Alejandro Lococo was in a heads-up pot against Steponas Venckus and all of the chips got in the middle on a board of with Venckus being the shorter stack.
Steponas Venckus:
Alejandro Lococo:
Venckus was able to fade hearts to double up as the board finished out to earn him a double-up and put a dent in Lococo's stack.
Just 31 players remain in the field, only four tables stand between them and the first-place prize of €496,760 up top. Players are heading on their next 20-minute break now.
Action picked up on the flop in a three-way pot with 840,000 in the middle. The board showed .
Jack Sinclair checked from the small blind. Eleftherios Kavoukis led from the big blind for 450,000. Marko Martinkovic called on the button. Back to Sinclair, he check-raised to 1,100,000.
Kavoukis folded, but Martinkovic back-raised all in for 2,105,000. Sinclair snap-called.
Marko Martinkovic:
Jack Sinclair:
Sinclair did not three-bet preflop as the table reacted to his slowplay, and Martinkovic managed to flop trips. The board was completed with the turn and river, so Sinclair lost a big chunk while Martinkovic chipped up.
Elias Suhonen opened to 240,000 from the hijack. Danut Chisu three-bet the button all in for 1,340,000. In the small blind, Sergei Petrushevskii also moved all in, him for 1,565,000. Suhonen folded his hand, the other two went to a runout.
Danut Chisu:
Sergei Petrushevskii:
The board ran out keeping Chisu's sixes in the lead for the double.
Jack Sinclair took a big hit when he doubled up Marko Martinkovic a few hands again but has since climbed back after doubling through Marko Martinkovic in a hand that got all in preflop.
Jack Sinclair:
Marko Martinkovic:
Sinclair took a big lead in the flip as the flop landed to give him two pair and nothing changed on the runout to keep the EPT London Main Event runner-up in contention.
After the hand, another player joking tried to nick Sinclair's signature hippopotamus card protector that had made its way into the pot.
"Gonna need that for awhile," Sinclair laughed.
"Where did you get it?" the player asked.
"Subsaharan Africa," Sinclair replied dryly.
Sinclair must've won another big pot or two after the hand because there were a few million more chips in his stack by the time PokerNews returned to the table to put him at the top of the counts.
Alejandro Lococo had fallen down into a dangerously low stack after a rough level. He recently moved all in three times this past orbit, eliciting folds from all of his opponents each time.
He's built his stack back up to about 20 big blinds and looks to keep trending in that direction.
Action picked up on the turn with about 1,000,000 in the pot and a board showing .
Eleftherios Kavoukis checked the big blind and Marko Martinkovic bet 635,000. Kavoukis check-called.
The river brought the . Kavoukis checked again. Martinkovic moved all in for 1,605,000. Kavoukis only thought for about five seconds before announcing call.
Martinkovic showed for the flopped straight. Kavoukis tried to turn his cards in face down, but the dealer forced the reveal, showing he had for third pair. He was left with less than one big blind and busted shortly after.