Ismail Erkenov open shoved from the button for his last 140,000. Max Greenwood quickly folded the small blind but Griffin Benger in the big blind just as quickly announced “Call.”
Erkenov obviously knew from his tone what that meant and said “Oh.”
Oh indeed as Erkenov’s had run into the of Benger.
The dealer dealt and Erkenov was out.
Everyone knew that Erkenov had sucked out on Berger earlier and Greenwood commented to Berger, “You know the expression chip warmer?”
Benger wasn’t sure he’d heard it before but he understood what it meant.
It was not really a good day at the office for the second in chips at the start, Jason Lavallee. Down to only 130,000 he three-bet shoved into a raise of Alex Bilokur and was called by the Russian. Showdown:
Lavallee:
Bilokur:
A typical coin flip that you encounter to often deep in tournaments. Lavallee had two over cards and a possible flush draw, however the Canadian couldn't connect with the board. He shook hands with all opponents and left in the second last hand of level 18.
We have reached the unofficial final table of nine players.
It happened when David Vamplew three-bet to 60,000 after an open-raise from Griffin Benger and Ole Schemion moved all in. Benger quickly tossed his cards into the muck and the call from Vamplew was even faster.
Schemion:
Vamplew:
The EPT Player of the Year (POY) contender flopped the nuts on flop and the turn and river both blanked. Schemion had more than 500,000 in chips and Vamplew was covered. Vamplew was eliminated in ninth place and we now have the last redraw in this tournament.
In the last hand of Level 19, Dimitar Danchev moved all in for 150,000 or so from middle position and Max Greenwood called from the button. The blinds both folded and it was off to the races.
Greenwood:
Danchev:
According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Greenwood was a slight 54.74% favorite while Danchev would survive 44.79% of the time. The flop was no help to Danchev, and his chances fell to 25.45% while Greenwood's jumped to 70%.
The turn was another blank, which made Greenwood an overwhelming 86.36% favorite. Danchev needed either an ace or queen — something that would happen 13.64% of the time — but it wasn't in the cards as the blanked.
The 2014 PokerStars.it European Poker Tour Sanremo Main Event played down to a final table today, as did the €10,300 High Roller. The last €10K buy-in High Roller of the season attracted two late reentries, which brought the field up to 105 entries (88 unique/17 reentries) and created a prize pool of €1,029,000. The top 15 would make the money, with the eventual winner taking home €265,000.
After nine one-hour levels of play on Day 2, the field was whittled down to the final table of eight. The man best positioned to make a run at the top prize is Philip Sternheimer, who is the chip leader with 938,000. That said, he faces some stiff competition that includes Griffin Benger (892,000) and Ole Schemion (831,000).
As previously mentioned, just two players opted to reenter before the start of play – Olivier Busquet and Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst. The latter was eager to amass some EPT10 Player of the Year points, but it proved a quick and fruitless endeavor.
Sekularac was eliminated in Level 17 (4,000/8,000/1,000) when he was all in and at risk for 96,000 with the and Sternheimer made a reluctant call with the . The flop kept the Serbian in the lead, but then the appeared on the turn. No jack on the river and Sekularac was out in 16th place with nothing to show for it.
The third and final day will kick off at 12 p.m. local time on Sunday and the remaining eight players will play down to a winner. The the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture the action in both the High Roller and the Main Event.
Join us then, but while you wait be sure to check out this video where your favorite pros explain what they do to prepare for the day: