Action folded to Matthias Kurschner on the button and he put in a raise to 800, which fellow German Philipp Gruissem called from the small blind. The big got out of the way, and then Gruissem checked the flop. Kurschner took the opportunity to bet 1,000, and the Gruissem sprung to life with a check-raise to 3,000.
Kurschner gave it some thought before making the call, but then he folded to a bet of 3,500 from Gruissem on the turn.
Canadian PokerStars player Marco Lang opened for 700 and got called by the player who had just sat to his left, Sam Trickett from England. Kevin MacPhee bumped it up to 1,675 and while Lang opted to fold Trickett made the call.
The flop was which both players checked to see a turn card two checks again and they went to the river . Trickett checked and a bet of 2,125 won McPhee the pot.
On a board Maxim Lykov bet out 2,200 from the small blind. His next door neighbor in the big blind made the call.
The river was the and Lykov checked. The big blind tossed four red 1,000 chips to the middle and action was back on the Russian Team PokerStars Pro. Lykov thought for some time before eventually calling.
The big blind showed for flopped trips and Lykov mucked.
Alex Roumeliotis, a Swedish PokerStars player, opened for 700 got a call from David Vamplew sat next to him and when it got to Ilkin Amirov he moved all in for his last 6,900. Roumeliotis quickly folded and when Vamplew had got the count he made the call. Amirov tabled against the of Vamplew.
The cards ran out . Amirov was out of his seat on the flop and departed soon after.
David Shallow from the United Kingdom raised it up to 700 under the gun on the still six handed table as two players hadn't returned from break yet. Joep van den Bijgaart was next to him and called from the hijack.
on the flop and Shallow continued with a 1,100 bet. Van den Bijgaart made the call and called another 2,400 on the turn. The river brought the into play and Shallow checked. Van den Bijgaart bet 6,200 and Shallow quickly called.
Van den Bijgaart proudly showed his for a turned set but would soon find out that hand wasn't winning. Shallow tabled while letting out a little sigh.
"I thought I was winning" said Van den Bijgaart who still looked a little puzzled while handing over his chips. Shallow added he was planning to check raise but decided otherwise in the end.
Johan van Til has been one of the biggest online pros from the Netherlands for many years, and if you would ask any poker fan in that country they would all say the man from Groningen is long overdue a big live score.
Van Til recorded his first live tournament cash at the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure followed by a big slate of final-two table finishes in big events like the WPT Championship, EPT Copenhagen, Bellagio Cup and EPT Tallinn. In total Van Til has cashed $289,219 in live tournaments, but across Full Tilt and PokerStars the man known as busto_soon has racked up just shy of $5.5 million in cashes. This makes Van Til the highest grossing Dutch online MTT player, but everyone's still waiting for him to take down an EPT, WPT or WSOP event.
When we found Van Til he had about 46,000 chips out in front of him, but two hands later things looked a lot different for the Dutchman. First Istvan Birizdo raised to 500 and Van Til called from the small blind. The flop brought out and Van Til check-called 600.
On the turn the hit and this time Van Til check-called 1,075. The river completed the board with the and Van Til opted to fold when Birizdo bet another 3,000. Two hands later Oleg Vasylchenko raised it up to 500 from middle position and Van Til three-bet to 1,200 from the cutoff.
The action folded back to Vasylchenko and he four-bet to 3,300. Van Til picked up even more chips and five-bet to 7,000 and Vasylchenko made the call.
The flop brought out and Van Til checked behind when Vasylchenko tapped the table. On the turn the hit and Vasylchenko bet 6,500, which was called by Van Til. The river completed the board with the . Vasylchenko now bet 5,000 and Van Til tanked for a solid minute before letting go of his hand.
Van Til dropped to 22,000 and he's looking to build his stack back up after taking two hits. His first big live tournament victory is still very far away.