One of poker's most compelling characters, Luke Schwartz, is back at EPT Monaco, and he is back to all his old tricks. PokerStars Blog had a ringside seat as he got involved in one of the most bizarre hands of the day. How do you rule on this?
Noah Schwartz has lost another chunk of his stack after an action flop saw the chips go in versus Yury Gulyy.
The flop was fanned as 
and Gulyy check-raised all in. Call.
Schwartz: 
Gulyy: 
Both had flush draws but Gulyy had the nut flush draw and had Schwartz drawing dead by the turn as the board ran out 
.
Laurent Francois Lagreve opened to 12,000 from the cutoff, Flavien Guenan tank-folded on his direct left, and Steve O'Dwyer moved all in for effectively 119,500 from the small blind. Andrew Chen immediately called all in, and Lagreve folded.
O'Dwyer: 
Chen: 
The jacks held as the board rolled out 
, and Chen doubled.
"How are you doing?" Team PokerStars Online member Isaac Haxton said after the hand, arriving at the table unbeknownst to what had just occurred.
"I just doubled up this guy," O'Dwyer said jokingly.
"It's OK," Haxton said. "It looks like the bubble treated you well."
Indeed, O'Dwyer is still healthy with around 755,000 chips, while Chen doubled to 255,000.
Giuseppe Sammartino opened from under the gun to 10,000, and Paul Volpe reraised all in for 72,500 from the next seat. Action then folded to Vasili Firsau in the small blind, and he announced a call. Everyone else folded, leaving Firsau heads up with Volpe.
Volpe tabled the 
, which was behind the 
for Firsau. The 
flop changed all of that, though, as it vaulted Volpe into the lead.
The turn was the 
and river the 
, allowing Volpe to emerge victorious and double up.
Freddy Deeb opened to 13,000 from under the gun, Lauri Pesonen moved all in for 123,000 on his direct left, and Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody cold-called out of the small blind. Deeb folded the 
face up.
Cody:
Pesonen:
Pesonen was in trouble, but he flopped four extra outs when the dealer fanned , because any eight would give him a straight. The turn was the , changing nothing because Pesonen held the , and the would give him a straight flush.
The river was the , giving Cody a full house for kicks and giggles, and eliminating Pesonen.
"If you don't call I win," Deeb told Cody after the hand, claiming he folded ace-jack.
Andrew Pantling and Calvin Anderson have both been winning chips left and right, but for now it's the former who has the chip lead.
We caught the action on the flop that read 
when Anderson bet 10,000 and Pantling raised it up to 40,000 in position. Anderson made the call and the turn brought the 
. Anderson now check-folded to a 77,000-chip bet and that bumped Pantling's stack up to over 800,000.
These are the current chip counts of the table at which Pantling and Anderson are battling it out.
The tournament director has announced that we will play five levels today, unless we reach 32 players. At that point, play would be suspended for the evening and resume tomorrow at 12:00 CET.
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