| Buy-in: | €5,000 |
So, after two days and 2,000 words, on to Day Two. At the risk of revealing tournament report secrets, I’ve left out some players who figure heavily in the latter stages entirely so far, in order to have some exciting new stuff to say at this point. I think you’ll understand the strategy when Steve Vladar, Ash, Karl, Marc Goodwin, Phil Shaw, Michael Ellis, and other UK players David Tighe and Christopher Truby all exited before too late in the day. Even Vicky Coren, who tripled up with Aces early on (after attempting to double or bust in vain the night before), was out before the money, which looked like this:
Ranking €uro
1 487.397,50
2 251.560,00
3 125.780,00
4 110.057,50
5 94.335,00
6 78.612,50
7 62.890,00
8 47.167,50
9 31.445,00
10-12 18.867,00
13-15 15.722,50
16-18 12.578,00
19-27 9.433,50
28-36 6.289,00
While there had been speculation that Rodion had the potential to lose his large chip lead on Day Two, he proved more tenacious than people gave him credit for, and he made it all the way to the final table. Along with him went a young Italian player called Dario Minieri (whose name I misspelt for the majority of the tournament – apologies). Right from the start, Chris picked him for the final,
and supposing that his aggression would get him into trouble somewhere along the line, I bet against him. Wrong – on Day Two we discovered that Dario has multiple gears and the healthy (in tournament poker at least) disregard for money which goes with the Online Superstar territory. The first person to get a Porsche with Pokerstars FPPs, Dario was unwaveringly confident, but not actually crossing the line into obnoxious which so many of his American counterparts cannot, apparently, see.
It was about halfway through this day that we learned the name and location of Thang Nguyen, due mainly to his fortunate and large hand against Kristian Kjondalen. Kristian had turned the broadway straight holding A 10 on a K Q 5 J board, and got it all in against Nguyen’s KJ, only for a King to hit the river and start the German player on the path to the final, with only a little table-slapping. The televised table had been running, as usual, throughout the second day, and a good rotation of players made their way on (and off) it. Marc Goodwin’s exit occurred in the darkened TV room – it was Minieri who took him out with AK against his pair – and Peter Gould, Andy Black, Birgitta Johansson and Ramzi Jelassi were among those who got rotated on there. A very helpful live feed to the press room helped keep us on top of the action, and made the final a pretty relaxing affair to watch.
But first there were all those players who nearly made it, having guaranteed themselves at least a 
little over their money back. Ramzi was a narrowish miss (25th) after “Andy Black happened.” Meanwhile Andrew’s chips yo-yoed in a most interesting to watch sort of way, but we later found him short stacked and all-in threeway against American Ben Johnson and Czaba Kuremski. It was Ben’s AK which took that pot, giving him a final table-reaching stack and sending Mr. Black to the rail in 15th place. Peter Gould, in an extraordinary purple paisley shirt, which made him readily identifiable in the crowd, or in the near-dark of the Studio room, was the best hope for the UK, but he had to make do with a close 12th, watching eliminator Peter Eichhardt make the final (as I’d tipped him to).
At ten players, the EPT has a double bubble (I’m sure there’s a gum variety called that)– the final table bubble, and the TV Eight bubble. To start with the former, it was Argyris ‘CrazyCypriot’ Argyrou who finished tenth, which was a shame from the point of view of the broadcasters – a pretty relentless stream of non-abusive chat came from him throughout the tournament, and while some probably retreated to their ipods, he amused others and encouraged his enthusiastic supporters. Ninth was Andrea Galla, disappointing those hopeful of a double Italian televised presence, and
everyone moved back to the press room, where we watched the rest of the tournament via the flatscreen hooked up for our benefit. Pictured here are Andrea’s trousers, by which we identified him throughout.
On a young Swedish side note (there always has to be at least one, given that such a large percentage of every field fits this description) – Jonas Molander, who made the final table wearing the proud Team Hink bucket – sort of crept up in chips the second day in the way that his team mate Ramzi did on the first. Having won in Helsinki last year, I thought he was a pretty good dark horse for the final, but the order in which I tipped people in the press room seemed to be the order in which they went out so what do I know. When they were getting through the last two tables, he made an interesting fold face-up of QQ after being re-raised preflop, and while almost certainly correct, that might have attracted heat for him later as the final seven took a couple more shots at him than they might have otherwise. And with that, the final table:
Seat 1. Rodion Cherednichenko (Russia) 238,000
Seat 2. Daniel Dodet (Belgium) 452,000
Seat 3. Sasa Biorac (Germany) 194,000
Seat 4. Peter Eichhardt (Sweden) – 91,000
Seat 5. Jonas Molander (Sweden) – 358,000
Seat 6. Dario Minieri (Italy) – 652,000
Seat 7. Ben Johnson (USA) 828,000
Seat 8. Thang Duc Nguyen (Germany) – 506,000
It was about this time that Mad Harper’s mini profiles of the finalists appeared, at which point we learned a bit more about the enthusiastic Rodion. He is, and I quote, “a former wake board and water-skiing champion, and is also a keen snow boarder and motorbiker as well. Rodion is a software developer for computer games and also runs a refinery to recycle motor oil.” You can’t make this stuff up. Neighbours Jonas and Peter Eichhardt were heads up in that Helsinki tournament, incidentally, and the former was to outlast the latter once again, as Peter got his shortstack in with KQ and Dario’s 88 finished him off.
“Dario announces raise,” was heard many times that day, and his confidence never slipped while re-raising someone off a hand, or facing a re-raise and mucking his filthy cards instantly. We were waiting to see who the major player-back was going to be, and first to take a major pot off him was Daniel Dodet. On a threeway flop, Daniel bet out 40k seeing 2 4 5 (two hearts). Dario, who bets so fast it’s like he’s got his in-turn check-box ticked, made it 200k, and in a flash faced an all-in from the Belgian, which he declined to call. Then Ben took a stab or two, in the meantime knocking out Jonas Molander in 7th, and following that took a bit of a back seat for a little while after he doubled up Thang Nguyen and bluffed a small amount off to nuts-slowplaying Daniel.
Rodion Cherednichenko went out in 6th place, making a nice call (or raise so tiny it counted) for all his stack with top pair, Jack kicker on a 10 3 8, all hearts, board. Daniel Dodet was behind with his 99, but one of them was a heart and he made a flush on the river. The short stack was then businessman Sasa Biorac, for whom poker is clearly recreational, as, “To be honest, unless I won every EPT from now on, I wouldn’t make as much as I do from my job.” He was knocked out by Dario, eventually moving in with A2 and finding 66 against him, at which point the young Italian, who described himself as potentially crazy, squeezed preflop button raiser Thang as well as small blind re-raiser Daniel with a big blind third raise to 390k. He showed A5off when they both passed (there’s a rumour they were both on bigger Aces), and the crowd went wild (well, they would have done if there were more of them).
Despite pulling out all the stops pre-dinner break, Dario Minieri was not the chip leader four-handed. It was actually quiet American Ben Johnson who held 1.2 million, and apart from the Thang-double up earlier, had not been putting too many feet wrong. That one early lost hand, however, was going to cost him, as German player Thang proceeded to build up chips at an alarming rate. Supported by TheTank, who thought he was someone else, we weren’t too knowledgeable about Mr. Nguyen, and had no idea when Day Two started that he would end up winning the event. There, I’ve given the ending away…but it’s still interesting to hear, perhaps, how he flopped the nut straight with 78 (on a board with two hearts on it) and got all of Daniel Dodet’s chips as he chased the Ace-high flush. Well, not all, but the remaining four thousand disappeared soon afterwards.
Thang Nguyen then went on to knock out Dario, calling fairly confidently with his AQ when his opponent moved in preflop, with AJ. This meant that with lots of chips, and a reasonable amount of patience, he got to take on Ben Johnson heads up. Ben seemed ever so slightly tired after the three days of play, and was put in a couple of uncomfortable positions – once passing a hand which looked like it cost him a chunk of his soul to release. “Will you show me if I fold?” is not something which necessarily implies an optimistic attitude, while Thang looked like he was having a pretty good time, except when Ben got a double through, spiking two pair with 78. The sunglasses were on, and by the time he was in a position to take out Ben (who’d moved in for 700k after originally button limping and letting Thang raise). He got to bite his nails for a good five minutes before Thang called with pocket Fours, and they were good against Ben’s K3off.
A delighted Thang Nguyen got the large cheque and the champagne and the title (actually, we all
managed to get some of the middle one), and admitted that his profession as chef might be becoming part-time. My camera batteries gently dozed off during the final, so I will leave this picture of updaters Marc (from Gutshot), myself, and Chris eating one of many, many fine steaks from the buffet. Luxurious, friendly and accommodating as it is possible to be to what is now a horde of poker journalists, the Casino Baden remains one of my favourite stops on the EPT. A great thankyou to a most dedicated updater Mr. NoflopsHomer remains to be said, and hopefully we'll be on the road again soon.