No luck early doors for the tongue-twisting Wojciech Kaminski, who bet 500 from the button on a flop. Istvan Pap, who'd checked the flop to him, flatted, and they saw an turn. Again Pap checked and again Kaminski bet 500, but this time Pap raised to 1,500. Kaminski, who greatly amused this blogger yesterday by asking exactly how one plays Pot Limit Omaha after spending a couple hours watching the final table, passed.
It didn't take too long for us to lose our first man, that unfortunate wooden-spoon winner being Peter Muhlbeck. I joined the action post-flop, but shrewd detective work soon shone a light on past occurrences.
According to Richard Pols, Muhlbeck limped UTG, Nicholas van der Marel made it 200, another player called, and Muhlbeck bumped it up to 800. Van der Marel called, and the other player folded.
On the flop, Muhlbeck led for 1,300, van der Marel raised to 3,300 and Muhlbeck smooth-called.
A turn and bedlam ensued, Muhlbeck checking, van der Marel betting 5,000, Mulhbeck pushing all-in and van der Marel calling quicker than a pack of wolves on a three-legged cat.
Van der Marel =
and, seemingly of no surprise to the rest of the table...
Muhlbeck =
The river was a safe one for the Dutchman, forcing his neighbour to make an unsatisfactorily premature exit and head straight to the bar for an earlier-than-expected double vodka.
With the board reading , Jeffrey Haas in the small blind bet 500, swiftly called by Emmanuel Rosetta on the button. They saw a river.
River:
Haas bet out 1,200 -- but Rosetta raised to 3,000. Haas dwelled up for a few moments, bobbing gently to some music in his head. He periodically looked interestedly at Rosetta, who was looking fixedly at the ceiling. "I don't think you have the ace," he said eventually. "Call."
Haas flipped -- but Rosetta did indeed have the ace, and he took down a juicy pot with .
YongHui Jiang bet out 1,200 on the river of a board, and Andras Kovacs to his left called. To the whole table's surprise, Jiang turned over , and, blowing a raspberry, Kovacs showed him .
With a lying patiently on the felt, Mikael Johansson led for 1,500 and Samuel Monigadon called from the button. Both checked the river, Monigadon taking it down with versus .
It's been a hard day so far
With around 6,000 in the pot by the river of a board, Dirkzauskas Dainius checked to John Duthie, who promptly bet 3,200. Dainius put on a very serious face, and dwelled up long enough for Duthie to call time on him. Eventually he called, and it was good -- he flipped to take the pot, while Duthie flashed the at him. "You were never folding that..." Duthie began to complain, and is now down to around 9,400.
Kim Kristiansen just made a big lay down. Facing a bet of 2,050 on the river of a board from Johan Percivall, Kristiansen deemed that he was behind and proudly mucked face-up. Sadly for your curious reporter, his opponent didn't show and quietly slid his cards into the middle.