Just before the end of Level 3 there was a hand at table six which packed a lot into a single hand. The action was started by Alexis Queneau who made it 500 to play, Alexandru Papazian flat called only for Eric Sfez to make it 2,100 total to go. Back on Queneau he considered his options, seemingly for too long as Christopher Frank called the clock.
The dealer called the floor, but before their intervention was necessary Queneau threw out a solitary 5k chip and then said re-raise, Papazian folded and Sfez then questioned if it was a raise or a call, Queneau had clearly meant to raise and believed he had done so, whereas Sfez thought it should go as a call. So the floor was called again and this time their presence was required and he ruled that Queneau's bet was just a call. "I called clock because he tilts me and now he misclicks," said Frank to a friend away from the table.
The was a Picasso flop, both players checked and the hit the turn. Again there was no action, the rounded out the community cards and Queneau could wait no longer. He bet 2,600, Sfez called and the former showed which was good.
On the river of a board, Alex Goulder checked and Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki bet 3,150. Goulder came in for a check-raise to 10,300 and the Pole went into the tank for a couple of minutes.
Horecki put in a reraise to 20,675 - which Goulder clearly hated.
"You can't be bluffing," he muttered.
Goulder elected to fold and Horecki increased his stack once more.
Before the start of play PokerNews bumped into Morten Mortensen. The Dane was due to play Day 1A of the EPT Main Event but was still in the Mini FPS, albeit with a short stack. He was told by Tournament Director Thomas Lamatsch that his chips wouldn't go into play in the Main Event until he registered and in fact he could play Day 1B if he wished to.
He's just busted the Mini FPS for a min-cash and is on the rail contemplating whether to get involved today or not. "I don't recognise that many people," he told PokerNews. "I'd still have 150 big blinds which is more than I'm used to," he added. We left him to ponder his decision.
Just a couple of minutes ago we saw Anton Wigg win a small pot with a mere pair of fives on a board full of broadway cards. Just now he had a hand a lot stronger than just a pair of fives, and luckily for him his opponent had a stronger hand as well.
With already quite some chips in the pot, Wigg bet out 9,800 on a board. His opponent, American player Sami Zakhary in the blinds, had checked and now called immediately. Wigg showed and that gave him all the rights to the pot. Zakhary threw his open into the muck and continued with a much shorter stack.
Three players put 900 into the pot on a flop of . They saw a turn card of . The big blind, Christophe Lesage who qualified through PokerStars, checked and Finnish PokerStars Player Tatu Maenpaa bet 2,300. It was too much for Herve Gottrand who folded but Lesage made the call. The river card was the and Lesage checked. “How much you got?” demanded Maenpaa and the answer was about 8k. He thought for a while before grabbing a stack of chips that covered his opponent and pushed them over the line. Lesage made the call but regretted it when he saw Maenpaa’s beat his and put on his coat to leave the tournament floor.
Jean-Yves Malherbe, who made deep runs in the World Series of Poker Main Event the last two years (48th in 2012 for $156,293 and 163rd for $42.990 in 2013), just asked the dealer to spread the chips in the pot. Malherbe had checked on and Tatu Maenpaa from Finland had bet 2,600. In the pot was already about 9,000 and Malherbe reluctantly made the call. Those chips he would have to cede, Maenpaa showed which beat Malherbe's .
On the turn of an board, Jannick Wrang saw his 2,700 bet check-raised to 5,400 by Jerome Huge.
Wrang made the call to see the river and Huge moved all in, the Dane instantly folded.
Huge triumphantly showed his for a bluff but Wrang said, "You're bluffing with the best hand, I had a straight-flush draw." (Presumably was his holding.)
On the turn of a board Pawel Brzeski check-raised all in for about 18,000 over the top of Zoltan Purak's initial 2,100 bet. The Hungarian would have to wager almost all his chips to make the call but took nearly five minutes before instead opting to fold.
EPT10 PCA champion Dominik Panka has just busted out of the PokerStars.fr EPT Main Event, but he was very philosophical about what happened. "Today just wasn't my day," he told PokerNews. "I had lost a couple of big pots and was down to 4,000, I opened with and the big blind called. The flop was rainbow, he checked, I c-bet, he raised and I called," he continued. "The turn was the he set me all-in, I called and he had . River ."
Panka told PokerNews that he'll be back tomorrow for a side event. "I maybe made a couple of mistakes earlier, but I'm happy with my play," he added before heading off into Deauville.