Ludger Leaping Forward

With about 320,000 chips stacked in the middle of the table, four players saw a flop of {J-Clubs}

. Nicolas Cardyn made a bet of 200,000, enough to fold two of the meddlers in the pot. Norbert Ludger was not so easily deterred, though, and he eventually made the call.

The turn was the {7-Spades}

, and Ludger took control of the betting. He led out with 270,000 chips, sending Cardyn into the tank. He took his time making a decision, but someone called the clock a bit quicker than we're used to seeing in such a high-pressure situation. In any event, the clock ticked all the way down on Cardyn's decision, and his hand was killed when the count reached zero.

Ludger takes the first big bite out of this last table, increasing his chip lead significantly. He flashed the {J-Diamonds}

as the chips were pushed to him, moving up over 1.5 million while Cardyn slips back to about 535,000.