Short-stacked Ira Schmitz just found herself all in, although she's not going down without a fight, and, seemingly, without having to sweat a bead or two.
With ,versus , she was looking good for a split pot, until, that is, the board threatened a cheeky backdoor flush.
After the dealer had taken a quick peek (I'm sure this only added to Schmitz' anxiety), a harmless the felt and Schmitz breathed a sigh of relief. However, she is still painfully short with just a couple of thousand.
Sandra Ambroz raised to 1,600 in early position, only for Carlo Graziano to reraise all in for 4,500 total. At which point uber-stack Rasmus Gandrup announced that he was all in too.
Ambroz was left with a difficult decision. "I'm beating you," said Graziano helpfully. Eventually she passed (Graziano managed to extract from her that she hadn't had an ace) and Graziano confidently turned over . Gandrup turned over a perhaps slightly embarrassing but very live . "Oh, nice hand," said a deadpan Graziano, and the board was dealt.
Board:
A visibly relieved Graziano sat back down and took possession of his new, healthier 10k stack.
Luke O'Kelly is now on around the 13,000 mark after his pocket queens out-coinflipped Big Slick. Although he spiked a set on the flop, he was made to sweat against a Broadway straight draw which never arrived.
Achim Grimm is out. I joined the action with the cards on their back, Grimm's in need of divine assistance against his opponent's . However, the Poker gods remained silent, and after a rapidly dealt board, Grimm tapped the table and made his exit.
No sooner than Snoopy typed that last post did Rasmus Gandrup overtake the chip lead from Viliyan Petleshkov. Gandrup is currently sitting with well over 40,000 in chips.
Chip daddy at the moment is this happy chappy, Viliyan Petleshkov. He has a right to be cheery, though, as he's currently riding high with 27,000.
In fact, just prior to that count, he eliminated Anders Willemoes Larsen with versus on an ensuing board, all in preflop with Petleshkov calling a small(ish) three-bet push from Larsen.
Yoeri Van Erp has doubled through to what I believe is the 13,000 mark. He was in dominating shape with versus on a flop and, as to his requests, dodged a harmless and turn and river.
Mark Vos attempted to raise to 625, only to be informed by the tournament director that it was 800 minimum. "No worries, that's what I meant to do," he lied, and promptly got called in three spots.
Flop:
Reinhard Knitel bet, and Vos now found himself all in for his paltry stack, and called.