There was some laughter at the table as soon as Liv Boeree busted and she walked straight over to Igor Kurganov to report about her mishap. Martin Finger had opened to 1,600 from early position and Boeree pushed for her last 8,600 with . Finger called with the and stayed ahead, Boeree was however shocked when she flipped over the cards after thinking it was pocket eights.
In a year that has seen him win two WPT Main Event and a WPT High Roller title practically back-to-back-to-back, then go out to the World Series of Poker, make five final tables, and book a massive seven-figure bracelet win, Anthony Zinno leads just about every Player of the Year race in poker.
To sure things up, he's been turning up at just about every tournament series on the planet these days and, of course, EPT Malta is no exception.
In fact, he's in with a shot here in this High Roller, slowly building it up to 67,000 already, a day after winning the €5,000 + 300 Pot-Limit Omaha - 8 Handed event here at Portomaso to add to his growing resume.
Zinno is certainly committed to putting in the volume to make sure 'Player of the Year' appears before his name at the end of 2015 and has plans to round out the year with trips to Jacksonville, Montreal, Prague and Las Vegas.
"I'm tired," he said with a smile. "After all this I may just retire."
All of the below players busted, some on their second bullet. Paul Newey was on his first bullet and has reentered since while Nikolaus Teichert sent his stack to Mohsin Charania with sevens versus pocket aces.
After a raise to 1,600 by Denis Timofeev and the call by Michael Ho, Jason Mercier three-bet to 6,500 out of the small blind. Mohsin Charania then moved all in from the big blind for his last 9,500. Since it was not a full raise, all remaining players were only allowed to call, a fact Mercier had confirmed by floor staff.
On the flop, Mercier continued for 17,000 and both Timofeev and Ho called.
Mercier then splashed in his stack of T-5,000 chips after the turn to put the two remaining opponents all in. Timofeev folded, but Ho called for his last 25,000.
Ho:
Charania:
Mercier:
The river was a blank and Mercier busted two players at once to take the overall lead.
Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand Grospellier just jumped in the High Roller following the dinner break and already has it up close to six figures.
So when it folded to ElKY in the small blind and he limped in, it was decidedly unreasonable for big blind Justin Bonomo to ask how much it would cost to get him to fold.
Apparently, 2,000 wasn't enough, because when Bonoma bet about that, Grospellier made the call.
The flop came and after a check from Grospellier, Bonomo announced a bet of 3,200, answering his earlier question when Grospellier finally relented.
Ismael Bojang raised and got called by Huidong Gu on the button only to see a flop of . Bojang's continuation bet resulted in the all in of Gu for around 25,000 chips and Bojang called with the for top two pair. Gu only had the for a gutshot, but immediately found help with the on the turn.
Ivan Demidov raised to 1,600 from the cutoff and Jonathan Roy reraised to 4,800 from one seat over. Back to Demidov who clicked to 11,500 and Roy then squeezed to 22,600 before calling all in for 72,000 and almost even in chips with the .
Demidov had pocket aces and this time the premium hand of the PokerStars Team Pro didn't get cracked on an ace-high board.