Joao Vieira showed just how powerful stack size and position are in a recent pot that he took down.
He opened to 12,000 on the button, Emil Ohlsson three-bet to 29,000 from the small blind only for Ivan Soshnikov to four-bet to 62,000 from the big blind. Back on Vieira he asked for a look at Soshnikov's stack - the Russian had 230,000 back - and then slid out a five-bet of 108,000 total.
The Russian went into the tank, indeed Vieira had enough and called the clock, the tournament director got all the way down to two seconds before Soshnikov mucked his hand.
Georgios Karakousis was all in for 97,000 with and in terrible shape against Joao Viera's . It didn't get any better for him as he was drawing dead by the river of a board.
Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier moved all in from the button and was called by Olivier Busquet. Grospellier was at risk had the pair against the of Busquet. The board ran out , Busquet hitting to send Grospellier out of the tournament.
With play ion the Main Event wrapped up in less than four hours today, time in the high roller event seems to stand still in comparison, as the PokerStars Blog reports.
Ariel Mantel opened under the gun plus two to 12,500. A couple positions down, Martin Finger in the cutoff made it 27,500. The button and both blinds folded but Mantel pushed all in. Finger called immediately, putting himself at risk as Mantel had 16,500 more than him.
Finger tabled and needed to hit against Mantel's . The board never gave Finger anything but low cards.
No hit for Finger who exited the tournament in 23rd place for €17,250. All other players are now guaranteed €18,950.
The extremely short stack Martin Kahbrel opened to 16,000 and was set all in by Dmitry Yurasov. Kahbrel made the call but soon found out he was in trouble.
Kahbrel had while Yurasov showed . Again, like in Grospellier's double up hand, the flop was really good for someone: . While the commentators asked for a jack to make it a sweat, the dealer put the on the table. "Game over" said Lee Jones on the live stream. The on the river could not possibly save Kabhrel who had to make his way to the pay out desk.
With Kahbrel's bust out the tournament is down to 24 players. There will be a short break for the redraw and after that the players will continue for 33 more minutes in the current level, before going on dinner break.
"Happy to have made it," said Steve O'Dwyer to the Tournament Director as he was escorted to the payouts desk after busting out of the tournament just moments ago.
He'd shoved for roughly 24,000 from middle position with it looked like it was going to get through, that was until Mike McDonald found in the big blind. The board only strengthened McDonald's grip on the hand and O'Dwyer was on his way.
From the small blind Kent Lundmark maximized the pressure on neighbor Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. The Frenchman made the call from the big blind for his last 50,000 chips. Lundmark had a mere and was dominated by Grospellier's .
The flop was as good as they could come for Grospellier. The Team PokerStars Pro flopped his opponent dead, the on the turn and on the river were just a formality.