During the break, Atanas Kavrakov and Cesar Garcia Dominguez played a very interesting hand against one another.
As the tournament clock ticked down to triple zeroes, Kavrakov opened to 6,000 from the hijack seat. Dominguez called on the button, and after the blinds released, he tabled .
Apparently, the Spaniard didn't see that Kavrakov had raised, and thought that he had won the pot. A floor person was beckoned, and after the dealer told him what had happened, he ruled that the hand would be played as is.
The flop fell , giving Dominguez a pair of aces, and Kavrakov tanked for a considerable amount of time before checking. Dominguez checked behind.
The turn was the , giving Dominguez two pair, and Kavrakov checked again. Dominguez tossed out 8,000, and Kavrakov tank-called.
The river was the , Kavrakov checked again, and Dominguez quickly checked behind. Kavrakov turned over for a turned straight, and Dominguez mucked his hand.
Dominguez was then given a one-round penalty, which he will serve here at the start of Level 16.
Two of the three former EPT champions who started the day could not have more differing approaches to the game. While Lundmark is utterly silent, Romanello takes a motormouth approach. PokerStars Blog looks at the start of their days and finds contrasting fortunes.
The money bubble looms, which means play has tightened up. Mauchev Ibraim seems to be trying to sneak into the money, and his chances recently improved.
After dwindling down to just three big blind, Ibraim got his last 10,700 all in holding and was in great shape against the of Ioakim Papadopoulos. The board ran out a clean , and Ibraim received a much-needed double.
"What a time to pick up aces," someone chuckled at the other end of the table.
Roberto Romanello opened to 6,100 from middle position, Marat Begenov called on his direct left, and Luca Giovannone moved all in for 76,500 on Begenov's direct left.
The action folded back to Romanello, who quickly re-shoved, and Begenov folded. Romanello ripped over , and Giovannone examined Romanello's hand before slowly revealing .
The dealer burned one card, dealt three face down, then revealed the window card: the . Slowly, she spread the flop, first revealing the , giving Romanello a set of sevens, but following that was the , giving Giovannone a set of jacks.
The turn and river bricked , respectively, and Giovannone doubled to around 165,000 chips. Romanello dropped down to around 175,000.
John Eames, fresh from signing a deal with IveyPoker.com, is climbing up the chip counts. The young Brit is almost at 200,000 chips now and is a serious threat.