UKIPT student Max Silver has well and truly graduated to the EPT (as Daniel Negreanu found out). Read the interview at the PokerStars Blog (including tips on how to make the transition to the EPT).
With just a short stack and Alex Kravchenko wasn't going anywhere. We're not entirely sure how the chips went in but we assume it was pre flop. His opponent, countryman Artem Romanov, was more than happy to probably as he held . After the turn Kravchenko was already literally heading to the exit as he was drawing dead: . Kravchenko will have to read this blog to find out the river was the though he probably has little interest in that fact.
We missed the preflop action, but do believe it was a four-bet pot that resulted in 80,000 getting in the middle between Sebastian Saffari and Victor Sheerman. On a flop, Saffari bet out a heatlhy 40,000 and his Russian opponent moved all in for 50,200 total. It wasn't too much more to Saffari and he made the call.
Saffari:
Sheerman:
Sheerman was ahead with his ladies, but he needed to dodge two overs to stay alive. The turn was of no consequence, and it was down to the river. The dealer burned one last time and put out the .
It was a safe card for Sheerman and he doubled through the one-time chip leader.
We joined the action as Vadim Belov faced a big decision on the river. There were already a lot of chips in the middle and Marcin Wydrowski over bet the pot with an all-in shove for 51,300. Belov had him covered and he stared at the board reading trying to work out what to do. It seemed as if it would be painful to him either way but he made the call and it was if an electric shock ran through him as Wydrowski turned over . Belov was out of his seat with his hands on his head. The dealer reached over and flipped over his hand before awarding the pot to Wydrowski.
Rhys Jones from the UK moved all in for his last 15,900 with and was called by Marco Leonzio from Italy with who had him covered. It looked good for Jones when the flop came but you know what’s coming. Turn river and the Italian’s turned set delivered the fatal blow. Leonzio claimed it was justice for a similar event earlier in the day that went the way of Jones. Justice? Poker?
For much of the first five levels of today Day 1b chip leader Amir Lehavot was on a table where no stack could seriously dent his wall of chips that totaled around 300,000.
He's now been moved tables and despite increasing his stack to 392,000 there are a couple of stacks at his table that could severely wound him, even if they can't eliminate him in one go. Hugo Felix has 280,000 and Sergey Baburin has 360,000.
There's a new chip leader and it's Ka Kwan Lau who has seized it with the Spaniard eliminating two players in the same hand to do so. There was an all-in from under-the-gun for 25,000 with pocket sixes, Krzysztof Stuchlik called with pocket kings from the small blind and Lau raised to 60,000 from the big blind with pocket aces. Back on Stuchlik he moved all-in for around 275,000 and Lau snap called.
There was no help for either all in player and Lau won the biggest pot of the tournament so far and with it the chip lead