As the players return refreshed from the dinner break, the feature table gears up for filming. Here's the current lineup:
Karl Mahkle - 266,500
Andy Bradshaw - 165,000
Andreas Kyprianou - 54,000
Hans Eskilsson - 412,000
Andrew Pantling - 918,000
Massimiliano Tamburini - 511,000
Lise Vigezzi - 173,500
Jani Vilmunen - 382,000
Philip Baker was the only player who didn't quite make it back from dinner on time. He missed his big blind, but on that particular hand Evan Hunt raised and everyone folded -- Hunt showed pocket aces and just picked up the undefended blinds.
Short-stacked Christer Johansson has been getting extremely jiggy -- in the hour before dinner he must have open-shoved at least five or six times, and he just now did it again. But every time he's just picked up the blinds as everyone swiftly passes, and we have yet to see what kind of hands he's getting his chips in with.
After nursing a short stack for about a level, Joe Ruddy finally took the plunge, moving all in on the big blind with . Early-position pot-opener Atanas Gueorguiev was going nowhere with his and the board helped the all-in player not a bit.
As he left in 22nd place, he told the rail with a shrug, "Jack-deuce, eight-deuce, nine-deuce, eight-four," explaining how the had suddenly seemed so appealing after a run of filthy cards.
A strange hand got stranger after Albert Iversen raised preflop to 29,000, and the TD suddenly showed up declaring the hand dead. He was actually confusing it with a previous hand, a spectator told me, and action carried on. William Kassouf on the button made the call and they saw a heads up flop of .
Iversen checked, and Kassouf (taking a lot of time per decision at the moment) bet 50,000. He was promptly check-raised to 150.000, and made the call with ten gray 10,000 chips.
The turn was the . Iversen put Kassouf all in, and now he considered the pot, his remaining 222,000, and his opponent. Eventually he made the call with two pair -- , which was up against Iversen's nut flush draw. Iversen missed the river, losing a big chunk of change and propelling Kassouf up around 800,000. Iversen admitted as he paid him off, "I didn't see you had those 10k chips or I wouldn't have done that on the flop."
Incidentally, the TD is now sitting in Seat 3 on that table, which can't be that relaxing for anyone involved...
William Kassouf limped under the gun, only for Albert Iversen to shove for his last 235,000 from the button. A trademark Kassouf dwell (he's already been in trouble with some of his tablemates and consequently the TD over his slowness), and he passed.
Atanas Gueorguiev raised to 29,000 on the cutoff, only for serial shover Christer Johansson to stick his whole stack in once again. Gueorguiev closed his eyes as if meditating, and he must have seen something nasty on the inside of his eyelids as when he opened his eyes again he folded.
It passed to Heinrich Mayr on the small blind, and with a stack of 147,000 he made the decision to move all in with , with only Paul O'Connor between him and picking up the blinds and antes. Unfortunately (for them both, one at a time) O'Connor held and made the call quickly. Pretty sure what he was muttering was, "Oh sh*t oh shi*t..."
The board came , however, pairing Mayr's eight and eventually giving him a straight, eliciting a "Go Heinrich!" from the crowd and a very loud, "YES!" from the man himself. Mayr now has 330,000, O'Connor just 200,000.
Not giving up lightly, Kara Scott hasn't been nursing her short stack. Just now, she moved in for 113,500 over the top of a mid-position William Kassouf min-raise. He made the call with but her was ahead and stayed that way.