We're not sure of the preflop action, but we do know that Olivier Busquet was all in preflop for right around 27,000 and up against Sofianos Vergitsis.
Showdown
Vergitsis:
Busquet:
According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Busquet was flipping and had a 45.41% chance of winning the hand, compared to Vergitsis' 54.15% and the unlikely 0.44% chance of a tie.
The flop gave Busquet a gut-shot straight draw to a ten, but his chances of winning were only 29.60% since Vergitsis held two of the tens. The turn further dropped Busquet's chances to 11.36%, and while the river paired Busuqet, it also gave Vergitsis a winning straight.
"Good game," Busquet said before exiting the tournament floor.
The two biggest stacks at table 20 just went to war in a big pot. We missed the action but Bernard Vu kindly informed us that the pot was three-bet pre with action on every street between Jose Manuel Nadal Sordo and Michele di Lauro.
The final board read and a little less than 90,000 chips had ventured into the middle. Nadal checked from the big blind and faced a 47,500 bet from his French opponent. Nadal took so long to think that Jason Mercier called the clock. Nadal folded halfway through the countdown.
Vojtech Ruzicka has been eliminated after running into the stone cold nuts; doing such a thing usually results in your untimely demise.
We joined his table as we heard the dealer announce, "all-in and a call," and saw Ruzicka with in front of him and the board reading . Unfortunately for Ruzicka, Andrea Boccia was sat there with for the nuts.
The landed on the river and with that, the tournament lost a very dangerous player.
British pro Praz Bansi has just doubled up and is now armed with almost 60,000 chips.
Bansi opened from the small blind to 2,600 only to see Yngve Steen three-bet to 5,800. Bansi considered all of his options carefully before opting to move all-in for 26,900 in total. Steen snap-called.
Bansi:
Steen:
The dealer fanned out flop and it looked like Bansi could have been heading for the proverbial early bath. However, he earned a reprieve when the landed on the turn. The river completed the hand and Bansi saw his stack swell.
Ben Martin opened to 2,100 from UTG+1 and then saw the players fold around to Nandor Solyom in the cutoff. Solyom, a Romanian native, three-bet to 4,000. Roberto Romanello folded his button and when both blinds also folded, Martin had some thinking to do.
Martin ended his thinking time by four-betting to 10,200, bet that Solyom called.
The flop fell and Martin lead out for 8,500 which prompted a fold that came faster than expected, after the preflop action that is.
Pratyush Buddiga opened to 2,000 from the cutoff, Jason Helder three-bet to 4,200 on his direct left, and the action folded back to Buddiga. The former Scripps National Spelling Bee winner four-bet to 8,500, and Helder promptly grabbed a handful of blue T5,000 chips, five-betting all in for effectively 40,000 or so.
Buddiga instantly mucked, and Helder, who qualified for this event on PokerStars, chipped up to around 240,000 chips.
Earlier this week, Bodo Sbrzesny had some luck in the city when he took third in the World Poker Tour Prague for €137,470. Today, the German is back in action and looking for a little EPT success to solidify a great week.
In a recent hand, Sbrzesny raised to 2,000 under the gun and picked up two callers, Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes in middle position and Bastian Fischer in the big blind. The latter player proceeded to check the flop, and Sbrzesny continuation-bet 2,600. Both Lopes and Fischer folded, and Sbrzesny took down the pot. It was a small hand, but gave us a good excuse to update you on his chip count.
Action folded to Germany's Marc Tschirch in the hijack and he opened for 2,100, which David Peters three-bet to 4,600 from the button. The blinds both got out of the way, Tschirch four-bet to 9,800, and action was back on Peters.
The young America thought for a moment, put together some chips, and then came out with a five-bet to 16,700. Tschirch didn't seem too thrilled and opted to concede the hand, dropping to 85,000 in the process.