Full Tilt's Professional Viktor Blom got off to a nice start after winning a small pot right off the bat.
The board read when Blom bet 6,500 and his opponent, Jean-Philippe Rohr, made the call in position. On the river the hit and Blom fired out another 12,600 and this time Rohr folded his cards.
Blom boosted his stack a little bit and he's in good shape to notch up his second EPT Main Event cash after finishing 44th earlier this season in the London event.
The player on the button opened the hand with a raise and Joni Jouhkimainen in the small blind went with his hand and shoved all in for 54,500. Gavin O'Rourke from Ireland isolated by reshoving, the button folded.
O'Rourke had and was up against Jouhkimainen's . Both would hit the flop: . After the on the turn Jouhkimainen was already sure of doubling up and the on the river was there just to make things official.
Table 13 has a particularly British feel about it. In seat 1 is Ryan Spittles with 26,300 chips, next to him in seat 2 is Sam Trickett with 290,000 and a few seat along in the 6 seat is David Vamplew with 84,400.
In an early hand Julian Herold from Germany opened and Ryan Spittles defended the big blind. They saw a flop of and a bet of 8,500 from Spittles took it down.
Jamil Kanji, a PokerStars player from Canada, 4-bet Jack Salter to 28,400. A smile spread across Salter’s face and as he folded he asked if he could see a card. Kanji assented and put the two cards in front of Salter who wavered between which one to pick and turned over the .
We arrived on the turn as a interesting hand was already well underway.
On a board Sam Trickett checked to Marko Neumann. The German player checked behind and the hit the river. Trickett bet out 11,000 and without much hesitation Neumann made the call.
Neumann had for the turned set while Trickett held for the flopped two pair.
Despite both having big hands the pot didn't really get out of control the way the board ran out. Trickett is down a some for the day though, yet still well above average.
Sergii Baranov raised under the gun to 6,500 and the action folded all the way around to Jorma Nuutinen in the big blind. The Finnish player moved all in for 58,900 and Baranov tanked for quite a while before making the call.
Baranov:
Nuutinen:
The board ran out and Nuutinen raked in an important double up. Baranov shook his head, but he's still left with plenty of chips to start a comeback.
Lauri Pesonen opened with a raise from middle position only to have Stefan Zollinger move all in. When action was back on Pesonen, he called off his stack with the , which was well out in front of Zollinger's .
The flop was safe for Pesonen, and so was the turn. All he had to do was dodge an ace on the river to stay alive, but that proved easier said than done as the spiked! Pesonen was eliminated in gut-wrenching fashion while Zollinger chipped up to 343k.
Meanwhile, Michael Tureniec was eliminated at a nearby table in unknown action.
Artur Koren began the day second in chips, but it has not been the start he envisioned.
In a recent hand, a preflop raising war saw Irishman and WCOOP winner Gavin O'Rourke get his stack of approximately 250,000 all in holding , which was in great shape against Koren's .
The board ran out clean, and just like that O'Rourke switched places with Koren and now sits in second place.
The betting escaped us, but we do know that Giacomo Fundaro got the last of his chips all in on a flop and was at risk against Lukas Fritz.
Fundaro tabled the , and he seemed none too pleased when Fritz rolled over the . It was a cooler for the Italian, and he would not recover as the blanked on the turn followed by the on the river.
Early on we saw Luuk Gieles pick up some nice little (and some slightly larger) pots.
Gieles was up to 175,000 when he got kings. Picking up kings in a big tournament on Day 3 is usually something good, especially if you already might seem active and aggressive to your table mates. In this case picking up the cowboys didn't turn out so good for Gieles as this time around his next door neighbor had pocket aces.
Gieles didn't manage to make a suck out and the Dutch wunderkind had to leave the tournament well before the bubble stage started.
Michael Tabarelli, the benificianary, now has about 480,000 in chips. Dutch player Joep van den Bijgaart, who started the day next to Gieles but now has an empty chair next to him, has 110,000 to work with.
when Blom bet 6,500 and his opponent, Jean-Philippe Rohr, made the call in position. On the river the 
hit and Blom fired out another 12,600 and this time Rohr folded his cards.
and was up against Jouhkimainen's 
. Both would hit the flop: 
. After the 
on the turn Jouhkimainen was already sure of doubling up and the 
on the river was there just to make things official.
and a bet of 8,500 from Spittles took it down.
board Sam Trickett checked to Marko Neumann. The German player checked behind and the 
hit the river. Trickett bet out 11,000 and without much hesitation Neumann made the call.
for the turned set while Trickett held 
and Nuutinen raked in an important double up. Baranov shook his head, but he's still left with plenty of chips to start a comeback.
.
spiked! Pesonen was eliminated in gut-wrenching fashion while Zollinger chipped up to 343k.
blanked on the turn followed by the 
