High tension in the High Roller to describe for you as we update the status of the €25K, now in the money and pushing forward into the night.
As Davidi Kitai nursed the shortest stack in the room, Nicola D’Anselmo survived a preflop all-in when his ace-queen outdrew Simon Appleby’s pocket fours.
With the blinds 4,000/8,000, Davidi Kitai dwindled further and further, at last down to 6,000 and forced all in from the big blind. Three went to the flop, and a bet from one pushed out the other.
It was Melogno who’d gotten Kitai alone, showing jack-high on a queen-high board. Kitai — who hadn’t even looked at his cards — saw he had a queen for a pair, and two community cards later Kitai had tripled.
A five-way flop became a three-way turn with two players — Tom-Askel Bedell and Piotr Franczak — at risk. Franczak, recall, had bubbled the €100K Super High Roller last week, and now, with fewer chips than Bedell, the same fate suddenly rose up as a possibility again here.
The flop was A♣ 5♠ 8♣ . The short stacks’ nemesis in the hand, Dario Sammartino, had middle pair with Q♦ 8♠ . Bedell likewise had a pair of eights but with a lesser kicker, showing 8♥ 3♥ .
And Franczak? 4♦ 4♣ . He had fours in his hand. And now was down on all fours figuratively, too, with two cards to come.
Two face cards completed the board, and it was over for the Polish player, having realized a nasty high roller double bubble.
With that Bedell began the march to the cashier, having picked up a min-cash of €46,400, and Kitai was right on his heels after earning the same. Christoph Vogelsang, Ben Heath, Sorel Mizzi, and Matt Waxman are also part of the first wave of cashers, as now they’re down to 22.
Meanwhile Melogno — whose call of Kitai helped preserve both the bubble (perhaps by design) and the Belgian’s tourney life — has gone from being all in one from the cash to being the new chip leader, the only one at the moment with over a million.
A regular on the Latin American Poker Tour where he final tabled one Main Event during Season 5 in his native Uruguay, and also a stalwart online as “elmelogno4” where he has a Sunday Million title to his credit, this marks Melogno’s first EPT cash.
They’ve still a way to go, with a couple more one-hour levels left in Day 2. Those who remain all eye that €1,114,000 first prize up top. You keep an eye on the updates above as well, as the final levels of the night play out.
Click here for a continually updated list of all side event results from the EPT11 Grand Final.
Follow all the action from the €10,000 Main Event is on the Main Event page. Also watch on EPT Live. It’s also about time you downloaded the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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