Nico gives an object lesson in the art of the resteal, watching Barbosa raise on the button to $33,000 before cutting out a large chunk of yellow chips and making it $110,000.

Barbosa blinks several times before throwing his hand away, only for Nico to turn over 7 2, much to Dario's amusement.

"Very nice!" the Italian complimented him.

Chip counts as we stand:

Dario Minieri -  $300,000

Nico Behling -  $650,000

Joao Barbosa- $1,200,000

Atanas Gueorguiev raises to $34,000 from under the gun and Joao Barbosa makes the call on the button. Dario Minieri and Nico Behling fold out as Barbosa asks his rival how much he has behind. $197,000 is the answer, and we're heads-up going to the flop.

The flop comes K 4 3 and Gueorguiev checks. Barbosa bets out $35,000 and, after a moment's thought, Gueorguiev moves all-in over the top. Barbosa quickly calls, tabling K Q, but finds himself behind Gueorguiev's A K.

The turn is the 9 and Gueorguiev needs to dodge a queen to double up, but the river is the craptacular Q, giving Barbosa the pot and sending Gueorguiev packing in fourth place, a finish good for 325,500 PLN from the prize pool.

Arnaud will be having nightmares about the eight card after it spelled disaster for him yet again.

After doubling up Atanas, he picked up some more chips before getting involved in another pre-flop war with Joao Barbosa.

With Arnaud finding himself all-in, he held a sizable advantage with pocket tens versus the eights of Barbosa, but for the second big hand in a row an eight on the turn turned Arnaud's dominance on its head and when the river blanked, Mattern was forced to shelve any hopes of a second EPT title, for now at least.

The small "mattern" of 269,080 PLN, Arnaud's reward for fifth place, will be of some consolation to the Frenchman. Play continues four-handed for the title.

As if the aggression factor weren't enough already, the rising of the blinds will be an additional pressure on the players as stealing and restealing become premium skills.

Dario has the most experience at this level and could be the man who is best-equipped to survive the sandstorm ahead.

 

Bulgarian Atanas Gueorguiev found himself short with just $128,000, so when he looked down at A 8 it looked good enough to shove. Which is exactly what he did.

Arnaud didn't take too long to reshove-isolate with his A-K big slick, and the Frenchman's dominant hand looked in good shape to pick up the pot.

The flop fell J 6 3 and nothing had changed, Arnaud looking ever more likely to win, but then disaster struck for the Frenchman as the 8 spiked on the turn. He needed a king on the river, but the 4 wasn't it.

Antanas doubles and the Frenchman takes a big hit, down to $230,000 or so after that hand.

Since his double-up through Nico Behling, Dario Minieri has taken control of this final table. After Joao Barbosa took down a recent pot from Behling, Minieri raised every hand in a stretch of about six or seven, taking down most uncontested, including a tidy reraise over the top of Arnaud Mattern out of the small blind that got a slow, deliberate fold from the Frenchman.

When he is called pre-flop, Minieri still seems to manage to take down the pots with flop or turn bets, including another hand against Mattern that saw both players check the A T 6 flop and the Team PokerStars pro induce a fold with a $29,000 bet on the T turn. 

Minieri is now on roughly $600,000.

And oh by the way, the level is over and the blinds are up. 

Nico Behling raises to $28,000 from under the gun and Joao Barbosa makes the call in the small blind. The flop comes A T 8 and Barbosa checks to Behling, who checks behind. The turn is the 5 and Barbosa checks again. Behling bets out $40,000 and Barbosa raises to $140,000, getting a quick fold from his rival. As he rakes the pot, Barbosa turns up J 9 for the semi-bluff.

Nico Behling just became involved in a war with Dario, though the hand started out innocuously.

Dario limped from the small blind to Nico's big blind and once the German checked, the pair went heads-up to a 8 2 6 flop.

Check, check was the riveting action, so the dealer turned the 9, and here's where the action went ballistic.

Dario led for $15,000, only to see Behling raise it up to $60,000.

Unperturbed, the Italian now put in the third raise, making it $144,000.

Nico repeatedly checked his cards, considering what to do, before moving all-in and getting an instant call from Dario for his last $120,000.

"Do you have the flush?" asked Dario and Nico answered in the negative by showing 9-6 for two pair.

But that was no good as Dario slammed down T 7 for the nut straight with a flush redraw, and with the German needing to fill up to win, the A on the river was of no use.

Dario ran over to his rail and high-fived them joyously as Nico counted out the large dent in his stack that the small Italian had made.

Dario up to over $500,000 now, and the previously unstoppable Nico back to $450,000 or so.

Joao Barbosa opens for $31,000 from the hijack and Sergey Shcherbatskiy moves all-in over the top from the small blind. Action folds back to Barbosa, who makes the call with Q Q and exposes Shcherbatskiy as a liar, as the Russian has A 5.

The board runs J T 7 K 9 and the queens hold, giving Barbosa the pot and sending Shcherbatskiy to the rail in sixth place, a finish for which he'll be remunerated a total of 212,660 zloty, a nice return on his $7.50 initial investment on PokerStars. We're now five-handed.

The break is over and the cards are back in the air from the final table of the PokerStars EPT5 Polish Open. Six players remain in contention and Nico Behling is squarely in control as we continue the race down to the title and that zloty-millionaire status. Game on!