James Mitchell has been relatively quiet thus far playing on the feature table, but just now got involved in a hand with Glen Cymbaluk that resulted in the pair creating a 1 million-chip pot.
The pot was up around 300,000 by the turn with the board showing when Cymbaluk checked from middle position, Mitchell bet 125,000, Cymbaluk raised to 300,000, and Mitchell called.
Both then checked the river, and when Cymbaluk showed , Mitchell mucked.
Joseph El Khoury and Jean Pierre Petroli just got involved in a blind-vs.-blind mental war that saw them vying for a pot as the board rolled out .
El Khoury then took a stab on the river with , but Petroli looked him up with for an ace with the two pair on board, and thereby claimed a 420,000-plus chip pot.
Just two players were eliminated during the last hour of Level 23. The remaining 21 players are now away taking their first 15-minute break of the day.
Joseph Mouawad just opened with a raise to 40,000 from middle position, then watched Franck Kalfon reraise to 100,000 from the button.
It folded back to Mouawad who leaned forward and asked Kalfon in French how much he had behind, and Kalfon responded to say around 450,000. Mouawad then promptly declared he was reraising all in, and after about a minute of pondering Kalfon let his hand go.
One of Deauville's claims to fame is having along with a couple of other French coastal towns provided a setting that inspired Marcel Proust when writing his multi-volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu, or In Search of Lost Time. Proust's town of Balbec is said to have been based on Deauville and surrounding places here in the northwest of France.
After having dropped a few chips in the early going, Noel Gaens has been in search of gathering some back of late, and has managed to be somewhat successful in doing so in hands versus his neighbor to the left, Franck Kalfon.
Twice recently Gaens has reraised Kalfon's opening raises, with Kalfon letting his hand go in both instances. Once Gaens showed , then the next time . Both pots were modest in size, but have nonetheless helped Gaens regain his stride somewhat.
Freerk Post doubled up his short stack from 124,000 to around a quarter of a million when he reshoved from the small blind with against Matthieu Herve's button raise. The latter was priced in and found himself dominated given that he was holding . The board came and that was enough secure Post's future.
However it wasn't to last too long. Post pushed from the cutoff holding only to find Robert Romeo sitting behind him with
The flop was , “Deuce!” said a hopeful Post.
A came on the turn.
“Deuce!”
The request was ignored as the came on the river and Post was eliminated.
A big hand just developed between Jeffrey Hakim (under the gun) and Noel Gaens (cutoff), with the pair reaching a flop having built a pot of close to 100,000.
Hakim led for 58,000, and when Gaens raised to 124,000, Hakim responded with an all-in shove for around 250,000. Gaens thought a beat, then called, turning over for top pair of tens. Hakim had the best hand, however, with , and after the turn and river, Hakim had scored the double-up.
Matthieu Herve opened for 40,000 from under the gun, then Romeo Robert called from a couple of seats over. Gordon Huntly, playing from the cutoff, then made it 100,000 to go, and the action was on chip leader Cyril Andre.
Andre considered for about a half-minute, then slid out a huge tower of gray (5,000) chips for a four-bet to 230,000. That was enough to scatter the blinds, Herve, and Robert, then Huntly went into the tank for two solid minutes before finally letting his hand go as well.
As the chips were swept Andre's way, the Frenchman showed his hand — !
when Cymbaluk checked from middle position, Mitchell bet 125,000, Cymbaluk raised to 300,000, and Mitchell called.
river, and when Cymbaluk showed 
, Mitchell mucked.
.
, but Petroli looked him up with 
for an ace with the two pair on board, and thereby claimed a 420,000-plus chip pot.
, then the next time 
. Both pots were modest in size, but have nonetheless helped Gaens regain his stride somewhat.
. The board came 
and that was enough secure Post's future.
came on the turn.
flop having built a pot of close to 100,000.
turn and 
!
