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Perhaps a partial reason why this small but perfectly formed field of hi rollers might be happier than usual to gamble it up in the first half of the day is that only four places are being paid, shown onscreen every few seconds:
1st: €290,000
2nd: €120,000
3rd: €40,000
4th: €25,262
Making the final eight with a big stack may be the difference between a non-paying final table and over a quarter of a million Euro...
Wayne Boich joins the rail after a flop of 
brought a flurry of action from his opponent Antony Lellouche, who made the final bet putting his opponent all-in. Boich pushed his stacks forward and flipped 
only to see Lellouche with flopped trips: 
. To put a firm full-stop on the hand the 
was the river card and Lellouche is streaking away into the chip lead. Full counts coming up in the next break (15 minutes).
Joseph Karam's chipstack is in real trouble after making a call for what looked like over half of it (9,500) on the river of a 
board. Roger Hairabedian waited patiently for him to call, then showed him 
to take the pot.
Bertrand Grospellier just won a pot from Freddy Deeb (the first to do so, it looks like from Deeb's 135k stack, in a while). He threebet Deeb to 6,600 from the big blind and Deeb made the call, but not before having it pointed out that ElkY wasn't as short as he thought - the blue 25k plaque was lurking there bumping his count up to 65k.
"I forgot that was chips," admitted Deeb as the flop came down 
. ElkY bet out 7,700 and Deeb showed the 
. He was granted a peek at the Frenchman's 
in return.
Another one hits the rail, this time a disappointed looking Talal Shakerchi who started off building a stack but in the end faced a river decision for his whole stack against Freddy Deeb. The board was standing 
.. 
.. 
over a pot of 20k+. I don't know how it happened (lead/check-raise) but 24k was sitting in front of Deeb waiting to see if Shakerchi would call all in. He counted out his chips, looked pained, and made the call.
Deeb showed and his house was good. Shakerchi didn't let go of his hand, however, and the dealer made a comment along the lines of an all-in needing both hands over. This was overruled by the floor, and when Deeb agreed loudly that he could just muck and go, Shakerchi finally did just that, pausing momentarily to shake his eliminator's hand.
Vikash Dhorasoo is our latest elimination here at the €20k Hi Rollers. He was pretty much the shortest stack still in when his final chips hit the middle in this fashion: An Alain Goldberg raise to 2,400 preflop saw a call from Freddy Deeb as well as button Dhorasoo. The flop brought 
and no continuation from Goldberg. Deeb thought for a moment then bet out 6k, immediately finding Dhorasoo shipping the rest in. It was less than 7k to call, and Deeb did so quickly with the flush draw: 
. Dhorasoo's 
was ahead... but not for long, as the fell on the turn to polish him off.
Level: 4
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 100
Mikhail Smirnov has been eliminated following a slow start and a subsequent preflop call of his 
(for about 12k) by Jean-Paul Pasqualini holding . No help from the board and another player drops making the field condense to two tables of nine.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
166,000 | 11,000 |
|
110,000 | 27,000 |
|
73,000 | 8,000 |
|
43,800 | 4,800 |
|
23,400 | -12,600 |
|
Busted |
Jean-Noel Thorel has been eliminated after dwindling below the level of chips which Antony Lellouche would not call preflop with to give him a spin. Thorel tabled 
and could only watch as the board ran out Ten-high giving his final 10k or so to Lellouche. Down to 19, and it's starting to look like the final table of eight won't be out of reach today.
Bertrand Grospellier failed to shake Wayne Boich just now, and dropped down to under 20k in the process. He raised to 1,500 preflop, and Boich made the call on the button. Boich also called his 1,800 on the 
flop, and his bet of 3,300 on the 
turn. When the river fell 
Elky gave up, receiving a swift check behind and a flip of which were good despite the overcard.
