And just before the Julian Gardner double up, I was treated to two biggish hands being played out simultaneously on neighbouring tables. Armed with my notepad and pen, I stood in between the two tables, eagerly awaiting their conclusion, whilst also making sure I didn't miss a bet.
On one, we had Edgard Skjervold, a friendly Norwegian pro who finished an admirable second in January's Copenhagen EPT, involved in a 10k pot and a Flop of
. Although both he and his opponent dipped into the think tank, both decided to check the flop, before Edgar took it down with a 4.2k bet on the
Turn. Not a huuuuuge pot obviously, but it was a vital one for Edgar who is now on 40k after struggling for most of the day.
Meanwhile, as this handed petered out (I honestly thought it was going to be bigger due to the think tankage), we had a meaty 4-way hand on Matt Tyler's table. Jonas Molander, who finalled in Baden and just missed out in London, was one of three callers - the others were the small blind, who only had 300 left, and Paul Parker in the Big.
The flop came Q-9-9 and everyone checked, except Billy Big Stack Jonas who glanced around momentarily before nonchalantly placing a 6,400 bet in the middle. The remaining 300 of the Small Blind went in, with a prayer of clasped hands to boot, only to leave Paul Parker with what appeared to be a very tricky decision, as he counted out his chips and seriously looked like he was going to make his move. However, he ultimately made the right decision in folding as Jonas held a monster A-9, which was too much for the all-inner's 8-8 to handle.
Another down and Jonas adds to his already mammoth stack.
Author