All but one cashes of Artem Vezhenkov are from Cyprus, but the Russian is looking forward to add another to the list on home soil after just sending Mikhail Zavoloka to the rail.
Picking up the action on the flop, Vezhenkov bet 3,600 and Zavoloka called from one seat over in the cutoff. The fell on the turn and Vezhenkov moved all in for 13,825. Zavoloka had less than that behind and sighed after 30 seconds of consideration, then called.
Artem Vezhenkov:
Mikhail Zavoloka:
The on the river was a blank and Zavoloka was eliminated.
Vyacheslav Bondartsev opened from mid-position for 700 and with no one else willing to give him action Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker in the big blind obliged him with a call.
They checked the action down to the river of a board reading where Moneymaker led out for 1,400.
Moneymaker tabled the . Bondartsev briefly thought he had won with a rivered top pair but, as Moneymaker pointed out, “Flush.”
With about 7,500 in the middle of a board, Robert Askarov bet 5,600 and found a call from his heads-up opponent. The river was the and Askarov took no time sliding the rest of his stack into the middle and took down the pot after this opponent folded.
Alexander Kostritsyn was down to as low as 5,500 and since recovered, and Natan Chauskin also moved back to more than the starting stack. Igor Yaroshevskyy was eliminated in the National Championship High Roller and jumped into the Main Event while PokerStars Championship Monte-Carlo 4th place finisher Maxim Panyak holds a commanding lead in that tournament with four players left. Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Dmitry Ponomarev are also still in and battle for the title and trophy.
Joining the action on the flop, Vadim Kim bet 2,000 and Viacheslav Manakov raised it up to 4,000 before the player from Kazakhstan tossed in the extra chips. Kim then checked the turn and Manakov bet 5,000. It only took 15 seconds before Kim announced all in and slid forward his stack of 13,225.
Manakov didn't ask for a count, and announced "fold" while also flashing the for top pair on the flop. Kim raked in the pot without saying anything and moved back to starting stack.
Alexandr Merzhvinskij opened the action with a raise to 700 and picked up no fewer than four callers including Anatoly Filonenko and Ricardo Tavares in the big blind. On the flop, the action checked to Filonenko and he bet 1,300.
Tavares was the only caller and check-raised the turn from 1,625 to 5,100. Filonenko called and the river was checked through. Tavares whispered "bluff" before rolling over for bottom pair. Filonenko had that beat with and scooped a nice pot.
There was an open to 700 and a call before Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano also called from the button. With a fold from the small blind it was Ihar Soika from the big blind who came out with a big three-bet.
With the other two players folding it was Pagano who called to go to a heads-up flop of .
Soika check-called a bet of 2,700 from Pagano and the turn card was the .
Another check from the blinds from Soika saw Pagano up the price to 5,000. Soika weighed it up. He had 8,500 behind and soon after he committed all his chips and Pagano quickly called and tabled his set.
The air rushed from his though when he saw Soika had flopped top set with and with a blank on the river he took the majority of the Italian’s chips.
After losing a huge pot just moments before, Luca Pagano splashed the rest of his chips in the middle preflop, when action folded around to the PokerStars Team pro in mid-position. The amount was a little more than 3,000 and found a call from the player in the big blind.
Pagano:
Opponent:
Though Pagano's opponent flopped a flush draw, the Italian was able to fade the turn and river to give himself a bit more life.