With three levels scheduled after the dinner break, we’re entering a phase of make-or-break poker, with more players inevitably going broke than going on the make.

When they returned from the buffet, the tournament board showed 84 players still in the hunt. At the end of a quick sweep of the room in order to update the chip count page, the number had been reduced to 79. That’s five casualties in about 10 minutes. This could become a trend.

With Ilari Sahamies was seen raking a pot, bringing his stack up to about 18,000 with aces full of nines. Then on another table, the PokerStars sponsored player Raul Paez was put to a tough decision when an opponent moved all in pre-flop, a re-raise of about 6,000 onto Paez’s opening 1,500. Paez passed.

A little further into the room and the PokerStars qualifier Richard Gryko was getting involved, and taking down, a three-handed pot. A player in middle position made it 800 to play pre-flop and two players called, including Gryko on the button. The flop came 5d-Ah-9h and the original raiser tossed out the continuation bet to 1,400.

Richard Gryko

The other player in the pot, possibly the tournament chip leader, flat called but then after a long, long wait Gryko bumped it up to 8,000. The original raiser couldn’t have passed quicker if he was on a bicycle, and although the other player took a little longer, the cards still went in the muck. Gryko added a neat 4,000-odd, with what might have been a squeeze but no one will ever know.

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