The prizes on offer to the last six of the Main Event total more than €2.5 million and for obvious reasons, the focus of the tournament room remains on Ilkin Amirvo and Co as they go looking for the top money.
However, with the last two tables of the €5,000 6-Max Turbo now joining the final of the €10,000 High Roller on the stage, there’s a pretty sizeable chunk of change changing hands up there too.
The €5,000 event is now a last-day fixture at EPT festivals, and usually draws a healthy smattering of the world’s best. On a quick wander through the room earlier, I saw Roberto Romanello, Anton Wigg, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Zhou Wei, Liv Boeree, Tim Adams, Jeff Rossiter, Piotr Franczak, Vincent Delgado, Philipp Gruissem, Mike Telker, Jussi Nevalinna and Mike McDonald, among others.
It was a 65-strong field, from which nine were due to be paid and with €92,200 available to the winner. By the time they moved on to the stage, and by the time I wandered through again, there were ten left, and that meant bubble time.
The two tables at the time lined up as follows (all counts are approximate):
Niko Soininen – 550,000
Chady Merhej – 300,000
Anton Wigg – 600,000
Mike Telker – 100,000
Philipp Gruissem – 300,000
Ramin Hajiyev – 250,000
Georgios Zisimopoulos – 100,000
Jeff Rossiter – 200,000
Piotr Franczak – 200,000
Kamran Aliyev – 600,000
The atmosphere was as relaxed as it can be at any bubble time, with players (Gruissem in particular) wandering just about anywhere except at the table on which sat his chips. He was interested in the other table, in Dan Cates’s progress in the High Roller and in Igor Kurganov’s presence lurking between the two of them.
The tournament went hand for hand, but it didn’t last all that long. Action folded to Rossiter on the button and he open shoved for his 200,000-ish. Franczak, with a similar stack and sitting one seat to the left, reshoved for not much more.
It left just the two of them, and was essentially a flip for either of their participation.
Franczak: 10♦ 10♣
Rossiter: A♠ 8♦
The board came 10♥ 8♠ Q♦ and, not fancying his chances of runner-runner eights, Rossiter threw his cards into the muck. The dealer retrieved them, but the 4♠ turn ended any chance of his getting back into it.
So Rossiter burst the bubble and left the last nine looking for a nice final-day pay-check.
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