EPT Barcelona: Trond triples; Luca leaves

Norwegian could
Short-stacked Trond Manger said he needed an early double up on the feature table. He's done better than that - TRIPLING up and is now on a much healthier 30,000 or so chips.

He looked down to find 8-9 diamonds and felt this was his moment to push with his remaining 10,000 chips. On the button, Alan Otte called, only for Emile Petit to move all-in from the big blind for his remaining 28,000.

Alan folded, and Emile flipped over his A-K to Trond's 8-9.

The flop looked like a killer - A-9-4 - but a third nine on the turn made Trond trips. I left him grinning as he piled up his new, impressive-looking stack.

Phil Ivey, meanwhile, has been quiet. Too quiet!

Team PokerStars' Luca Pagano is OUT after his A-Q ran into A-K

Noah "Exclusive" Boeken has just raked in a huge pot, eliminating PokerStars' Greg Hobson (DuckU) from the US. Noah raised to 3,600 only for Greg to come over the top all-in for 17,500. Noah called quickly and showed K-J suited to Greg's A-J. Flop J-9-7, but a king on the turn handed Noah the goodies. The Dutchman is now up to 55,000. On the same table, qualifier GrandBlue is up to 38,000 from his starting stack of 9,000.