We haven't witnessed an abundance of big pots since kick-off, with most hands drawing to a conclusion before a flop is dealt.
Mark Vos is, inevitably, dominating proceedings by raising most hands, but I did spot Marc Naalden take a set of blinds, as well as Jan Hlobil, who pushed all in from the button.
"Would you have still pushed if I'd raised?" asked Vos. "Yeah," replied Hlobil with a snigger.
The lack of sleep, the surfeit of alcohol in his system and the early setback after doubling up Simon Borg -- none of these things seem to be preventing Fedor Los from getting jiggy with his chips.
Marc Naalden raised to 16,000 from the button, and Los very quietly reraised to either 75,000 or all in -- either way, a large stack of blue 5,000 chips made their way across the line and left Naalden with a decision to make. He opted to fold. With an earnest expression, Los showed him the .
The next hand, Fedor Los made it 16,000 from the button. Simon Borg on the small blind dwelled for a moment. "Push! Push!" said Los helpfully. But Borg folded, and it was Salvatore Cundari on the big blind who unexpectedly announced all in. Los passed without a second glance.
Joey Buhmann, relatively passive so far, suddenly raised to 17,000 in early position -- but Salvatore Cundari pushed from the small blind, the second hand in a row he'd got his chips in the middle, and Buhmann passed.
Salvatore Cundari, not yet done with his aggressive streak, raised to 14,000 from the button. Mark Vos, apparently sick of this behavior, reraised to 36,000 -- but passed instantly with a grin when Cundari pushed all in for the third time in a row.
With Runnar Lindepuu raising to 14,000 from middle position, Fedor Los took one look down at his cards and made it a total of 51,000 to play from the big blind.
Lindepuu, as quiet and reserved as ever, mulled over his decision before announcing all-in.
Los, his hands perhaps caught in the cookie jar, made the fold, leaving himself with a depleted stack of 140,000.
A hand or two later, it was Salvatore Cundari's turn to add chips to his stack, his reraise of 41,000 from the big blind to Marc Naalden's opening 15,000 raise in the cut-off enough to take down the pot.
The Hardware
No, don't adjust your sets, the surreal carving pictured is indeed the winner's trophy, the potential victor of this week's PokerNews Cup being treated to a specially designed trophy courtesy of professional woodcutter, Schnitza.
According to my secret source, Schnitza plans to engrave the winner's name at the foot of the trophy, as well as squeeze in the winning cards around the shoulder region. Schnitza is thus praying Mark Vos wins, if only to save himself some time.
Short
It folded around to Jan Hlobil in the small blind, who pushed all in. Big blind and short stack Farhad Kia smiled, checked his cards and thought about it for a moment, but opted to pass.
He passed his small blind when it folded around to him the next hand too, and again when it folded to him on the button the hand after that. He'll have to get busy soon though if he doesn't want to just blind away...
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