| Game Type: | Limit |
| Buy-in: | 20,000 DKK |
The European Poker Tour arrived in Copenhagen in January, the latest stop on it's tour of Europe's classical cities. The Casino Copenhagen was the venue for the PokerStars sponsored EPT Danish Open, and the "house full" signs were up weeks in advance.
And it was crunch time for EPT supremo John Duthie - could the EPT really hack it as a major series, with the potential to one day rival the WSOP, or would this be yet another second rate series with a first rate title?
The entry list would be key here, so let's begin by taking a look at who turned up. Greg Raymer - World Champion, no less. Great Dane Gus Hansen, Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske, WPT veterans Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Martin De Knijff, & Paul "X22" Magriel. Eric "123" Sagstrom, Padraig Parkinson, Pokergirl, Dave "ElBlondie" Colclough, the entire Hendon Mob, John Shipley, Gary Bush, Julian Thew, Willie Tann, Jac Arama. Even in his wildest dreams, surely Mr Duthie could not have envisaged such a line-up, probably the strongest ever seen in Europe. And those who fancied a wager would surely find the winner amongst that list.
So, 156 runners (150 + 6 alternates), starting points 10,000, meaning 1,560,000 chips in play, a prize pool (after Tax) of 2,890,367 DKK, with a shade over 1 million DKK to the winner.
But despite a reasonable clock, the early exchanges were vicious. Colclough set the trend, out 2nd hand, Jac Arama lasted less than an hour, & before 4 hours had passed, the casualties included Martin De Knijff, Greg Raymer, Willie Tann, Joe Beevers, and both of the Boatman brothers. But sole surviving Mobster Ram Vaswani was looking ominously strong, even at this early stage. Another hour was to be the best that Gus Hansen & Devilfish could manage, & the field was thinning fast, & Eric Sagstrom soon followed them. And from the very beginning, the rail birds had the arena surrounded, creating an electric atmosphere. The tradition seemed to be that every time someone exited, the whole room applauded them; good-naturedly, too.
They played down to 18 before finishing for day one, and Ram Vaswani was in cruise mode now with 151,000, but even he was no match for pacesetter Dan Petersen who had amassed a whopping 243,100 after an evening of controlled & daring aggression.
Copenhagen was to be heartbreak city for the 10 players on day two who would not make the 8 seat TV table, & the shocks continued as Marcel Luske & Padraig Parkinson both departed, Marcel having what was for him the rare distinction of being "bubble-boy", though his young portage, Noah Boeken was there to represent the Luske magic. So our Final Table looked like this, in seat order.....
Bambos, 111,500
Julian Thew, 163,500
Dan Pedersen, 113,100
Noah Boeken, 99,400
Alex Cooper, 206,500
Eric Kolass, 128,300
Ram Vaswani, 294,100
Michael Westerlund, 443,700
The TV Table had been beautifully set up, the tv lights & cameras were ready. Temporary spectator seating had been built, 3 tiers high, on 2 sides, & every seat was taken an hour before the Final began, with Joe Beevers, Marcel Luske, & Devilfish among the expectant audience.
And the question everyone was asking was how the two chip leaders, Ram Vaswani (seat 7) & Michael Westerlund, (seat 8) would deal with each other, both of them usually preferring to dictate, but with Westerlund having position.
The Swedish Westerlund had been in scintillating form of late, finishing high in 4 of his last 5 tournaments, including a 3rd for $300,000 in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He has a quite awesome table presence, often taking 3 or 4 minutes to make a decision, all the while staring down his opponent with an intensity that was overwhelming. But the smart money was on Ram Vaswani, 3 WSOP Finals in 2004 alone, & coming off a win in the previous EPT in Dublin. Clearly, these two held the key, having the experience, the chips, & the nous to batter their opponents into submission. But Julian Thew could stake a claim too, he had finished 9th at The Vic & 7th in Dublin in the previous 2 EPT's, so this was his third EPT big money finish beckoning, & he was brim full of confidence. Noah Boeken was the talking horse of the field, it was an open secret that this lad has a huge future, but he was starting the Final as low chip, so he had it all to do.
And it was Ram who showed his intentions from the very first hand, after Alex Cooper had raised it up to 15k, Ram RR'd to 50k, Cooper moved all-in for his entire 128,300, & Ram called with alacrity. "On their backs", Alex showed AK, Ram QQ, and as the audience strained to see, an all rag board was good enough for Ram to take it down, & poor Alex had departed first hand. And the other Finalists seemed to sense they were going to have a big problem now, for Ram was now joint chip leader.
Dan Pedersen, meanwhile, had his own plan to disrupt the deep stacks. Dan had been chip leader by a considerable margin overnight, but his non-stop aggression had not been wholly successful on day 2, & he had made the Final with a sub-average stack. He had clearly decided to force the issue in the final, &, remarkably, was involved in 5 of the next 6 contested pots, but 4 of them went against him, & his last roll of the dice was when he moved in with J-9 on a flop of 7-5-3 against Westerlund. But Westerlund was not about to be pushed around by anyone, & bravely called with his A-rag, caught his A, & that was Pedersen out in 7th.
Bambos & Thew now entered the fray, both taking down small pots uncontested.
But now the drama was about to unfold, & few of those present could have ever witnessed a poker spectacle such as they were to see in the next 8 minutes. Ram had decided he needed to take on the aggressive Westerlund, and Westerlund was in no mood to back off. In the blinds, Ram made up his SB, Westerlund raised it up to 30k, Ram called. A scary flop of A-4-5 (2 spades) was checked by Ram, Westerlund made it 50k to go, Ram called. The 2 of spades fell on the turn, now the board was mega dangerous. Ram checked, Westerlund bet 80k, & Ram promptly moved all-in, taking the pot to to over 300k. Westerlund dwelt for an age, he was not used to these strong arm tactics, & clearly did not like them one bit. Eventually, he passed, & the dealer almost had to prise the cards from the hands of the Swede. First blood to Ram. Westerlund shot a a look that said it all. "Don't be messing with my BB again my friend" was the interpretation most of us read. But he was ruffled, & Ram knew it.
The very next hand, it was Noah Boeken's turn to upset Westerlund, they were lining up to take the guy on now. Westerlund had bet 30k, but young Noah called his bluff by moving in for 130k, & Westerlund had to let another pot go.
Pushed off two pots in succession, Westerlund still came out raising the next hand, and it was his old adversary Ram Vaswani's turn to take him on again. On a flop of 7-T-K, Westerlund bet 16k, Ram RR'd to 45k, Westerlund called. It was check-check on the rag turn, but Ram moved in for 100k on the river, & once again, Westerlund went into one of his huge dwell-ups, staring down Ram all the while. Eventually he was put on the clock, still he dwelt, but with TD Warren Karp about to take action, he eventually called, almost reluctantly one felt. Ram was quick to turn over T-7 for 2 pairs, Westerlund mucked disgustedly, but tapped the table to say "well done Ram".
That's three in a row gone against him, but there was more to come the next hand, and again it was Ram who was the protagonist, with some deft pre-flop action. Ram checked the flop, Westerlund, tired by now of being harried, decided that pre-emptive action was the answer, & moved in with A-J, hoping his two over cards would get him out of trouble if Vaswani dared call. But he had walked right into Ram's trap, for the Hendon Mobster had AA, & the game was up for the courageous but unlucky Michael Westerlund, gone in 6th place.
What a spell of poker Ram had put on, nearly half the finalists gone, the one time chip leader had delivered his entire stack to Ram, & he was on auto-pilot now, over 900,000 chips & cruising to a bloodless victory.
Eric Kolass was next out, his move with Q-T running into A-9 & the inevitable rivered A, Eric out in 5th.
Thew was having difficulty finding spots in this fast & furious game, as was Bambos, but they both defended their blinds courageously with all-in moves. Thewy tried again, Ram came over the top, & Thew, for once, decided he could find a better situation to make what may be his final stand.
Remarkably, then, we were now down to 4 players, Ram Vaswani, Noah Boeken, Bambos, & Julian Thew. Ram had 950,000, & the other three were equally sharing 600,000, this was a Ram Master class on how to destroy a top class field, and it was now just a battle for 2nd place.
Noah & Julian were representing the "new breed", these boys neither know nor care what Super-System & Sklansky say, they belong to the wham-bam school. Noah is reaping the benefit of being steered in his career by a certain Mr Luske, whilst Julian honed his skills in the regional comps in the UK, having played most of his poker until recently in what used to be seen as the poker backwaters of Derby & Nottingham. Bambos is "old school", all guile & cunning, it would be interesting to see if he could outwit the two young guns, so an intriguing battle lay ahead for the minor placings. Ram, of course, had it in the bag, he was nailed on for the 1 million DKK winners cheque, and it was hard to find a soul in the room who thought otherwise.
Bambos made the first move, moving all-in on Thew, pass. Bambos was suddenly looking like he was going to be the chosen one to take on Vaswani, & indeed took the next pot against the chip leader, though only for 52k,
Thew & Boeken then squabbled over their blinds, Noah giving best this time.
But Thewy's brave effort was about to end, though he had every right to assume a split pot would result when he moved in with A-3 against Noah's A-5 on a flop of K-K-8, but a dastardly turn & river bought Noah's kicker into play, and that was the end for William Hill's man.
Bambos now took a tidy pot against Ram when he moved in with Q-9, Ram called the 220k bet with K-8, Bambos caught his Q, suddenly it looked like Bambos was on a roll, & maybe Ram could be beaten.
Bambos wasted no time to press home his momentum, he sensed the time for the biggest victory of his long & distinguished career was near, especially when he moved in with TT against yet another pre-flop R by Ram, but Ram must have felt his K-J was good for two over's, & wasted no time in calling. The Poker Gods flipped the coin, the K fell, Bambos was history, out in third place. Ram, who appeared to be wobbling just moments ago, now had over a million chips, while his sole remaining opponent from 156 starters, the young Noah Boeken, had just half that, so once again victory looked a formality for the charismatic Mobster.
And so began what was to be a long & intriguing heads up battle, the vastly more experienced Ram with double the chips of the young challenger. But Noah is nothing if not brave, & he started to grind it out with his opponent. Ram is one of Poker's most popular players, & his traveling entourage cheered his every move. Noah was having none of this & after he had RR'd Ram twice in a row to take nice pots to a deafening silence, he stood up & faced the packed stands, & raised his hands in a "come on, give me some noise" gesture. And respond they did, suddenly the audience came to life, & every hand thereafter was played to a deafening roar from the enthralled crowd.
Noah kept plugging away, waiting for "the hand", but refusing to be intimidated by his more experienced opponent, & his patience was eventually rewarded. Ram bet on a flop of A-Q-6, Noah called optimistically & bravely with his bottom pair, caught his set on the turn, & now he could milk this pot. And he sure got value, teasing Ram into RR-ing on the end then RRR-ing, Ram eventually calling. It was Noah's pot, over 600k, and you could almost see Ram's confidence deflate like a burst balloon, he had lost the chip lead to the young upstart, and the crowd were going wild - surely, after dominating for so long, he could not lose this now?
Noah now pressed home his 2 to 1 chip advantage, & Ram was visibly rattled. Noah now suddenly seemed to be the senior player & they fought it out for nearly an hour, before they both picked up a hand that pretty well played themselves, Ram with AJ & Noah with AQ. Ram caught his J, but Noah hit a straight, & incredibly, Noah had won the whole shooting match.
Ram looked, & must have felt, utterly dejected, but ever the gentleman, he was quick to warmly shake the winners hand & congratulate him on a magnificent performance.
And our winner, Noah Boeken? His victory, & the manner of it, cannot be underestimated. Youngest player in the Final, began it as lowest stack, ending heads-up with one of the worlds best & most experienced tournament players, and beat him fair & square. Talk about doing it the hard way! So, a wonderful, and quite unexpected victory for young Noah Boaken. One cant help but think that Hans Christian Andersen, master of fairy tales and long time Copenhagen resident, would surely have approved.
Written by Tikay partner of blondepoker.com
And it was crunch time for EPT supremo John Duthie - could the EPT really hack it as a major series, with the potential to one day rival the WSOP, or would this be yet another second rate series with a first rate title?
The entry list would be key here, so let's begin by taking a look at who turned up. Greg Raymer - World Champion, no less. Great Dane Gus Hansen, Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske, WPT veterans Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Martin De Knijff, & Paul "X22" Magriel. Eric "123" Sagstrom, Padraig Parkinson, Pokergirl, Dave "ElBlondie" Colclough, the entire Hendon Mob, John Shipley, Gary Bush, Julian Thew, Willie Tann, Jac Arama. Even in his wildest dreams, surely Mr Duthie could not have envisaged such a line-up, probably the strongest ever seen in Europe. And those who fancied a wager would surely find the winner amongst that list.
So, 156 runners (150 + 6 alternates), starting points 10,000, meaning 1,560,000 chips in play, a prize pool (after Tax) of 2,890,367 DKK, with a shade over 1 million DKK to the winner.
But despite a reasonable clock, the early exchanges were vicious. Colclough set the trend, out 2nd hand, Jac Arama lasted less than an hour, & before 4 hours had passed, the casualties included Martin De Knijff, Greg Raymer, Willie Tann, Joe Beevers, and both of the Boatman brothers. But sole surviving Mobster Ram Vaswani was looking ominously strong, even at this early stage. Another hour was to be the best that Gus Hansen & Devilfish could manage, & the field was thinning fast, & Eric Sagstrom soon followed them. And from the very beginning, the rail birds had the arena surrounded, creating an electric atmosphere. The tradition seemed to be that every time someone exited, the whole room applauded them; good-naturedly, too.
They played down to 18 before finishing for day one, and Ram Vaswani was in cruise mode now with 151,000, but even he was no match for pacesetter Dan Petersen who had amassed a whopping 243,100 after an evening of controlled & daring aggression.
Copenhagen was to be heartbreak city for the 10 players on day two who would not make the 8 seat TV table, & the shocks continued as Marcel Luske & Padraig Parkinson both departed, Marcel having what was for him the rare distinction of being "bubble-boy", though his young portage, Noah Boeken was there to represent the Luske magic. So our Final Table looked like this, in seat order.....
Bambos, 111,500
Julian Thew, 163,500
Dan Pedersen, 113,100
Noah Boeken, 99,400
Alex Cooper, 206,500
Eric Kolass, 128,300
Ram Vaswani, 294,100
Michael Westerlund, 443,700
The TV Table had been beautifully set up, the tv lights & cameras were ready. Temporary spectator seating had been built, 3 tiers high, on 2 sides, & every seat was taken an hour before the Final began, with Joe Beevers, Marcel Luske, & Devilfish among the expectant audience.
And the question everyone was asking was how the two chip leaders, Ram Vaswani (seat 7) & Michael Westerlund, (seat 8) would deal with each other, both of them usually preferring to dictate, but with Westerlund having position.
The Swedish Westerlund had been in scintillating form of late, finishing high in 4 of his last 5 tournaments, including a 3rd for $300,000 in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He has a quite awesome table presence, often taking 3 or 4 minutes to make a decision, all the while staring down his opponent with an intensity that was overwhelming. But the smart money was on Ram Vaswani, 3 WSOP Finals in 2004 alone, & coming off a win in the previous EPT in Dublin. Clearly, these two held the key, having the experience, the chips, & the nous to batter their opponents into submission. But Julian Thew could stake a claim too, he had finished 9th at The Vic & 7th in Dublin in the previous 2 EPT's, so this was his third EPT big money finish beckoning, & he was brim full of confidence. Noah Boeken was the talking horse of the field, it was an open secret that this lad has a huge future, but he was starting the Final as low chip, so he had it all to do.
And it was Ram who showed his intentions from the very first hand, after Alex Cooper had raised it up to 15k, Ram RR'd to 50k, Cooper moved all-in for his entire 128,300, & Ram called with alacrity. "On their backs", Alex showed AK, Ram QQ, and as the audience strained to see, an all rag board was good enough for Ram to take it down, & poor Alex had departed first hand. And the other Finalists seemed to sense they were going to have a big problem now, for Ram was now joint chip leader.
Dan Pedersen, meanwhile, had his own plan to disrupt the deep stacks. Dan had been chip leader by a considerable margin overnight, but his non-stop aggression had not been wholly successful on day 2, & he had made the Final with a sub-average stack. He had clearly decided to force the issue in the final, &, remarkably, was involved in 5 of the next 6 contested pots, but 4 of them went against him, & his last roll of the dice was when he moved in with J-9 on a flop of 7-5-3 against Westerlund. But Westerlund was not about to be pushed around by anyone, & bravely called with his A-rag, caught his A, & that was Pedersen out in 7th.
Bambos & Thew now entered the fray, both taking down small pots uncontested.
But now the drama was about to unfold, & few of those present could have ever witnessed a poker spectacle such as they were to see in the next 8 minutes. Ram had decided he needed to take on the aggressive Westerlund, and Westerlund was in no mood to back off. In the blinds, Ram made up his SB, Westerlund raised it up to 30k, Ram called. A scary flop of A-4-5 (2 spades) was checked by Ram, Westerlund made it 50k to go, Ram called. The 2 of spades fell on the turn, now the board was mega dangerous. Ram checked, Westerlund bet 80k, & Ram promptly moved all-in, taking the pot to to over 300k. Westerlund dwelt for an age, he was not used to these strong arm tactics, & clearly did not like them one bit. Eventually, he passed, & the dealer almost had to prise the cards from the hands of the Swede. First blood to Ram. Westerlund shot a a look that said it all. "Don't be messing with my BB again my friend" was the interpretation most of us read. But he was ruffled, & Ram knew it.
The very next hand, it was Noah Boeken's turn to upset Westerlund, they were lining up to take the guy on now. Westerlund had bet 30k, but young Noah called his bluff by moving in for 130k, & Westerlund had to let another pot go.
Pushed off two pots in succession, Westerlund still came out raising the next hand, and it was his old adversary Ram Vaswani's turn to take him on again. On a flop of 7-T-K, Westerlund bet 16k, Ram RR'd to 45k, Westerlund called. It was check-check on the rag turn, but Ram moved in for 100k on the river, & once again, Westerlund went into one of his huge dwell-ups, staring down Ram all the while. Eventually he was put on the clock, still he dwelt, but with TD Warren Karp about to take action, he eventually called, almost reluctantly one felt. Ram was quick to turn over T-7 for 2 pairs, Westerlund mucked disgustedly, but tapped the table to say "well done Ram".
That's three in a row gone against him, but there was more to come the next hand, and again it was Ram who was the protagonist, with some deft pre-flop action. Ram checked the flop, Westerlund, tired by now of being harried, decided that pre-emptive action was the answer, & moved in with A-J, hoping his two over cards would get him out of trouble if Vaswani dared call. But he had walked right into Ram's trap, for the Hendon Mobster had AA, & the game was up for the courageous but unlucky Michael Westerlund, gone in 6th place.
What a spell of poker Ram had put on, nearly half the finalists gone, the one time chip leader had delivered his entire stack to Ram, & he was on auto-pilot now, over 900,000 chips & cruising to a bloodless victory.
Eric Kolass was next out, his move with Q-T running into A-9 & the inevitable rivered A, Eric out in 5th.
Thew was having difficulty finding spots in this fast & furious game, as was Bambos, but they both defended their blinds courageously with all-in moves. Thewy tried again, Ram came over the top, & Thew, for once, decided he could find a better situation to make what may be his final stand.
Remarkably, then, we were now down to 4 players, Ram Vaswani, Noah Boeken, Bambos, & Julian Thew. Ram had 950,000, & the other three were equally sharing 600,000, this was a Ram Master class on how to destroy a top class field, and it was now just a battle for 2nd place.
Noah & Julian were representing the "new breed", these boys neither know nor care what Super-System & Sklansky say, they belong to the wham-bam school. Noah is reaping the benefit of being steered in his career by a certain Mr Luske, whilst Julian honed his skills in the regional comps in the UK, having played most of his poker until recently in what used to be seen as the poker backwaters of Derby & Nottingham. Bambos is "old school", all guile & cunning, it would be interesting to see if he could outwit the two young guns, so an intriguing battle lay ahead for the minor placings. Ram, of course, had it in the bag, he was nailed on for the 1 million DKK winners cheque, and it was hard to find a soul in the room who thought otherwise.
Bambos made the first move, moving all-in on Thew, pass. Bambos was suddenly looking like he was going to be the chosen one to take on Vaswani, & indeed took the next pot against the chip leader, though only for 52k,
Thew & Boeken then squabbled over their blinds, Noah giving best this time.
But Thewy's brave effort was about to end, though he had every right to assume a split pot would result when he moved in with A-3 against Noah's A-5 on a flop of K-K-8, but a dastardly turn & river bought Noah's kicker into play, and that was the end for William Hill's man.
Bambos now took a tidy pot against Ram when he moved in with Q-9, Ram called the 220k bet with K-8, Bambos caught his Q, suddenly it looked like Bambos was on a roll, & maybe Ram could be beaten.
Bambos wasted no time to press home his momentum, he sensed the time for the biggest victory of his long & distinguished career was near, especially when he moved in with TT against yet another pre-flop R by Ram, but Ram must have felt his K-J was good for two over's, & wasted no time in calling. The Poker Gods flipped the coin, the K fell, Bambos was history, out in third place. Ram, who appeared to be wobbling just moments ago, now had over a million chips, while his sole remaining opponent from 156 starters, the young Noah Boeken, had just half that, so once again victory looked a formality for the charismatic Mobster.
And so began what was to be a long & intriguing heads up battle, the vastly more experienced Ram with double the chips of the young challenger. But Noah is nothing if not brave, & he started to grind it out with his opponent. Ram is one of Poker's most popular players, & his traveling entourage cheered his every move. Noah was having none of this & after he had RR'd Ram twice in a row to take nice pots to a deafening silence, he stood up & faced the packed stands, & raised his hands in a "come on, give me some noise" gesture. And respond they did, suddenly the audience came to life, & every hand thereafter was played to a deafening roar from the enthralled crowd.
Noah kept plugging away, waiting for "the hand", but refusing to be intimidated by his more experienced opponent, & his patience was eventually rewarded. Ram bet on a flop of A-Q-6, Noah called optimistically & bravely with his bottom pair, caught his set on the turn, & now he could milk this pot. And he sure got value, teasing Ram into RR-ing on the end then RRR-ing, Ram eventually calling. It was Noah's pot, over 600k, and you could almost see Ram's confidence deflate like a burst balloon, he had lost the chip lead to the young upstart, and the crowd were going wild - surely, after dominating for so long, he could not lose this now?
Noah now pressed home his 2 to 1 chip advantage, & Ram was visibly rattled. Noah now suddenly seemed to be the senior player & they fought it out for nearly an hour, before they both picked up a hand that pretty well played themselves, Ram with AJ & Noah with AQ. Ram caught his J, but Noah hit a straight, & incredibly, Noah had won the whole shooting match.
Ram looked, & must have felt, utterly dejected, but ever the gentleman, he was quick to warmly shake the winners hand & congratulate him on a magnificent performance.
And our winner, Noah Boeken? His victory, & the manner of it, cannot be underestimated. Youngest player in the Final, began it as lowest stack, ending heads-up with one of the worlds best & most experienced tournament players, and beat him fair & square. Talk about doing it the hard way! So, a wonderful, and quite unexpected victory for young Noah Boaken. One cant help but think that Hans Christian Andersen, master of fairy tales and long time Copenhagen resident, would surely have approved.
Written by Tikay partner of blondepoker.com