Patrick Hanoteau began the day as one of our chip leaders, and in fact moved in front at one point early on. But a series of losing hands saw the Frenchman's stack slip to ninth position, and just now he was forced to commit the last of his chips.
The hand began with Hanoteau raising to 70,000 from middle position, Karl Gal reraising behind him, and Hanoteau calling with his remaining 40,000 or so. Hanoteau had and Gal .
The flop came , giving Hanoteau the flush draw. The turn was the , adding a Broadway wrap for Hanoteau. But the river was the , and Hanoteau is out.
Karl Gal raised to 44,000 from middle position, Patrick Hanoteau reraised to 150,000, and it folded back to Gal. Gal reraised all in, and Hanoteau called.
Gal showed and Hanoteau . The flop came , giving Gal a big wrap draw. The turn was the , adding flush possibilties for Gal.
The river then brought the , giving Gal the flush and the pot. He's up to 456,000, and now Hanoteau is the table's short stack with 115,000.
Patrick Hanoteau raised to 45,000 and was reraised by Michael Greco to 160,000. Hanoteau made the call and the two saw a flop of .
Hanoteau bet enough to put Greco all in, which was 76,000. Greco called and showed for a pair of aces. Hanoteau showed for a pair of tens and a straight draw.
The on the turn changed nothing and neither did the on the river. Greco doubled to 524,000 while Hanoteau dropped to 265,000.
Another limped pot -- this time involving five players. The flop came , and Michael Greco bet 80,000. Only Joerg Engels was interested in sticking around, raising Greco to 160,000. That was enough to put the Englishman all in, and he called with his remaining chips.
Greco
Engels
A set of kings for Engels, and an open-ender for the former star of "Eastenders." The turn was the , giving Greco the straight, and after the river he'd doubled to 280,000. Engels still leads with 930,000.
During the deal, the was exposed. "Indecent exposure," cracked Robbie, our Tournament Director.
Five players limped to see a flop of . L.J. Klein bet 50,000 from the small blind, and only Engels called from the cutoff. The turn brought the and a bet of 165,000 from Klein. Engels went into the tank for a couple of minutes before finally making the call.
The river brought the and this time Klein checked. Engels checked as well. The players tabled their cards, and Engels' -X-X -- treys full of sixes -- proved best.
Engels chips up over one million with that one, moving into the chip lead. Klein is down to 575,000.
Four players limped to see a flop of . Trevor Pope checked, Patrick Hanoteau bet 45,000, Tommy Le called, Michael Greco folded, and Pope folded as well.
The turn brought the . Hanoteau checked, Le bet the pot -- 170,000 -- Hanoteau check-raised all in, and Le called with his remaining chips.
Hanoteau showed for the straight, while Le tabled for a set of nines. The river brought the , filling Le up and enabling him to survive.
Le bumps up over 700,000 on that hand, suddenly going from almost out to challenging for the chip lead. Hanoteau drops to about 520,000.
In addition to his successful poker career, 40-year-old Michael Greco of England is an actor best known for his role as Beppe di Marco in the popular British series "Eastenders," where he starred from 1998-2002. Indeed, when back in England Greco still routinely gets recognized for the role.
Over here in the States, Greco usually doesn't have the problem of people calling him "Beppe," because we Yanks aren't familiar with the show.
Greco is sitting on the short stack at the moment (ninth out of nine). With the recent level change he's down to less than nine big blinds, so we expect a move from Beppe... er, Michael, quite soon.
and Gal 
.
, giving Hanoteau the flush draw. The turn was the 
, adding a Broadway wrap for Hanoteau. But the river was the 
, and Hanoteau is out.
and Hanoteau 
. The flop came 
, adding flush possibilties for Gal.
for a pair of tens and a straight draw.
on the turn changed nothing and neither did the 
on the river. Greco doubled to 524,000 while Hanoteau dropped to 265,000.
was exposed. "Indecent exposure," cracked Robbie, our Tournament Director.
. L.J. Klein bet 50,000 from the small blind, and only Engels called from the cutoff. The turn brought the 
-X-X -- treys full of sixes -- proved best.
for the straight, while Le tabled 
for a set of nines. The river brought the 
