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.
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.
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).
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:
With a big pot going to Kristoffer Thorsson just before the break as he set Alain Goldberg all in on a flop (declined) he snuck in front of Antony Lellouche for the top chips at the end of the 4th level. They've been gaining almost neck-and-neck but there can be only one leader, and it's the Swede with over 200k.
The shortest stack by far, under 10k, Joseph Karam found a spot to get a potential triple through, as Antony Lellouche had raised and found button Gianni Giaroni re-raising. In it went, only for Lellouche to isolate by making it 70k. This eventually got rid of Giaroni, who watched Lellouche's stay miles in front of Karam's to send him out of the tournament.
A strange hand just saw around half of Bertrand Grospellier's remaining chips float over to Hichem Ben Halima on the river. Preflop Grospellier had raised and Ben Halima threebet on the button; call.
Flop: check-check
Turn: check-check
River: Now Grospellier bet out 7,700. Ben Halima promptly upped it to 17k and after a long think he made the call (and had to break into a new 25k plaque thereafter). Ben Halima showed the which may not have been ahead post-flop until all five cards had come, but which certainly bumped his stack up in the right direction afterwards.
Alain Goldberg is our 14th place finisher, after finding , making it 5,500 out of a 19k stack, and getting set in by Bertrand Grospellier. He made the call quickly, but was up against the faces of . They were left smiling as the board: left Goldberg drawing to one out on the river which turned to out the door after it.
One busts a player, the other sets one in. One tops 100k, the other follows. Same with 200k and any minute, one imagines, a quarter mil. Antony Lellouche and Kristoffer Thorsson took off in the last two levels and now it's hard to tell between them who's in front.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. ElkY bet out 7,700 and Deeb showed the 
. He was granted a peek at the Frenchman's 
in return.
board. Roger Hairabedian waited patiently for him to call, then showed him 
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).
flop (declined) he snuck in front of Antony Lellouche for the top chips at the end of the 4th level. They've been gaining almost neck-and-neck but there can be only one leader, and it's the Swede with over 200k.
stay miles in front of Karam's 
check-check
check-check
