[user50492]
Andy Black's missing Thunderbolt
24 players are about to take their seats in the Royal Dublin Society and play until only the final eight remain. The sole surviving Irishman, Andy Black, is the chip leader. Last night frantic phone calls were made to the RDS as when he arrived home his unique "Thunderbolt" card protector had gone missing. So far it has yet to be found. Will the lack of his lucky talisman affect his play today is the question. It has followed him around the world and been present at such prestigous final tables as the World Series Main Event, The Aussie Millions and last year's EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
Not far behind Andy in second place is Annette Obrestad. The Norwegian teenage sensation seems to be adapting to live play just as quickly as she started to dominate the online poker tournament scene. Will she follow up the World Series of Poker Europe win with her first EPT title?
Also challenging is a strong Dutch contingent with Noah Boeken and Thierry Van Den Berg both well chipped. They are joined by lesser known compatriots Michiel Brummelhuis and Daan Ruiter.
Join us at 2:00 p.m. local time for our coverage of Day 3 here at the RDS as we play down to the final eight.
[user38449]
The players have just about finished unbagging their chips. The first level of play today will be a continuation of level 15, with the blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a 300 ante. There are 19 minutes left in the round.
[user38449]
Andy Black
Chip leader Andy Black has located his "Thunderbolt" card protector and it seems to be bringing him some very good mojo already.
Just 10 minutes into play, Black eliminated both Luca Pagano and Kristian Kjøndal in the same hand - increasing his chip lead over the field significantly.
Unfortunately, we missed the pre-flop action, but all you really need to know is that all three players got their money in before the flop.
These were their hands:
Black:
Pagano:
Kjøndal:
Andy was able to dodge both opponents' outs to take down the pot, knocking the remaining field down to 22.
[user50492]
Andy Black Thunderbolt Backup Kit!
The mystery surrounding the missing Thunderbolt card protector of Andy Black has been resolved. Thomas Kremser, EPT tournament director, spotted it as he was clearing up last night and took it home for safe keeping. Andy did not know this so he brought in two trusty replacements just in case!
[user38449]
Arshad Hussain
Ziad Kaady made it 11,000 to go before the flop and the action folded around to the tournament's short stack, Arshad Hussain, who had 4,000 of his 13,000 chips already committed to the pot in the big blind. The situation prompted Hussain to shove the rest of his chips in dark and Kaady made the call.
Hussain turned over a very unimpressive 8-3, but wasn't in too bad of shape against Kaady's Q-10. Hussain managed to spike an eight on the flop to take the lead in the hand and would never look back.
After the double up, Hussain stacked up 28,000 in chips.
[user38449]
Ziad Kaady
After a series of raises and re-raises, Ziad Kaady and Casper Hansen found themselves in a very classic coin-flip situation: Hansen put Kaady all in holding and Kaady made the call with .
Kaady stood up to watch the dealer spread the community cards, which came: . The queens held up and Kaady doubled through to about 70,000 in chips.
"Do you ever lose a showdown?" asked Noah Boeken of Kaady.
"Yeah, he lost one against me," said Arshad Hussain (referring to his double up a few hands back).
![[user50492]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. The queens held up and Kaady doubled through to about 70,000 in chips.