Sergey Rybachenko bet enough on the river of a board reading to put Russell Thomas all in. Thomas reasoned it through, “I don’t think you have a seven. You didn’t have a flush draw on the turn.” The problem was Thomas had most of his chips in the middle and if he folded he would be crippled. Eventually though his tournament life was more important than the chips in the pot and he made the fold. An expressionless Rybachenko gathered in his winnings.
Russel Thomas had one big blind left and was under the gun. He didn’t really have any options. “All in.” he announced and watched as the players around the table checked their hole cards. “Don’t do it to me.” He pleaded. Dikovic Dejan made it 7,000 from late position and the big blind, Thomas Hartmann called. “One time.” Said Thomas. The dealer dealt a flop of and Thomas got out of his seat, seemingly ready to depart. The other two players checked the flop and went on to check it down with the final two card falling . “Trips.” Said Thomas turning over . He trippled up but remains on fumes with just 10,000 chips.
Maksim Semisoshenko from Russia went all in for his last 61,100 chips and found a caller in Atanas Malinov from Bulgaria. Semisoshenko showed and needed help from the deck if he was to beat the of Malinov. He got it early as the cards fell and Semisoshenko doubled up.
From the hijack seat, Andrew Moreno raised to 6,000. In the small blind, Viacheslav Goryachev reraised to 14,000, and Moreno called. The flop came down , and Goryachev led for 11,000. Moreno called to see the land on the turn. Goryachev bet 20,000, and Moreno folded.
It's not all about the Main Event here in Barcelona. There's plenty of side events, too. Check out who else has been binking results (and also look at the new shiny EPT website). Click through to the PokerStars Blog to find out more.
Former World Series of Poker Octo-Niner Russel Thomas was on down to 5,100 and on elimination's doorstep when he shoved all in under the gun. Dermot Blain isolated with a raise to 11,000 and the rest of the field got out of the way.
"It's a race," Blain said before showing the . Indeed it was as Thomas held the . This was one race Thomas would win as the board ran out .
Two hands later, Thomas got it all in again holding the and was flipping against an opponent's . The board ran out and just like that Thomas was back in the game with a stack of 55,000.
Walid Bou-Habib opened for 6,500 and was raised to 16,000 by Barham Kakahama from Kyrgyzstan. German PokerStars player Jamila Von Perger called from the big blind. Habib folded and they saw a flop heads up. and both players checked. on the turn and Von Perger led out for 28,000 and Kakahama made the fold.
We saw Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen exiting the tournament area, which usually indicates a recent elimination. Sure enough, a quick check at his former table confirmed that he had just fallen to Mike "Mad Dog" Watson.
It happened after Guillen got his stack all in preflop holding and was racing against Watson's . The board ran out clean and Guillen's day came to an end shy of the money.
"All in and a call!" we heard yelled across the tournament room here at the Casino Barcelona.
Upon arrival at the table, we saw Andrey Chesnokov all in and at risk for his last 176,600 against Zsolt Vasvenszki. Vasvenszki had the in front of him while Chesnokov triumphantly displayed the .
A completed board of was on display on the felt, ensuring that Chesnokov's pocket rockets would hold up as the best hand. The Russian was able to score a huge double up here as we near the bubble, boosting his stack to around 355,000.