Alexandre Reard opened to 175,000 in middle position and was called by Lior Tal on the big blind. The two saw a flop of and Reared made a continuation-bet of 205,000. Tal called.
Action then checked through the turn as well as the river and the hand went to showdown.
Reard showed and Tal turned over , taking down the pot with his pair of queens, surpassing 3 million along the way.
After an early open to 125,000 at the previous level and a call from Robbie Toan, Jean-Rene Fontaine shoved for 830,000 in the small blind. The opener tanked briefly and folded, and Toan didn't need long before letting go.
The next hand, at the new level, Toan opened to 200,000 in middle position. Fontaine again ripped it in and again got through, roughly doubling his stack from his first shove.
Right at the time the staff announced that the level was going up, it was Alexey Losev who had an announcement for himself. Losev pushed his chips forward from the cutoff to signal he was all in. The bet was for 660,000.
Button Yiannis Liperis thought about it for a minute before announcing all in as well for about 1,200,000. The players in the blinds got out of the way and they opened up.
Alexey Losev:
Yiannis Liperis:
The board ran out and Losev cheered out loud after realizing he just doubled up.
Sam Grafton raised to 800,000 in middle position and action folded around to Robbie Toan in the small blind, who called to take action heads up to a flop of .
"How much have you got there?" asked Toan. Grafton told him he had 50,000 and Toan put out two T25,000 chips. Grafton stood up and looked over at the clock for a quick second.
"Did you flop the nuts?" Toan asked. Grafton threw in the last of his chips and the two hands were tabled.
Sam Grafton:
Robbie Toan:
Toan saw that Grafton did not have the nuts, but ceded that he was ahead as he tabled his own hand. The turn came to leave Grafton one card away from a double, but the river fell behind it to fill up Toan to Broadway.
"Boom, baby!" said Toan in a playful tune.
"Nice hand," Grafton congratulated him in a sincere manner from across the table. Toan regained form quickly.
"Thank you," he replied and continued stacking his chips as Grafton left to go to the payout desk after finishing the tournament in 16th place.
Jan-Eric Schwippert raised from early position to 120,000 and it folded to Alexey Losev in the cutoff. He had less than ten big blinds in front of him and flipped a coin to decide his next move.
He caught the coin mid-air and looked at the result before he folded his hand. The button and both blinds then got out of the way as well before Schwippert tabled to show that Losev had lady luck on his side while flipping the coin.
Sam Grafton was under the gun and made it two big blinds to go, totaling 120,000. Maryna Khatskevich was next to act on his direct left and called before action folded around to Alexandre Reard in the big blind, who defended.
The flop came and all three players checked. Reard bet out 225,000 on the turn and Grafton called. Khatskevich folded to bring the river on board, and Reard fired out another 475,000.
Grafton went into the tank for about 40 seconds and then shot his cards forward across the felt to the muck.
Jan-Eric Schwippert raised from the button to 120,000 and he was called by big blind Julien Martini. The flop was dealt and Martini opted to lead out with a bet of 90,000. Schwippert raised all in for effectively a little over 800,000 and Martini called.
Julien Martini:
Jan-Eric Schwippert:
The turn was the and the river the and Martini wasn't able to improve to a better hand than Schwippert's pair of queens.
The 2019 PSPC runner-up had to settle for 17th place and €15,140.