Partly because it's a television studio, and partly because things are awfully important right now, the field has fallen deadly silent as they return to play. There are a few hushed whispers amongst the media and the small audience, and one or two players shuffling chips, but that's about it. The loudest sounds in the room are the producer's voice in the earpieces of the camera men, and the shuffler running through the cards on the main table.
On that main table, Max Silver won the blinds and antes with a raise on the first hand, and the second hand has gone to the turn in a pot between Chris Moorman and Elio Fox as we speak...
The players are back in their chairs (though you can't tell from the picture below), and the production crew is just finalizing cleaning up their last few tidbits. Have a look at this beautiful set!
We're picking up shop and heading across the building. The players will drop off their racks, then head off for a one-hour dinner break. Play will resume around 7:15 P.M. local time.
It's been a quick and painful fall from the top for Dario Sammartino. In the first hand back from the break, the two blinds were sitting out at Table 3, and Sammartino opened to 45,000 under the gun. Next door, Max Silver three-bet shoved with his big stack, and Sammartino called off nearly 1 million chips to put himself at risk! With a huge pot up for grabs, the cards were shown down:
Sammartino:
Silver:
Wow! It's good to be Max Silver today, and his deuces held strong on the board that ran . A dejected Sammartino could hardly believe what just happened to him, and even Max Silver was almost speechless as he tried to describe the situation to the rail.
So then, Sammartino has gone from the chip lead to out in 17th place in the span of about two hours. He'll pocket €37,000, and it's now Silver who's in the lead for the gold. He's got at least 3.6 million now, and he's nearly lapped the field already.
With 17 players left, the cards are back in the air.
We'll play on for one more knockout, then we'll rack up and move over to the TV arena for the rest of the night. There will be a one-hour dinner break once we hit 16 players remaining.
. A dejected Sammartino could hardly believe what just happened to him, and even Max Silver was almost speechless as he tried to describe the situation to the rail.
