Two hands later and Antoine Saout pushed for his last 47,000 from the cutoff. Tom Marchese reraised to 95,000 on the button and once the small blind had folded the action moved to Sorel Mizzi in the big blind. "How much are you playing, Thomas?" was the question. 349,000 was the answer. Eventually, though, he folded. "Whatchew fold, Sorel?" asked railer Jason Mercier in a stage whisper. "Tell us." Replied Sorel, "The ace-middle." Whispered Mercier, "Good fold."
Anyway, Saout was all in. Turn the cards over please, gentlemen.
Saout:
Marchese:
Board:
Saout took the 11th place saver, and the high rollers are now just ten.
The flop read when Antoine Saout bet out 33,000 from the small blind and Tom Marchese shoved from the big. Saout made the call, the TV crew jumped to their feet to record the action for posterity, and the cards were revealed.
Saout: for an up-and-down straight draw and two overcards
Marchese: for two pair
Turn:
River:
With that, Marchese doubled to a shade under 450,000. Saout sighed and was left with around 50,000.
The eleven remaining players have decided to go ahead and take another €25,000 from the prize pool and give a money-back guarantee to the next player eliminated. These guys must be in a hurry to get to the closing party across the way.
"Congratulations, players. You are now all in the money," Tournament Director Kevin said over the microphone.
We'll play on until we set our final table of eight.
We were four ways to the flop after a 23,000 raise.
Flop:
Antoine Saout, Michael Frederic, Sorel Mizzi, and Allen Bari all checked to the turn.
Turn:
Saout and Frederic checked. When it got to Mizzi, he bet 40,000. Bari and Saout folded and Frederic bumped it up 75,000 more.
Mizzi went into the tank for a good 5 minutes or so, before moving all in. Frederic took another few minutes to think about what he was going to do before folding.
The TV cameras were filming the whole thing and when Frederic folded, Mizzi said, "Want to see?" He then turned over for a stone-cold bluff.
The remaining 12 players have agreed to do a save for the ninth- and tenth-place finishers. A total of €100,000 will be taken off the top prize pool, with €50,000 apiece going to unlucky #9 and #10. The tournament staff was reluctant to accommodate the players since their payouts are by the book, but it is the players' prize pool, and they can do with it what they wish.
A save it is. And it's quite possible the agreement was reached simply because the rest of the field just wanted Matt Marafioti to stop complaining.
"All in and a call," we heard behind us as a hand had materialized out of nowhere. We spun around to see Paul Berende all in against Olivier Busquet in what was quite the sick showdown.
The flop showed when we saw the money go in, and Berende had all 296,000 of his remaining chips in the middle. He flipped up only to see he had been coolered in the worst way by Busquet's . The tension built for about two solid minutes as the camera crews gathered around and the pot was made right. Finally, the turn:
Bink, as they say. Berende clapped his hands together and let out a big, "Yes!" as the blank filled out the board. Berende apologized to Busquet for his outburst, but he was clearly thrilled by that gnarly double up. He's back to around 650,000, and still very apologetic.
"Sorry for the reaction," he said again to Busquet. "Such a sick setup though."
"No worries," Busquet responded. "I understand. It was a big hand. Don't worry about it."