Niall Farrell opened the action with a raise to 18,000 and Shannon Shorr called from one seat over. The player in the big blind raised to 60,000 and then Farrell shut down all further action with a raise to 126,000. The Scotsman has been dominating his tables throughout the day, even without beer.
Over on the feature table, Nabil Mohamed Abdien Cardoso was all in and at risk with the and Max Silver had the bigger stack and slightly better hand preflop in . However, the board ran out to send Silver on the short stack.
Natasha Barbour open pushed under the gun and action folded to Mike McDonald in the big blind. He thought about it for a bit, before eventually folding. He claimed he had but the 88,000 push was too much for him to call.
The next hand action folded to him in the small blind. He pushed all in, effectively raising to 107,000 as that's what Barbour had after the hand.
"Oh a sweat, a sweat!" she said with a smile. She looked at her cards one by one and said "Oh yeah!" as soon as she was done. She called directly after checking her second card.
Natasha Barbour:
Mike McDonald:
The board ran out and Barbour doubled.
"Little bit of life" Barbour said. "Now it's your turn [to double me up]" she continued, now focusing on het neighbor Niall Farrell.
Hani Bahna opened from under the gun and Akim Aouine called in the big blind to see the flop . Aouine checked, Bahna continued for 25,000 and then Aouine squeezed to 100,000. Bahna started some small talk and eventually Aouine agreed to show his cards when Bahna would do so upon folding. Bahna mucked and Aouine then said "because you my friend", flipping over for two pair.
Alexander Ivarsson is pretty much playing every hand on his table and clearly dominates the action, though the last one didn't go to his direction. Ivarsson raised to 16,00 from the button and Daniel Dvoress called in the big blind. The Canadian check-called a continuation bet worth 16,000 on the flop and then both players checked through the turn and the river. Dvoress was first to show and his won the pot.
The EPT12 Malta Main Event players hail from 57 countries. Italy had the strongest representation (65 players; 10%) followed by the USA (56; 9%), the UK (53; 8%) and France (52; 8%). Check out this chart released by PokerStars:
Mikko Turtiainen (cutoff) and Daniel Dvoress (hijack) got their chips in before the flop. Dvoress had while his neighbor Turtiainen had . The board ran out and Turtiainen doubled.
Adam Jaguscik raised from under the gun and Kitty Kuo three-bet to 43,000 from one seat over before the action reached Faraz Jaka in the big blind. He squeezed to 118,000 and Jaguscik moved all in for what looked like 230,000. Kuo folded but Jaka called and needed one of the three remaining aces in the deck.
Jaka:
Jaguscik:
The flop provides no back door outs, only a chop is possible on the turn anymore. The dealer then burns and turns the on the river and that sends Jaguscik to the rail, sick as a dog.
Faraz Jaka opened the button to 17,000 and Kitty Kuo in the small blind three bet to 47,000 with about 500,000 behind. Big blind Ludovic Riehl cold four bet to 100,000 with 250,000 behind and action was back on Jaka. He announced all in and Kuo folded. Riehl checked his cards just to be sure, and instantly called.
Faraz Jaka:
Ludovic Riehl:
Kuo said she folded pocket sevens and Jaka, while in trouble in a monster pot, didn't seem fazed at all. He sat silently relaxed in his chair, even when the flop was full of blanks: .
The on the turn was anything but a blank though, and the on the river followed soon after and couldn't make things right anymore for Riehl. The Frenchman helped the dealer sliding his chips to Jaka, and left the tournament.
Jaka, after cracking kings in back to back hands, now one of the chip leaders.