After a raise to 800, a three bet to 2,000 and a call, Davidi Kitai was able to squeeze to 6,900 from the small blind. Everyone but the last player folded, he called. Kitai continued with a 4,800 bet on and his opponent soon raised it up to, what appeared, 9,600. Kitai thought about it for a little while, and eventually called. The hit the turn and both players checked. The fell on the river and Kitai bet out 8,800. His opponent folded, Kitai grabbed the rather large pot without showing his hand.
Josef Antos from Czech Republic was all in pre-flop for his last 13,900 and while Dietrich Fast didn’t love it with a stack of 49,000 he certainly didn’t hate it and called with . It was a you know what as Antos showed the and half rose from his chair. The flop though had other ideas, shooting Antos into the lead. Turn , river and Antos survived.
Team PokerStars Pro David Williams is down to 8,900 after losing a big pot when he took two large stabs with bottom pair on a board. He fired the flop and the river in a three-way pot, but failed to steal the pot away. He'll be looking to spin back up in the next few levels.
Amid the sea of faces today was Tomas Mercier, an increasingly regular feature on the European Poker Tour with a face that doesn’t exactly blend in. At the same time other players look a little bit too alike, as the PokerStars Blog reports.
Ibrahim Ghassan was standing up, belongings gathered and ready to walk. There hadn't even been a flop but a cursory glance at the table revealed why he was on his feet. He was all-in for 9,000 with but in deep trouble against Veselin Rangelov Karakitukov who had .
The board wasn't one that Ghassan could dodge and he was on his way.
The European Poker Tour still has no double winner, though some came close. We do have players who finished runner-up twice and Max Heinzelmann is one of them. Back in 2011 he finished second in the EPT San Remo Main Event for €600,000 and second in the EPT Berlin Main Event for another €500,000. He's not going to cash here in Prague, let alone finish runner-up a third time.
He just opened the button to 800 and the Italian player Gianluca Rullo three bet to 2,025 from the small blind. As soon as the big blind folded, Heinzelmann had his 8,625 stack in the middle. Rullo thought about it for a little while and eventually decided to call.
Heinzelmann wasn't in great shape with his but he was live against Rullo's . The German would fail to improve though and hit the rail after | | hit the table.
After sitting quietly for several hours, barely entering a pot, David Vamplew’s recent triple up seems to have injected new life into his tournament. He got it all in pre-flop against Markus Grewe's shorter stack holding . No real sweat as the board ran out and Vamplew was suddenly up to a workable 20,000 plus stack. He called an open to 800 when he had the button, the blinds came along and four players saw a flop of . They all ckecked to him and a bet of 2,000 saw Vamplew add another small pile to his stack. We're fairly sure we saw the first sign for a good few hours of the return of that cheeky smile too.
Russia's Sergey Baburin opened for 800 under the gun and received a call from Vasili Firsau in middle position. Former EPT champ David Vamplew then three-bet all in for 4,150 from the hijack, action folded back to Baburin, and he made the call. Firsau then counted out his chips and put in a four-bet to 14,800, leaving himself about a thousand behind. Baburin thought his opponent was all in and said, "Call."
The pots were sorted out and then Baburin moved all in on the flop. Firsau called off and all three players turned up their hands.
Baburin:
Firsau:
Vamplew:
Vamplew was up out of his seat preparing to make his exit, but he sat back down when the dealer burned and turned the . While Vamplew found new life, Firsau was still at risk in the sizable side pot. He would need an eight and an eight only to stay alive, but it wasn't meant to be as the blanked on the river.
Pocket tens have not been Liv Boeree's friend today, earlier she had a set of them cracked by a straight and in her exit hand she couldn't get them to hold against overcards.
She was all-in for around 5,500 and looking to hold against Bejjani Kamal's ace-king. However, an ace on the flop ended her tournament, whilst Kamal is up to 49,500.