After a raise and a flat-call, John Nikas three-bet to 16,000 and snap-called the shove of Michel Melkert for 82,000 with pocket aces. Melkert had the second best starting hand in pocket kings and spiked a king on the flop.
After a flop of , Paolo Niri was all in and at risk for just above 40,000 chips with and got called by an opponent with . The turn was bad news as now only a spade could help Niri. Sure enough the fell on the river and completed the flush.
At the same table, Aleksandar Spadijer has been enjoying a very successful first three levels as well.
Gabriel Tuna was all in after a [Td flop with and got looked up by an opponent with . The turn would be of no help, but the dealer came to the rescue with the river to give the 2014 WPTN London champion a vital double up.
Martin Spearing and Vasile Stancu both had an excellent day at the office thus far, continued to battle back and forth though. Spearing then made things a little bit more simple and three-bet shoved for 111,700 out of the blinds. Stancu snap-called with for half his stack and saw the of Spearing.
"One time," Spearing said and got out of his seat. The flop gave him a ton of outs, though the turn was no help. The dealer then burned and turned the to give him a straight.
Joining the action on a flop of , Surinder Sunar check-raised from 7,000 to 18,000 against a short stack with another 30,000 behind and eventually enforced a fold. Sunar is up to almost double the average stack.
Tamer Kamel is one of the most experienced players in today's field and already doubled up the average stack. In the latest hand he bet 10,200 after the turn, which was about half the pot. His opponent tanked for a while before letting go.
Jeraint "JJ" Hazan is among the biggest stacks thus far with 230,000 in chips while day 1b chip leader Matas Cimbolas dropped a little to "only" 130,000.
Gareth Smirthwaite lost a preflop all in for 28,000 with pocket jacks against after his opponent found two pair. The online qualifier is now back down to average.
In the last level, Tony Dunst raised to 3,300 and was called by the player on the button before the opponent in the big blind squeezed to 11,500 with a stack of 61,000. Dunst reraised to 28,500 and called the shove with only to end up second-best to the pocket queens of the player in the big blind.
Now in the third level, Dunst was all in for 18,000 from the cutoff with and got looked up by an opponent with to see a king appear on the flop and turn, leaving him drawing dead.
After two levels of 40 minutes each, more than one fourth of the field is gone and the eliminations keep coming in quickly. At this rate, it may be a rather short day but closer to the money the action should slow down considerably.