With a board lying patiently on the felt, Nicola Pero fired out a bet of 17,500 to put the pressure on Praz Bansi. The double-bracelet winner began mulling over his options, even probing his stoic opponent with a couple of information-seeking questions. Pero, meanwhile, offered no response, and remained stiller than a bottle of Evian water.
After fingering his chips for a couple of minutes, Bansi slid the necessary chips across the felt to signify the call. Pero quickly tabled as if it were the nuts, and it took a couple of takes before Bansi realised he had the superior hand with .
"I wanna be Praz Bansi when I grow up," declared an impressed Peter Wood.
After the hand, there was a brief pause as they broke the table, which enabled Bansi to reveal more about the hand: "I raised it up preflop from the button and both blinds called. I then bet 6,200, but the guy made almost a min-raise to 12,200. It went check, check, then you saw the river."
As a result of that call, Bansi is now a genuine threat again with 95,000, whilst his wounded opponent is down to 20,000.
Tai Tran opened on the button and Manig Loeser pushed all-in from the small blind, Tran made a fairly quick call, as you would expect, given that his holding was . Loeser turned over for a dominated hand but the board gave him two of the three cards he needed to catch when it came . Loeser has about 65,000 now while Tran drops to about 52,000.
First in from the button, Ilari Tahkokallio raised to 4,500, and Andrew Pantling called from the big blind to go heads up the rest of the way.
The flop came , and what an action flop it was. Pantling checked, and Tahkokallio continued out with 6,500 more chips. Pantling promptly shoved all in, and Tahkokallio was stuck with , forced to call even though he didn't really seem to love it. And with good reason. Pantling flipped over for the made straight, and he was poised for another knockout.
The turn changed nothing in Tahkokallio's favor, and the on the river ushered him out the door in 21st place.
A chip count for Pantling is coming as soon as he finishes tidying up his piles a bit.
After evading the splash of the bubble, Francois de Quidt has been eliminated at the hands of Phil Laak.
With an eerie silence simmering through the table, Phil Laak opened for 5,700 from under the gun only for de Quidt to reach out for a column of chips and slide what appeared to be around 15,000 across the felt.
Without hesitation, Laak pushed his entire stack across the line, effectively putting his foe all in. De Quidt had his suspicions, but after a brief pause, sighed and made the call.
De Quidt:
Laak:
A 'laak' of ladies on the board gave Laak the 135,000 pot, and de Quidt the door.
With the first four players folding quickly in turn, Thorston Schafer looked down at and shoved all in for a bit less than 40,000 total. In the big blind, Peter Wood squeezed out the and said, "Oh, that isn't a good card for you." When he peeked at the other card, he instantly shot out of his chair and half-yelled, "I call!" It was , and it was bad news for the at-risk Schafer.
There was a little sweat on fourth street, but the board of was ultimately not enough for Schafer's chances to double. He's out with the first paycheck of Event #1, taking home more than twice his buy-in for a good showing over the past two days.
Oh dear, oh dear oh dear, the weather is starting to get cooler in London but for Javed Abrahams, well, he might as well be stranded at the North Pole after this hand. Abrahams fired out 9,600 on the turn of a and Ilan Rouah made the call.
The river was the and Abrahams began going for his stack once more.
"Don't," said Rouah, "don't do it!" But Abrahams was unperturbed, he pushed out a bet of what looked like 15,000 and Rouah instantly moved all-in. Abrahams quickly rechecked his cards and made the call turning over but Rouah was holding the only hand that could beat it, he showed for the straight flush to knock Abrahams out and put everyone else into the money.
After Abrahams left, Rouah said, "He could've folded."
"What?" said a slightly bemused John Tabatabai, "This isn't Omaha!"
board lying patiently on the felt, Nicola Pero fired out a bet of 17,500 to put the pressure on Praz Bansi. The double-bracelet winner began mulling over his options, even probing his stoic opponent with a couple of information-seeking questions. Pero, meanwhile, offered no response, and remained stiller than a bottle of Evian water.
as if it were the nuts, and it took a couple of takes before Bansi realised he had the superior hand with 
.
. Loeser turned over 
. Loeser has about 65,000 now while Tran drops to about 52,000.
, and what an action flop it was. Pantling checked, and Tahkokallio continued out with 6,500 more chips. Pantling promptly shoved all in, and Tahkokallio was stuck with 
, forced to call even though he didn't really seem to love it. And with good reason. Pantling flipped over 
changed nothing in Tahkokallio's favor, and the 
board gave Laak the 135,000 pot, and de Quidt the door.
and said, "Oh, that isn't a good card for you." When he peeked at the other card, he instantly shot out of his chair and half-yelled, "I call!" It was 
and Ilan Rouah made the call.
but Rouah was holding the only hand that could beat it, he showed 
for the straight flush to knock Abrahams out and put everyone else into the money.
