Brian Kim's European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event hadn't started too well, as he slipped down to around 18,000 or so, but he's not back to nearly the stack he began the day with thanks to a little backdoor help.
On the final board of , there was approximately 5,500 in the middle. Kim had fired a bet of 4,750 after his opponent checked to him, and the player sat in the tank for a minute or two prior to making the call. Kim tabled the for a rivered queen-high straight and scooped in the pot. His opponent didn't show.
This is the second EPT event that Kim has played in his poker career, having first fired in the 2013 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €10,000 Main Event last season in May. In that event, Kim's run was cut short when 12th-place finisher Clyde Tjauw Foe flushed away Kim's set of eights before Vasili Firsau eliminated him a few hands later.
We arrived at the table in time to see a short stacked player all in and at risk before the flop for his last 9,775 against Jake Balsiger. The hands were turned over to find that the players were racing for Balsiger's opponent's tournament life.
Balsiger:
Opponent:
The board ran out and Balsiger was unable to improve. He shipped double up chips across the table and watched as his own stack shrunk to just about 17,500.
Peter Kresz, a PokerStars Qualifier from Hungary opened from early position and got a call from Daniel Negreanu who announced “This could be the one.” as he put in the chips. Two more callers behind and we saw a flop of . Kresz continued for 525 and got calls from Negreanu and the small blind. on the turn and Kresz ploughed on betting another 1,500. This time Negreanu was the only caller and they saw a river of . Kresz bet for the last time, 2,100. Negreanu held his cards up and released them in frustration. “So close.” He said. “So far.” replied Kresz and turned over his for quads. “Oh wow, thank God. I had a pair and a flush draw.” claimed Negreanu.
We picked up with the action on a flop of to see Kitty Kuo heads up with Anthony Mowad. Mowad fired 1,600 and Kuo came over the top with a raise to what looked to be 3,800. Mowad called the raise but in doing so tossed out four red T1,000 chips on top of his bet. This was more chips than Kuo's raise and Kuo insisted that the move must be a raise. The floor was called and they agreed, ruling a raise to 6,000.
The very moment that the raise was made valid, Kuo snap-shoved her entire stack all in for a four-bet raise to 22,475. Mowad tanked for quite some time.
"Would you should me your hand?" he asked.
Kuo merely shook her head to signify a no.
He mucked his hand - the - face up, and watched as Kuo scooped up the pot. This win boosted Kuo's stack up to about 31,000.
In a recent hand, Amundsgard, opened for 450 from middle position only to have Ukraine's Igor Yaroshevskyy three-bet to 1,100 from the cutoff. The button and blinds all folded, and then Amundsgard tossed in a call before checking the flop. Yaroshevskyy kept the pressure on with a bet of 1,000 and then called when Amundsgard check-raised to 2,600.
Amundsgard returned to checking on the {Qg} turn and Yaroshevskyy bet 3,500. Amundsgard called and then checked for a third time on the river. Yaroshevskyy casually tossed out two blue T5,000 chips for a bet of 10,000 and Amundsgard snap-folded his hand.