Just moments before the remaining players headed into the dinner break, I scoured the room for the current chip daddies. The following will all be deserving of a Father's Day card this year:
Janne Nevalainen -- 255,000
Zsombor Gall -- 240,000
Benjamin Juhasz -- 200,000
Keith Hawkins -- 170,000
Tyler Bonkowski -- 160,000
Nelius Foley -- 150,000
Yann Dion -- 145,000
"If I lose to whatever piece of shit you have..." said Kennedy, fearing that his were about to be outdrawn by what was, given the dwell, obviously a marginal hand. Reluctantly, Anders Rasmussen called with and a slight shade of crimson adorning his cheeks.
But despite his fears of leaving Dublin with a bad beat story, the was as safe as the crown jewels, Kennedy doubling up to 35,000 as a result.
"I would have quit poker if I'd lost that," laughed Kennedy.
Nik Persaud reminds me of Daniel Negreanu, not in his playing ability ('obv', as the kids would say), but in his vocal thought process as he mulls over a hand.
On this occasion, Persaud was in a tricky spot, and dealing with the dilemma of having a mediocre hand, but being fully aware that his opponent was capable of making a move.
It was 'Gentleman' Ben Roberts who kicked off proceedings, raising it up to 5,500 from the button. Persaud three-bet to 12,000 from the big blind, and Roberts made the call.
Both players checked the flop, but Persaud was less hospitable on the turn, firing out for 11,000. Roberts counted out his chips, and moved all in, making it an additional 34,700.
"We started with about the same, didn't we?" inquired Persaud as he attempted to decipher the hand.
After a few minutes of mumbling to himself, Persaud grasped his stones firmly in the palm of his hand and moved all in, tabling in the process. Sadly, his stones were wrong, as Roberts was a gnat's pubic hair in front with .
Although Roberts, was ahead, he wasn't home and dry just yet, the river coming a rather crushing to split the pot.
"My only worry was that you were bluffing with a slightly better hand, but I thought you'd ship that in preflop," mused Persaud, trying to defend himself against the simmer of smirks with his logic behind the call.
After a long day of grinding harder than Spearmint Rhino lapdancer, Arnaud Mattern has been knocked out.
He pushed his last 30,400 but found Steven King piling on the misery by making the call with . Mattern's was in hot water and couldn't survive the board.