Top pair for EPT Prague '09 champ Jan Skampa is plenty as Michael Tureniec tries in vain to throw his big-stacked weight around. Calling Skampa's preflop raise to 700 on the button, Tureniec wasn't shifted on the flop and bet when Skampa checked the turn. The river came and now both players checked, Skampa waiting to be shown Tureniec's (losing) before showing his own .
Skampa's results are quite impressive - he has a habit of winning tournaments once he makes a final table. He's also had some other big score close calls, including a 4th place finish at EPT Vilamoura the same year he took his title.
We only caught the very end of the hand, but it was enough to see Jeffrey Hakim turning over pocket on the river of an board and his opponent motioning for the dealer to hand Hakim the pot. He's up to around 50,000 now.
A player ID'd by our start-of-day list as Fabrizio Cataldi has replenished his 19,000 stack with a further 19,000 from Julien Stuer, who tried in vain to shift him off a turn card which made the board ... . Stuer set his shorter stacked opponent in but winced when he was called by . His failed to improve and he's down to just over 10,000.
As tables break, our start-of-day Tables Of Doom are becoming even doomier.
The table that already boasted Nicolas Chouity (46,000) and [Removed:197] (23,000) now also has Gavin Cochrane (16,000) and Tobias Reinkemeier (30,000) on it. And across the way, the table that already boasted Tomer Berda (25,000), Casey Kastle (38,500), Tom Dwan (32,000) and Joe Cada (22,000) now also features UKIPT Dublin champion Max Silver (33,000). The other players at his table may not know who Mr. Silver is, but he's one of the UK's finest young players - as well as winning UKIPT Dublin, Silver finalled UKIPT Edinburgh as well in the same season, and took down the ￡1,500 NLH side event at EPT London last year. Definitely one to watch.
Dag Palovic opened to 750 preflop and Michel Abecassis raised to 2,000 behind him but then Liv Boeree cold 4-bet to 4,500 and Palovic got out of the way. Abecassis then moved all in for 17,000 and Boeree snapped with - Of course Abecassis had the and couldn't hit the board.
Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern opened to 725 from UTG and fellow Team Pro Lex Veldhuis called next to him. The player to his left then 3-bet to 2,600 and it was passed all the way back to Mattern, who folded. Veldhuis made the call though to see a flop of . Veldhuis check-called a bet of 3,500 before both checked the turn. A river saw Veldhuis bet 8,300 but he was snap-called, the Dutchman confidently turned over but pipped by his opponent's .
"Wow, Benny Spindler has the world," said my colleague Homer this morning - and that was while Galen Hall was still chip leader in the High Roller event.
Spindler now has a whole solar system by that reasoning - with four players left (and Hall long gone) Spindler has an absurd chip lead and is currently serious favourite to take the €525,000 top prize. Many thanks to our friends over at PokerStars Blog for the chip counts.
Benny Spindler - 1,700,000
Juha Helppi - 420,000
ElkY - 400,000
David Sands - 250,000
EPT Copenhagen champion Michael Tureniec now has over 56,000 chips - he was describing this hand sotto voce in what was probably Swedish and though I tried to eavesdrop haven't got that story, yet. However now that he's armed with a big stack, he's continuing the accumulation trend, just winning a few thousand from Ignacio Palau, who led 2,200 on an flop but gave up when Tureniec called and then bet the turn.
There was around 5,000 in the pot by the river of the board when Tom Dwan bet 4,125. The hapless gentleman in the one seat, we believe one Bernhard Braumandl, sighed. Pretty much every time we've walked by their table today, we've spotted Braumandl being bullied by Dwan, more often than not laying down his hand to a bet from his more famous opponent. This time though Braumandl called and was soon sighing again, this time with relief - they both turned over and chopped it up.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop and bet when Skampa checked the 
turn. The river came 
and now both players checked, Skampa waiting to be shown Tureniec's (losing) 
before showing his own 
.
board and his opponent motioning for the dealer to hand Hakim the pot. He's up to around 50,000 now.
...
. Stuer set his shorter stacked opponent in but winced when he was called by 
. His 
failed to improve and he's down to just over 10,000.
. Veldhuis check-called a bet of 3,500 before both checked the 
turn. A 
river saw Veldhuis bet 8,300 but he was snap-called, the Dutchman confidently turned over 
flop but gave up when Tureniec called and then bet the 
turn.
and chopped it up.