In the first few hours of play it looked like Full Tilt Poker Professional Viktor Blom would either win all the chips at his table or go bust trying. But dare we say it for the last couple of levels he has been playing quite tightly and preserving his stack. We joined a hand as German PokerStars player Jens Lakemeier opened UTG+1 and Blom made the call in the cut-off. The small blind came along and three players saw the flop come
. All three checked and the turn fell and when it was checked to Blom he made a bet of 1,650. The small blind folded but Lakemeier called. The river was checked by both players and Blom mucked when he was shown the .
Jason Lavallee raised to 700 under the gun and two players called him including Ben Yu in the cutoff. The player in the small blind three-bet to 3,300 and the big blind called, as did Lavallee and both the limper and Yu.
Five players saw the flop and it was checked to Yu who bet 6,000. This was enough to take down the pot and Yu bumped his stack to 42,000.
Cristiano Oliveira, the short stack at the table, opened for 600 and got called by big blind Kitty Kuo. They saw a flop of . Kuo checked and then called a bet of 800 from Oliveira. The turn was the and both players checked. When the hit the river Kuo bet out for 1,600.
Oliveira looked both confused and pained by the bet, an emotion familiar to many of Kuo’s opponents, and it brought one or two smiles from other players at the table. Oliveira had 8,800 behind and after a minute’s thought released his hand.
Joep van den Bijgaart raised it up to 700 from the button and the small blind quickly released his hand. PokerStars Sponsored Player Dominik Panka in the big blind had other plans though. With about 9,000 left he made it 1,700. Van den Bijgaart wasted no time shoving all in and Panka called just as quickly.
Joep van den Bijgaart:
Dominik Panka:
The flop came jack high and that was all there was to it: . Panka got up from the table, shook hands with Schemion and Van den Bijgaart and said his goodbyes. Ciao Panka, see you in the High Roller?
Several players are hovering around the 100,000-chip mark, but one man has distanced himself from the pack in Russia's Andrey Elizarov, who is currently sitting with 151,000!
Matthias "mati312" Brandner, aka Mr Badugi. Photo courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.
Hometown hero Matthias “mati312” Brandner talks to PokerStars Blog about Badugi (which he bosses in the $50/$100 games) and the one place you absolutely must go if you visit Vienna. Find out more by clicking here.
A short-stacked Dominik Paus, who hails from Germany, got his stack all in preflop holding pocket sevens. Unfortunately for him, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov woke up with . Paus was looking to improve, but instead it was Katchalov's hand that got better as the board ran out with both paint and an ace to give him a Broadway straight!
. All three checked and the turn fell 
and when it was checked to Blom he made a bet of 1,650. The small blind folded but Lakemeier called. The river 
was checked by both players and Blom mucked when he was shown the 
.
flop and it was checked to Yu who bet 6,000. This was enough to take down the pot and Yu bumped his stack to 42,000.
. Kuo checked and then called a bet of 800 from Oliveira. The turn was the 
and both players checked. When the 
hit the river Kuo bet out for 1,600.
