Rocco Palumbo raised to 200 under the gun at the feature table and Sam Trickett called from the small blind with unknown hole cards. The flop brought out 
and Palumbo flopped a set with 
.
On the flop Tricket bet 400 and Palumbo raised it up to 1,300 and Trickett called. The turn was the 
and Trickett check-folded to a bet of 1,700.
The first big pot at the feature table just took place between Patrick Bruel and Vladimir Troyanovskiy.
Bruel raised to 250 under the gun and Troyanovskiy called. The flop brought out 
and Bruel bet 400.
Troyanovskiy called and on the turn he did so as well when the 
popped up and Bruel bet 750.
The river was the and Bruel fired out another 1,700. Troyanovskiy thought for about 10 seconds before calling and he showed the winning hand with 
. Bruel mucked his 
and Team France is down chips early in the first heat of the day.
Every player decision team has 30-second shot clock attached to it but each team also has two time bank chips, allowing for an extra minute's thinking time. This is not per player, but per team, per heat. If one player uses up both time bank chips (even concurrently) then no other player on his/her team has access to one until the next heat. Any unused time bank chips can be carried over into the next heat.
"I think we should have reverse time bank chips!" announced Team USA's Bryn Kenney.
"Put a player to a decision and then flick it in so they only have ten seconds to think. That'd be sick for sure!" he continued.
It's good to see the payers warming to the format and having fun.
The action was on the river when the board showed 
and Marvin Rettenmaier bet 2,725 from the small blind. Patrick Bruel, seated on the button, made the call and showed 
for a flush.
Rettenmaier showed 
but his three of a kind was not enough. Bruel, who's played almost every hand from the start, chipped back up and Team Germany took a serious hit.
On a flop of 
both Dario Sammartino and Isaac Haxton checked from the blinds to Anatoly Filatov. The Team Russia representant fired 700 and got called by Oleksandr Gnatenko, Sammartino and Haxton.
"Whats going on guys?" Filatov laughed.
The on the turn paired the board and Sammartino checked again.
Haxton now bet 3,500 and Filatov and Gnatenko quickly folded. Sammartino thought for a bit, before eventually also releasing.
"Boom!" Haxton said, while slamming his on the table. Team USA chipping up over on table 1.
Sylvain Loosli opened for 250 and Andrew Chen in the cutoff made the call. Oleksandr Gnatenko over called from the big blind.
On a flop of 
, both Gnatenko and initial raiser Loosli checked. Chen bet 350 and Gnatenko made the call. Loosli now check raised to 1,150 and just Chen made the call, Gnatenko folded.
The 
on the turn made Loosli fire 1,600. Chen called.
on the river and Loosli bet 3,800. Chen thought about it for a bit, before eventually releasing his hand.
Marvin Rettenmaier's known for his slow-paced style of poker, and just now he almost got himself into a lot of trouble.
The board showed 
and Rettenmaier bet 1,300 from the under-the-gun plus two position. Vladimir Troyanovskiy, seated two seats to his left, made the call with 
and the river was the 
.
Rettenmaier, holding 
, went into the tank for quite some time but players only have 30 seconds to act on every hand. The time was set to run out and it looked like Rettenmaier did not know exactly what to do.
The German called for extra time, the tournament director was called, as his time already seemed to have ran out. The ruling was made that Rettenmaier would get another 10 seconds, as the dealer should've counted down the last five seconds.
Rettenmaier bet 2,600 with his overpair and Troyanovskiy folded his cards.
The third level of the heat (150/300-50) is underway and every table still has a full allotment of players. The shot clock is working very well as the place of play moves also at a brisk pace.
Rather than seeing players make rash calls, a lot of hands are seeing players folding to big bets or raises. An aggressive approach seems to be working well alongside the time restrictions. It'll be interesting to see if players adjust as the heats roll on.
Guiliano Bendinelli and Oleksii Khoroshenin both won chunky pots with big river raises. Ami Barer and Christopher Frank were their respective opponents and both admitted defeat with their short clock time.
The early goings of the Global Poker Masters World Cup have been slow, as expected. The value of having chips, and hanging around in the middle of the pack, is very valuable when looking at finishing in the Top 4.
After the first team will get knocked out, and therefor another will have a lot of chips, the pace of the play will obviously pick up as then there will be something to fight for. Busting out first may be the worst thing that can happen, but finishing in fifth will get you an equal amount of points.
Accumulating chips will become progressively more important as we get closer and closer to the end of the first heat, but for now it's a waiting game between the eight different countries.
Christopher Frank of Team Germany opened the cutoff for 750 and Simon Deadman of Team United Kingdom in the big blind was the only caller.
Both players checked the 
flop and 
turn.
The river came the 
, making for a double paired board with three spades.
Deadman bet out 3,100 and Frank smiled uncomfortably. After a while, he somewhat reluctantly called.
Deadman showed 
but that wouldn't win. It didn't even chop; Frank showed 
for the rivered flush and took it down.
