2008 Partouche Poker Tour - Cannes

Playing in her first major tournament since her historic WSOP Main Event run earlier this summer, Tiffany Michelle has just been eliminated from the PPT grand finale.

Short-stacked and fighting for much of the day, Tiffany told us that she moved all in with ace-queen and was called by an opponent who had pocket nines. Not one, but two nines rolled off the deck -- one on the flop and the other on the turn -- sealing Tiffany's fate.

"Come on in... make it a four-way all in!" exclaimed Jean-Robert Bellande in an attempt to coax a fourth opponent into what was already a three-way, pre-flop all-in situation. "What would Gus do?" he asked his opponent.

"I have three-five. Would you call with that?"

"You called an 1,800 raise with three-five?" JRB asked.

"Do you want me to call?" his opponent inquired.

"Truthfully, no, because if I tell you I want you to call and you call, you'll hit."

At that moment, the player threw his chips across the betting line -- 12,775 of them to be exact -- and a swarm of cameras and spectators surrounded the table.

When it was time to flip over the cards, here's what was shown down:

Player 1:
Player 2:
Jean-Robert:
Player 4:

The board filled out in favor of Bellande, who said afterwards, "Dealer, you're an excellent dealer."

As he stacked up his new chips, Jean-Robert did what he does best -- he kept talking: "That's how we do it... I get the money in with ace-ten!"

As Bellande finished stacking his chips from the monster pot (~47,500), action folded around to him in the next hand and he said quite mirthfully, "I would like to raise..."

Phil Ivey, the third person to act, makes it 800 to play and only finds a caller from a player in the cut-off before the flop comes .

Ivey continues his aggression with a 1,300 bet but his opponent is not detered and makes the call before the turn comes .

Ivey studies his opponent, fiddles with his chips and decides 3,000 is the right amount to bet. Again he finds a caller before the river brought a . This time Ivey slows down and checks, as does his opponent.

Ivey flips over but lost out to his opponent's shrinking his stack to 17,850.

Poker Battle founder and CEO Philippe Rouas has just been eliminated from the field. He flopped two pair and was more than happy to get all his chips in the middle. Unfortunately for him, his opponent had flopped a set, and Rouas was unable to catch up.

Though he has no chips remaining, Rouas is going to lurk around the tournament room for the remainder of the night. There are dozens of players wearing his Poker Battle gear, and he is wandering around between the tables talking to everyone and cheering on his players.

Jeff Madsen - 39,500
Glen Chorny - 29,500
David Williams - 58,000
Joe Cassidy - 44,200
Matthieu 'cartos' Cartillier - 72,000

The early action is unclear for this hand, but we pick up the betting on the turn, with the board showing . There are about 3,500 chips in the pot, and when the falls on fourth street, Nenad Medic leads out into it with a bet of 2,100. Next to act is Thierry Labat, and he raises it up to 5,100. Action folds to the button, where the player seated there makes the over-call. Now it's back to Medic, and he goes into the tank for several minutes. He checks his hole cards once more, counts down his stack several times, and eyes up the stack sizes of his opponents in the hand. They both have him covered. Finally, he moves all in for a total of 14,975, which Labat instantly calls. The button player releases his holdings, and with the betting action complete, the hands are turned face up.

Medic:
Labat:

Medic turned top two pair, but that fourth card also made Labat's straight. With one card to come, Medic needs to find one of the remaining tens or eights to stay alive. Unfortunately for him, the peels off, sending the recent bracelet winner to the rail shortly after dinner.

First, Michael Mizrachi gave 13,250 away from his recently acquired big stack after raising to isolate an all-in bet of an opponent to his right with . His opponent had .

The board ran . Full house definitely good for that pot. Mizrachi down to 51,000 as a result.

A few minutes later Robert Mizrachi joined in a four-way limped pot that brought a flop. It was checked to a French player who bet 1,500 then two players folded before Mizrachi raised to 4,000.

The French player then moved all-in for 24,000 and Mizrachi almost beat him into the pot with his chips. The French player tabled but was way behind to Mizrachi's .

The set held up, propelling Miazrachi up to 73,000. "Hey Scotty, Christmas came early!" shouted Mizrachi to Scotty Nuygen on the next table.

Time for Eric to get in the action, I think.

Yesterday we reported about the French deck in play here at the Cannes Main Event and it's thrown a curveball to many of the players in today's Day 1b field.

Apparently, one of those players is Phil Ivey who has the card pictured here sitting next to his chip stack.

The text on the paper reads:

Jack ---> Valet ---> V
King ---> Roi ---> R
Queen ---> Dame ---> D

We pick up the action on the flop in what would become a sizable heads-up pot between Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet and Besfort Hani.

The dealer runs out the first three community cards, spreading . First to act, Van Fleet leads out with 900 chips, prompting Hani to raise it up to 4,200. Van Fleet lets out a bit of a sigh as he grabs the calling chips from his stack and tosses them forward.

Fourth street brings the , and both players check.

The last card off is the . Van Fleet passes again, while his opponent quickly announces, "All in," pushing out his last 9,900 chips. Van Fleet mulls over his options for just a brief moment before saying, "I call." Hani turns over for a full house. Apestyles musters a "Nice hand," as he counts out his losses and sends his cards back to the dealer. He has dropped back down to around 11,000 chips.