"That was a strange hand," Claas Segebrecht said when all was done and dusted, and the stack of Dzmitry Urbanovich was counted to ensure whether or not he was covered. The board lay completed, showing , and it turned out that Urbanovich had defended his big blind against a button raise by fellow countryman Bartlomiej Machon.
Urbanovich check-called the flop before leading big on the turn and river. Machon shoved and Urbnaovich called it off on his first bullet with for two pair only to see Machon turn over for the nut flush.
Pre-flop, Jessica Pilkington opened to 3,700 from the cut-off and both Steve Warburton on the button and Max Silver in the small blind called.
The flop of led to a c-bet of 6,100 from Pilkington and two calls. The turn of saw both Silver and Pilkington check, however, so Warburton fired out a 12,500 bet. Only Max Silver made the call and the two men saw a river of . Silver checked, and Warburton shoved all-in for 80,000.
Max Silver went into the tank, asking all sorts of questions which for the most part Warburton avoided answering by sitting with his headphones in. Eventually, Silver made the call, though, and Warburton's was no match for Silver's , and he raked in a huge pot to catapult himself above average and seriously damage Steve Warburton's hopes of progress to the second day.
Charlie Carrel opened up the action for 4,000 under the gun, and Dejan Pustoslemsek reraised to 10,700 from the button. Back on Carrel he eyed up the stack of his opponent, before putting him all in for a touch more than 50,000. Pustoslemsek called.
Charlie Carrel:
Dejan Pustoslemsek:
The Slovenian was looking for a queen to stay alive, but neither the flop , the turn nor the river brought any, and Pustoslemsek hit the rail.
Hon Cheong Lee has nursed a shortstack ever since running top set into the flopped nut straight of Jan-Eric Schwippert early in the day. A few minutes ago he was sent to the rail, and yet again Schwippert was the cause of missery for Lee.
Lee moved all-in for 13,700 from first position, and Schwippert made the call out of the big blind.
Hon Cheong Lee:
Jan-Eric Schwippert:
The bad news came instantaneously as the lurked in the door, and with the board running out , Lee was eliminated.
Simon Trumper just announced a single-hand Satellite for the High Roller for £1,000, and with no rake taken out of the prize pool, the seat is to be decided in a single hand as a flip. This kind of hyper turbo Satellite has been popular for quite a few years at the Holland Casino in Amsterdam for the Master Classics of Poker, and will kick off as soon as 10 players sign up.
Niall Farrell's food had just arrived and two players on the table including Fraser MacIntyre immediately said they wanted to order the same. Farrell joked "let's just bring five forks", but it was Javier Gomez that would be the one eating the chips at the table and catch up on Farrell's big stack.
The Spaniard raised from under the call and called a three-bet by Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford, who recently climbed to the top of the United Kingdom's online poker rankings. On the flop, Gomez checked and Beresford bet 11,000. Gomez raised enough to give Beresford all but two opponents - fold or call all in. Beresford quickly said "I call" and the cards were turned over.
Conor Beresford:
Javier Gomez:
The turn and river failed to improve Beresford and he was sent to the rail, leaving the table with a "nice hand bro."
Ludovic Geilich was all-in for 52,175 on a flop of over-the-top of a pot-sized bet of 14,000 from Rainer Kempe (pictured above). The Berlin-born German with over $9.45m in live tournament cashes made a tank-call and turned over .
Geilich held and needed some serious help. The turn card of was no good, but the on the river did the trick and gave him a flush to double-up and leave Kempe ruefully watching chips being pushed in the Scot's direction.
Javier Gomez made it 3,000 to go from the cutoff, Nial Farrell raised to 8,500 from the very next seat before Chris Backhouse made it 23,500 total out of the small blind. Only Farrell was willing to pay the price.
The players checked through the flop before Backhouse bet 20,000 on the turn. The river put Backhouse into the tank, but eventually, he put it all in, and Farrell called as soon as the final tally of 77,600 chips was in.
Backhouse turned over , but they were no good against the trip queens of Farrell, who got there on the river with . Backhouse hit the rail while Farrell raked in the massive pot.
On the heads-up turn of , Kully Sidhu led for 8,000 out of the big blind and Dzmitry Urbanovich clicked it back to 19,500 from the hijack. Sidhu called and the river paired the board for the second time. Sidhu checked, and Urbanovich moved all in to claim the pot without further resistance.
One table over, Phillip Mighall raised to 2,700 and was called two ways by Joao Simao and Tamer Kamel in the big blind. Kamel checked the flop and Mighall continued for 3,700, which both opponents called. On the turn, only Kamel check-called the second barrel worth 11,000 by Mighall before checking again the river.
Mighall moved in for far less than the pot, and Kamel quickly folded with more than two times the starting stack behind.
At the same time, Thomas Muehloecker ran out of chips and headed to the rail, but the Austrian can still buy back in again today or tomorrow in order to take a shot at the prize pool.