Live Poker Tournament Updates

So, all in preflop, pair vs. pair, as one might expect, Daniel Negreanu, having come full circle back to short stack, had his tournament life on the line one more time. Negreanu: Shulman: The straight out on the flop brought a groan from the Negreanu supporters, and the rest of the board got him drawing dead by the turn: . But both players were thoroughly applauded as the final hurdle was leaped. Daniel Negreanu might have come so close only to miss out on the bracelet, but knowing that he's now topping the All-Time Money List must, surely, be some consolation for when he goes home and googles himself. That in itself is an achievement stretching beyond this one, admittedly highly prestigious, tournament.

Our final two saw a flop and Shulman bet 300,000. Negreanu responded by raising to 900,000. And Shulman responded to that by moving all in. Negreanu turned to the rail in the hope that they might help him with his decision. "So you all wanna go home, right?" he asked them. "I'm not saying I'm gonna lose..." "Ah, I shouldn't listen to the rail. I call." On their backs. Negreanu: Shulman: Oh dear. But wait! Turn: to massive screaming from the suddenly very awake crowd -- But wait some more! River: ... ... ... ! The noise was deafening. In what we are confidently declaring the Hand Of The Day, Shulman doubled to over 8 million, and Negreanu is right back down to under 2 million. Extraordinary. We play on.

Negreanu bet out 300,000 on the flop and Shulman called. Like in so many hands previously, they then checked down the turn and river. The dealer is still woefully not letting us see the cards, but Jack Effel announced that Negreanu's won the hand.

The blinds are big now, really big. A flop bet, or first bet post flop is often 500k, one neat stack of white tournament chips, which can be sort of pushed out in front of one's stack, and then manoeuvred back in place with a sort of coffee-cup clenching motion if no call. The days of flippant chip throwing are over - this is stack-betting poker and there's been barely a light-hearted chip trick or flashy fold for over an hour. Just now another pot went to Shulman, who'd called Negreanu's preflop button raise, checked the flop: and then bet out 500k on the turn.

Negreanu raised and Shulman called. They saw a flop. Flop: Shulman checked and Negreanu bet 240,000. Back to Shulman, who now raised to 700,000. And back over to Negreanu, who announced all in. A moment of consideration from Shulman, and he passed. Please, by the by, accept our apologies for a crazy glitch in our chip counts page that had the counts going all over the place for about five minutes there. It's fixed now, and the current counts are like so: Negreanu: 5.05 million Shulman: 4.985 million There is less than one big blind between them. What with some of use required to be at the EPT starting tomorrow at noon -- that's seven hours from now -- and one PokerNews crew member already gone to catch his flight home, we're beginning to wish we'd brought sleeping bags...

Congratulations to Jani Vilmunen of Finland for his victory in Event #3's £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Freezeout.

Just as it looked like we were in for the long haul, we finally found our cooler hand. The action was kicked off by Jani Vilmunen, who made a familiar 120,000 preflop raise from the button. As deliberate and meticulous as ever, Howard Lederer prudently counted out segments of his stack before making it 360,000. Vilmunen made the call. Realising that this was potentially the bracelet-winning pot, the crowd drew slightly closer, their breaths held as the dealer lay a onto the felt. At first glance, it was an action flop, and indeed it was as Lederer led for 600,000. A brief pause to deceive his opponent, and Vilmunen waved forward his hands in declaration of an all-in. Lederer nodded his head and called. Cards on their backs and what a cooler for a raised pot: Lederer flopped the straight with ; Vilmunen flopped a bigger, much more nuttier one with ! Lederer had the backdoor flush draw, but once the turn came the , he was drawing dead, and could do little but rise from his seat and congratulate his triumphant opponent as an academic left the dealer's paw. A gentle fist-pump later, and Jani Vilmunen of Finland was officially acknowledged as the winner of Event #3,

Seat 4: Howard Lederer -- 1,150,000 Seat 7: Jani Vilmunen -- 1,900,000

Howard Lederer raised preflop and Jani Vilmunen called. On the flop, Vilmunen check-raised to take not only the pot, but also the chip lead.

Jani Vilmunen raised to 120,000, Lederer made it 370,000, Vilmunen folded.