At this stage there’s a tendency for pots of note to be those that include either an elimination or a double up. But Ricardo Sousa and Claus Nielsen – two of the big stacks on table one – tangled in a hand that would have serious ramifications down the line.

Claus started it all with a bet of 28,500 on a Jd-3s-5c flop, which Ricardo called. The turn brought a ten of diamonds, with Claus making it 56k this time. Ricardo called after a short spell in the tank. The river, a deuce, put three diamonds on the board. This time Claus checked leaving to Ricardo to bet out, a menacing tower of brown chips worth 100k.

Attention was now with Claus who had taken to rubbing his head and pulling a series of faces linked to hellish discomfort. He looked in pain, squirming in his seat.

“King-jack?” asked Ricardo. “You’re thinking so much... queen-jack?”

Claus was having none of it, distracted already by his own inner turmoil, the cost of having gone from second place to this point here – potential disaster at the outcome of this hand. Ricardo calls time. Claus slams down his fist, a loud noise accompanying his fold. A huge hit for the Dutchman despite being a good fold – Ricardo had made the nut flush on the river.

As that hand had gone others players had been eliminated, including PokerStars Sponsored player Sebastian Ruthenberg. There was confusion in the hand as to which player was all-in, Sebastian or his opponent Mehdi Ouakhir. The German learned his fate after a few minutes of counting. Out in 13th place. As Mehdi pointed out, Sebastian had knocked him out back in Dortmund.

Italian player Antonio Battisti followed him in 12th place and Jean-Claude Perrot, the man with the broken hand, finally departed in 11th...

Players now take a 15 minute break...

Michael Schulze – Germany -- 930,000
Ricardo Sousa – Portugal -- 830,000
Juan Maceiras – Spain – PokerStars qualifier -- 492,000
Mehdi Ouakhir – France – PokerStars qualifier -- 325,000
Mathias Viberg – Sweden -- 245,000
Claus Nielsen – Holland -- 237,000
Trond Erik Eidsvig – Norway -- 210,000
Daniel Woolson – USA – PokerStars qualifier -- 173,000
Christian Öman – Sweden -- 122,000
Niclas Svensson – Sweden -- 90,000