[user46298]
Jason Mercier raises preflop, picking up one caller in small blind Daniel Negreanu. They see a flop of ; Negreanu checks to Mercier...who bets 64k. Out comes a raise sharpish from Negreanu, 110k - enough to see off the most aggressive player of the final so far, from this pot at least.
Nevertheless, next hand he's at it again, raising preflop to 64k and picking up some chunky 12k/24k blinds, replastering the small crack made in his stack by Kid Poker...
[user46392]
It folded to Markus Ristola in the cutoff, and he raised to 62,000; big blind Daniel Negreanu made the call and they went heads up to a flop, which they checked.
The turn was the and they checked that too, and ended up looking at a river. Negreanu bet out an experimental 95,000, and without a second though Ristola passed, putting Negreanu back above the million mark on 1,018,000.
[user46298]
Bjorin Again
Daniel Negreanu raises to 56k preflop, only to find Chris Bjorin (who's taken his early place as short stack) moving all-in for 397k. Negreanu makes the call and their hands are on their backs!
Bjorin:
Negreanu:
The board emerges: ... ... meaning that Bjorin evens up their stacks to 800k and 900k respectively.
[user46392]
Reraise mechanism: activated
James Akenhead raised in early position, and Jason Mercier reraised from the button, his excellent Eighties white-rimmed sunglasses back on now and making him look like a very clean robot. Back to Akenhead, and eventually he gave it up to the Merciertron.
[user46392]
Players are back at the felt. That last hand, by the way, put Negreanu up to second place in chips -- although second, third (Akenhead - 1,352,000) and fourth (Shulman - 1,262,000) places are very close.
[user46392]
That's enough hard work for one half level. The last hand ate into the break a little, but we still have around 12 minutes left to kill. Back shortly.
[user46298]
Negreanu: Cheerful as No Longer Shortstack
Threeway to a flop of , and big blind Jason Mercier thought for a while before leading out 64k into Daniel Negreanu and Antoine Saout. Negreanu called quickly, Saout folded slowly.
The turn brought the and a bet of 129k from Mercier. Nereanu counted out one of his comparatively diminutive stacks, did some cut'n'thread type chip fiddling, briefly appeared to stick his tongue out at the unfazed Mercer and ultimately announced all in!
Call - and fast - and not surprising as the turn had just created a set-over-set situation:
Mercier:
Negreanu:
The river failed to upset the status quo with a one-outer (it was the ) and Negreanu gets the full double up to 1,315,000, while Mercier will have to make do with 2,475,000.
[user46298]
Antoine Saout calls (on the button) a Chris Bjorin mid-position raise. Both players check the flop. The on the turn is checked to Saout too - this time he takes the opportunity to make a bet which wins him the modest-to-middling sized pot.
The next hand, Saout makes it 50k to go in the cutoff, but gets the pesky button making it 150k. This time, the man with the button is Matt Hawrilenko, who with little dwell time from his opponent simply takes it down.
[user46392]
Raisiest Player At The Table Jason Mercier raised, and Markus Ristola called in the hijack. They saw a flop.
Flop:
Mercier, whose ridiculously tall stacks look in danger of falling over every time he dips into them for chips, bet out. Ristola stared very hard at the table for a while, and then raised to 180,000. Mercier checked his hole cards to make sure they hadn't magically turned into two completely different cards, or possibly even to discover what he actually had -- either way, he checked them, dwelled for a little while, and then made the call.
Turn:
Mercier checked, and Ristola promptly moved all in. A quick fold later, and Ristola was up to 965,000. Mercier dropped to a still dominant 3,064,000.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
; Negreanu checks to Mercier...who bets 64k. Out comes a raise sharpish from Negreanu, 110k - enough to see off the most aggressive player of the final so far, from this pot at least.
flop, which they checked.
and they checked that too, and ended up looking at a 
river. Negreanu bet out an experimental 95,000, and without a second though Ristola passed, putting Negreanu back above the million mark on 1,018,000.
...
...
meaning that Bjorin evens up their stacks to 800k and 900k respectively.
, and big blind Jason Mercier thought for a while before leading out 64k into Daniel Negreanu and Antoine Saout. Negreanu called quickly, Saout folded slowly.
and a bet of 129k from Mercier. Nereanu counted out one of his comparatively diminutive stacks, did some cut'n'thread type chip fiddling, briefly appeared to stick his tongue out at the unfazed Mercer and ultimately announced all in!
on the turn is checked to Saout too - this time he takes the opportunity to make a bet which wins him the modest-to-middling sized pot.
