Jesse Chambers opened the action for 500 and found a solitary caller in big blind Ludovic Geilich who is his usual chatty self.
The flop was and when Geilich checked, Chambers checked behind.
The turn card was the and a bet from Geilich of 1,300 saw Chambers let his cards go. Not wanting to see an orphan pot Geilich soon had the chips nestled in his stack ready to be put to work.
The secondary tournament area with five tables is filled with five tables and there is barely any table open next to the lounge. A few new faces there include Nicolas Cardyn, 2016 Irish Open Champion Daniel Wilson and Arnaud Peyroles while PokerStars Team Pro Felipe Ramos is very short. The Brazilian just shoved for less than 20 big blinds and scooped the blinds and antes.
Cardyn, sitting between Sebastian Malec and Javier Gomez Zapatero, just three-bet to 2,000 out of the big blind and just Zapatero as initial raiser called. The flop fell and both players checked. On the turn, Cardyn bet 2,600 and Zapatero folded.
One table over, a very short-stacked Dmitrii Shchepkin doubled his last 7,275. After a raise to 900 and the call by the cutoff, Shchekpin shoved out of the small blind. The initial raiser folded and the cutoff eventually called with the . Shchepkin turned over and survived a sweat on the board of .
The overall chip leader thus far also appears to be in the secondary tournament area, it is Jonathan Clark with almost three times the starting stack.
Orpen Kisacikoglu checked the flop of with Eldad Bentov checking behind.
The turn card was the which prompted a bet of 1,700 from Kisacikoglu and a call from Bentov.
The river was the and both players checked. Kisacikoglu tabled for a rivered pair. Bentov looked distinctly unimpressed and stared hard at his hole cards before folding.
Within two hands, Morten Mortensen has been able to build his stack significantly. In the first hand he raised from under the gun and found a caller in Morten Klein. On the turn, Mortensen check-called a bet worth 1,500 and did so again after the river for 2,500.
Klein showed and Mortensen had the better kicker with .
Soon after, the Dane flopped middle set with pocket fours on a four-way flop. Only one opponent stuck around and called the bets of Mortensen and that was Joao Rodrigues. The latter obliged on the turn and river, but mucked when he was shown the set by Mortensen.
The field is growing further and another half a dozen players were waiting upon restart to get their seats. At least two tables are running in the Lounge on the other side of the casino on the same floor, and players are also being moved over there to balance.
With already 134 entries, the attendance has eclipsed the 114 of last year when the same event was still part of the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour.
The flop was and Chris Moorman checked it over to Alex Bounsall who bet 1,000.
Moorman called and on the turn card he decided to come out firing with a bet of 1,700. Bounsall chewed on his gum for a minute before throwing in his hand.