For several years now Sam Grafton, known online as TheSquid (or SamSquid), has taken more and more time away from crushing the virtual felts to venture into the live poker arena; always sharing stories, cracking jokes, and making the game fun for his tablemates (whilst simultaneously taking their chips).
Grafton's here in Bucharest for the PokerStars Festival, and is currently enjoying a good Day 1B so far (he's already cracked aces and made a straight flush). The perfect time for a catch up, then. Find out more over on the PokerStars Blog.
On a flop Alex Udrea checked to Marius Cazacu who bet 2,700. Udrea then check-raised to 9,300 and Cazacu called.
The turn was the and Udrea checked again, allowing Cazacu to bet 7,000. Almost immediately, Udrea moved all in. Cazacu had 17,300 behind and after a while called all-in for his tournament life.
Udrea turned over for ace-high, while Cazacu held for top pair. The river was the however, giving Udrea a straight and eliminating Cazacu.
On a flop of Avi Avitan and Yossef Karavani got their chipstacks all in with Karavani at risk.
Avitan, who has well over 100,000 already in chips, held for an open-ended straight drew while Karavani had flopped trips holding . The turn was the safe , but the river was the giving Avitan a straight and eliminating Karavani.
At the start of the last level entrance in Day 1b was closed, with 401 total entrants entering the fray today. Add in the 177 players from yesterday's Day 1a and that makes 578 total entrants, one player short of the 579 players which entered last year's Eureka Bucharest Main Event.
With this evening's turbo Day 1c scheduled to take place at 9 p.m., it is safe to assume that the PokerStars Festival Bucharest Main Event could eclipse 600 entrants.
Here are some of the bigger stacks from the Main Event field. Among them is Alex Udrea who has moved on somewhat from rivering an opponent and has chipped up further.
In the latest pot, he was raking in the chips on a board after showing down . His opponent flashed him the and Udrea added more chips to his stack.
Eran Cohen raised to 1,800 from under the gun. Another player called and it folded around to Tom Givony in the small blind who three-bet to 5,000. The big blind folded, and the other two players both called.
The flop was . Givony moved all in for 15,800. Cohen snap-moved all in over the top for around 35,000 and the third player agonized over their decision. Eventually he too moved all in.
Givony:
Cohen:
Player 3:
The turn was the and the river the which left Givony fist pumping furiously as he celebrated a near triple up.
We heard an excited "Ooo" at the table of Gheorghe Serban who was part of a three-way all in involving Catalin Kukuv, who held and another player who held .
Serban held and had flopped trips on a . It seemed overkill, then, to have the dealer put the on the turn giving Serban quads. The river was the and Serban eliminated two players.
flop Alex Udrea checked to Marius Cazacu who bet 2,700. Udrea then check-raised to 9,300 and Cazacu called.
and Udrea checked again, allowing Cazacu to bet 7,000. Almost immediately, Udrea moved all in. Cazacu had 17,300 behind and after a while called all-in for his tournament life.
for ace-high, while Cazacu held 
for top pair. The river was the 
however, giving Udrea a straight and eliminating Cazacu.
Avi Avitan and Yossef Karavani got their chipstacks all in with Karavani at risk.
. The turn was the safe 
, but the river was the 
giving Avitan a straight and eliminating Karavani.
board after showing down 
. His opponent flashed him the 
and Udrea added more chips to his stack.
and the river the 
and had flopped trips on a 
. It seemed overkill, then, to have the dealer put the 
and Serban eliminated two players.