Pokerstars.com EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final - Day 1a - At A Glance

[Djinn]

Welcome to Monaco!  After being welcomed to Nice airport we felt welcome in the incredible cliff-spanning tunnel, and welcome in the winding roads full of angry French/Italian/Europeaningeneral motorists, and then welcome in our lovely sort of bedsit (but a Monte Carlo version, therefore nice).  The blonde team - myself, Dana and Snoopy - are looking forward to bringing you live updates on this, the finale of the EPT season from the Monte Carlo Bay Resort, a mere stroll down the beach from our residence.

Rumours abound as to the number of runners expected - they get as high as the four-figure mark, but with everyone and their high-stakes cousin heading over here in the next 24 hours to play this most prestigious of European events, we wouldn't be that surprised.

This is the At A Glance Thread - if you want to post requests/comments/insightful critique, may I recommend doing it here: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=32789.0

Play is scheduled to start 12th April, 1pm (12pm UK time).  Bring on six days of big tournament - blonde is ready, pens poised, money saved for the ridiculously-priced bar, sleep being caught up on overnight while the flights from all over Europe and the US bring in the players. 

[danafish]

Yes indeed, hello from sunny (daytime only) Monte Carlo! We are currently enjoying a drop of duty free brandy and the very reasonably priced wireless in our pleasant bedsit-el, but we will most likely be down at the Monte Carlo Bay casino come kick-off time (or more likely 2 hours beforehand to attempt to find press passes, sigh).

We know virtually nothing about the field except that it is expected to be very large and have pockets stuffed with endless money, so I shall merely recite the names of players spotted on Easyjet from Luton this morning: Dave Colclough, Maz Nawab, John Kabbaj. Many more to come tomorrow! See you then...

[danafish]

The bizarre-o parade-type thingy is accomplished, it rather disappointingly involved a bunch of Pokerstars pros sitting at a table on a big stage while "I Like The Way You Move" pumped out of the stereo and pictures of this year's EPT winners popped up on a big screen. Also a bit disappointingly for your sleepy updaters, but probably just marvelously for you lucky readers at home, Thomas Kremser then announced that they will be playing 7 levels today instead of the advertised 6.

[danafish]

And they're off!

[danafish]

With 2 Day 1's this could be a mammoth field, how many are they expecting?
Oh yeah wheres the norkage!!

We don't actually know yet, the clock is running but no number of runners is evident. I've taken down my earlier guess of 1,000,000 and put up a more realistic 500 until we know for sure.

Also, I can report that we did see one lady in a bikini through the window of the indoor swimming pool as we arrived, but we have been a bit busy with trying to get accredited, attempting to cover tournament etc so far. We'll do our best when circumstances allow though...

UPDATE - Mad Harper has announced that total number of runners registered so far for the two days is 745, with people still buying in for Day 2.

UPDATE - Daniel Negreanu has appeared in the press room saying something very loudly about eating brains??

UPDATE - Jen would like it to be known that's experiencing some Technical Difficulties but will hopefully be back online soon with poor blurry photos etc from the cardroom.

[danafish]

Some interesting table shares noted thus far:

Woody Deck and John Kabbaj
Annette Obrestad and Barny Boatman
Roberto Romanello in a nice hat (sorry, only one camera between us but photos will come) and Dave Colclough
Roland De Wolfe and Ben Grundy
Tommy Pavlicek and Nicolas Levi

[snoopy1239]

Wait, hold on, we have action! Bumbling through the tables with my camera in hand, I pounce upon a hand between Rocky Ross Boatman and the alluring Anna Wroblewski. Betting 575 on a board, Ross is quickly called by Anna who then calls a further 1.6k on the River. Ross proudly reveals for the flopped flush whilst Anna is keen to show her to the table to let them know how unfortunate she was. She did well to get away so cheaply though.

------------

German Panzer George Danzer is down to 13k after 'losing with Queens twice'. Meanwhile, father and son combo Peter and Josh Gould managed to find themselves on the same table, along with former EPT winner Mark Teltscher. Peter actually found Aces the very first round (those bullets arriving for the first time this year on the whole Tour, apparently), only to be re-raised by Josh. Peter called, then bet out on an 8-3-2 Flop, only to be raised again by Josh. This time Peter lay it down, only to add "Well, it's his birthday". After the hand, Josh grabbed my pad and wrote down a set of threes, although I was sworn to secrecy. What's more, the two have now been joined by one Mr Phil Ivey, who they are now sandwiching, metaphorically speaking of course.

[danafish]

Mr De Wolfe is down a few chips to our good friend Mr Mateyboy -

He bets out 500 on a flop; Mateyboy calls.

He checks the turn and then calls the 500 bet from Mr Boy.

Again he checks the river and then dwells up for ages when Mr Boy again makes it 500. There is some good-humoured banging of chips on the table from Mr De Wolfe, and a little cheerful squirming before he calls - he mucks to Mr Boy's though.

[danafish]

Up a good few chips is Ms Annette Obrestad, winning a 7k-or-so pot with a turned micro-flush against a very disgruntled Mateyboy in a T6 shirt who clearly thought she was At It...

[Djinn]

The bizarre-o parade-type thingy is accomplished, it rather disappointingly involved a bunch of Pokerstars pros sitting at a table on a big stage while "I Like The Way You Move" pumped out of the stereo and pictures of this year's EPT winners popped up on a big screen. Also a bit disappointingly for your sleepy updaters, but probably just marvelously for you lucky readers at home, Thomas Kremser then announced that they will be playing 7 levels today instead of the advertised 6.

Here's the best shot I could get of the Opening Ceremony, which did just involve the pros sitting there while the stage kind of extended at 5mph like the world's most boring ride.



The room is absolutely heaving - spectators throng the ropes, players throng the tables (but not in an uncomfortable elbow-each-other type of way) and press throng any space that's left.  It looks like while they may not break the 1k runners mark, this is, as Thomas Kremser announced at the start of play, "The biggest tournament EVER in Europe."  "Ever."

[danafish]

Lurking in the shadows behind mysterious curtain in the corner of the room is Mateyboy, last seen betting 200 onto a -2c-7c to take down an early pot.

Indeed he has been put behind a screen right at the back, possibly to protect railers from the force of his Death Stare. He seems to have evened himself back out to 15k, prolongedly STARING down the Mateyboy opponent who dared to bet out 2700 on a board, before passing.

[snoopy1239]

No sniff of a player list as of yet, so here are a few familiar faces that my beady eyes caught sight of:

Priyan de Mel
Markus Golser
Richard Fohrenbach
Soren Kongsgaard
Anreas Hoivold
Michel Abecassis
John Conroy
Josh Gould
Peter Gould
Mark Teltscher
Stephen Chidwick
Johannes Strassmann
Bill Edler
Isabelle Mercier
Barry Greenstein
Roland de Wolfe
Freddy Deeb
Erick Lindgren
Phil Ivey
Humberto Brenes
Guillaume de la Gorce
Luca Pagano
Asa Smith
David Levi
Sebastian Zink
Daniel Zink
Christoffer Stahle
Jeff Lisandro
Andreas Hagen
Dave Colclough
Woody Deck
Ted Lawson
George Danzer
Jan Heitmann
Katja Thater
Eli Marciano
Marcel Luske
Rob Hollink
Benjamin Kang
Martin Wendt
Rolf Slotboom
Roberto Romanello
John Shipley
Mel Judah
Stephen Pearce
Noah Boeken
Tomas Brolin
Pascal Perrault
Gino Alacqua
Peter Reubens
Annete Obrestad
Tony G
Johnny Lodden
Jan Sjavik
Barny Boatman
Trond Eidsvig
Ross Boatman
Eli Elezra
Anna Wroblewski

[Djinn]

Thomas Wahlroos just doubled through his next door neighbour in this fashion:

I saw him putting in some 1k blue chips, which still in level one is something fairly rare... so sauntered over for the scoop (well, to join the 15 journalists already staring at the excitable Finn).  Wahlroos had check-raised by 2k (what looked like an original 600) and his opponent was considering the flop, like so:
  Call.
Turn:  QUICK - name the non-blankest card you can imagine...is it the ?  That's the turn.

Now Thomas bets out 3k (more than half both their remaining stacks).  His opponent moves in, he says, "Sick, but..." before calling with , finding neighbour matey on the underhouse with .  That's how you expect players to bust early in the Pokerstars.com EPT Grand Final.
___________________________________________



Meanwhile, on Table Nicolas Levi, said Frenchman has somewhat upset his neighbour:

I heard some very loud shouting in what I think was an Australian accent: "PAIR THE BOARD! PAIR THE BOARD!"  This tends to signify an all-in situation.
Levi was standing up in front of an board and staring at his opponent's .  I moved round the table and found his cards to be the - only the flopped nuts.  The turn and river came the (not pairing the board, as requested), and Nicolas is now in great shape seeing as the blinds are only about to go up to 50/100.

His shell-shocked opponent was heard to say, "Top set.  Top set against 4-5." 

Here's the cheeky Frenchman:

Click to see full-size image.

[danafish]

Provisional Player List Courtesy Of The Lovely And Beautiful Ms Mad Harper:

Name    Country    PokerStars Status
Andre Akkari    Brazil    Team PokerStars Pro
Ronny Alex    Sweden    Cash
Anton Allemann    Switzerland    Sponsored
Kevin Arba    US    DBI
Alexander Argoe    US    DBI
Josh Arieh    US    Cash
Mike Bartholomew    Canada    Cash
Mark Bech    Denmark    DBI
Valentin Berreuzo    Spain    Cash
Givanni Bigoni    Italy    Cash
Sasa Biorac    Germany    Sponsored
Noah Boeken    Netherlands    Team PokerStars Pro
Thomas Boekhoff    Germany    DBI
Thierry Bolleret    France    Cash
Lars Bønding    Denmark    Cash
Jan Boubli    France    Cash
Nordine Bouya    France    Cash
Maximilian Bracht    Germany    Cash
Humberto Brenes    Costa Rica    Team PokerStars Pro
Konstantin Bücherl    Germany    Cash
Mag Buk    Germany    Cash
Rich Caplan    Canada    Cash (DS)
Jakob Carlsson    Sweden    Cash
Stephen Chadwick    UK    Cash
Tommy Chen    US    Cash
Pawel Chmiel    Poland    Cash
Paul Christian    US    DBI
Raul Corral    Spain    Cash
Owen Crowe    Canada    Cash
Krzysztof Czerwinski    Poland    Cash
Andrey Daniluk    Russia    Cash
George Danzer    Germany    Sponsored
Ryan Daut    US    DBI
Priyan de Mel    UK    Cash
Shaun Deeb    US    Sponsored
Riccardo D'Errico    Italy    Cash
Dustin Dorrance-Bowman    US    DBI
Connor Drinan    US    DBI
Denys Drobyna    Germany    Cash
Jonathan Dwek    Canada    Cash
Darren Elias    US    Cash
Marciano Elie    France    Cash
Carl-Johan Ericson    Sweden    Cash
Soren Eriksen    New Zealand    Cash
George Farkas    Canada    Cash
Andrea Fasano    Italy    Cash
Peter Feldman    US    Cash
Joel Fernandes de Oliveira    Brazil    Cash
Steve Fink    Luxembourg    DBI
Ryan Fisler    Canada    Cash
Mark Flowers    US    DBI
Andreas Fluri    Switzerland    Cash
Richard Fohrenbach    US    DBI
Hunter Frey    US    Cash
Adam Gagliardi    Canada    Cash
Lee Gaines    US    Cash
Stefan Geim    Germany    Cash
Kiril Gerasimova    Russia    DBI
Paul Gormley    UK    Cash
Peter Gould    UK    Cash
Joshua Gould    UK    Cash
Barry Greenstein    US    Team PokerStars Pro
Anthony Gregg    US    DBI
Rod Grierson    Canada    DBI
Christian Grundtvig    Denmark    Cash
Antanas Guoga    Lithuania    DBI
Kenny Hallaert    Belgium    Cash
Christian Harder    US    Freeroll
Will Haydon    US    Cash
Jan Heitmann    Germany    Sponsored
Johnny Hirondelle    France    Cash
Gregory Hobson    US    Cash
Michael Hogbom    Sweden    Cash
Craig Hopkins    UK    Cash
Jared Hubbard    US    DBI
Dider Hunn    Switzerland    Cash
Marco Johnson    US    Cash
Nadir Jorephani    UK    Cash
Ken Justin    US    Cash
Masaaki Kagawa    Japan    Sponsored
Benjamin Kang    Germany    Sponsored
Matt Kay    Canada    Cash
Eero Kekäläinen    Finland    Cash
Bryn Kenney    US    DBI
Stephan Kjerstad    Norway    DBI
Jonas Klausen    Denmark    Cash
Travis Klein    US    Cash
Josef Klinger    Austria    DBI
Josef Kollarits    Austria    Cash
Søren Kongsgaard    Denmark    Cash
Eric Koskas    France    Cash
Paul Kristoffersson    Sweden    Cash
Matthew Kurtz    US    Cash
Tuan Lam    Canada    Sponsored
Adam Levy    US    Cash
Benjamin Locatelli    France    Cash
Morten Løkken    Norway    Cash
Andrew Luetchford    UK    Cash
Asbjørn Lunde    Norway    Cash
Jens Lundgren    Sweden    Cash
Marcel Luske    Netherlands    Sponsored
Paul Maddern    UK    Cash
Ville Mattila    Finland    Cash
Taylor McFarland    US    DBI
Isabelle Mercier    Canada    Team PokerStars Pro
Jason Mercier    US    DBI
Luis Merino    Spain    FPP
Dag Mikkelsen    Norway    Cash
Sorel Mizzi    Canada    Cash
Peyman Mohammadzadeh    Germany    Cash
Alexander Morozov    Russia    DBI
Osman Mustanoglu    UK    Cash
Richard Nadler    US    Cash
Anh Nguyen    Canada    DBI
David Norrman    Sweden    DBI
Carl Olson    US    Cash
Luca Pagano    Italy    Team PokerStars Pro
Jean-Paul Pasqualini    France    Cash
Nils Paulsen    Norway    Cash
Tommy Pavlicek    Canada    DBI
Christophe Perraud    France    Cash (DS)
David Peters    US    Cash
Reuben Peters    US    DBI
Jacob Petersen    US    DBI
David Pham    US    Sponsored
Ditspong Pinpramot    Germany    Cash
Vladimir Polishchuk    Russia    Sponsored
Hendrikus Postel    Netherlands    Cash
Terris Preston    Canada    Cash
Ian Prevost    US    DBI
Mario Puccini    Germany    Cash
Raymond Rahme    South Africa    Team PokerStars Pro
Gregory Raymer    US    Team PokerStars Pro
Dominick Raynis    US    Cash
Tyler Reiman    US    DBI
Tobias Reinkemeier    Germany    Cash
Thomas Richter    Germany    DBI
Sasha Rosewood    US    Cash
Andrew Rowlands    Canada    Freeroll
Burak Sancaktaroglu    Turkey    Cash
Gualter Santos    Brazil    Sponsored
Eric Scalisi    France    Cash
Brandon Schaefer    US    DBI
Justin Schwartz    US    DBI
John Shipley    UK    Cash
Marcin Sikora    Poland    Cash
Mario Silvestri    US    DBI
Jean-Marc Simon    Luxembourg    Cash
Scott Sitron    US    Freeroll
Asa Smith    UK    Cash
Kari Somer    Finland    Cash
Gijsbertus Spijkers    Netherlands    Cash
Christoffer Ståhle    Sweden    Cash (DS)
Johannes Steindl    Austria    Sponsored
Geoff Stephens    US    Cash
Steve Stolzmann    US    Cash
Dominik Stopka    Germany    Cash
Matt Stout    US    DBI
Ben Straate    Argentina    DBI
Johannes Strassmann    Germany    Sponsored
Halldor Sverrisson    Iceland    DBI
Adam Sword    UK    Cash (DS)
Saverio Teodori    Italy    Cash
Katja Thater    Germany    Team PokerStars Pro
Julian Thew    UK    Sponsored
Luis Tier    Netherlands    DBI
Richard Toth    Hungary    Cash
Peter Traply    Hungary    Cash
Abraham van der Ende    Netherlands    Cash
Johan van Til    Netherlands    Cash
Derek VanDamme    US    DBI
Gordon Vayo    US    DBI
Lex Veldhuis    Netherlands    DBI
Maxime Villemure    Canada    DBI
Erik Walter    Sweden    Cash
Jeremy Wray    UK    Cash
Anna Wroblewski    US    Cash
Yuriy Zdanovskiy    Ukraine    Cash
Daniel Zink    Germany    Cash
Sebastian Zink    Germany    Cash
Martin Wendt    Denmark    
Gabriele Speranza    Switzerland    
Tommi Hörkkö    Finland    
Knut Rysstad    Norway    
Csaba Toth    Hungary    
Edward Lawson    US    
Tony Cascarino    UK    
Mihai Manole    Romania    
Matthew Osborne    UK    
Antonio Esfandiari    US    
Robert Flink    Sweden    
Sami Ovaskainen     Finland    
Nicolas Levi     France    
Antony Roux     France    
Guillaume de la Gorce     France    
Michel Abecassis     France    
Fowzi Baroukh       
Frei Dilling-Kjaer    Denmark    
Richard Sinclair    UK    
Andreas Hoivold    Norway    
Andreas Hagen    Norway    
Tomas Brolin     Sweden    
Tero Kunnas    Finland    
Karl Gal    Germany    
Michael Guttman    Australia    
Sélim Lalaoui    France    
Tony G    Australia    
Anthony Chatelain    Sweden    
Anders Henriksson    Sweden    
Mats Rahm    Sweden    
Andreas Torbergsen    Norway    
Marek Kolk    Estonia    
Rolf Slotboom    Netherlands    
Ed de Haas    Netherlands    
Thierry Van Der Berg    Netherlands    
Woody Deck    Lithuania    
Billy Argyros    Australia    
Jason “The Hood” Gray    Australia    
Julian Powell    Australia    
Tino Lechich    Australia    
Melvyn Judah    Australia    
Jeff Lisandro    Australia    
Henrik Gwinner    Denmark    
Torben Hübertz    Denmark    
Eduards Kudrjavcevs    Latvia    
Evgene Serebryakov    Russian Federation    
Thomas Berg    Norway    
Sergey Indenok    Russian Federation    
Hecham el Sayed    Denmark    
Richard Holmes    Australia    
TBD 25       
Adrian Koy    Germany    
Thomas Wahlroos    Finland    
Carl BOREHAM    UK    
C Niesert    Germany    
Cristiano Blanco    Italy    
 Fernando Festas    Portugal    
 Daan Slutter    Netherlands    
Otto Richard    France    
Voitto Rintala    Finland

[snoopy1239]

As I wander back into the cardroom like an eager beaver looking for a tree to chomp on, I catch sight of a railer infested table, swamped with TV cameras spying on the action. Using my notepad as a sickle to slice through the crowd, I spot serial (well, two) EPT final tabler Mark Teltscher all-in against a Dutchman, who I believe to be called Bart Wetstein, on a Flop. Bart confidently reveals Pocket Eights (much to the delight of the Dutch crowd), only for Mark to meekly flip over Pocket Aces. A non-Ace-spiking and later and Bart was raking in the pot for a timely double up, consequently leaving Mark with just four or five thousand in chips and face that looked like a firmly spanked bottom.

-----------

Roberto Romanello was shot down just moments before the break and has found his stack thirded to just 5k as a result. Betting out 3k with a set of Aces on an all diamond Flop, Roberto called a re-raise from Mateyboy before folding to an all-in on a frustrating diamond Turn. Mateyboy showed A-Q, the Queen of diamonds giving him the nut flush, while Roberto could only weep into the felt, the fact that he's still in the tournament perhaps his only saving grace.