Sneaky, sneaky Fabian Ortiz. After an under the gun limp Ortiz decided to slowplay his pocket aces possibly hoping for someone to attack the passive pot. With three further calls behind him no-one had the temerity to spring the trap, which was necessary given the monster 
flop. Ortiz check-called 1,500 on the flop before checking down the 
turn and 
river. A little too trappy some would say.
Steven Thompson has risen to the top of the chip count list with 63,000. After hearing his celebrations we rushed over to see him rake in a massive pot. He held 
on a 
board (two diamonds). To you and me that the nuts. All the chips between him and an opponent went in but he had to dodge some bullets as his opponent held 
for a flush draw and open-ended straight-draw. The turn and river bricked and Thompson headed off for a spot of lunch. Well he can afford to miss a few hands now!
Veronica Dabul found herself with a nice hand in the big blind in the shape of 
after a late position raise of 575. Dabul looked up to see how much her opponent had remaining before she decided her course of action. And he had 1,000 behind. It was an easy put-him-in decision and the cards went on their backs with Dabul's nines a little ahead of the 
that was tabled. Somehow Dabul's hand not only held up but also finished as an overpair on the 
board. It's no double up but the pot boosts the Argentinian Team PokerStars Pro back up to 18,000.
PokerStars qualifier Lukasz Plichita seems to be the current chip leader with a stack touching on the 60,000 mark. The young player from Poland is ruling his table right now. The latest hand he won was a very simple one. A player limped UTG and then called Plichita'a raise to 575. The flop came 
and Plichita bet 950 when checked to him. That was good enough as his opponent folded.
Alex Gomez is out in the classic ace-king to queens race. The Brazilian Team PokerStars Pro had flopped the ace after getting it all-in pre-flop but a brutal queen on the river sent him to the rail.
And Cory Desmond followed shortly after. The Brit had made a large three-bet squeeze to 2,100 pre-flop with ace-king which failed to lose the original raiser and caller. Desmond was check-raised on the [a][4][2] flop to 9,000. Desmond, who would have been left with about 5,000 behind should he have flat called, decided to get it all-in. His opponent tank-called the shove with pocket fours. 'Why do I always get slowrolled to get knocked out of tournaments?' asked Desmond. What can we say, bad things happen to good people...
Michael Piper is continuing to hit hands and is up to 35,000 now. The other large stack at the table belongs to Aaron Lerner with 36,000. The Canadian said he thinks the two are bound to meet in big pot at some stage. He did stress that it’d be on his terms though!
Yovan Jeauneaux opened the pot for 600 from the cut-off and was called by Cory Desmond on the button. Jeauneaux made the obligatory continuation bet on the low 
flop to the tune of 1,100. Desmond called before both players checked the 
turn. Jeauneaux also checked the 
on the river and Desmond made a tiny bet of 300 into the 3,700 pot. Jeauneaux shrugged and called with his 
. Desmond showed pocket sixes. Thinnest of value bets or an attempt to set up action a little later?
Players are back from break for Level 3.
It's the first break of the day as the players leave the gaming floor for fifteen minutes. We've already lost eight players during these early blind levels but with few short in this deep stacked structure (20,000 starting stack) it won't be until later in the day that we start seeing any kind of rush of knockouts.
Things haven’t started well for Team PokerStars Pro Alex Gomez who is down to below 8,000. The Brazilian didn’t look hugely happy with his life when faced with a 5,000 bet on the river of a 
board. Gomez had got involved in the pot from the button against under the gun Flavio Arrieta, who check-called 1,500 on the paired flop before min-raising Gomez’s 1,525 bet on the turn. A quick flick of a blue 5k chip on a four-flushed and paired board was enough to make Gomez muck leaving himself with 7,500.
An open raise from the cut-off by Gomez the next hand scooped the blinds for the PokerStars pro who approaches the end of the level with 7,750.
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