Dario Minieri has just been coolered out of this tournament in a fairly miserable battle of the blinds for the Team PokerStars Pro.
Michael Fratty made up Minieri's big blind and called when the Italian made it 500 to go. The flop came J-Q-10, with two hearts. This must have been a delight for Minieri; he was sitting with Q-9 and had top pair and an open-ended straight draw. Fratty checked, Minieri bet 600, Fratty called.
The turn was the 8h and things got foolish. Check from Fratty, bet 1,000 from Minieri, reraise to 3,000 from Fratty, all in for his last 5,000-odd from Minieri, insta-call.
Fratty had Ah-3h which flushed out Minieri's straight. Gone.
In other news, Ivo Donev, tucked at the far left corner of the tournament room has close to 35,000 in chips and a table also featuring Luca Pagano and Josh Prager. The Finnish PokerStars player Mika Puro is also purring along nicely with more than 30,000.
Maria Mayrinck, meanwhile, has gone from frying pan to fire. She was moved from her starting table and out of the sights of Stephen Chidwick. But she wound up to the immediate right of Max Pescatori.
