Mustapha Kanit opened to 5,000 from late position and his opponent made the call from the big blind. The flop was and both players checked.
The turn was the and Kanit's opponent bet 6,200 and Kanit made the call. The river brought a big bet of 17,000 from Kanit's opponent and Kanit thought for a moment before reluctantly, but correctly making the call. Kanit showed ace-high and it was better than the king-high of his opponent.
The waters here in Event #19 are slightly less shark infested after the recent eliminations of Scott Montgomery and Martin Jacobson.
Jacobson is an extremely talented Swede who has over $4.7 million in live poker tournament winnings, while Montgomery has $4.3 million in winnings, almost $3.1 million of which came from his fifth place in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.
A player in early position limped preflop and Loni Harwood raised it up to 7,500 from the cutoff. The button called, as did the limper, and the flop fell all diamonds: . Action checked to Harwood and she slid out two oranges and a blue: 10,500. Everyone folded and she started stacking up her newly acquired chips.
Phil Collins opened with a raise from under the gun and it looked like he would only win the blinds and antes. That was because everyone folded around in turn until the action was on Christopher Danek, who called.
Just as we were preparing for fireworks on the flop, both players checked. Which is exactly what they did on both the turn and river, Danek winning the pot with his .
Justin Filtz raised to 4,800 from under the gun and Papp Kristof made the call right behind, as did the player in the big blind. After a flop of we had fireworks. The big blind checked, Justin Filtz continued for 9,600 and Kristof smooth-called.
The player in the big blind shoved all in and Filtz got out of the way, leaving Kristof to make the easy call with . His opponent was drawing practically dead with the and the board completed for a big double-plus for Kristof.
With Jason Somerville in the big blind with a short stack, the player with the button raised to 5,200 preflop. Somerville pushed all in to make it 27,100 and the raiser folded. Somerville pulled in the small pot and is still sitting short.
Jeff Yarchever limped from under the gun and the player in the hijack called. Jim Rostel in the cutoff raised it up to 6,500 and Matt Affleck called in the big blind. Yarchever called, as did the player in the hijack, and we went to the flop four-handed with a huge pot.
Flop:
Affleck checked and Yarchever led out for 16,000, which got folds all around and he scooped the pot. "That was the best flop I could've asked for," he said. "Why didn't I just check?"
Two of Europe's hottest stars are grinding away here in Event #19. Max Silver is an Ireland-based British pro who has some superb results in Europe including an eighth place finish in the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.
France's Paul Tedeschi is another player with a glowing reputation and another who has reached the final table of a WSOP European Main Event.