Mattern, Minieri Vying For Chip Lead
It's all going rather swimmingly for the two Team PokerStars Pros at the top of the chip counts.
Arnaud Mattern has increased his stack to 99,000 after calling a 3-bet with suited and proceeding to check-raise his opponent's 2,800 bet on a board to 6,200. The latter moved all-in with , Mattern made the obligatory call and his two pair held on the turn and river.
Meanwhile Dario Minieri has broken the 100,000 chip barrier very early after an insanely odd hand. Minieri had raised to 800 from UTG with one caller before Jos�� Vicente Besalduch reraised to 2,900 from the big blind. Minieri called while the other player folded and the dealer put out a flop.
Besalduch bet 5,000 and Minieri moved all-in, the Spaniard tanked before calling all-in for his remaining 16,000.
Minieri: for trips.
Besalduch: Err... for a gutshot but actually already drawing dead bar perfect perfect for a straight flush.
The gave Minieri a full house but an actual glimmer of hope as Besalduch now had improved to actually having an out.
But sadly for Besalduch, the tree of hope that had suddenly sprung up was equally quickly chopped down on the river.
Minieri moved up to 105,000; elsewhere across the room Antonio Esfandiari is in possession of a similar amount.