"Are we playing four-handed?" Imad Derwiche inquired with the tournament staff. His table had just lost three players in quick succession and two of them were knocked out in the same hand. Apparently, Vicent Bosca Ramon had been all-in with a severe short stack holding the . Thomas Muehloecker reshoved with the and Boris Kolev looked them both up with the .
The board ran out and the kicker played for Kolev to eliminate two opponents.
Farid Jattin in the big blind bet the turn for 6,000 and earned a call from Ognyan Dimov in the hijack. Both headed to the river on which Jattin used the full 30 second shot clock before checking. Dimov then bet and Jattin gave up the pot.
After defending his big blind against table short stack Rodrigo Selouan, Jimmy Guerrero got it in following the flop. He was ahead with for the bottom two pair as Selouan only tabled the .
The turn improved Selouan to a straight and the river changed nothing anymore to keep the Brazilian in the mix with just over half the starting stack.
Dimitar Danchev opened the action with a raise to 4,000 from under the gun. Tsugunari Toma then pushed for 29,500 in the hijack and Joao Vieira asked for an exact count in the cutoff to then call. All opponents including Danchev got out of the way and the following showdown emerged.
Tsugunari Toma:
Joao Vieira:
None of the paint cards appeared on the flop and turn. The river was of no help to Toma either and he re-entered shortly after.
Vieira is among the chip leaders and currently only trails Toma's countryman Motoyoshi Okamura.
In a preflop contest, the chips of Pascal Lefrancois and Jimmy Guerrero went into the middle.
Lefrancois was in dire shape with the as Guerrero had that crushed holding . That remained to be the case on the board and the chips were counted. Both had exactly 61,000 at their disposal and that spelled the end for Lefrancois.
On the tail end of a pot between Guram Andronikashvili and Tsugunari Toma, the former was in the big blind. The completed board showed and Andronikashvili eyeballed the stack of his opponent before making it 30,000 to go. Toma needed one time bank extension and called to then muck when his opponent revealed the for a set of fives.
One hand later, Dimitar Danchev raised to 4,000 from under the gun and Toma got the last 11,000 in for Danchev to call.
Tsugunari Toma:
Dimitar Danchev:
Despite a sweat with two live cards and an open-ended straight draw until the turn, Toma prevailed thanks to a blank on the river.
Andras Nemeth three-bet to 13,000 only for Stephen Chidwick to then cold four-bet to 26,500 out of the big blind. The initial raiser got out of the way and Nemeth pushed all-in for 76,500 with Chidwick instantly calling.
Andras Nemeth:
Stephen Chidwick:
Nothing changed on the flop and Nemeth already left his chair as the fell on the turn. Another blank followed with the river and Nemeth was eliminated. Only a short while passed as the Hungarian took advantage of the single re-entry option to jump back in. Also in the mix are Bruno Volkmann and Imad Derwiche as field keeps on growing.
Ognyan Dimov raised to 4,500 from under the gun and Sam Greenwood three-bet to 13,500 in the cutoff for Dimov to call. As they headed to the flop, Dimov check-called a bet worth 12,000 and checked again the on the turn. Greenwood now bet 26,000 and that shut down Dimov eventually.