6.26pm: That’s dinner
It’s the end of the level and players are now on a one hour dinner break. The rate of eliminations has been incredible – down from 249 starters to just 134 in three levels! It remains to be seen if tournament staff will trim a level of the day’s play as a result. — SY

6.25pm: Still more for Strassmann
Chip monster Johannes Strassmann made it 5,500 and got a call from Jasper Wetemans and Jeffrey Hakim. All three checked the K♥ 8♣ 2♣ flop, but on the 8♥ turn Wetemans made it 11,000 and only Strassmann called. Both then checked the A♦ river.
Wetemans showed pocket fours, but he was up against Strasmann’s K♠ Q♣ . The German Team PokerStars Pro sits on close to 480,000. — SY

6.20pm: Medina doubles
Luis Medina, the Team PokerStars Pro from Portugal, just doubled up against EPT Kyiv winner Max Lykov. But he was fortunate. Lykov had made it 5,300, Janko Medja called but then Medina pushed for 41,700. Lykov made the call but Medja got out of the way.

Lykov: A♥ K♥
Medina: A♠ Q♠

The flop was nice for Lykov, coming K♣ 5♥ J♣ , but it also opened up a remote gutshot draw for Medina. It duly came on the 10♥ turn. The 8♦ river changed nothing. That little coup put Medina up to 87,000. — SY

6.15pm: De Meulder back from the brink
Christophe De Meulder thought he was out when he was all in with pocket tens against A-8. An ace rivered and De Meulder was heading to the door before table-mates informed the Team PokerStars Pro that he had flopped a set. Oh. That puts De Meulder back on 170,000 and very much alive. — HS

6.10pm: Losses and Gaines
Luca Pagano and Lee Gaines at it again. Pretty much every time we walk past their table Pagano and Gaines are in a pot together. This time it’s Pagano who takes it down calling Gaines’ three-bet preflop and then leading the 4♣ 5♥ 6♥ flop. Gaines thinks about making a move… and then thinks better of it. — RD

6.05pm: Lilly ist busto
Translating from the German, Lilly Becker is out of EPT Snowfest. Jim Collopy did the deed. Becker had K-Q offsuit and Collopy had A♥ Q♥ and celebrated his 21st birthday with the elimination of the wife of a former Wimbledon tennis champ. — HS

6pm: Renovations
The builders have arrived to the chip-count page and it has undergone its first major overhaul of the day. What you see there is the most accurate and up to date of any chip count you might find, or your money back*. Head over to the chip-count page for the very latest.

*PokerStars Blog chip count is a free service. — HS

This man has the most chips:

Johannes Strassmann

5.45pm: Major chop up
Luca Cainelli opens from middle position to 6,100 and is called by Konstantinos Alexiou before Alexander Debus makes it 20,500 to go. Lex Vedlhuis, claiming that he wants to go skiing moves all-in for 103,400. Lerner wastes no time in throwing his hand away but Cainelli has a little think before folding (later claiming to have AQ) while Debus makes the inevitable call. Both players show Ace-King and they end up chopping the pot between them. Veldhuis is now on 111,400. — RD

5.40pm: ‘That’s so annoying’
So says Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis after losing a big pot to Luca Cainelli from Italy. It started with Cainelli raising to 6,100 pre-flop and Veldhuis calling. The flop came 9♠ 6♣ K♠ , Veldhuis made it 12,000 and Cainelli called. On the J♠ turn Veldhuis check-called Cainelli’s 16,000, and on the river he check-called Cainelli’s 36,000 on the four-spade board. But he was shown the bad news soon enough – A♠ 4♠ and the nut flush for Cainelli.

“That’s so annoying,” Veldhuis said. “Sick.” — SY

5.35pm: Too much respect?
Luca Pagano opened for 5,600 and straight away Giovanni Bigoni re-raised all in for 64,700. Next was Austrian Robert Kreutzer who had around the same in chips, but after tanking for a few minutes he elected to fold. Pagano did the same, and Bigoni showed 9♥ 9♣ .

“Aargh, I folded queens,” Kreutzer said. — SY

5.25pm: Good day to be a Luca
Luca Pagano continues his stack building antics in a slow and methodical way and is on around 110,000 now. Luca Cainelli is doing it the other way, raising under the gun with K♠ Q♣ and calling Xavier Detournel’s A♣ Q♦ shove and hitting the river for a 38,000 pot. — RD

5.20pm: Andersson is a flip flop
Frederik Andersson got it all-in with A♦ K♦ against Nicolo Caramatti’s pocket Jacks. No Ace. No King. Andersson passes over his 70,000 and leaves the tournament. — RD

5.10pm: Strassmann stretching out
We mentioned earlier that Team PokerStars Pro Johannes Strassmann had been on a bit of a charge and had been battering opponents out of the Snowfest. His momemtum is looking fairly unstoppable at the moment as he’s just felted another 100,000 stack. Strassmann is ruling the roost with 460,000. Nice. — RD

5.05pm: Seconds out, level 12
We’re now into level 12 at just after 5pm and the apres ski bar we can see from our perch in the press room is rammed. It’s a strange place that bar: for all four days we’ve been here so far, it has been completely chock-a-block from around 4pm until 7pm, as skiers with a thirst for schnapps spot it as they immediately leave the slopes. However it’s completely dead after that as everyone migrates to the numerous other nightspots that encourage dancing on tables with shorts so tight it’s impossible not to think of chipolatas when someone is spotted in a pair.

Anyhow. Enough.

Lex Veldhuis is still going strong in this tournament, and so long as RaSZi is around, that gives us the opportunity to post pictures of our favourite, your favourite, everyone’s favourite PokerStars SportStar: Fatima Moreira De Melo.

Fatima Moreira De Melo and Lex Veldhuis

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