2008 Partouche Poker Tour - Cannes

In the first few moments following dinner, Gus Hansen has already found himself involved in a big pot.

We pick up the action on the flop in a heads-up pot between Hansen and the player to his right. The dealer spreads out three community cards: . The player first to act puts out a bet of 4,000, and The Great Dane quickly raises to 10,000. Without much hesitation, his opponent moves all in for a total of 46,300, catching Gus a bit off guard. He studies for several moments, mumbling to himself, "Oh, what did I get myself into now?" After taking his time to assess the situation, he does indeed make the call.

The all-in player tables , and he sees the bad news as Hansen turns over his , having a hammerlock on the hand. The turn and river come and respectively, and Gus Hansen claims his first victim of the night. After raking in a nice pile of checks, he has now moved up dangerously close to the 400,000 mark.

The players have returned from dinner, and the cards are in the air once again.

The tournament clock has been paused while the players go on a 60-minute dinner break.

Back in an hour!

A player in late position made a raise that Patrice Albert Sitbon called from the button before Casper Hansen reraised from the small blind. The original raiser folded, but Sitbon called before the flop came .

Hansen led out for 15,000 only to be raised up to 45,000 by Sitbon. Hansen made the call before the turn came . Hansen checked to Sitbon who slid 100,000 over the line, enough to put Hansen all in.

Hansen sat there thinking for so long that the clock was called on him and he used up almost every second of it before folding. Sitbon then flipped over to show his huge bluff.

"I knew I should have gone with it," said Hansen who also said he folded pocket kings.

Sitbon up to 293,000 now, whereas Hansen down to 67,000.

Among the casualties of the last hour were the short-stacked Erica Schoenberg, as well as David Williams, Soren Kongsgaard and Davidi Kitai.

Also of note is the plight of Rafe Furst. He started the day off on the right foot, working up to about 260,000 at one point on one of the toughest tables in the room. Things went south for Furst when his table broke though. He moved just one seat over to the adjacent table and found himself losing chips at the cyclic rate. At last count, he has plummeted all the way down to about 45,000.

The under-the-gun player limped in, and action passed around to the player on the button, who raised it up 4,300. The small blind folded, and the decision was on Noah Schwartz who moved all in from the big blind.

"I'm tapis-ing," he said, moving all in in his best French-English. "How do you like that? Tapis! Tapis!"

The limper folded, and the button player nodded and moved his whole stack forward. With the betting action complete, the two men turned their hands over, and it was Schwartz's versus his opponent's . "Oh, you're sneaky, tapis," said Schwartz, seeing the strong possibility of a split pot. Indeed, the board ran out dry for both players, and the pot was split.

The original limper had folded , and would have made the winning nut flush had he played. "Oh, good thing you folded," said Schwartz with a smile. "You would have tapis-ed us both!"

Christian Montarnal raised it up to 3,600 when it was folded around to him in the highjack position. Then our favorite French female player, Julie Donnaz, moved all in from the button for 40,400. Montarnal shook his head and then made the call for the majority of his stack.

Donnaz flipped over but saw that she was dominated by Montarnal's .

To the river we went and ..... !!

Once more, Donnaz managed to suck out on an opponent and stay alive. She's back up to a healthy 83,600.

Glen Chorny has been eliminated after reraising all in with pocket nines. Unfortunately for him, his timing was off as his opponent had pocket aces that held up to bust him

James Dempsey raised to 4,500 from late position, saw the small blind call before Julie Donnaz reraised to 9,000. Both players called before a flop came .

The small blind checked to Donnaz who fired 10,000 into the middle and only Dempsey called before the turn came . Once more Donnaz fired 10,000 into the pot and once more Dempsey called.

The river came prompting both players to check. Donnaz showed but she was beaten by Dempsey's . As Dempsey raked in the pot putting him up to to 140,000 Donnaz very graciously gave him a round of applause. She's now on around 40,000.