11.50pm: END OF LEVEL 11: 20 MINUTE BREAK
That’s level 11 in the bag.
With 13 players left, when they return the players will be playing down to a final table of 8 tonight, unless there is a paucity of bustouts which seems unlikely with only 5 players to go…
11.44pm: Chip counts Updated
A slowdown in the pace means we have been able to update the chip counts for you so go check out the current standings by clicking the link to your right>>>>
Mate Mecs just holds sway with 360k to his name from Ivan Brkicic who has 355k.
11.35pm: Tsanev and Misterek hit the rail 14th and 16th respectively
More shortstack carnage as Nikolai Tsanev and Michal Misterek both depart having experienced a deep run, although not as deep as they might have hoped.
They collect €2,750 and €2,250 respectively.
11.15pm: Ilya Kolo-meets his doom – 15th
Ilya Kolomeets, known as Moscow to his friends (or at least those friends who booked his nationality as his first name on his registration card) looked down at A♣ 7♠with his shortstack and this easily qualified for a shove for 42,100. He found Marko Gasparovic also moving all-in behind for a similar size stack with ]Ks]J♦ and the action then fell upon Ante Varnica, who decided to take a shot at knocking them both out with pocket tens.
It looked like he might do just that as the flop fell 2♠4♠Q♦ but the K♦ and 2♦ turn and river was great news for Gasparovic who blasts his way up the leaderboard with a triple through to 135k.
Ante takes a hit, back to 130k but Ilya Kolomeets was the most critically injured, succumbing in 15th place where he collects a €2,750 for his efforts over the last three days.
10.45pm LEVEL UP; BLINDS 2,500/5,000/500
10.35pm: Goor-y end for Markac – he finishes 18th; Vlad comes 17th
Milijenko Markac was next to bust.
He’d played very tightly on the bubble and had only just survived with a short stack, but went for a double-through, shipping it preflop for his minimal 10k, and picking up two callers, including Marinus Van de Goor (who by the way is a DUTCHMAN, contrary to earlier reports.)
The two active players checked down the board of Q♠9♦ 3♦ A♠6♠until the river where Van de Goor now bet out 15k.
Being a dry pot, he quickly lost the other player, leaving him to showdown a distinctly nutty Kâ™ Jâ™ which was more than enough to trounce Markac’s one pair hand with A♣ 4♦ .
Good game Markac, he finishes 18th for €2,250.
Next out was Tat Dacian Vlad whose 17th place finish was also worthy of €2,250.
10.25pm: The pressure valve released – 21st to 19th all bust
All those shortstacks sitting patiently waiting for big hands have celebrated making the money by moving their chips into the middle with gay abandon, five more players busting almost instantly.
Mario Karman, Nagy Barnabas and Boris Kuzmanovic all shipped and de-chipped while we were telling you about the bubble boy.
Below is Mario Karman one of those lucky three.
They finish in 21st,20th and 19th places respectively, winning €1,725 for their efforts.
10.07pm: Adrian Bizineche bubbles!
Ahh the pain. We’ve all known it, felt it, but just at this moment it’s Adrian Bizineche who feels like the loneliest, most unlucky man in poker.
In truth, he had let himself blind down to a tiny stack until he was in the big blind with half his stack committed and simply had to call when his opponent raised.
Holding 8♥ 6♣ versus K♠10♥ he was drawing live at least. A huge crowd formed from a chimeric mix of enthusiastic railers, interested players and frantically scribbling media (hai dere) gathered round the table to sweat this key hand.
Q♣ 7â™ 2♣ fell the flop, of no help to either player. “Club!” yelled the sickos calling for a backdoor flush for the shortstack.
5♦ appeared on the turn and this was an interesting card as it gave Bizineche a straight draw, as well as an 8 or a 6 being live for him.
However, as you may have guessed the river bricked out in the form of the 5♣ and several players started high-fiving each other, rather cruelly in the face of Bizineche who seemed like the only man in the casino not celebrating.
He took it in good grace though, joining the rail after wishing everyone good luck.
9.45pm: LEVEL 16 IN EFFECT, BLINDS 2000/4000.400
8.45pm: DINNER TIME: ONE HOUR BREAK
And with just one player more needing to be removed before the payout slots are reached, that is it for now!
We’ll be back in an hour once the 22 players left have been fed, watered and given 3 hours of sunlight till they return to the fray blossoming like summer flowers.
In other words they and us will be stuffing our faces with whatever food we can lay our hands on. See you back in 60 people. Peace.
8.24pm: Bubble time!
Yes ladies and gentleman, it’s that crucial time of the tournament when the smaller stacks start to sweat
We’re on the actual bubble now and the players are treading a tightrope. Many of the shortstacks are simply waiting for huge hands to take as little risk as possible of losing out on a payday. It’s tense in there with the rail watching every key moment.
18.10pm: When monsters collide
Sometimes it takes the dealer dealing out two huge hands before we see action so close to the bubble.
What you don’t expect though, is two players to be dealt monsters twice against each other in consecutive hands!
That’s just what happened though, the first hand seeing Marko Gasparovic go to war with Nikolai Tsanev, his Aâ™ K♥ facing off versus Tsanev’s A♥ K♣ .
A split then? Oh no. Lady luck saw fit to create a board of Q♣ 6♣ 6â™ 10♣ 3♣ – a dreaded 4 flush plucking Gasparovic’s split pot from his finger tips and leaving him in very bad shape with just 30k whilst a fortunate Tsanev was up to 100k.
Next hand, once again the two players got their stacks in pre-flop against each other.
Once again Tsanev had the big slick in the form of A♣ K♣ , however this time Gasparovic had him well beaten with A♥ A♦ .
“It’s insane!” Gasparovic exclaimed with a laugh at this unlikely turn of events.
A board of 2♦ 2â™ 8♥ 3♥ Q♥ didn’t even provide a whiff of danger and he was back in with a shot once more, his stack propelled to 65k, whilst Tsanev’s was down to a similar amount.
7.54pm: Some of the crucial stacks
As we approach the bubble, here are some of the chip stacks in contention right now…
Mate Mecs – 310k
Vedran Premuzic – 190k
Dragan Galic – 150k
Stelyan Georgiev – 105k
7.45pm> The Bubble…
We’re only five places off the bubble right now. A quick reminder that you can see the prize pool and payouts by clicking the link to the right of this post…
7.36pm: Big hands can hurt too
With the blinds so big now, it’s nice to get a big hand, but sometimes they can be as painful as a bad beat.
Take Marius Van de Goor finding kings in the cut-off. He must have been licking his lips as he raised it to 7.2k in the 2nd most perfect steal position.
However, no one elected to make a move and he was left with only the blinds and antes to show for his trouble. He’s up to 135k now though…
LEVEL UP – BLINDS AT 1,500/3,000/300
7.25pm Galic flair deserts him
Nagy Barnabas has doubled at the hands of Dragan Galic, taking the Croatian on in a preflop tangle holding Aâ™ 10♦ versus Galic’s inventive move with Q♣ 7â™ .
“One time! Well two times,” pleaded Nagy to the laughter of his table.
A board of A♦ 6♣ 9♣ A♣ gave Barnabas trips but he still had to swerve a club on the river to survive but survive he did as the J♥ fell, propelling him to 59k whilst Galic is back to around the 100k mark.
“See, two time one for each ace. That was lucky,” commented Barnabas as he stacked up his chips.
7.04pm: Stelyan Georgiev – Bulgarian
We apologise that there have been a few glitches in the matrix when it comes to some of the player’s nationalities. Just to clarify one of those, Stelyan Georgiev, well in the hunt for the title in this tournament – is Bulgarian – not Croatian as stated.
Sorry about that Stelyan! We’ve got out best men on the case right now sorting this out.
6.55pm: Muzic plays on
Vedran Premuzic has battled hard as a shortstack for much of the day, but it looks like he is finally turning things round, having built back up to around 90k now. He’s not amongst the chip leaders but he is in with a good shot of at least cashing here now…
6.44pm: Mecs-ing it up
Mate Mecs has acquired an enormous stack and he just padded it yet further in the following hand.
It was raised to 5.3k by Alija Filipovic and called in 2 spots before Mecs raised the price to play to 14.5k.
Filipovic made the call with around 90k behind and the other two players elected to fold.
The board peeled off 7♥ 6â™ 6♥ and Mecs led out for 19k. Filipovic called…
The turn fell the 3♣ and now Mecs carefully picked up a large stack of yellow 5k chips, worth around 80k and sufficient to set Filipovic allin.
Filipovic drew back in his seat, very unhappy at this and huffed and puffed but eventually threw his hand away, leaving Mecs to sweep up yet another huge pot and move to 290k.
As we approach the bubble, the big stacks like Mecs are having a field day bossing the smaller stacks into submission…
6.35pm: LEVEL 14, BLINDS 1,200/2,400/300
The remaining 26 players are back from the break and raring to go. Let’s get it on!
