"I got more than I started with!" Freddy Deeb half-yelled, drawing our attention to the table-to-table conversation between he and Phil Ivey. "I got forty thousand!"
"How much for half your action, Freddy?" Ivey bantered. "Throw a number out there."
"How much are you willing to pay?" Deeb asked.
"What are you guaranteed right now? Twenty thousand pounds? All right, I guess twenty thousand pounds."
Deeb sort of chuckled and returned to his own action, but the conversation was still lingering. "I'll give you £22,000. And I'm lucky too," Ivey tried again.
Barry Greenstein spoke up from the end of Ivey's table, trying to negotiate the sale. "You have to factor in Phil's luck," he said. "Phil once staked three people in a tournament, and they came first, second, and third."
Everyone chuckled, and the conversation turned to how much Ivey would need to sell some of his action. "I'll sell half of myself. Make me an offer."
Now it was Barny Boatman doing the talking. "You should trade half of a percent of you for half of him," Boatman suggested. Everyone chuckled. The debate went back and forth for another couple minutes with no resolution, and it came to a halt when Deeb moved all in on the next hand.
It was Roland de Wolfe who opened the pot to 12,000, and Deeb shipped it in there for 43,000 total. De Wolfe did the math and decided to call with , and Deeb was in good shape to double with .
The board came , holding Deeb's pair and increasing the price of his shares significantly. He's up close to 100,000 now and back in the game.
Jean-Paul Seatelli may have started the day with just 61,200, but he'd ground it up with the rest of them, making the money and hovering between 100k and 200k for a couple of hours. Just now he'd dropped to the lower end of this bracket, and was prepared to make a stand against Arnaud Mattern. Mattern raised preflop to 12,500, and Seatelli in the big blind made the call. He then bet out on the flop, 20-something-thousand, which Mattern called fairly swiftly. On the turn, however, Seatelli's instant push all in for about 90k went uncalled, Mattern having thrown his hand away before his opponent's stack had come to a full and complete stop.
[user46298]
Viktor Blom & Roland de Wolfe. Neighbours.
Oh the joy and pain of late position - cutoff James Mitchell just sparked off an interesting hand by raising to 12k, which button Viktor Blom upped to 28,500. Now small blind Roland de Wolfe fourbet to 65k (leaving himself 145k behind). It was an instant pass for Mitchell, but the complete opposite for Blom, who counted out both stacks (they were pretty even at this point, Blom covered probably by only a few thousand) and then sat thinking and occasionally conversing sotto voce with de Wolfe.
Minutes ticked by. Blom was jiggling up and down like he was being shaken under the table.
"I can't tell you what I have," said Blom at one point (only a little piece of the quiet chat which went back and forth). "Why not?" was de Wolfe's response.
Finally another player called the clock on Blom, who seemed a little put out (asking for the dastardly clock caller to be identified).
"You show?" he asked de Wolfe.
"You show?" he got in reply.
"No, just you," said Blom. He folded and got his wish - de Wolfe showed . Blom requested to rabbit hunt the flop but no joy.
Alex Keating has been chatting it up all day long, right from the get go. He's made most every player he's been seated with laugh and have a good time. Upon starting the tournament, Keating told his table, "Listen, we're all going to cash. Everyone here is going to cash." Although only a couple of them actually made the money, Keating was able to be one of those lucky few.
He's still alive now and moved over to another table including Daniel Steinberg, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Greg Mueller. The table is situated somewhat in the back corner of the room and there's been plenty of laughter to be had.
When on the bubble, Timoshenko tried to bet Keating that he wouldn't go all in with anything but aces after Keating claimed that he would only stick his money in with one player to go holding the rockets, nothing else. The bet never came to form, but the antics haven't stopped there. Everyone's been clowning with Keating for playing super snug and he's embracing it in full, laughing along with them.
Just recently, Dan Fleyshman limped in from the hijack seat and Keating was up next. He raised to 18,500. He was in the cutoff seat and the instant he stuck in the raise, the entire table burst out in laughter. For some reason, they just find anything Keating does funny, even if he is raising up the action preflop while in the money of the WSOP Europe Main Event. Mueller was on the button and reraised to 43,500 while everyone was laughing, even he couldn't keep a straight face. Action folded around and Mueller won the pot, to which brought some more laughter.
Keating also asked the table that if he makes TV, would they watch. The entire table said they'd surely be watching simply because he would be on TV. While the other three tables all have their snug poker faces on, Keating's table is full of enjoyment and laughter, all having a good time.
Matthew Waxman had not-that-many chips left when he got his money in with ace-jack before the flop. Unfortunately for him, Waxman ran right into the ace-king of Hoi Cheung.
The board ran out queen-high with no help for either player, and Cheung's ace-king high is good enough to tally the elimination.
Freddy Deeb raised to 10,500 under the gun, and Ronald Lee called from the next seat over. In the cutoff seat, Nicolas Levi stuck in a squeezy reraise to 38,500 total. Deeb called quickly, and Lee eventually came along as well, three-handed to the flop.
It came , and both opponents yielded to a continuation bet of 56,000 from Levi. He scoops that pot, chipping up to about 525,000 in the process.
Jani Sointula raised to 11,500 and Arnaud Mattern reraised to 27,500. Sointula was acting from early-middle position and Mattern in the cutoff seat. Sointula made the call and the two players were off to a flop.
The flop came down and Sointula checked. Mattern fired 32,500 and Sointula made the call. The turn then added the to the board. Sointula checked again. Mattern fired 62,500 and Sointula mucked, dropping to 170,000. Mattern is up to about 600,000 now.
Finishing in 37th spot, and therefore missing out on the not-inconsiderable mincash of £21,106 is Rudy Blondeau. With a stack just shy of 200k it was a pretty chunky pot too, which headed over to join the party in Brian Powell's stack. Blondeau raised to 9,500, Powell repopped him preflop and it was all-in-call in a heartbeat.
Blondeau:
Powell:
The flop brought a low draw-appreciative, "Oooooh" from the other players who'd bunched round to watch like hyenas around the body of a zebra as it came . The turn was the , however, and the river the which meant a straight-faced Blondeau did the dignified thing, handshaking round and heading for the exit with no fuss.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Deeb was in good shape to double with 
.
, holding Deeb's pair and increasing the price of his shares significantly. He's up close to 100,000 now and back in the game.
turn, however, Seatelli's instant push all in for about 90k went uncalled, Mattern having thrown his hand away before his opponent's stack had come to a full and complete stop.
. Blom requested to rabbit hunt the flop but no joy.
, and both opponents yielded to a continuation bet of 56,000 from Levi. He scoops that pot, chipping up to about 525,000 in the process.
and Sointula checked. Mattern fired 32,500 and Sointula made the call. The turn then added the 
. The turn was the 
, however, and the river the 
which meant a straight-faced Blondeau did the dignified thing, handshaking round and heading for the exit with no fuss.