In the last hand before the break, German Team PokerStars Pro Jan Heitmann got one of the biggest bad beats you can get deep into a tournament.
In a battle between the button (Mark Wagstaff), and big blind (Jan Heitmann), all the chips went in before the flop. Heitmann had the starting hand of all starting hands; . Wagstaff had and a 1.7 million pot was up for grabs.
The on the flop, and on the turn, were safe for Heitmann, but the on the river crushed his dreams of making the final table and winning this entire thing. Well, he still has some chips left, but he'll need to make one of the biggest comebacks since Pieter de Korver's one big blind recovery to win EPT Monte Carlo a couple years ago, to get that trophy.
Piotr Sowinski opened the action with a raise to 40,000 and the player in the cut-off made it 98,000. Andrei Konopelko, the start of day chip leader, cold-four bet to 250,000 and Slaven Popov in the small blind declared that he was all in.
The first two players folded and Konopelko didn’t even need a count, he called with . Popov had the hand Konopelko feared as he turned over .
The board ran out and Konopelko’s stack was chopped down a lot while Popov more than doubled up.
Pedro Marques is the last Portuguese player left in the Main Event and, even more impressively, he's the last member of his own family still in. Thanks to some lessons a few years ago from their poker-pro son, Marques's mother and father are also now poker players. The three of them all played this week. PokerStars Blog met the youngest Marques.
Dominik Panka raised to 40,000 preflop and was called by Mikhail Rudoy and Ji Zhang. The flop was and Panka checked, Rudoy bet 60,000 and Zhang made the call before Panka overcalled.
On the turn, everything went a bit crazy. Panka checked, Rudoy bet 120,000 and Zhang called but then Panka check-raised to 375,000, Rudoy now made the call and then Zhang tanked for two minutes before making the overcall.
The pot was now over 1.5 million heading to the river, Panka checked, Rudoy thought before also checking and Zhang quickly checked as well.
Panka went to muck, Rudoy turned over for a full house and Zhang also folded. The Russian picked up one of the biggest pots of the day.
On the river of a board reading Mikhail Rudoy moved all in from the big blind. He had his opponent, Samuel Sjoqvist, covered and he was deep in the tank. Was he putting pressure on him or did he really have it.
Sjoqvist eventually did make the call and Rudoy wasted no time showing him the bad news and sending him to the rail.
The 26-year-old from London is a cash game pro by day but is playing his second ever EPT here in Barcelona. He talked to the PokerStars Blog about adjusting to tournaments, being on the feature table and his tournament so far.
Markus Garberg opened to 42,000 preflop and it was passed to Philippe D'Auteuil who made it 90,000. Maximilian Senft then moved all in from the small blind and Garberg called off his stack. D'Auteuil folded.
Senft:
Garberg:
The flop came and Garberg was already drawing to running cards, the turn gave him a flush draw and the on the river completed the flush, the Norwegian somehow managing to survive.