Before the flop, about 20,000 chips go into the middle between Georgios Zisimopoulos and Stephen Chidwick. The latter got his stack of around 60,000 chips in with on the flop and Zisimopoulos called with . The board completed with the turn and river to give Zisimopoulos a flush and Chidwick headed to the cashier to purchase his second bullet.
In a preflop all in situation, Johnny Lodden was at risk for his last 57,700 chips. Ilari Sahamies looked him up with the and flipped against the of the Team PokerStars Pro. The as door card immediately made Sahamies throew his cards toward the muck and the rest of the board ran out .
According to EPT officials, EPT Berlin champion Kevin MacPhee, who is just days removed from winning the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event for his second WSOP bracelet, is one of the stars competing on the third edition of the Italian Big Game, which started earlier today. You can watch the live cards-up stream (in Italian, and subject to a one-hour security) from 2 p.m. for the first session, and at 7 p.m. on both PokerStars.tv and YouTube.
The show, an Italian version of the high-stakes cash game TV format created by PokerStars, will involve two four-hour sessions, each featuring five professional poker players and a "Loose Cannon" who has qualified on PokerStars.it. MacPhee will be sharing his table with, among others, French Maison du Bluff poker coach YoHan Viral and Clavio Anzalone, who became the youngest PokerStars.it SuperNova Elite in December 2012. In addition, Gianluca "FrullinoZIZI" Irpino and Francesco "cypuz" Cipolleschi will serve as the Loose Cannons.
Dario Sammartino, who has won both previous stops during IPT Saint Vincent and IPT Nova Gorica (for combined winnings of nearly €50k) will be joined by Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, IPT7 Nova Gorica runner-up Christian Favale and 2014 WSOP $10k Heads-up champion Davide Suriano.
Aliaksei Boika got it all in for some 75,000 with the versus Benjamin Pollack's . He even managed to hit a set on the flop.
Pollack picked up an open-ender, however, and got there on the turn to make Broadway. Boika's stack was pushed to Pollak after the river did not pair the board and while Boika is out, Pollak is up over the 200,000-chip mark now.
Roberto Romanello remembers Huidong Gu well from Berlin a few days ago and the Macau High Roller is not the kind of player to bow down easily. Romanello tried and fired two streets until the turn before checking the river. Gu checked behind and Romanello showed first his . Gu flipped over for two pair and that won the pot.
"Floor, how many players?" the dealer asked when Connor Drinan sat down to start the tournament. The floor replied that more people would be coming in after balancing out the tables and eventually Drinan was good to go with the likes of Sergio Aido, Justin Bonomo, Sam Greenwood, Martin Finger and former PCA champion Dominik Panka as his opponents. There surely have been less difficult tables in High Roller events.
The river was already spread in front of the dealer, reading . Ivan Luca fired 15,000 for about two-thirds of the pot and Ricardo Alvarado eventually called to show as the winning hand. Alvarado is up nicely while "Negriin" was bumped down to half the starting stack.
Andrew Chen and Fabrice Soulier ran out of chips this level. While the former purchased a reentry, Soulier is nowhere to be found right now and joined the rail.
New additions to the field: Mukul Pahuja, EPT10 High Roller champion Thomas Muehloecker and Ramin Hajiyev. The tournament clock confirms the increased field size of 80 entrants.
on the flop 
and Zisimopoulos called with 
. The board completed with the 
turn and 
river to give Zisimopoulos a flush and Chidwick headed to the cashier to purchase his second bullet.
and flipped against the 
of the Team PokerStars Pro. The 
as door card immediately made Sahamies throew his cards toward the muck and the rest of the board ran out 
versus Benjamin Pollack's 
river did not pair the board and while Boika is out, Pollak is up over the 200,000-chip mark now.
turn before checking the 
river. Gu checked behind and Romanello showed first his 
. Gu flipped over 
. Ivan Luca fired 15,000 for about two-thirds of the pot and Ricardo Alvarado eventually called to show 
as the winning hand. Alvarado is up nicely while "Negriin" was bumped down to half the starting stack.
