PokerStars Dublin EPT 2006 - Part I

Thu 26/Oct/06 - Sun 29/Oct/06
Regency Hotel, Dublin, Ireland,
by NoflopsHomer
Submitted by: snoopy on Thu, 09/11/2006 - 1:20am
Game Type:No Limit
Buy-in:€5,000
Rebuys:no
 
Ahhhhh Dublin. Land of my fathers, and my fathers' fathers. And quite possibly my fathers' fathers' fathers. Actually, my grandparents on my mother's side were from Dublin and moved over to Birmingham in the late 1940's, so I'm half-Irish at best (the good half of course, before you ask.)

Anyway, after an 8am flight from Brum which I totally blame Snoopy for, we arrived at Dublin and managed to get a taxi to the Hilton where we were staying, which I totally thank Snoopy for, since we later found out that the Regency, where the tournament was being held, seemed to be lacking er... any hot water at all.

After a slightly chaotic hour long delay due to signing up problems, we galavanted from the sweltering heat of our press room to where play had eventually started in the talented field that included WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker, Baden Winner Thang Duc Nguyen as well as cult online players Elky and Jonny Lodden.

Roy Brindley got an early double when his opponent pulled one of those 'ideas which seem good on principle, except when the person you're playing against has flopped an absolute monster and your drawing dead and going to look silly, very silly' moves.

Roy raised to 200 from under-the-gun with Jc-9c. Mateyboy re-raised to 700 in the Big Blind, Roy calls. Flop comes three clubs, Mateyboy bet 600, Roy re-raised to 2,800, Mateyboy moved all-in, Roy called. Mateyboy is drawing dead with 7-2 off and is out of the comp. Yes, and before you ask, you heard right! He did have the 2 of clubs though...

Bad Girl also went out early, when her A-4 was rivered by Roland De Wolfe's 4-3 on a A-5-4 board spiking the deuce.

Significantly, there seem to be less Scandinavians playing than usual, except on Julian Thew's table which read: Scandie, Scandie, Scandie, Thewy, Scandie, Scandie, Scandie, Scandie and Scandie. Alas though, Jules was unable to get going in this stealathon and ran Tens in Kings and finally A-Q into A-K.
 
Elsewhere Micky Wernick went out with Queens for the third EPT running when they went straight into Kings, JP's pair and a flush draw failed to improve against Neil Channing's top pair with a gutshot. Whilst fellow blondeites Geeforce, Pab and Red-Dog lost with Q-J vs 9-9, 7-5 vs A-J, and A-T vs 8-8 respectively.

But in general, the Brits and Irish tended to be doing well, with Marc Goodwin, Roy Brindley, Andy Black, Roland De Wolfe, Dave Clayton and Stuart Fox all amongst the leaders by the close of the Day 1's. While John Magill, the highest placed Brit at this year's WSOP chipped in, "Been grinding all day, peaked at around 14k but could have been on much more, was bluffed off a 30k pot. I asked him if he'd show me and he said I wouldn't like it, but revealed K-J for a complete bluff. If I'd have called that I would have been away. I'm still in though, that's the important thing, I'm not going to just throw it away at the end of the night, I'm here to play cards."

The few Americans who had come across the pond weren't fairing so well, Moneymaker would eventually depart when he ran 9-8 into Aces, and Raymer running his Ace into a bigger one, though it was great fun to have been able to interview him earlier and listen to his thoughts on the game. Raymer comes across as a very affable person and it was great fun to watch him duelling with JP and Rob Yong early on, the former taking a lot of his chips with a made flush against two pair.

One of the more bizarre sights of the competition was seeing Harry Demetriou fully decked out in Martinspoker gear, the ructious rumbling rumours that he'd lost a bet meaning he has to wear their clothes until he wins a tournament, have yet to be fully confirmed. Speaking of odd occurences, the incredibly loud self-introduction of Gutshot regular Adebayo Odetoyinbo (right) must have turned a few heads. His constant talking seemed to wind up many of his opponents and the fact that he was situated in the most middle of middling tables meant that few people within the hotel were able to escape his vocal prowess. Though to be fair to him, he made a good solid start and ended the day with a comfortable amount of chips, which again, everyone was told about.

So with around 110 players left from the initial 400 or so, the chip leaders were as follows:

Jonas Helness -- 117,400
William Thorsson -- 106,700
Marc Goodwin -- 98,200
Kevin Vreeswijk -- 83,900
Paul Testud -- 77,100
Roy Brindley -- 71,600
Roland De Wolfe -- 70,700
Stuart Fox -- 69,800
Conor Doyle -- 69,600
Andy Black -- 69,000

How many would survive to the final day? You'll have to wait to read the remaining part of my report dear reader...
 
 
To read Part II, please click here 
 

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