There has been a fair amount of limping the small blind when it has been folded to them as things get a bit more cagey now, a bit small-ball poker.
Leonid Markin though seems happy to keep up the aggression and keep his opponents guessing. Fady Kamar called in the small blind but Markin put the pressure on with a raise. Kamar duly put out the call and they saw a flop of .
Both players checked and on the turn card Kamar check-called a bet of 80,000. The river was the and a check from Kamar saw Markin bet 225,000. Kamar thought it over but let him have it and Markin showed him the .
Salman Behbehani moved all in from second position for around 300,000 and it was passed to Fady Kamar in the big blind who tanked for a moment then made the call.
"Do you have ace-six?" asked Behbehani, quite specifically.
Kamar:
Behbehani:
The board came and Kamar spiked a jack on the turn to knock out Behbehani in fifth place. The latter will receive £117,000 as compensation.
Fady Kamar opened on the button and small blind Leonid Markin and big blind Craig McCorkell made the call.
It was checked all the way down to the river of a board reading where Markin bet 100,000. McCorkell gave him a quick look and raised to 320,000.
Kamar quickly got out of the way and it was Markin’s turn to give his opponent a puzzled look. After some thought he made the call and McCorkell showed him the .
It's been fairly quiet recently on this High Roller final table. The first three-bet in a while came courtesy of Craig McCorkell, who made it 240,000 on the button after Leonid Markin had raised to 80,000 from under-the-gun/cutoff. Markin gave it a good couple of minutes before folding.
The next hand saw McCorkell raised to 80,000 and Markin call in the big blind. The two checked a board of down to the river where Markin showed but McCorkell won with .
The two were then involved in a blind-on-blind battle, Markin raising to 80,000 and McCorkell calling. The Russian won with a 135,000 bet on the flop.
Craig McCorkell is slowly asserting his authority in the four handed play. Sitting second in chips he has been opening a lot more pots that Markin has recently and everything he has been doing lately seems to be working as he gradually chips up.
Admittedly this is over a small sample size of hands, and fortunes can always change in a single hand, but he looks at the moment as if his confidence is up as Markin takes a little break from the aggression, Andrew Chen remains handcuffed by his stack size and Fady Kamar is stuck somewhere in the middle.
Andrew Chen is the shortest stack at this point and will have to make a move of some kind soon. He had opened to 80,000 on the button but folded when Leonid Markin made it 240,000 in the big blind.
A couple of hands later and Chen, Markin and Fady Kamar were in a pot together. Kamar had fired a bet of 90,000 on a flop after Chen checked, Markin called and so did the Canadian. The came on the turn, it was checked to Markin who bet 260,000. Chen tanked briefly and folded and Kamar followed suit.