Talking of Dario Minieri he’s responsible for the first elimination, seeing off Josh Gould. Minieir had made a typical stealing move on the hand prior and now raised on the button with Gould moving all-in behind him. The Englishman showed pocket fives to Minieri’s K-Q, the king dutifully arrived on the turn.

Following Gould was Irishman Marty Smyth, under calling an all-in from Atanas Gueorguiev and showing A-K to the Bulgarian’s pocket queens. Nothing changed on the flop, turn or river and we were down to 22 – soon to be 21, however, when PokerStars sponsored player Julien Lang Van departed in 22nd place.

Josh Gould

Elsewhere Kevin Macphee is an early all-in pusher, getting no takers. He was keen though, raising on the next hand to 8,500 before Michael Mulheim moved all-in for 25,000 more. Macphee counted and called, turning over his Th-9h to Mulheim’s A-K. Nothing but blanks on the river left Macphee with less than 20,000.

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