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Once more unto the breach... Welcome to Day 4, 32 players remain. We're playing down to 8 players. Errr, that's it in a nutshell. Come join us. Chip counts and names to follow.

And we've restarted, 35 minutes remaining at this level (4k/8k/800) before we colour up the 100 chips and go to 5k/10k/1k.

1 Andy Black (Ireland) 709500
2 Dean Sanders (UK) 695600
3 Antony Lellouche (France) 651300
4 Gavin Griffin (USA) 629200
5 Christian Neirinck (Belgium) 549800
6 Alexander Davd Kim (USA) 502400
7 Pete Giordano (USA) 501200
8 Jan Veit (Germany) 420500
9 Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark) 416500
10 Ram Vaswani (UK) 410700
11 Carlos Mortensen (Spain) 385000
12 Steve Jelinek (UK) 363100
13 David Peters (USA) 352600
14 Simon Johansson (Sweden) 339700
15 Kristof De Smedt (Belgium) 337300
16 Samir Rahal (France) 292900
17 Josh Arieh (USA) 286500
18 Eric Van Der Berg (Holland) 280700
19 Kristian Kjondal (Norway) 262700
20 Marc Karam (Canada) 260500
21 Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) 219000
22 Ben Callinan (UK) 192600
23 Philip Hilm (Denmark) 188200
24 Herman Zango (Costa Rica) 170200
25 Jacob Larsson (Sweden) 166800
26 Josh Prager (USA) 166700
27 Johannes Strassmann (Germany) 164400
28 Cristinel Dumitru (Romania) 157600
29 Roi Elmaliah (Israel) 146200
30 Richard Waters (UK) 141800
31 David Mobbs (UK) 140600
32 Lars Eidissen (Norway) 132400

Reminder of the payout for our last 32:

1   1,825,010
2   1,061,820
3   610,550
4   471,180
5   391,550
6   305,270
7   238,910
8   159,270
9   99,550
10   99,550
11   66,360
12   66,360
13   49,770
14   49,770
15   39,820
16   39,820
17-24   33,180
25-32   26,550

Dave Mobbs is OUT in 32nd

I joined the action on the 2h 2c 9d Flop.

Dave was one off the cut-off and Christopher Ulsrud was on the big blind, so I assume Dave raised it up pre-flop and was smooth called.

Anyhow, Dave pushed with Ks Js and was quickly called by Ulsrud's Pocket Sevens.

Turn = Aspades

River = 9s

It looks as though Josh Arieh has just doubled Philip Hilm up on the feature table with K-x suited versus Aces. 2-2-6-J-Q Flop.

Ulsrud isn't shy about seeing flops especially after adding 50% to his stack courtesy of Mobbs - limping in early he called David Peters' preflop raise of around 40k (which he made from the big blind).  The flop came Ad Ks 5h and a 65k bet won that one for David...

Then he called Dean Sanders' preflop raise from the big blind, and saw an 8d Qc Tc flop.  Checking, Dean bet 48k and Chris passed showing the Ts.  I reckon eventually some raising might start to occur from the young Norwegian...

Josh Arieh finishes 29th (€26,550) -

A TV table elimination - we saw some shots of Hilm stacking so we think he was the victor....that one's our weak link, though - up on a stage apart from the rest of the room, we need to catch it on the press room feed to give details.

Christinel Dumitru is OUT in 31st place

On a Kh 7c 9s Jh 9c board, Eric Van Der Berg put him all-in and Christinel eventually called, he was shown Jd JC and mucked his hand.
Richard Waters is OUT in 30th place

He pushed with Ad Jc from the blinds (I think) against Kristof De Smedt's raise with Ahrt Kc and got a caller.

Board:

Ac Td 8s Qd (a few more outs now) 6s

De Smedt is now stacking the freerolling qualifier's chips.

Herman Zango is OUT in 28th -

Short stacked move-in preflop with Ad Td over the top of Ram Vaswani's 35k early position raise got him heads up, in the end, against Eric Van der Berg, whose Ac Qc looked in pretty good shape against Herman, who prayed, "No Queen.  Diamonds.  Ten."
Flop:  Qd  Jc 6h  Herman:  "King."
Turn:  8d  Herman:  "King or diamond, any diamond..."
River:  2c  A black Deuce, the ultimate blank, and he shook hands with his eliminator and headed for the rail (which is already packed with press and spectators).

Shane Reihill -- 260k
Johanes Strassmann -- 65k
Josh Prager -- 165k
Christoffe De Smedt -- 500k
Kristian Kjondal -- 350k
Simon Johansson -- 335k
Jacob Larsson -- 120k
Antony Lellouche -- 460k
Eric Van Der Berg -- 520k
Gavin Griffin -- 650k
Jan Veit -- 375k
Ram Vaswani -- 335k
David Peters -- 385k
Steve Jelinek -- 590k
Pete Giordano -- 315k
Christian Neirinck -- 625k
Chrisopher Ulsrud -- 235k
Carlos Mortensen -- 720k
Dean Sanders -- 595k
Soren Kongsgaard -- 245k


Chip counts missing (because they're on the TV table) are those of:

Alex Kim
Ben Callinan
Andy Black
Lars Eidissen
Marc Karam
Philip Hilm
Roi Elmaliah

Jacob Larrsson is OUT in 27th place.

Josh Prager pushed in early position, Simon Johansson raised, but Jacob pushed from the blinds. Simon eventually called.

Josh:

Js Th

Simon:

8d 8s

Jacob:

Ad Kd

Board:

3h 2h Td 6s 3d

Josh trebles up and Simon's Eights take the side pot.

Van Der Berg has taken a big pot off Antony Lellouche, the latter seeing his button raise with Eights moved over the top of by Van Der Berg's Queens. Lellouche called, but couldn't improve on the 9-3-5-2-6 board, the 6h giving the Dutchman a flush.

Van Der Berg had a couple of hundred thousand less though at that point, so Lellouch is still in.

Ben Callinan is OUT.

Ben moved all-in for 70k with Th 9h and was called by Marc Karam's Queens.

Board = 2s Td 5d 8d Ahrt

Another Brit bites the dust.

Pete Giordano and Soren Kongsgaard split a pot with Big Slick squared. Irrelevant 8-6-5-5-9 board.

Josh Prager takes the brakes off News Now -

Starting the day on 166k, he's up to over 500k now, and picked up the last couple of pots on his table thusly:

He raised under the gun to 30k (blinds 10k/20k) and big blind Johannes Strassmann gave him a spin.  Flop:  Th Jh Jc  Johannes checked, Josh checked.
Turn:  Qd  Check, Josh bets 34k, call.
River:  3c  Check, Josh bets a stack of brown 5k chips - looked like 80k, and after a brief pause Johannes called.  He saw the Ahrt Ks and flipped his cards as the pot was awarded to the American - it looked like a slowplayed Jack which had fallen behind on the Broadway-creating turn.


Two hands later, Simon Johansson raised to 28k preflop, button Samir Rahal called, and it got round to Josh Prager again on the big blind.  He looked at Simon's bet, asked the "Can I see how much you have left?" question, and then just announced "All in."  Quick pass by Simon, but Samir gave it a good think before allowing himself to be successfully squeezed.  Perhaps a Final dark horse?

Down a Norwegian - Christopher Ulsrud finishes in 25th place (€26,550):

Blind vs. Blind - Steve Jelinek called the small blind and big blind Christopher raised it somewhat (25k), which Steve also called.
Flop:  5c 3h Qc  Steve check-called Christopher's bet of 50k
Turn:  Jc  Check from Steve, 90k bet, and then within three seconds Jelinek had check-raised all-in and Christopher had called.
Steve had turned two pair with his Jh 5h, sprinting in front of Christopher's Aspades Qh.
River:  6c

Norwegian blogger Kjetil says that Ulsrud, under the nick LuckyUlsa was the biggest online earner for January...and a chip leader in this for much of the three days' run up to his elimination.  Will probably be seeing a lot more of him.  The details of the story filled in by Ulsrud himself - some rather miffed Norwegians next to us in the press room...

Antony Lellouch -- 410k
Jan Veit -- 195k
Johanes Strassmann -- 120k
Simon Johansson -- 85k
Andy Black -- 515k
Alex Kim -- 560k
Ram Vaswani -- 215k
Philip Hilm -- 300k

Johanes Strassmann and Simon Johansson are both OUT.

Hilm raises, Strassmann moves all-in, Johansson calls and so does Hilm (not too much more for him).

Hilm = Aspades 6s

Strassmann = 5d 5c

Johansson = Jc Jh

Flop = 2s 4s Qs

Turn = Kc

River = Ad

After the totally unneccessary three-table redraw, here's the other table we can see's counts:

Carlos Mortensen    520k
Marc Karam            500k
Josh Prager           530k
Roi Elmaliah            170k
Lars Eidissen           110k
Steve Jelinek          950k
Pete Giordano        450k

Anthony Lellouche is OUT in 21st place.

He pushed his short stack in with Qh 8s, got called by Alexander Kim's Ad Kh

Board:

Kc 3d 8c Ahrt Ac

The feature table is now made up of:

Dean Sanders
Marc Karam
Eric Van Der Berg
David Peters
Gavin Griffin
Jacob Larsson
Soren Kongsgaard

The two short stacks on Table Two are sat side by side - but one of them is now not so short - Roi Elmaliah just doubled through:

He made it 36k (out of his 145k total) preflop, and big blind Pete Giordano checked his cards, warning, "If I go all in now I've got a big hand.  All in."
"Call," said Roi, and saw his 3h 3c racing, at least, the Ad Qd.
Flop:  Ahrt 9s 9h  By now the floor is announcing every called all in for the cameras - big TK himself saying, "He needs a Three to stay in the tournament..."
Turn:  3s   Just like that.
River:  4s 

And now Pete is relatively short while 300k is a less desperate stack for Roi.

The action has indeed slowed considerably.  But once I make the walk from pressroom to tableside, I feel obliged to write stuff down until a hand with some cards shown gets played.  Since Snoopy and Homer are now watching from the rail - here are the standard bits, in descending order of interestingness:

Ram Vaswani (with a 430k stack) raised preflop but let it go when Andy Black made it 120k from the small blind...
Jan Veit makes the same move (except this time all in for his 160k or so) and absorbs a button raise...
Lars Eidissen moves in twice in a row, once on the button for just 78k, then from the cutoff, uncalled both times...
Carlos Mortensen nicks the blinds twice; Jelinek once.

18 left now because Lars Eidessen is OUT in 19th. Carlos made it 36k in late position, Josh Praegers re-raised and a short stacked Lars pushed. Carlos got out of the way and Josh called.

Lars:

Ahrt Kh

Josh:

7h 7s

Board:

Js 2d 4h 6c 4s

Andy Black raises it up pre-flop, Ram smooth calls and Phil Hilm re-raises. Black pushed, Ram gets out of the way and Hilm calls, although there is so much in the pot by now I don't think he had much of a decision.

Black = Aspades Ts

Hilm = Ad 9h

Flop = 4d Th 7d

"Philip still needs a 9," explains Big TK in that familiar monotone 'I've done this a squillion times' voice.

Turn = Jc

Andy Black turns away from the table and peers into the distance.

River = Td

Black swivels round as Kremser announces the River, punches the air and shouts "Yes' uncontrollably.

"That's poker," he says, "He's been making those kind of moves all day. What a play!"

"Nice hand," says a meek Hilm in defeat.

"Thanks," responds a more relaxed, yet still highly relieved Irishman.

Dean Sanders is OUT in 18th, only just got a bit of the action coming back to report the previous exit, but he apparently got it all in with 7-8 on a T-9-6 board against Marc Karam's T-9, turn and river came running sixes to send the gutted gutshot player home. Ouch, that's going to hurt. :(

Jan Veit -- 230k
Kristof De Smedt -- 480k
Andy Black -- 800-900k
Alex Kim -- 855k
Ram Vaswani -- 350k
Philip Hilm -- 220k

Kristof De Smedt is OUT in 17th place.

Shortstacked with around 100k in the small blind, Kristof found himself in uncomfortable surroundings when both Ram Vaswani and Andy Black saw an  Ac 9c 8h Flop.

Andy bet 100k, Ram made it 300k and Andy folded, allowing Ram to pick up a smallish side pot.

Ram = Aspades 4h

Kristof = Qc Qd

Turn = 6d

River = 5c

Down to 16 and a resulting redraw.

Suddenly there's an all-in every couple of minutes - just prior to the 17th place elimination of Kristof de Smedt, Ram Vaswani got it all in on a 9-2-8 flop against him.  Ram held 8d 8c for the set, while Kristof had 9-7.

Fresh from the Dean Knockout, we held our breath on the 5d turn, but the 9s river housed him up and gave Ram a decent stack back (700k?).

He just got it all in with Ahrt Kc against Pete Giordano's Ad Kh.  "Spades!" wishes Pete, generously, and although three clubs came by the turn, there was no sad four-flush and they're right where they were before the cameras crowded round.

Chip counts, from when they redrew the tables:

Kristian Kjondal -- 518k
Steve Jelinek -- 900k
Christian Neirinck -- 520k
Soren Kongsgaard -- 440k
Jan Veit -- 290k
Josh Praeger -- 685k
Carlos Mortensen -- 480k
Pete Giordano -- 580k
Gavin Griffin -- 1.327 million
Ram Vaswani -- 1.1 million
Andy Black -- 582k
Philip Hilm -- 126k
Marc Karam -- 1.15 million
Eric Van Der Berg -- 620k
Dave Peters -- 335k
Alexander Kim -- 820k

A couple of these stacks have changed though...

Andy Black on the TV table must be pretty fun to commentate on - and this hand is perhaps the biggest of the tournament so far...

Eric Van der Berg raised preflop (I only started paying attention when the live feed said, "Andy moves all in for something like 650k.") and Andy moved all in for something like 650k.  See, I paid attention.

Anyway, the dwell before the call (with Eights) was pretty tense, and Van der Berg can't have been happy to see the Ad Ac which Andy had managed to portray as weaker through that large all-in.
The flop brought 9-2-Q rainbow, but it wasn't until the Aspades came on the turn that Andy allowed himself a quick pace around the table and to settle back to count his newly-regenerated stack.  Meanwhile Van der Berg drops to 230k.

I tipped him at the beginning of yesterday, remember...

***********************************90 Minute Dinner Break********************************

They'll be restarting in a few minutes, with one table televised and one on the floor surrounded by curious onlookers and the occasional member of the press.  BA pointed out that this is a change from the previous setup, where the last two tables play down off camera, and the Feature is used again for the final.  It is, as he noted, unfair on the TV tablers - it's always slower on there, even with this kind of lineup, and with such a lot to play for everything should probably be kept as even and fair as possible - like in science experiments where you keep base conditions identical.  I can see that they're on to a good thing with the live streaming and commentary, but still...

We don't have access to the TV table - Homer has gone to ask the TV people if they took some in the break.  From looking at the feed, I think Ram has around 600k.  Meanwhile Gavin Griffin is the chip leader after the end of the last level propelled him to 1,600,000(!).

Christian Neirinck is OUT in 16th place, winning €39,820, in a nasty way.

Steve Jelinek had Kc Kh in the small blind, Neirinck had Ahrt Ac in the big.

Flop:

4h 3d 2d

Turn:

Ks

A clap of the hands from Steve, "Pair the board," he says.

River:

3h

A shake of the hands with the Belgian and pushes Jelinek to around 1.3 million

FULL COUNTS!

Christian Kjondal      485,000
Steve Jelinek          1,376,000
Chris Neirinck           OUT
Soren Kongsgaard    658,000
Jan Veit                 177,000
Josh Prager             675,000
Carlos Mortensen     494,000
Pete Giordano         648,000

Ram Vaswani           887,000
Gavin Griffin            1,610,000
Marc Karam             977,000
Andy Black              779,000
Eric Van der Berg     321,000
David Peters            550,000
Philip Hilm                  OUT
Alex Kim                   791,000

Eric Van Der Berg has doubled up with Ts Tc against Alex Kim's Jc Js with the board coming 3-T-8-5-K.

Philip Hilm exited almost immediately after Christian Neirinck:  Short stack A (him) holding A-8 against short stack B (David Peters) holding A-9 all in preflop.
Flop:  2d Td Jh
Turn:  9c  The straight outs arrived with the pair for Peters, but departed on the Deuce river.

That was quick; Philip Hilm becomes the 15th place finisher, winning €39,820.

After Christian Kjondal, Josh Prager and Carlo Mortensen had all take turns at taking the blinds, Jan Veit made a stand with Sevens, re-raising all-in to Kjondal's 46 pre-flop raise. Kjondal called and showed Kd Qd.

"King!" shouted someone from the rail, and the Poker Gods duly obliged... but with two of the buggers!

Flop = Kh Ks Ac

A dejected, but still smiling Jan began to rise from his seat, but still realising that a Seven could save him.

Turn = Ad

The announcer said that there were no cards that could help him, but I think an Ace would chop it... however, it failed to arriver.

River = 2h

Another one gone.

Jan Veit becomes the 14th place finisher, winning €49,770.

Gavin just took a big pot off Eric.

Eric check/called the 65k on the Kd 5d 9s flop, 95k on the 6s turn but on the Jh river Gavin bet 225k and Eric folded.

Well, decisions are big at the moment, and taking a decent amount of time to make them is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.  But it does mean that our hands per hour have dropped right down, and it's slow going around the 'regular' table.  Several people have pulled up chairs just outside the rope to spectate through the lengthy  Final Bubble, which is fair enough, except they get excited whenever anyone they're supporting (or pretty much anyone) puts a raise in and all stand up at once, thereby making my view erratic at best. 

Nevertheless, I saw some chips change hands, from Carlos Mortensen to Pete Giordano - Carlos raised to 48k preflop, and neighbour Pete re-raised to 110k.  Call.  Carlos checked the 4s 9d 7c flop, and Pete announced, "All in."  A very very long think, lots of staring back and forth, but no chat, and Pete Giordano was the one stacking the pot at the end.

Steve Jelinek also concedes a 160k pot on the turn to Josh Prager, the board standing 6-5-8-K...not sure what was going on there but caught it from the point that Josh bet at least another 100k in brown 5k chips.

Hey guys, here's some news from the other table.

Soren raises, Josh re-raises, Soren pushes, Josh eventually folds.
Carlos raises to 60k, takes the blinds.
Soren min-raises utg, takes the blinds.
Josh raises to 55k utg, takes the blinds.
Carlos raises to 62k utg, takes the blinds. (Liking the pattern...?)
SB/BB action between Carlos and Josh, they check a Ks 8d 7s flop before Carlos bets 20k on the Kd turn when Josh checks to him, to take down the pot.
Christian Kjandal raises utg, Jelinek re-raises utg+1, Kjandal calls. Flop Td Ac 2d, Kjandal checks, Jelinek bets about 80k, Kjandal c/raises all-in. Steve dwells for a second before passing and saying, "Nice hand."
Josh raises to 55k, Carlos moves all-in, Josh asks for a count, but eventually folds.
Soren raises, takes the blinds.
Pete raises to 53k utg, Jelinek re-raises to 153k. Soren dwells and passes. Pete, eventually passes Jc Jd face up, Steve flashes Ad Ac.

We're about to go on yet another 15 minute break. Still 13 players left. When we return, blinds will be 10k/20k with a 2k ante.

15 Minute Break...

One report-worthy hand - a multi limp pot, checked by Soren Kongsgard in the big blind got a four-way flop of 4d Ts 3c.  Small blind Jelinek checked, Carlos Mortensen bet 40k, called by neighbour Pete Giordano.  Pass from Steve - Soren then made it 160k when action returned to him.  A quick pass from Mortensen, a slow one from Giordano...

Other than that it's raise-foldx5 or raise, re-raise all in, pass (that one from Josh Prager over the top of Steve Jelinek, who's been standard raising preflop a fair whack in the last 15 minutes).

TV Table:

(1) Kristian Kjondal -- 1,000,000
(2) Steve Jelinek -- 950,000
(4) Soren Kongsgaard -- 910,000
(6) Josh Prager -- 550,000
(7) Carlos Mortensen -- 450,000
(8) Peter Giordano -- 600,000

Table Commoners:

(1) Ram Vaswani -- 499,000
(2) Eric Van Der Berg -- 235,000
(3) Alex Kim -- 343,000
(4) David Peters -- 400,000
(5) Gavin Griffin -- 2,356,000
(6) Andy Black -- 1,169,000
(7) Mark Karam -- 1,160,000

Alex Kim has doubled up, all-in with A-K vs. Marc Karam's J-T on a J-K-T Flop, Turn came 9, but the River brought a crowd gasping Ace.

Marc put his hands on his head in frustration/despair, whilst Alex seemed to take it all in his stride as if he'd picked up the blinds.

Pete Giordano is OUT in 13th.

Josh Prager raised 50k, Giordano made it 150k (I think), Prager moved all-in and Giordano called.

Prager = Ac Qc

Giordano = Kd Kh

Board = Qd 5c 4c 2d 9c

Not been a good day for Kings.

Couple of hands here:

Marc Karam makes it 75k from the SB, Andy Black in the BB (before he got moved) made it 250k. Marc passed, Andy showed Ad Qs.

Short stacked Eric Van Der Berg pushed for 181k, Ram called from the button.

Eric:

Ahrt 9s

Ram:

Kh Qs

Board:

4s 4h 2s 8h 2c

Ram down to 360k, Eric up to over 400k

Been a short break to move the big blind (Andy Black) to the feature table to replace Pete Giordano. During which Ram went for a ciggy break with Kevin O'Connell, and from what I heard, I don't think Ram rates his own chances.

David Peters is OUT in 12th winning €66,360

Interesting hand.

David makes up the small blind, Alex Kim makes it 60k and David, after a dwell might I add, flat calls.

Flop = Ad Td 9h

David checks, Alex Kim bets 100k and David moves all-in, once again, following a spell in the think tank.

Alex Kim, laid back as ever, shrugs his shoulders, points towards the board and nonchalantly announces call.

Alex = Aspades Qh

David = Kh Kd

Turn = Js

River = 8s

And after an all American collision, we have lost our 13th man - a quiet and reserved young gent in 19-year old David Peters who was perfectly well behaved throughout.

Severely short-stacked Ram was on all-in watch by us, and sure enough, pushed in just now from the small blind after Alex Kim raised on the button.  It was 192k in total - Call.
Ram showed:  Ac 2s
Alex showed:  Jc 9c

Flop:  Aspades Kc Td  (Big TK tells the assembled crowd that Ram doesn't want to see a Queen)
Turn and river:  4h Ad  and back up to 400k, tired or not...

Carlos Mortensen just had his tournament on the line with Aspades Qc, all-in preflop against 9d 9h (Kristian Kjondal).
The Ace waited to the river to come (at which point the Spanish press went bananas in here) but to be honest it was a straight race when the money went in.

Gavin Griffin makes it 60k and Eric pushes for 200k more, Gavin passes the Ad, Eric shows Queens.

A few hands later, Alex Kim makes it 60k from UTG, Gavin calls on the button, Marc makes it 200k from the small blind, Eric passes. Alex moves in, Gavin passes and Marc calls, saying "Please have Queens!" as he flips over Kd Ks. Alex shows 6h 6s. The usual hubub starts and Alex just has Marc covered.

Board:

Qs Kc 3c 2d Ac

This leaves Alex with 52k and he's BB so the 30k extra goes in the next hand of Th 4h against small blind Eric's Qs 2h

Board:

Ac Aspades 3h 4s Jh

Still very short, Snoopy is ready like a vulture....

We're now on the 15 minute break, but the last several hands on Table Ram made for highly intriguing viewing for little ol' me at ringside.

There's definitely a contrast in strategies - whilst Gavin Griffin has decided to sit on his stack and wait for Ram or Kim to depart, the aggressor of the table is Marc Karam, who is clearly trying to take advantage of Gavin's approach over these last several hands by bullying the smaller stacks. However, although Kim and Van Der Berg (the latter in particular) are playing patient poker, Ram Vaswani is quite happy to shovel it all in, whether Kim is down to the wire or not, and this was on full display when he re-raised Mark Karam's 60k bet all-in for 462k. Laid back with the Top Gun shades, Ram twitched his foot underneath the table, but above was as a cool as a cucumber, seemingly giving off no signs of a tell.

The very next hand, these two locked horns once again (I swear, Karam is either going to remove or double up Ram at some stage within the next 20 minutes), only for Karam to return the favour, moving all-in to Ram's 40k bet (Ram had limped on the button) on a 9s 2s 8c Flop. As is the way with this table, no amateur dramatics and Ram folded instantly, with no real sign of remorse. Simply an 'okay, you got me, next hand' kind of attitude which is a joy to watch and perfect for the flow of the game.

Then, with recent double-upper (but still very short) Alex Kim allowing himself to land on the big blind with just 70k and blinds of 10k and 20k, he decides to take a gamble with Tc 9c after Karam had made an inevitable button raise with Kc Th.

Of course, Karam called the extra shrapnel in a jiffy, but was chagrined and understandably frustrated to see his opponent make trip Nines on a 9h Jc 9s Flop. "Queen," demands Kim in a reverse psychology (or Gusology) moment. But, with Karam looking on quietly, although anxiously out of his seat, no Nine or miracle runner runner arrives with the Turn bringing a 2 of spades and the River a harmless 5 of clubs.

"Alex is up to 200k," adds Big TK, and after Gavin Griffin takes the small blind away from Ram with a 60k bet from the big, the dum dum sounded and we moved into the 15 minute break.

Well, been tableside for a while, and have to say that Gavin Griffin has now taken over the role of aggressor, and quite convincingly too.  Raising from the small blind, button, and cutoff in a row, skipping two and then raising the next three, he might have been pushed off two of these pots by Marc Karam (once on the flop, once preflop; Karam showed Kc Kh) he seems absolutely undaunted, calm, confident, and still pretty much awake. 

So, that's six of the last nine hands he's been putting pressure on short stacks Kim and Van der Berg (the latter with just 150k or so).  No rivers; no showdowns.  It looked like the Dutchman was pretty tempted to push preflop the last time (Gavin button raising, him on B.B. with just 120k behind) but he decided to wait for a better opportunity.

Carlos Mortensen is OUT in 11th winning €66,360

Very hard to see the hands here, but it looked like Carlos was eliminated by Josh Prager. I distinctly heard the comment, "straight on the Turn" which sounded pretty decisive.

Interestingly, it was about this time that the players seemed to notice what I mentioned earlier - the hands per hour discrepancy between the TV table and the 'normal' one.  Thomas Kremser had a sympathetic ear, as not only is that clearly the case regularly, but the TV table at the time had six players, the regular one five.  Instead of complaining about the set-up in general, however, they asked that they be put hand for hand.  It must have been really bad, the hph lag, if playing hand-for-hand with an odd number seemed like a good idea to the table with the short stacks on it...

The likable Alex Kim has gone in 10th place winning €99,550

Gavin and Marc Karam (pictured called his push in the blinds and checked the 5d 3c 3s flop before Marc bet 100k on the Td turn and Gavin folded.

Marc:

Jc Th

Alex:

Ac 9c

River:

6h

And the internet qualifier has gone and we are on one table. Eric Van Der Berg is REALLY short though, so we don't expect it too last too much longer.

And in one hand, we lose the Ninth place -

An almost compulsory move in in the first six hands, Eric Van der Berg found a more than reasonable hand with Ac Qd, moving in over the top of Soren Kongsgard's preflop raise.  Soren called with Aspades 5c. 
Flop:  Qs 3s Ks
Turn: 9d
River:  2s

And the Ace-high flush on the river makes this the quickest TV-table bubble we've ever seen, ever.

Eric Van der Berg finishes 9th, winning €99,550

Tomorrow's final will therefore look like this...

Kristian Kjondal
Steve Jelinek
Soren Kongsgaard
Josh Prager
Ram Vaswani
Gavin Griffin
Andy Black
Mark Karam

My guess is there will be a redraw tomorrow.