Dren Ukella gets his last $511,000 all-in preflop holding 2 2 and Jason Mercier makes the call with K Q. The flop comes A 3 4 to give Ukella the straight draw. The turn is the 2 and Ukella's got a set, leaving Mercier needing a five for the chop. The river, however, is the 2 and Ukella makes quads to double through a frustrated-looking Mercier, who is now the shortest stack at the table. Ukella's on over $1.1 million.

Fintan Gavin raises to $190,000 from the button and Davidi Kitai makes the call in the big blind. The flop comes 4 3 2 and Kitai checks to Gavin, who bets $200,000. Kitai makes the call and the turn is the T, prompting another check from Kitai and a $400,000 wager from Gavin. Kitai mulls it over but ultimately lays it down and Gavin flashes a ten, claiming to have another behind. After the hand the Irishman is up to over $2 million in chips.

Daniele Mazzia moves all-in from early position and in the small blind, Davidi Kitai makes the call, holding a pocket pair of tens and again dominating Mazzia, who holds Q T. It looks like curtains for the Italian, but the flop comes J 9 9 and Kitia lets out a sigh of disappointment as Mazzia flops the open-ended straight draw.

The turn is the 3 but the river the 8, sending a roar up from the pro-Italian audience and doubling Mazzia up to $671,000.

Davidi Kitai raises preflop and Daniele Mazzia moves all-in for his last $300,000. Kitai makes the call and turns up A K. Mazzia is dominated with A 8 and the situation looks dire after the flop comes Q 7 6, giving Kitai the flush draw. The turn, however, is the Q and the river the 6, giving both players two pair and chopping up the pot.

One hand after doubling up Davidi Kitai, Daniele Mazzia moves his last $95,000 into the middle and gets called by both Sebastian Ruthenberg and Jason Mercier. Both players check down the board, which comes Q 3 2 9 6. Ruthenberg has king-high, Mercier ten-high and Mazzia a pair of nines, tripling him up to over $300,000.

Davidi Kitai gets all-in preflop and Daniele Mazzia calls for almost all of his chips. Kitai turns up A K and is racing against Mazzia's 7 7. The flop comes J J 2, giving Kitai some odds to counterfeit. The turn is even better, bringing the A and after the river is the 5 Kitai doubles up to over a million, leaving Mazzia with just $100,000 to his name.

 

The break is over and the cards are back in the air from the final table of the PokerStars EPT Barcelona Open.

Here are the current chip counts as the action gets underway:

Seat 1	Martin Nielsen	$0
Seat 2	Davidi Kitai	$497,000
Seat 3	Dren Ukella	$561,000
Seat4	Jason Mercier	$1,141,000
Seat 5	Samuel Chartier	$0
Seat 6	Daniele Mazzia	$768,000
Seat 7	Fintan Gavin	$1,588,000
Seat 8	Sebastien Ruthenberg	$1,677,000

Samuel Chartier open-shoves all-in for his last $411,000 and gets a call from Fintan Gavin, after some serious rumination on the side of the Irishman. Chartier turns up K T and will need to improve to stay alive against Gavin's A 9.

The board runs J 7 2 J 3 and ace-high takes the pot, sending Chartier to the rail in seventh place. The young Canadien will take home €178,000 for his time.

We're now on a quick level break.

Jason Mercier opens for $103,000 and Martin Nielsen moves all-in from the button for about $250,000 more. Action folds back to Mercier, who makes the call with T T. Nielsen has A 2 and it's, in the words of PokerStars' Daniel Negreanu, "A very bad play."

The board runs K 5 5 2 K to give Mercier the pot and eliminate Nielsen, who may have been slightly on tilt after seeing Mercier suck out to stay alive just a few hands earlier. 

Nielsen is out in 8th place and will earn €119,000 for his efforts.

Short-stacked Jason Mercier has been trying desperately to stay alive at the final table and just caught a huge break.

After stealing the blinds twice with all-in shoves, Mercier was finally caught by Martin Nielsen.
In the hand Nielsen min-raised and Mercier pushed for a little over $400,000. Everyone else got out of the way and Nielsen thought for a minute before calling. The players flipped over their cards and Mercier was indeed in trouble.

Nielsen: T-T

Mercier: 6-6

With Mercier looking somber about his chances the dealer flopped A-Q-3 and the American was one step closer to the rail. With everyone on their feet the dealer turned… 6!
Mercier was suddenly in the lead with a Cloven-Hoofed Set. The lead held as the river bricked out 2. Mercier goes from being the short stack to top three with over $1 million chips.