blonde poker forum

We've cracked it!  To get a seat and an internet connection, one must arrive one hour before anything is scheduled to start.  Today, ladies and gents, we have managed it, and while people filter in for both Day 2 of the EPT and the €2,000 Consolation Tourney, we're just making ourselves nice and comfortable... Full combined chip counts coming in just a tick...

Morning Jen + Floppy .... or is Floppy having a lie in ?

 :hello:

Cherednichenko   Rodion   Russia   218000
Vivet   Nicolai   Denmark                107300
Gould   Peter   UK                  97800
Jelassi   Ramzi Alexander   Sweden   84700
Golser   Markus   Austria          83900
Molander   Jonas   Sweden     81000
Nguyen   Thang Duc  Germany    75800
Eichhardt   Peter   Sweden      74000
Togsverd  Christian   Denmark      69000
Martinsson   Tomas   Sweden     67900
Adamescu  Grigore Dan   Germany   66900
Minieri   Dario   Italy                       61500
Judah   Melvyn   Austria           57500
Johnson   Ben   United States      56100
Hansen   Askild   Norway                55700
Tighe   David   UK                   53400
Balla   Andrea   Italy                    53200
Biorac   Sasa   Germany                53200
Erlandsen   Morten   Denmark    52700
Grospellier Bertrand   France        50900
Kuusik   Jules   Sweden                50200
Bellusci   Sandro   Italy            47400
Stockinger  Siegfried   Austria        47400
Eriksson   Mattias   Sweden       46800
Argyrou   Argyris   Cyprus                 44700
Ummer   Per   Sweden              44700
Storakers   Johan   Sweden     44400
Weber   Jörg Adrian   Germany    42400
Mahrenholz   Karl   UK          41400
Olson   Carl   United States         40200
Vladar   Steven Nicholas   UK        40100
Paasonen   Mika   Finland         39700
Hofling   Johan   Sweden                39400
Melikian   Ara   United States   39200
Dodet   Daniel   Belgium                 37800
Kuremszki   Csaba   Hungary       37300
Woelfel   Wade   United States     37200
Österström   Anders   Sweden    36100
Hussain   Arshad   UK                  36000
Haller   Christoph   Germany        34900
Nygaard   Vegard   Norway              34800
Mouritsen   Rene   Denmark      33500
Stieger   Matthias   Germany       33500
Eskilsson   Hans   Sweden        33300
Magan Tier   Miguel   Spain        32500
Fagerli   Frode   Norway                 32200
Foris   Attila   Hungary                   32200
Spets   Age   Norway                31500
Ellis   Michael   UK                      31300
Shostak   Boris   United States       30500
Goodwin   Marc   UK                29900
Wendt   Martin   Denmark              29300
Pirooti   Azad   Sweden                 28300
Kjondaln   Kristian   Norway   28000
Laukkanen   Ville   Finland           28000
Black   Andrew   Ireland                  26600
Jin   Cai Lin   China                       26500
Wahlbeck   Ville   Finland           26300
Manhertz  Matthias   Germany      25800
Roth Christopher Alan United States   25300
Brolin   Tomas   Sweden                 24900
Klein   Jürgen   Germany                  23000
Johansson Birgitta   Sweden        20900
Hollink   Rob   Holland                     20400
Hirsch   Yakov   United States         20200
Mairhofer   Peter   Italy             20200
Bolliger   Mark   Switzerland   19900
Liesy   Marco   Germany                  18800
Schuler   Thorsten   Germany       18600
Lundgren   Karin   Sweden        18400
Madsen   Thomas   Denmark             18000
Truby   Christopher   UK           15900
Eidem   Ronny   Norway                 15500
Vallo   Martin   Denmark                    15500
Von der Locht   Roy   Germany      15000
Coren   Victoria   UK             14800
Polarski   Sven   Holland            14300
Henriksson   Anders   Sweden      14000
Skjervold   Edgar   Norway         13800
Shaw   Phil   UK                       8000
Sjödin Svensson   Per Eric Niklas   Sweden   7900
Yafaoui   Khalil Ghassan   Denmark        6700
Helppi   Juha   Finland                      5500

They must be about to start (the €2k Baden Open, I believe, has started)... there is a little room on the first floor (the Casineum) in which is set up the TV table, and a couple others.  For your information, the current TV lineup is:

Per Ummer
Bertrand Grospellier (ElkY)
Miguel Morgan Tier
Sigi Stockinger
Jorg Weber
Per Svensson
Mel Judah

Good luck today guys


Who is Peter Gould? tell me a bit about him please!

Blinds are now 1k/2k with a 200 ante, expect a few shorties to go quickly.

Edgar Skjevold is our first casualty. JJ vs AT, Ace on the flop

Near triple up for Vicky Coren, who spent the last levels of last night going all in in an effort to come back with more than a shortstack, which failed.  However, this was a big hand - Double all in preflop from her, with the Aspades Ad, Rene Mouritson with the Qd Qs and called by monster chip leader Rodion with Ac Ks!

Board Came:  5d 2h Jc Ahrt Jh  and Mouritson was eliminated while Vicky gets the lot....

Also OUT -

Jin Cai Lin
Marco Liesy

The latter ran his shortstacked Kh Th against a rather dominatey Aspades Tc from Boris Shostak (in a blind on blind confrontation).  And lost.

Dario Minieri takes out Christopher Roth and is now on nearly 90k.

 Th Tc vs  Ac Kd

Board:

 Qh 9c 4h Js Qc


Elsewhere, a mateyboy cubed moment on table 2.

Anders Henriksson pushes from the cut-off, Matthias Manhertz pushes behind him from the button. Called by Carl Olson in the big blind.

Anders:

 Aspades 5h

Matthias:

 Jh Js

Carl:

 Ac Ad

Flop:

 Kh Jc Qd

Ooooohs from the crowd.

Turn:

5c

River:

Tc

More oooooohs.

Carl and Anders chop it and I think Carl has Matthias covered and the latter is now OUT.

Jen is getting a piccy of Peter Gould now.

Bad Girl reports that Steve Vladar lost the first hand he played, knocking him back to 26,000, but he's still in...
Unlike David Tighe, Edgar Skjervold, Matthias Manhurtz and Sandro Bellusci.

Er.. I don't know him personally, but thank goodness he's into purple paisley - he stands out from the crowd very well... His original table has already broken, and I found him easily. 

A blurry Marc Goodwin (sorry, he just won't sit still) having a chat with Ram, who might be playing the Consolation (that's what I'm calling it even though it's a 10k starting-stack, 45 min clock affair) but I don't know.

We'll try to get at least a list of Spotteds playing that one, but the beginning of Day Two is always the most frenetic part of a tournament to cover, so give us a level or so...

NoFlopsHomer is running about, so I am going to have to find some water and take a large dose of Beecham's Cold and Flu relief stuff as my head feels like it's stuffed with wire wool which has been soaked in something viscous.  Just thought I'd share that with you.

On a lighter note - I am going to find out where this guy got his bright orange trousers, and bring them back for Snoopy...

Peter Eichhardt takes out Grigore Dan Adamescu

All-in on the  Jh 6h 2c flop.

Peter:

 Ahrt Qh

Grigore:

 Jd 2d

Turn:

 Th

River:

 Ad

Peter on over 120k now and up there with the leaders.

On the same table Yarkov Hirsch doubles through Wade Woelfez. 3-4 vs A-Q. Board K-9-3-K-J

Meanwhile on Table 2. I'd earlier reported Carl Olson and Anders Henriksson splitting a big pot. Both are now OUT. Not sure about Anders but I saw Carl leaving the table with all his chips being pushed to Thang Duc Nguyen.

Thang:

 Jc Js

Carl:

 Ac Ks

Board:

 9c Kh 9s Jd 5h


Red trousers man is Andrea Balla.

Decent comeback by Ash yesterday by the looks. Keep an eye on him and Marc Goodwin please Jenn.

Oh and for the cold you cant beat hot whiskey, grenadine and sugar. Just had one myself and feeling better already.

Double through for Andy Black off neighbour Martin Vallo - It was Jd Js for Andy against Martin's Ahrt Th.
Board, in order:  6h 7c 5s 2s 5d

And now Andy's up to 50k+ while Vallo is in a bit of a tricky position with just 10,000.

Oh, and here's a wonderfully apt photo I took earlier for just such an occasion:

Mark Bolliger doubles through Yarkov Hirsch with Q-Q vs A-K, no help for either.

Ash Hussain is crippled after raising from the button only to see a push from the BB, Ash's A-T was in good shape vs A-8 but a pesky 8 came on the river.

As a side note, I've been watching Dario Minieri, (previously known as crazy young italian guy and one of the first Pokerstars players to reach Supernova level) and he is utterly fearless and a raising machine, he did well at the WSOP and he's my tip for the final.

A couple of tables a-counted:

Table Black

Ara Melikian     31,000
Johan Storakers  90,000
Andy Black         50,000
Martin Vallo        10,000
Marc Goodwin    25,000
Thorsten Schuler  25,200
Attila Foris            46,000
Jonas Molander     70,000

Table Ash

Hans Eskilsson       37,300
Rob Hollink           54,000
Matthias Stieger    40,000
Sasa Biorac           60,000
Karl Mahrenholz     48,000
Ramzi Jelassi          110,500
Ash Hussain           18,000

And here's a pic of Karl and Ramzi, who's giving a great example of the sidelong stare.

Ash Hussain is gone, he auto pushed in the SB with 8-2, but Marc Goodwin's A-7 hit two pair.

Mark Bolliger has doubled up again with A-A against Q-Q.

Steve Vladar is OUT. No details I'm afraid.

Boris Shostak now has no-stak, he ran Q-Q into Christian Togsverd's K-K.

A quarter of the remaining field has now gone in the first 80 minutes.

Fourth table break already - the upstairs part of Day Two has dwindled - it looks like the last three tables will be in the Darkroom downstairs next to the TV table - going to be very tough to get photos in there with no flash, so I'll build up a few now..

Two more tables' counts:

Table Nearly-Chip-Leader

Nicolai Vivet      67,000
Morten Erlandsen  50,000
Christian Togsverd  180,000
Sven Polarski          46,000
Michael Ellis            30,000

Michael is British, and I am rooting for him especially as last time I played with him I outdrew his expertly-played Aces.  May the luck be on his side today...

And Table Hard-To-Spell

Csaba Kuremszki     30,000
Anders Osterstrom  53,000
Ramzi
Kristian Kjondaln     66,000
Ronny Eidem         17,000  (who beat Ac 5d with Kc 9h to stay in with even that many chips)
Jurgen Klein          25,500
Thang Duc Nguyen  100,000

Two highly competent lady players on the same table - Karin Lundgren and Vicky Coren, who's presumably still floating on her recent victory.  It would be most impressive to just cash in this one...or make the final?

Vic with mischeavous eyes there, methinks she is planning a move lol.

Ahhhh, the power of a big stack. Andy Black raises to 6,000 from the cutoff, Yarkov Hirsch calls in the small blind. Peter Eichhardt re-raises in the big blind to 26,000. Black dwells for a long while before folding, Hirsch quickly mucks too. Black declares he thought Eichhardt had very little.

Eichhardt shows  Td 7h. Well he had two flush draws...

We'll be playing down to the final eight today.

Yet more chip counts (what a huge difference having a full list of players in seat order makes):

Table Lucky Goodwin

Argyris Argyrou    60,000
Dario Mineri         76,000
Martin Wendt      90,000
Matthias Stieger   62,000
Jules Kuusik         20,000
Marc Goodwin      68,000  (more on that in a minute)

Table Steady Storakers

Johan Storakers    133,000
Rob Hollink            40,000
Mika Paasonen       15,000
Markus Golser        79,000
Tomas Martinsson   70,000
Phil Shaw              16,000
Age Spets            105,000
Hans Eskilsson        22,100

SO - Marc Goodwin.  With the Aces.  On the Button.  Holding 20,000 - -

Only AQ and AK against him.  That's how quickly it can all change, folks.

I think dario mineri is the guy who traded in his fpp's for a porsche on pokerstars?

Sorry if thats already benn mentioned.

Good updates as ever.

That's correct, he was the first one. He was also holding the AK to Mark Goodwin's AA and Argyris Argyrou's AQ. He also lost the 60k side pot to Argrou's when a Q came on the flop but still has a comfortable 70k.

We're just on a 20 minute break which will shortly be over after which the blinds will be 1200/2400 with a 300 running ante.

Julian is OUT of the consolation event I'm afraid.
   

Hi all,

The next blondepoker competition is tonight at 8:30PM.

It is a $10 NLHE freezeout with $25 bounties on tikay and last week's winner Zimbrabim.

Details here:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=15641.0

Slight gripe, I've just had to fork out another 50 euros for another press pass, (similar to the situation that Jen cannily escaped from yesterday). However, some of the other press members are still using their passes from the other two days which is annoying, as they haven't been confronted, yet and the same time, I've seen lots of people without any credentials slip in too. Also irritating is the fact that the camera crew (who spend most of the time standing talking uninterested in the poker) have usurped the centre of the upstairs room, and refuse to let anyone else in that area near them, leaving us press members stuck on the edges with random audience people and other players making it difficult to watch the hands, and the press pass fairly worthless.

Ok rant over.

I'm still having lots of fun though, I swear.  8)

Andy Black -- 67k He apparently cleared up in the cash games on Saturday night.

The field has almost halved, with 42 players remaining.  Down to the bit where the money is in sight (36 get paid).  No sign of slowing, however.

Oh go on, let's have that payout structure one more time....

1        487,397
2        251,560
3        125,780
4        110,057
5          94,335
6          78,612
7          62,890
8          47,167
9          31,445
10 - 12  18,867
13 - 15  15,722
16 - 18  12,578
19 - 27  9,433
28 - 36  6,289

Vicky Coren has gone. She called a button raise with A4 and pushed on the K-4-2 flop but the button made a good call with 55. Then short stacked, she shortly went out afterwards with K-9 to the T-T of the same guy.

Thanks to Sverre Sundbo for that.

Morten Erlandsen (Pokergirl1?) is also OUT. He pushed with K8 on the button but the SB had the dominating AK, made more dominating by the A-K-J-3-3 board.

Vicky's table pre-exit.

what was the highest stakes been played?

The highest stakes we heard about were 10/20 with a 3 person straddle, which George Danzer was telling us about, 40/80/160, Andy also said he wanted it to be a 4 person straddle but a few of the other were 'reluctant'.

Hi Floppy and Jen :)

Excuse my ignorance but could someone explain  the term 'straddle'

Hello there....

It's gone a little slow and tense (that combination which pops up when the bubble approaches) - 40 left.

Counts from the Upstairs:

Table Rodion

Csaba Kuremszki   37,000
Anders Osterstrom  34,000
Rodion                  170,000
Sasa Biorac             150,000
Kristian Kjondaln        30,000
Ronny Eiden            25,000
Jurgen Klein             31,000
Thang Duc Nguyen   110,000

Table Orange Trousers

Nicolai Vivet        110,000
ElkY                   115,000
Ben Johnson         62,000
Jonas Molander     58,000
Daniel Dodet        140,000
Christian Togsverd 160,000
Andrea Balla           119,000
Mel Judah              46,000

Nicolai Vivet        110,000
ElkY                   115,000
Ben Johnson         62,000
Jonas Molander     58,000
Daniel Dodet        140,000
Christian Togsverd 160,000
Andrea Balla           119,000
Mel Judah              46,000

If Ben Johnson wins, could he be disqualified after a drugs test???

An optional third, larger, blind bet (often live) under the gun, with perhaps more straddles following.  Sometimes those are live too... makes the game a lot bigger.

We have a live feed from the TV table in here - the screen is behind me but I can hear the commentary.  Every couple of minutes I hear, "Ramzi raises."  At the moment, he's raising Peter Eichhardt's big blind, who calls.

Flop:  7s 9s Kc   Ramzi bets 12,000 - Peter folds.

This was transcribed live... I could get used to this.

Now Marc moves all in under the gun for 21,600.  Ramzi asks how much, but thinks better of it, and with no one else even giving it a minute's dwell, he steals wins the blinds.

Dario Minieri doubles up a short stack. He raised one off the cutoff with Q-To to 11k (blinds 1500/3000 with a 300 ante) and the big blind pushed for about 25k total so Dario was forced to call. His opponent had A-K and the 5-3-6-J-7 board was relatively harmless. Dario still has about 120k back though.

That TV table is worth paying attention to, what with Andy Black, Ramzi, Peter Eichhardt, Araz Pirooti, and Birgitta Johansson on it...

Actually, this isn't Goodwin - Mark Bollinger, I believe.

So Chris is picking Dario Mineri?  I'll take Marc Goodwin.  He just raised to 11,000 in mid position.  Dario made it 25k total from the small blind.  Pretty sharpish Marc announced "all-in" for a good 60k more... and an instafold from the aggressive young Italian.
Marc says, "There's a saying in England - sometimes you get your hands stuck in the till."

Somewhere along the line we've lost players from the Dark Room (which is actually quite soothing - I think if I sat in the stands around the TV table for too long listening to soothing Austrian-accented announcements, I may have a little nap) - such as Khalil Yafoui, Christopher Roth, Tomas Brolin, Ville Wahlbeck, Phil Shaw, Christopher Truby, Vegard Nygaard and Matthias Eriksson.  This is just a recap, not a recent decimation.

Photo time, especially for Legume...

Peter Gould just suffered a minor hit in his 94k stack, he called Argyris Argyrou short stack push in mid position with  Jd Jh. Pretty reasonable call you'd think right? Especially since Argyris had  Tc 9c

But the flop came 6c 8c Td or 1 million billion outs twice. Although he only needed the 7h turn so the 8s was incidental.


Elsewhere it's going reallllllly sloowwwwww, after a crazy all-in fest, (scandie-induced I suspect). 38 players are left, and 36 get paid. So a certain rapper may show his face  later...

Here's the best flashless picture of the TV table I could get (well, of Ramzi and the back of Ms. Johansson's head) - there are stands on three sides, but I haven't figured out how to get to the back lot yet.

Neighbours at present Peter Gould and Mr. Cool.  They're on a 15 minute break, at the moment, but here they were just moments ago - how animated they look.

Rob Hollink and most of Johan Storakers

Hi Jen et al.

Is Tomas Brolin of Sweden that just got knocked out THE Tomas Brolin? The silky skilled ex-footballer with the Blonde Mullet hair do?

Quality footy player but I wouldn't have him marked down as a poker player.....Most definitely blonde though. :D

Mike

"Is Tomas Brolin of Sweden that just got knocked out THE Tomas Brolin? The silky skilled ex-footballer with the Blonde Mullet hair do?"

Yes it is. He is sponsored by Nordic bet I think.

Mike

Hi all,

The next blondepoker competition is tonight at 8:30PM.

It is a $10 NLHE freezeout with $25 bounties on tikay and last week's winner Zimbrabim.

Details here:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=15641.0

37 players are left...


You know what that means....










Yes you do....


(http://jonescollegeprep.org/ourpages/auto/2006/1/31/1138729345621/mc-hammer.jpg)

STOP, BUBBLETIME!

We're not just slacking off here - they're understandably reluctant to bust out (although I notice Marc Goodwin is still playing a bit) - expect a brief tense silence, and then the bubble result, and then back to business as usual.  How about some pre-bubble chip counts?  Sure, why not.  Back in a minute.

Anders Osterstrom is the bubble, succumbing to Thang Duc Nguyen's AK.

Earlier Marc Bollinger survived an all-in with KQ vs Ramzi's 99 hitting a Queen on the flop whilst Marc Goodwin moved in preflop on the new tv table a few times and was uncalled each time.

T.D. Nguyen Gets Another One News Now -

Bit of an eye-waterer for Kristian Kjondaln, who check-raised all-in the majority of his stack on a Kd Qh 5s Jd board.  Nguyen made the call, showing Ks Jc.
Kristian showed Aspades Th, however for the Made Broadway.  A grimace and eye-roll from Thang Duc later, the river came:  Kc  Now it was all, "YES!" and table slapping, although a minute later he seemed to regain control and shake the 36th placed finisher's hand.

Dario takes out another player hitting a flush on the turn on the TV table with Ks 9s leaving us with only 33 players.


Just got the full scoop on this hand from Marc Goodwin, Dario raised in LP, and the small blind flat-called and pushed on the harmless looking  3s 2s 3d flop with A9, only for Dario to hit his flush on the turn.

We're on a mini-break whilst they sort out the remaining 4 tables, since while I've been writing this, another player has gone. Jen has gone to get some pictures because my camera has an auto-flash and I can't use it in the lower room now grrrrrr. So Guests, if you want to see these pictures, please sign up for Blonde. It's totally free.

Now with 32 remaining, there's only one table in the room at the top of the stairs with light in it - everyone else is now in the Casineum, whatever that is.  A new TV table has been selected - it's Peter Gould and Marc Goodwin, amongst others.  Marc's loving it,"I can't believe how good I look on TV."  Definitely no intimidation threat to his game then.

I think the smiley guy here is none other than the infamous Rodion.

Matthias Stieger finishes in 31st place

I heard a little voice announcing the hand - something like A 3 against J 8, presumably a short stack was integral to some play of this hand...

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

I've figured out how to turn the flash off on my camera. ;woohoo;

Elsewhere Bad Girl is still going ok in the €2000 tournament. I'm off to use my non-flash camera!!!  ;karabiner;

How is Argyris doing? Is he still in?

Thx

More pictures -
The back of Martin Wendt
The side view of Andy Black
The full view of Bertrand Grospellier (with half of Sven Polarski on the right)

Bless him, isnt it sweet that something so simple keeps floppy happy :)

Marc Goodwin takes out Jurgen Klein.

K-K vs A-7 all-in preflop.

Q-3-2-9-7

31 players left.

Argyris is currently on the TV table, wearing upside-down sunglasses a la Marcel Luske... he's also doing most of the talking for the table.
It's hard to estimate chip stacks, but I'd say around 90k...

Left to right - Csaba Kuremszki, Markus Golser, Tomas Martinsson (I think).  See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil...

Martin Wendt makes an all-in reraise preflop putting the pressure on Aryris Argyrou (a call would be for most if not all of his chips).  A totally impassive Martin waits out the frustrated think-through, including a moment where his hands were all round his chip stacks in a plausible 'I could push these forward, you know' sort of way and ignores the impassioned request to show... "I really wanted to see your hand..." says Argyris.

Hi guys! just caught up. I've actually been avoiding the updates today, I had some stuff to do and I knew that once I tuned in I would be hooked.


Thanks for your hospitality and your entertaining (if occasionally scary) company this week Jen. I am in your debt.

Marc Bolliger's face begins to melt when he discovers how few chips he has left.

Cue Matt674  ;fishing;

More like scratchy head, squashy chin and picky nose.

I am afraid Marc Goodwin's rise to chip domination has been cut short by Dario Mineri... in fact Mr. Cool has exited the TV table.
He re-raised preflop with 7c 7s, and Dario called the big raise with his AK, spiking one of them (I didn't want to question the somewhat downhearted Marc too closely at this time).  I guess I lose my bet with Homer...

P.S.  Hello RED!  You are most welcome any time, and I apologise for the cat-screaming-in-face episode.  It's just one of those risks you run when houseguesting.  She's old, her breath smells bad, but she means well.  And that's just Dana.

Here are table neighbours Ramzi Jelassi and Birgitta Johansson - they have 45,000 (Birgitta) and 140,000 (Ramzi).

 rotflmfao ;danafish; ;shitfanhit;

We've lost Swedish Buddha-statue afficionado Azad Pirooti.  I think Chris is as close to the TV table as the ropes and scary people with clipboards will allow him, so you'll have to wait for details...

There's some kind of hold up - we can hear the announcer announcing, "Please return to your seats...please come back to your tables...we continue the tournament...we will make a redraw at 24 players, and THEN we will make a break of 45 minutes"

It seems that some players might have made a bid for freedom and the buffet :)

Dario again is the executioner of another victim, this time Buddha carrier, Azad Pirooti who pushed to Dario's raise (and Dario has been raising all the time) with  Ks Jh, Dario called with  Ahrt Qh and the board came a no-helping 9d 8s 4s 5d 6s


Dario is now the Chip Leader.

Chip counts from the one remaining upstairs table:

Nicolai Vivet    124,000
Ben Johnson   110,000
Jonas Molander  106,000
Daniel Dodet     170,000
Christian Togsverd  145,000
Mel Judah              31,000

These are only rough guesses (except that from the very helpful Jonas Molander) - they have yet to race off the hundreds.

TONIGHT at 8:30PM sees the 4th installment of the new league.

It is the usual $10 bounty special comp with 15 minute level ups.

Last week saw a record 54 runners for a league comp - let's keep up the great numbers!

$25 bounties are on tikay and last week's bounty comp winner Zimbrabim.

Thanks for your support.

OK, they've been at 25 players for at least half an hour, although it's beginning to feel like around a week.  They were promised that break for snacks when the three-table redraw happened, but it looks like no one's hungry enough to bust themselves.

Wish I could tell you more interesting stuff... Mel Judah wins the short-stack grinding award for his steely grip on his stack which veers between 25 and 50k.

Hi Jen, can you please wish Tomas Martinsson gl from me. Cheers, great updates as always.

And it appears that the organisers share our view that this waiting for 24 is getting ridiculous.  The stubborn 25 have been sent on dinner break for 45 mins

I might have a little nap on the sofas in the buffet area (those who have been here will know how cloud-like and soft they are, bad for eating on, great for napping).

Back when they are, or when I can find a player to collar for some firsthand stories from the slowmoving final tables.

Sure, no problem, and thanks. 

That sounds like a law firm.

TONIGHT at 8:30PM sees the 4th installment of the new league.

It is the usual $10 bounty special comp with 15 minute level ups.

Last week saw a record 54 runners for a league comp - let's keep up the great numbers!

$25 bounties are on tikay and last week's bounty comp winner Zimbrabim.

Thanks for your support.

He's the other large Buddha statue afficionado, right?

Meanwhile in the €2000 Event:

Ram -- 84k
Bad Girl -- 53k
Marcel Luske -- 57k

Blinds are 800/1600, 39 players left, average stack is about 48k and there's a chunky €95,000 for first.

Correct. Blonde hair, typical lookin' swede  :D

hows andy blacks stack looking?

Not sure, will check when they sit back down.  He just strolled in the Main Entrance, though, looking relaxed as ever.

While everyone twiddles their collective thumbs, how's this for trivia:

The official Crest of Baden is a guy and a lady in a bathtub. 

they got a similar one in brighton except its two blokes ( I think one of thems flushy)

I just saw that Ramzi is down to just 20,000.  When I asked what happened, he said, "Andy Black happened."  Mr. Black is now comfortably over 160k, while Ramzi has about two big blinds (the final confrontation was his 10 10 against Andy's QQ).  I am going to go watch, like the vulture I am.

Also the home country of two infamous/famous men named A.ol. and A..ol.  ;tk;

During this break I've been having another check on the €2000 event. Managed to get there in time to see Barny Boatman lose most of his chips in a A-K vs T-T confrontation. The board read 8-5-4-2-J. He went out shortly after.

Ram is also short, I reckon he's got just about 10k or so, I think he lost a big pot before I arrived. Ross Boatman looks in fairly good shape on around 80k whilst Bad Girl has I think 120k. She just took down a sizeable pot after calling a check/raise on a  Jc 8d 7h flop and then betting the Js turn when it was checked to her again. This time her opponent folded and she showed Jd. Ram, Ross and Bad Girl are all on the same table.

Marcel Luske has about 7 or 8 huge and I mean HUGE, stacks, and is also going rather well, in fact I have a picture of his stack, and I want you to tell me how much he has. Pinks are 100 and the blues are 1k and yes that is an extra stack of pinks at the back. Good luck!

A few totally accurate chip counts as they restart play right now -

Andy Black      115,300
ElkY                85,500
Brigitta Johansson  145,900
Peter Eichhardt  145,900
Age Spets         118,800  (thank goodness someone else counted his chip towers)
Johan Storakers  85,800
Csaba Keremszki  140,500

Back to the main event and Ramzi Jelassi is the 25th place finisher.

He made his stand with  Aspades 6d and found a caller getting 4-1 who had  Qs 9s

Board:

 9d 2h 3h 7d 5c

55k?

At least he gets €9,433 as consolation (second prize tier - definitely enough for new trainers).

More waiting now, as they redraw for the final three tables.  When the dust settles, I'll go and see if I can name them all and tell you their new positions.

Marcel luske 81k?

Way more than that... not that it matters, he'll get 2nd no matter what  :D

 :hello: ;welcome; to Blonde

Closest so far...

Jules - Message passed on and a thankyou from him.

Remaining Brit, Peter Gould has about 70k and is on the TV table, blinds are now 4k/8k so he'll have to make a move soon. But one double up will jump him right back up into contention.

Dario Minieri has around 250k and is CL.

hey jen, this is Dino from the Gutshot (just pretend u know who im talking about :D )

Can u give us a few updates on Argyris?

Great coverage by the way, beats every site we're on!

I've been lurking for a while as you guys have BY FAR the best forum online when it comes to tournaments...
I think i miscounted by a couple thousand 70 x1k and 140x100...

Hi Dino - Argyris is still in, will just go and find some interesting stuff to tell you about him (he's on the TV table no more, sadly) after this News:

Triple elimination.

OK, three different hands, but some kind of mental watershed appears to have been reached and players are dropping fast:

1) Nicolai Vivet
2) Age Spets  (Short; Q4 vs victorious housemaking A 6)
3) Mel Judah

Caught the last one in full:  Mel Judah all-in on a flop of Tc 5s 7c, Rodion happy enough with his Aspades Ad.  Mel showed 8s Th
Turn and river:  Qd 6d

Always delighted for lurkers to get involved... howdy

I think NoFlops only asked that about the stack count because he couldn't actually count it.

Here's your new TV table lineup, in seat order:

Thang Duc Nguyen
ElkY
Johan Storakers
Andrea Balla
Peter Gould
Martin Wendt
Ben Johnson
Andy Black

you guys coming to Amsterdam in November for MCOP?

Tomas Martinsson is OUT. A-9 vs Ecchardt's Q-J

Board:

T-3-2-8-Q

Not sure yet; they're a little funny about the media over there - but I enjoyed covering it last year, and will definitely consider it if it isn't a long uphill struggle...

19th place finisher is Martin Wendt   KQ vs and A9, with an Ace on the flop for good measure...

Peter Gould has pushed a few times, including getting Andy Black to pass after the latter had made a preflop raise.

Here's the tv table with all it's glitz, hurts your eyes after a while.

So, Martin Wendt in 19th place.

Yes.  Yes, Jon, he did.

Hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's Andy.

So, with the elimination of, er, not sure, we're down to two tables!  Reshuffle, if not redraw....

can u wish peter and andy good luck from  me

great coverage really, imagine what u could do with 5 people!

get tikay off his farse

Dario Minieri, yes he may be chip leader, but he looks younger than JP. Now that's impressive.

Brigitta Johansson has just been eliminated 18th. 

And if there was a little blank spot just now (as I fear there was): 20th - Johan Storakers, 21st - Tomas Martensson

Anybody play with this guy?  Online?  You probably all have if he played the sheer volume of big cash games necessary to bag that Porsche... Wonder if he's all aggression or has a lower gear somewhere.

im really hoping Andy Black takes this down, he really is due a tournament win, and no better time for it.

*ive probably jinxed him and he's making his way out the door as i type*

We've also lost Christian Togsverd, who was looking comfortably stacked all the way through the latter part of his Day 1 and today.  That's not very helpful or informative actually, but I've found that putting things in bold takes the attention off our lack of detail.  He was 17th, winning €12,578.

Yes, but we'd all be sharing one ethernet cable.

Thanks though, Roland...

And in 16th place finishes ElkY (Bertrand Grospellier) - NoFlops has the details....

Elky is OUT.

He ran A-K into Peter Echhardt's K-K. A low board with no ace although the slim possiblity of a flush draw on the turn failed to materialise.

Thang Luc Nguyen doubles up in the hand straight after we lost Elky. He took the chips off Ben Johnson.

Ben:

 Tc Th

Thang:

 Ad Ks

Board:

 Qs 8d 5d 4s and...... Ac

Argyris News Now:

He has conjured up a pretty decent stack of 380,000.  But two to his right lurks Dario Minieri with even more...

$5k HU on Stars is his poison I've heard.

Andy Black moves all in:  Ahrt 2h against 8h 9h  "You're not going home," says Marcus Golser who had the smaller hearts.

Flop:  Jc Jd 3s
Turn:  6s
River:  something of spades

Which means it's a double up for Andy Black.



Where are you, luckyblind?   :D

Hey Jen/Homer,

Great job as always. Any idea what Andrew doubled up to?

Thanks in advance.

27 minutes of play left today (that seems reasonable, doesn't it) - a double call of Andy Black's immediate second all-in just created quite a bit of excitement.

The flop of Ks 7d 7h got a check from Ben Johnson, and a move in from the Hungarian - quick call.
Ben shows Ad Kc
vs. Ahrt Jd and Andy's T J (no idea of suit).

There was no help, and Ben Johnson gets a reasonable stack shipped his way, while Andy Black takes 15th spot and €15,722.

It was only 66,000 -still teetering on the edge, chipwise.  He was pretty much forced to move in again in quick succession.

And here are both of them:

Argyris in the high-vis green shirt, and chip magnet Dario.

Thanks Jen,

Guess I am a bok!   ;oops;

Thang Nguyen is known on stars as 'Evelyn' that made 3 or 4 good cashes in the WCOOP in atleast 3 different diciplines. A truly good schooled player that understand all aspects of the game. Top 5 the least for thid gent.

Csaba Kuremszki is OUT. He ran A-3 into Thang Luc Nguyen's A-T soooted.

I think although 'Luc' sounds better, it's 'Duc' on the pokerstars info sheet, Homer.

Thorsten Schuler is OUT -

9d 9c against Peter Eichhardt's Aspades Ks.

King on the flop, (with a Q 5) and with a second spade on the turn he had one out by the river.  Drawing thin, one might say.

Down to 13 players.

Just dredged up this photo taken while he was waiting for his two callers to do so...

And here's Peter Gould, who's been keeping as low a profile as possible in a shirt like that for the whole last level.

And we're on to the last hand of the day... this leaves the same question as every night - what to do after the players retire and the press room empties of press?  Leaving out playing online, for the moment, one wonders what natives of Baden actually do if they've somehow skewed their bodyclock into a nocturnal cycle like we all have... It is truly one of Europe's great mysteries.

I will be happy to take on all challengers at two player puzzle bobble and/or any kind of rummy variant until approximately 2.30am. 

Or it's back to the buffet.  Again.

No takers?  You quite rightly fear me.  Ah well.  I have half a mind to make that challenge permanent...

Seeing as there are just a handful of players left now, I reckon we can stretch to waiting for the chip totals at the end of the day.

Also, since Homer is sticking with Dario, and I really ought to bet against him (Homer) - I pick Peter Eichhardt because he can't miss.

Here's the remaining tables.

I'm still sticking with the ten-year old Dario to take this down, but Peter Echhardt can't stop hitting cards and might be a danger.

I will pwn u Jen coz Im teH l33t n00b.

Blinds will restart tomorrow at 6k/12k with a running 1k ante at 12pm, (11am UK time). 13 players are left.

Mad Harper, who has been nothing less than benificent with her stats and counts and general poker tables, assures us that we have less than 15 minutes to wait before the day's Final Chip Standings are made public!  I don't know about you, but I'm going to sit here and stare at my laptop in sheer anticipation.

I will fill this gap with another still from the enticement-to-gamble TV slideshow we get in the press room all day on rotation:

'Texas Hold'em - erlernen und gewinnen!'

If only it were that simple.

another great bit of updating, thanks v much

Bonus cash game material for you now, like the swiss ambassdor we are really spoiling you....

I went looking to see if the €2000 euro comp was going on but it had finished for the day, however I found Julian instead in the BB in his cash game, there had been a raise and a call and Julian pushed in. The initial raiser called but the caller passed and Julian mentioned something about Brian Wilson... The flop came  Ahrt 8h 5c and the caller banged his hand on the table, AK perhaps? Anyway the turn came the 4c before the river 6h... Mateyboy showed  Kc Ks and Julie showed..... 7h 4h for the scoop. According to Ash, he also cracked AA with Q6....

Bad Girl has 60k for tomorrow's €2000 too. Thanks to Ash for that too.

Aha!  Here they are:

Eichhardt  Peter  SWE  439,500
Argyrou   Argyris   CYP   392,000
Johnson   Ben   USA   352,000
Minieri   Dario   ITA        339,000
Nguyen   Thang Duc D   308,000
Balla   Andrea   ITA     287,000
Molander  Jonas   SWE   272,500
Biorac   Sasa   D          228,000
Cherednichenko   Rodion   RUS    218,000
Gould   Peter   GBR   190,000
Dodet   Daniel   BEL   167,000
Golser   Markus   AUT   125,000

I'm off to teach Homer how to play rummy...

Goodnight and good luck

 ;stickaforkinme;

Three column gin rummy, last column double ?

I'm game  ;fishing;

can you access internet poker sites from your hotel room jen?  couldnt last year

I think she may have a vodafone card

Wow...two italians in the last 12....Forza ragazzi!   ;woohoo; ;woohoo; ;woohoo;