During a pause earlier in the hand where Feldman busted, Hairabedian, despite being involved had a relaxed chat with Freddy Deeb, who seemed suspicious at his talkativeness today.
Deeb: "You speak good English today. Why?"
H.B.: "I drink whiskey."
Deeb: "Normally, I speak to you, maybe 100 times, you don't answer. Today, you speak good English."
H.B.: "I am practising for Vegas. You cannot speak Armenian in Vegas."
Hand #33: Freddy Deeb raised to 6,000 and Roger Hairabedian made the call to see a . Deeb min-bet the flop for 2,400 and Hairabedian called. Both checked the turn and river.
"If you have a pair, it's good," said Deeb and Hairabedian showed to win the hand.
Short stacked Andrew Feldman is the High Roller Event bubble boy, a tough break in a tournament with a €20,000 buy-in which only pays four people.
Even before Roger Hairabedian put in his under the gun preflop raise to 7k, Feldman was admonishing him, "Be friendly - that's not very nice!" It turned out to be, in fact, deadly, as after a very long dwell Feldman announced, "All in," and was instantly called.
It was a near-exact repeat of Hairabedian's last all-in situation - his dominating Feldman's . This time no spike or split - the board coming - and all four remaining players are in the money, guaranteed at least €25,262.
Hand #28: Freddy Deeb raised to 6,400 - it was folded to Roger Hairabedian who made a long speech about how he folded this hand "95% of the time" and then he folded anyway.
Hand #29: Sorel Mizzi won the blinds and antes with a raise to 5,500 and assured everyone he had the best hand
Hand #30: Mizzi opened again to 5,500 but Deeb 3-bet to 25,000 and picked up the pot.
Hand #31: Hairabedian raised to 5,000, Deeb and Mizzi both called but checked the flop to the original raiser. Hairabedian bet just 6,000 and managed to take the pot down.
Hand #24 Gianni Giaroni just fourbet shoved his remaining chips in preflop over Roger Hairabedian, who'd made it 29k. To call: 45,400 more. Into the tank with Hairabedian, who took a minute or so to consider before making the call. When he did he found he was in great shape with vs. Giaroni's .
"No hearts," said Hairabedian, but what actually came was a board of , giving them both Aces and Fives with the King kicker. Giaroni got up and started walking round the table, and someone said, "You're not busto!"
He made a "Pffft" sort of noise and returned to his seat.
Hairabedian shook his head asking him, "How can you make all-in when I re-raise you?"
Hand #23 In Sorel Mizzi's words, "There's a new sheriff in town," as Freddy Deeb busts Hichem Ben Halima to rise into the possible chip lead for the first time. Preflop, the action kicked off with a raise to 5,600 from Roger Hairabedian, called by Freddy Deeb. Over to Ben Halima who upped it (with a blue 25k plaque, no less) to 21k. Hairabedian passed instantly but Deeb considered for a while before calling.
The flop: . Deeb checked and immediately Ben Halima moved all-in. Almost as quickly he made the call, and with . Ben Halima was drawing to overcards with his and the following and did not help. Down to five.
Hand #15: Sorel Mizzi raised preflop to 5,500 and Hichem Ben Halima called from the big blind. Both checked the flop before Mizzi bet 7,000 on the turn. Both checked the river and Mizzi won but the TV screen did not show his hand. We're presuming he had a jack of some kind
Hand #16: Freddy Deeb raised to 6,000 but Antony Lellouche repopped to 15,500, Deeb called quickly and checked dark before the flop came . Lellouche bet 17,000 but Deeb said, "Make it 35,000."
Lellouche tanked before moving all-in, Deeb immediately called with . Lellouche's was in real trouble and drawing dead on the turn rendering the river meaningless.
Hand #11: Freddy Deeb opened to 5,600 preflop but Roger Hairabedian reraised to 22,400 and picked up the pot.
Hand #13: It's passed to short-stack Andrew Feldman and it looked like he was going to push from the cutoff, but mucked instead. Roger Hairabedian raised to 5,500 on the button but Gianni Giaroni made a massive shove for 65,800 more which was enough to get the EPT Grand Finalist off the hand.