It didn't take too long to burst the money bubble.
In the first hand of hand-for-hand play, Davidi Kitai opened for 17,000 under the gun and action folded to Igor Yaroshevskyy, who was in the big blind and extremely short stack. The Ukrainian wasn't about to try to grind it out and instead splashed in his stack of 28,000. Kitai called and the two had to wait several minutes while action concluded at the outer tables.
Eventually the time came for them to turn up their cards.
Kitai:
Yaroshevskyy:
Yaroshevskyy was behind, but at least he was drawing to two live cards. The flop didn't hit him directly, but it did give him a gutshot to go with his live cards. The turn was no help to him, and neither was the river. With that, the bubble was burst.
Yaroshevskyy's elimination in 32nd place means the remaining players are guaranteed a minimum payday of €46,150.
Stephen Chidwick joins the PokerNews Podcast to talk about Season 10 of the European Poker Tour, goal setting, and getting ready for both the World Series of Poker, and Spring Championship of Online Poker. Rich and Donnie discuss the finale of Season XII of the WPT, scheduling conflicts, and more.
Angel Guillen opened for 8,500 and got a call from Sam Trickett in the hijack. Calvin Anderson on the button squeezed to 25,300 and Guillen made the call.
So far, nothing happened we hadn't seen before today. But now Sam Trickett shoved all of the sudden for about 200,000. Calvin Anderson went into the tank, and then announced all in as well. Guillen folded quickly and Anderson and Trickett put their cards on their backs.
Sam Trickett:
Calvin Anderson:
Trickett got up from the table as soon as the flop came , as he now needed runner runner perfect to stay alive. He got the first perfect on the turn () but the king of hearts wouldn't appear on the river. Instead it was the popping up and Trickett was eliminated.
Sorel Mizzi had asked out of interest for a clarification of the rule on something he had done a couple of hands ago. Hady El Asmar had moved all in and it was left up to Mizzi on whether to call him. He had said that if one card was an ace he was calling. In the end he turned over one card to give, as he put it, El Asmar “a sweat.” and then folded.
When the floor heard this Mizzi was suddenly facing a one round penalty for exposing a card with action pending, clearly not the answer he was expecting. Mizzi insisted on a ruling from the tournament director who was soon at hand.
In a debate that went back and forth with none of the players wanting Mizzi to have a one round penalty the rule was explained. Turning your cards face up with a forward motion to fold is fine; exposing cards before folding, for example to try to get a read on your opponent, is not. However the matter must be brought to the floor’s attention immediately as retrospective rulings do not apply to this rule. This more than anything saved Mizzi from a penalty.
Was this a new ruling, Mizzi wanted to know? The TD explained that it had been in place since season one.
Everyone at the table was satisfied except for Luke Schwartz who was angry that time was ticking away and short stacks like his were being punished by the waste of time.
We've not seen many players as patient as Viktor Blom yesterday. For someone so used to swings, constant action and a lot of adrenaline, we imagined he might rush when finding himself short stacked, but we were proven wrong. He kept on folding, stealing and never forced anything.
All those efforts didn't do him much good though. He lost some chips early on today, and then had to push when folded to with just 17,300. Blom's shove from the small blind got called by Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko in the big blind.
Viktor Blom:
Alex Kravchenko:
Blom had the best hand going in, but on the flop he would fall far behind: . The on the turn didn't help him and netiehr did the on the river. Full house for Kravchenko, nothing good enough for Blom.
Daniel Negreanu was left with about 10 big blinds and shoved those in from middle position. The 24,400 shove was called by his neighbor Davidi Kitai in the hijack position. All other players folded to Artem Litvinov in the big blind. Litvinov squeezed his first card, "This is good one", and then the second. Litvinov mucked his cards, showing the first he had received was the .
"Oh damn, I have one of those" said Negreanu who tabled . That meant Negreanu was even in worse shape as Davidi Kitai showed up with .
The gave Negreanu not much to work with, and neither did the on the turn. Negreanu needed to hit an ace on the river but wouldn't get it: .
flop didn't hit him directly, but it did give him a gutshot to go with his live cards. The 
turn was no help to him, and neither was the 
river. With that, the bubble was burst.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, as he now needed runner runner perfect to stay alive. He got the first perfect on the turn (
) but the king of hearts wouldn't appear on the river. Instead it was the 
popping up and Trickett was eliminated.
on the turn didn't help him and netiehr did the 
on the river. Full house for Kravchenko, nothing good enough for Blom.
.
on the turn. Negreanu needed to hit an ace on the river but wouldn't get it: 
