time for another 15-minute break.
Level: 24
Blinds: 12,000/24,000
Ante: 3,000
Just prior to the break, a pot took place between Thomas Gabriel and Isaac Haxton, well two pots actually.
In the first, there was about 125,000 in the pot and a flop of 
when Haxton checked from the big blind and Gabriel moved all in from middle position. Haxton called off for 65,000 with 
, and was well out in front against Gabriel's 
. Neither the 
turn nor 
river changed a thing, and Haxton doubled.
Two hands later, action folded around to Haxton on the button and he moved all in. This time it was Gabriel calling off for 171,000 total.
| Showdown |
Haxton:  |
Gabriel:   |
The 
flop was great for Gabriel, and the turn left Haxton drawing dead. The meaningless 
was put out on the river for good measure, and Haxton was left with just 48,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
350,000
45,000
|
45,000 |
|
|
48,000
-102,000
|
-102,000 |
