A player in middle position bet 1,300 on a flop and Oliver Weis made it 4,000 on his left. A player who checked in the blinds got out of the way and it went heads up to the turn. The middle player check-called 8,500 and the river brought a . Weis moved in for about 27,000 effective when his opponent checked, and that player patted the table in submission as he mucked.
Hossein Ensan raised to 1,200 on the button after a middle position raised. Dario Sammartino reraised from the small blind, making it 5,650 to go. Ensan took a moment, but folded and the two showed each other their hands as Sammartino collected the pot preflop.
Sammartino had pocket queens and Ensan folded .
Below are some updated chip counts as players enter the second half of level 3.
Vojtech Ruzicka was down to just 4,075 and put it in from the big blind after a Fabrice Soulier open and a cutoff call for 700. Soulier mucked but the cutoff called with . Ruzicka had the best of it with and the runout enabled him to double after fading a pile of outs.
Anatoliy Zyrin somehow convinced at least part of his table to do what he called a "helicopter."
Basically a round of straddles, which is extremely uncommon in tournaments. Fabrice Soulier was the first to smack down a straddle, putting in 600 under the gun before he received his hand. Boris Kolev was next to act and tossed in 1,025 blind. Then three players called, including Zyrin, before Peter Skog raised to 5,500 from the big blind.
He only got one caller.
The flop came and both players checked. The turn was the and Skog bet 6,700. His opponent called. The river was the and both players checked again. Skog won the hand with over the of his opponent.
Skog actually won the next hand too after Kolev straddled and Skog was in the small blind. He ended up making a flush on the river and winning the three-way pot.
Three players checked to Rainer Kempe, who bet 2,800, a little under half-pot, from the cutoff on . The small blind called, as did a middle-position player. Everyone checked the and the . The small blind showed , and Kempe turned over but quickly turned them back over when the middle player showed .