Gonzalo Sanz Santos raised to 38,000 from the small blind, but then Nils Ral reraised all-in putting the pressure on the Spaniard. He tanked for a good few minutes before calling with , a good call since Ral showed only .

But the poker gods proved not so forgiving as audible groans were heard after a board, Santos was gone in 12th place.

Just as the blinds increased to a chunky 5k/10k, Petar Zografov moved his stack in under the gun with for 106k total.  It folded round to the big blind Maksim Tyurin, who thought about it for a while before deciding to call off what was actually only about a sixth of his chips with .

The rail for Zografov shouted, “King-ball!” but it was not to be – the board brought only one pair for either and it was a Six.  He shrugged and exited 13th, winning €5,520 for his efforts.

It’s almost ground down to a halt here in Budapest, the only significant action being that Christian Kall raised a flop bet from Anthon-Pieter Wink on a board from 35,000 to 85,000 before both checked the turn. Wink checked the river as well and Kall bet 120,000, instantly being called by Wink’s . Kall unable to show better than .

Christian Kall (pictured) and Maksim Tyurin have been sort of chip-jousting this last level, with Tyurin threebetting Kall out of the way preflop at least once.  However, the last time this happened, when Kall raised under the gun to 23k and Tyurin made it 61k, Kall farily quickly reached for 164k total, which brought the hand to an end and some of those chips back to him.

Players are still deep enough to do this sort of thing, though by tomorrow they may be feeling the sting of the escalating blinds.  But for now, Anthon-Pieter Wink can get away with betting a flop, being check-raised by Claus Nielsen to 52k, then make it 110k (half his stack) and get a fold after an agonising-looking minute in the tank for Nielsen.

Mats Rahm has just been eliminated agonisingly close to the final table. His Q-T ran into A-K on a A-J-8-6-2 board.

Elsewhere a huge cheer went up when Petar Zografov managed to outdraw Kenneth Svensson’s with after a board which culminated in a load of the Bulgarian fans singing in victory.

Svensson was eliminated soon after when his lost out to Gonzalo Sanz Santos’ :Td on a board leaving us with only 14 players remaining.

Table 1
Mats Rahm – 60k
Mikael Johansson – 220k
Anthon-Pieter Wink – 240k
Mitrovics Hrvoje – 150k
Danny Dabbagh – 450k
Claus Bek Nielsen – 625k
Gall Zsombor – 160k

Table 9

Peder Skaj – 230k
Maksim Tyurin – 600k
Gonzalo Sanz Santos – 210k
Petar Zografov – 75k
Kenneth Svensson – 85k
Joachim Buch – 250k
Tapani Miska Lahti – 200k
Christian Kall – 400k

What a perfect matchup for Claus Nielsen’s – a short stacked Rene Bjoern Larsen shoving in early position with and Tuomas Ketola moving in over the top for roughly double with after he’d made the call.

A King on the board surrounded by rags was the icing on the cake – he busted both players from the TV table and increased his stack back to the top spot!

A very standard hand given the situation.

Nils Ral opened for 21,000 and Espen Kristofffersen reraised to 58,000 from the button. Ral shoved after a moment and Kristoffersen called, pretty quickly.

Ral:
Kristoffersen:

The board was and a countdown revealed that Ral had his opponent just slightly covered.

18 players left.

20th place finisher is Simeon Naydenov.  Peter Skaj wasted no time calling his all in move with his and his was in trouble too deep for the single Queen on the flop to dig him out of it.  He shook hands and headed toward the cage to collect his €4,209.  Seeing as 18th place gets €5,520 instead, they’re doing the whole hand-for-hand thing again which should stretch the evening out nicely.

Peder Skaj — 164k
Espen Kristoffersen –263k
Maksim Tyurin — 549k
Gonzalo San Santos — 246k
Petar Zografov — 96k
Nils Ral — 92k
Kenneth Svensson — 106k
Simeon Naydenov — 92k
Tapani Miska Lahti — 206k
Christian Kall — 390k

Joachim Buch — 219k
Mats Rahm — 93k
Mikael Johansson — 216k
Tuomas Ketola — 77k
Anthon-Pieter Wink — 266k
Rene Bjoern Larsen — 85k
Mitrovics Hrvoje –159k
Danny Dabbagh — 550k
Claus Nielsen — 430k
Gall Zsombor — 173k

Danny Dabbagh opened to 20,000 from the cut-off and Radoslaw Kopec shoved behind him from the small blind, Joachim Buch then reshoved from the big blind and Dabbagh folded.

Buch showed and must have thought he was miles ahead of Kopec’s range, but the Pole showed :Kc only to be let down by the dealer who set out a board of meaning it was Kopec heading to the rail.

A bad mid-level for Sanz Santos now, as he appeared constantly pushed off his preflop raising attempts.  Mitrovics Hvroje was the first to take 42k from him, four-betting all in and inducing a fold, and then two hands in a row Gall Zsomber (left) moved all in over the top of his preflop raises.  The first time he folded, but the second time snapcalled.

He’d raised a little less than previously, but had more – in fact, which happened to be racing Zsomber’s .  Suddenly about 6 people appeared out of the ether, crowding right round the table and funking for Santos.  “VAMOS!” came the cry we hear so often, “DAMMMAAAAAA.”

No queen was forthcoming, but the flop was pretty good for the pair: … Turn .. River  .  The two gents next to me went wild, flailing a little bit, shouting, while cheering.  It took about 30-45 seconds for the dealer to point out that as the board was now a straight, they split the pot.  Sheepish post celebration silence, anyone?

Mikael Johansson called a 40,000 bet from Claus Nielsen on a 2-9-2 flop before reraising all-in vs another 40,000 bet on a 6 turn. Nielsen was flummoxed, declaring that Johansson had to have a set. Finally Nielsen called with A-A and found Johansson’s A-T was drawing dead before the Queen was put on the river.

A huge pot goes back to the young Dane which might have pushed him over the 400,000 mark.

Konstantin Tsonev (pictured as if in disguise, with the largest aviators of the tournament on) is busto after losing a crucial race against Anthon-Pieter Wink (and then a 60/40).  First off he raised preflop to 5,300 and Wink shoved over the top.  He called immediately, turning pocket Nines which were in a race, just, with Wink’s .  The came straight away, prompting a sigh from Tsonev, and a sotto voce “Nooooo” as the Ace hit on the river too.

Down to a tiny bowl of rice, he shipped it in the next hand with , not bad at all.  Guess who called?  Wink with .  This stayed ahead and a very disappointed Tsonev slowly got to his feet.

“I hate you,” he deadpanned, smiling at Wink.  Suddenly the rail burst into applause for the young Bulgarian, and he made this very courtly little bow before heading to the cash desk, finishing 22nd to win €4,209.