Print Page - Pokerstars.com EPT Dortmund: Day 1b

Hello and welcome back for Day 1b of the Dortmund EPT.

Yesterday's play was packed with drama and intrigue, and today's action could well prove to be yet more exciting. A mixture of illustrious and familiar faces are scheduled to fight it out and we'll be closely monitoring the progress of Dan (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=86) Carter (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=86), Stu Rutter, Marcel (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=642) Luske (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=642), Annette_15, Rolf (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=726) Slotboom (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=726), George (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=556) Danzer (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=556) and Daniel (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=515) Negreanu (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=515) amongst others. The list of names appearing poses some interesting questions...

....will Annette continue her seemingly unstoppable recent Thewy-esque run of results?

....can anyone Get Carter?

....will Marcel (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=642) Luske (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=642)-box his way through the field?

and perhaps most crucially, who will have the last scarf out of Stu Rutter and George (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=556) Danzer (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=556)?

I couldn't think of a terrible pun to associate with Dan Negreanu, but his reputation precedes him and, never the shrinking violet, Kid Poker will no doubt provide his table with its fair share of entertainment.

They will all be looking to join the likes of current chip leader Cyrille Chabot, well placed former EPT winner Mats (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=658) Iremark (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=658) and English players Maz (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=277) Nawab (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=277), Redmond (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1087) Lee (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1087) and Steve (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) Jelinek (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414), who have all played some great poker to earn their passage into day 2.

So what looks like a fantastic day's poker in prospect is imminent as the race for the latest EPT gathers momentum and begins to hot up. There can be only one!

Join us to find out who...See you soon.

[This is the "At a glance" thread which has a more concise report of events. Should you wish to make requests of the updaters, Jen(Djinn) and Rod (Junglecat03) for chip counts, photos and other information on your favorite players, you can visit the interactive thread - http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=30882.new#new]

Today the queuefest of the registration seems to have been brought well under control and we're looking at a pretty timely start to this Day One. When we arrived in the press room (suddenly full to absolute bursting) Mad Harper explained the sudded rush... "Everyone's playing today. Everyone." Well, that's why everyone's media is all abuzz, then...

A few of the players, just to whet the appetite (I will bribe Junglecat to type the whole thing up again with the promise of a Corny Big Cereal Breakfast Treat)...

Thor Hansen
Pascal Perrault
Brandon Schaefer
Nicolas Levi
Antony Lellouche
Elky
Stuart Rutter
Tomas Brolin
Sigi Stockinger
Woody Deck
Noah Boeken
Ben Grundy
Markus Golser
Daniel Negreanu
Sasa Biorac
Christian Grundtvig
Philip Yeh
Dan Carter
Peter Gould
Josh Gould

Oh no need for hours of tedious data entry today! Pokerstars' media tsarina Mad has just sent us this (it's not quite a full list - the totally last minute sneakers-in won't be on there) but it's pretty good:

Ognyan Ivanov
Philip Collins
Guido Meacci
Jose Luis Gomez Rubio
Torsten Haase
Boaz Lavie
Sándor Hollaar
Mario Kühl
Stefano Busino
Paul Testud
Jens Lübbe
Ricardo Sousa
Daniel Negreanu
Christoph Geier
Daniel Pidun
tbc
Aliaksandr Dzianisau
Rolf Weißhaupt
Daniel Bolton
Hardy Behling
Glenn Sullivan
Arnaud Mattern
Jim Finnegan
Matthias Neu
Björn Enberg
Michael Durrer
Kristoffer Myhre
Annette Obrestad
Vikke Toumaala
Manfred Baß
Alexander Spachmann
Gunnar Rabe
Andrers Henriksson
Tilmann Ebeling
Shahram Rastegari
Carsten Joh
Heinz Piroth
Markus Henderkes
Stephan Gerin
Eugen Frey
Christian Harder
Matthias Lehmann
Marc Friedmann
Noah Boeken
Bernhard Damnik
Joseph Elpayaa
Dan Owsten
Manfred Hammer
Michael Friedrich
Martin Kaya
Martin Kläser
Marc Dötsch
Michael Schulze
Jacques Zaicik
Xiaobiao Cai
Maria Maceiras Lapido
Christoffer Sonesson
Andreas Torbergsen
Stanley Chon
Mike Murray
Mika Turpeinen
Johannes Steindl
Lars Laarsson
Edward Katzka
Russell Carson
Peter Gould
Jameson Painter
Kevin Durand
Ralf Pelzner
Ram Vaswani
Woody Deck
Davide Fazzone
Torsten Hinze
Robert Ross
Haim Kakoun
Markus Golser
Sasa Biorac
Sven Leu
Piotr Jopp
Joseph Bolnick
Dennis P
Markus Scharhag
Matt Kay
Michael Kwiek
Ludovic Lacay
Danny Ehrenberg
Thomas Rauhut
Joshua Gould
Vinh Nguyen
Philip Yeh
Christian Grundtvig
Stig Top Rasmussen
Daniel Ryan
Ben Grundy
Jan Heitmann
Sigfried Stockinger
Sebastian Freudenberg
Kai Herold
Jonas Soerensen
Ulrich Trautenberg
Alexander Clauss
Markus Gisdol
David Lacoste
Dario De Angelis
Marciano Elie
Drobyna Denys
Anthony Spinella
Rami Boukai
Frederik Hostrup-Pedersen
Roy von der Locht
Ben Wolbers 1
Andreas Hoivold
Gleb Privalov
Rolf Slotboom
Felix Pham
Raul Paez Corral
Micha Hoedemaker
Christian Groesdonk
Bertrand Grospellier
Marcel Luske
Van Leest
Michael Keiner
Frank Rotter
Eric Larcheveque
Matias Isopahkala
Benjamin Zamani
Mikael Norinder
Fabio Bianchi
George Danzer
Maurizio Carra
Maximilian Bracht
Marcus Tandler
Peter Ameskamp
Christian Taepper
Luis Tier
Horst Koch
Pouya Pouya Majd
Guillaume de la Gorce
Stuart Rutter
Henrik Sjöberg
Tomas Brolin
Luca Pagano
Hugo Marialva Felix
Nicolas Levi
Rasmus Edenfall
Antony Lellouche
Luis David Sevilla Petit
Tyler Friederich
Henrik Lennholm
Pascal Perrault
Derya Apuhan
Benjamin Kang
Brandon Schaefer
Harald Dohm
Thor Hansen
Aram Sargsyan
Frederik Keitel
Kenan Satici
Patrick Bueno
Charalampos Tsaoussis
Daniel Zink
Gerd Wandel
Joris Jasper
Michael Lang
Andrew Amdur
Raul Mestre
Pavel Blatny
Michael Finn
Coca Aniol Alcaraz
Andreas Zwickel
Maik Brandau
Tim Michels
Vincent Courtois
Valerio Scoppa
Kevin Niegot
Robert Stain
Marco Liesy
Filifoz Yigit
Guido Kempkes
Nazim Kicik
Oliver Bösch
Klas Krueger
Daniel Carter
Jiri Vacek
Roland Specht
Michael Klimt
Christian Grundtvig 2
Georgios Gatselos
Dragoslav Timarac
Frank Werder
Remy Biechel
André Santos
Jose Maria Puertas Nieto
Will Molson
Henryk Nowakowski
Iliodors Kamatakis
Gianvalerio Bindi
Stefan Rotach
Guido Kempkes
Jioí Kulhánek
Markus Neuhoeffer
Juan Barrachina
Soraya Homam
Alexander Fett
Marten Jensen
Andrew Atmaca
Samir Hamudic
Veysel Kortan
Friket Aydin
Martin Hruby
Nikolaos Panopoulos

Some chip counts from the approach to the first break, and Featured Photo - Stuart Rutter, in blinding hoody having amassed a comfy stack of 17,500 after something involving 4-5 on an A-6-3 board (two on turn, naturally...)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8662&g2_serialNumber=1)

May Maceiras -- 13,750
Paul Testud -- 15,000
Daniel Negreanu -- 6,325
Arnaud Mattern -- 13,800
Annette Obrestad -- 13,000
Dan Carter -- 11,500
Roland de Wolfe -- 4,150
Peter Gould -- 8,500
Ram Vaswani -- 19,400
Andreas Hoivold -- 18,000
Rolf Slotboom -- 13,500
Bertrand Grospellier -- 27,000 (probable leader)
Marcel Luske -- 11,250
Mikael Norinder -- 11,500
George Danzer -- 9,100
Benjamin Kang -- 12,350
Soraya Homam -- 8,350

Double Up for Frenchman Paul Testud:

He got involved with preflop standardraiser Hardy Behling (according to my list), calling the 300 and seeing a flop of: 9c 4s 5h. Behling bet out 600, called by Testud...
Along came the 8h. Now Behling bet out 2,000, raised rather quickly to 5,000... he called.
River: Ks Check to Testud who announced, "All in," but really had half a bowl of rice behind - just 1,200. The dealer counted it out - it looked like more (good old shrapnel)...and Negreanu helpfully translated: "Ein thousand zwei hundred. I knew that!"

A reluctant Behling made the call, knocking himself almost to the felt when he saw Testud's 8d 9d, mucking his Jh Jc.
______________________________________________

Ram Vaswani appears to be raising most hands, to 350, which might explain his nice early stack (either that, or the absence of Woody Deck, erstwhile tablemate and now OUT)...but people aren't playing along - just now Peter Gould re-raised him from the big blind preflop and Big Blind Matey super-slowplayed the flopped nuts against him... got to be a bit wary even with double the average. Although that helps.

Pictured here with Mr. Deck (Now you see me...)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8664&g2_serialNumber=1)

An interesting hand developed between masked avenger Rolf (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=726) Slotboom (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=726) and Roy (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=731) Von Der Locht (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=731). The tic tac tower, when it comes into play, inevitably does so with the slow deliberation of a treacly snail with a keen poker radar...

I caught this pot from the point where there was 2k in the middle, and a threeway flop of 2h 5c 7s being stared at intently. Check to von der Locht, who bet 1,500, called by Rolf...
Turn: 5s Check-check
River: Qc Now Rolf bets out the surprise number of 525...and is raised to 3,000 - both players' movement very slow and deliberate like some kind of underwater ballet...
Rolf goes into the tank now, making a sound like, "Ayayayayay" which was clearly one of consternation, but eventually he makes the call... His neighbour with some kind of sixth sense goes, "Nines..."

Rolf (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=726) Slotboom (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=726) shows: 9s 9d
Roy (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=731) Von Der Locht (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=731) shows: 9c 9h

How about that.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8678&g2_serialNumber=1)

Quote from: Tractor on January 30, 2008, 06:03:01 PM

Any Ben (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=45) Grundy (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=45) update.

thanks

Some counts from Table Grundy:

Sigi Stockinger -- 8,125
Jan Heitmann -- 15,375
Ben Grundy -- 3,500
Danny Ryan -- 16,800
Stig Top Rasmussen -- 9,050
Christian Grundtvig -- 6,850

Ben said that he was another last minute why-not-er, and told us that he would either get lots of chips or be going home to move house tomorrow. Yes, move all worldly possessions to a new house - the thing which apparently tops the list on any stress-meter. What better way to relax than a potentially 24-hour trip to Germany and a dabble in the EPT? He was still in at the last break, but will go have another check...

We are immensely grateful to have been issued t-mobile cards in the press room, meaning, hopefully...

(http://www.mediumdreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/crossed-fingers.jpg)

...we won't have too many more problems with connection and can bring you the exciting developments as they happen. HOORAY!

Without further ado, here are some shots of players requested earlier...

The prestige of the EPT is such that people are prepared to go to amazingly lengths to ensure they are a part of it. Take this man for example. Here we have one of John Travolta's cohorts from "Grease", who has made the effort to actually travel forward in time from the 70s to be here today. Now THAT'S dedication...

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8668&g2_serialNumber=1)

I am, of course, being facetious. In fact, this gentleman is none other than Kevin Durand (I'm fairly sure!) and we wish him, and his cracking leather jacket and quiff, the best of luck.

Ram's been accumulating chips with his aggressive style and is going great guns at the moment. For a moment, I just want to concentrate on his jumper though. I thought it looked familiar but I couldn't place it. Then a lightbulb went on in my head....AHH OF COURSE!

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8666&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://www.clicket.com/images/PM6854010.jpg)

Roland de Wolfe busted just after the last break, after being knocked to around 4k having "run into Aces...with two pair. Ace on the river..."

The rest of it went in, according to Dan Carter, to whom I apologise unreservedly about the hair slander, like so:

He limped with Aspades Ks (we'll call it that suit just so I can use the cards), and there were a few more callers...

Flop: K-3-2 (with two hearts). He bet out big, but still received three callers for the 9d turn, at which point he shoved his final 2.5k into a pot of around 2k. Only one player took him on - with the 9h 7h (that is, for the slow of computation, a pair of Nines and a flush draw)... the river was the Ahrt, and curtains for Mr. de Wolfe.

Here is Annette about an hour or so ago. She cuts a small but imposing figure at the table...

Would you mess with this lady?

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8670&g2_serialNumber=1)

Noah Boeken, again from roughly an hour ago.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8672&g2_serialNumber=1)

Despite Jen's earlier find of gaudily coloured ski jacket guy, surely Noah has a strong claim for the most outrageously designed hoody. He's not just here to make up the numbers though, a very strong and experienced player, Noah has the game to go deep and is another that seems to have brought him own personal and highly vocal fan club with him.

And, although this gentleman had no identifying number in front of me, he should be Dan Bolton. Correct me if I'm wrong. At the time of the photo, he had just below his starting stack of 10,000.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8674&g2_serialNumber=1)

Just to prove Daniel Negreanu is indeed here, I snapped him at his table. He had just lost a pot at this point (smallish) so didn't have his usual beaming smile plastered across his face, for once!

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8676&g2_serialNumber=1)

Quote from: Juanzo on January 30, 2008, 03:42:12 PM

Hi
Could you inform aboout May Maceiras. Table 7 seat 1. Girl.
Say har "hola".
Thans
Juan.

Hola!

Here's your lady, looking quite imposing, and potentially in disguise. She was up to 15k at last check, but as I say we are a little out of date with the chip counts... just about to do a full run while the players get out of the way for the dinner break.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8688&g2_serialNumber=1)
_________________________________________

George Danzer has just busted - three players with 10k-ish each got it all in on a 3-4-5 flop.
Danzer: A-2 for the wheely little straight
LosingMatey: "He found a Six." I take this to mean he called with an open-ended...
WinningMatey: "He'd flopped a set and then filled up."

Here he was, pictured in happier times with only the faintest hint of devilish redeye:

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8690&g2_serialNumber=1)

Quote from: s3an on January 30, 2008, 05:22:30 PM

Hi Guys

Can you find out chip count for David owstan

Thanks

Quote from: Djinn on January 30, 2008, 06:31:11 PM

Quote from: Neishe on January 30, 2008, 06:20:42 PM

Hey guys sorry to be a apin but is there anychance you find out how a certain mr Dan Owsten is doing much appreciated

Sure, we're just clearing a mini backlog of information we've been trying to force online for the last level - will check on him as soon as possible...

The much followed Dan Owstan is on.....[cue drum roll]....7,250!

Ok, so it may have been ever so slightly anticlimactic. We will see if we can fill out the bare bones of this limp statistic with some more fleshy details when we get the chance to talk to, or at least snap Dan once he has finished his dinner break.

In the meanwhile, prepare to gorge yourselves upon a veritable feast of statistics, as Jen and me have just collected chip counts from tables 1-10. Give our little fingers time to tap them all out and we'll be back in a mo...

The staggered dinner break means that today we were prepared and are going to attempt to bring full counts from this level. Yes - every player...

Here goes:

Table 2

Paul Testud -- 15,000
Jens Lübbe -- 12,550
Ricardo Sousa -- 10,600
Daniel Negreanu -- 10,900
Christoph Geier -- 7,400
Will Molson -- 4,550
Rolf Weißhaupt -- 14,500
Daniel Bolton -- 18,400
Hardy Behling -- 5,100

Table 3

Glenn Sullivan -- OUT/Moved
Robert Stain -- 19,875
Arnaud Mattern -- 14,250
Jim Finnegan -- 6,850
Matthias Neu -- 21,500
Björn Enberg -- 8,350
Michael Durrer -- 10,875
Kristoffer Myhre -- 5,700
Annette Obrestad -- 19,000
Vikke Toumaala -- 5,950

Table 4

Manfred Baß -- 17,075
Alexander Spachmann -- 18,675
Gunnar Rabe -- OUT/Moved
Soraya Homam -- 7,875
Andrers Henriksson -- 10,650
Tilmann Ebeling -- 6,700
Shahram Rastegari -- 4,050
Carsten Joh -- 24,500
Heinz Piroth -- OUT/Moved
Markus Henderkes -- OUT/Moved
Coca Aniol Alcaraz -- 23,000
Roland Specht -- 9,350

Table 5

Stephan Gerin -- 26,800
Eugen Frey -- 11,975
Christian Harder -- 8,975
Matthias Lehmann -- OUT/Moved
Marc Friedmann -- OUT/Moved
?
Noah Boeken -- 16,000
Bernhard Damnik -- 16,150
Joseph Elpayaa -- 1,200

Table 6

Dan Owsten -- 7,250
? -- 9,400
Manfred Hammer -- 6,150
Michael Friedrich -- OUT/Moved
Samir Hamudic -- 15,000
Martin Kaya -- 14,900
Martin Kläser -- 11,800
Marc Dötsch -- 17,050
Michael Schulze -- 6,300
Jacques Zaicik -- 10,050

Table 7

Maria Maceiras Lapido -- 13,450
Christoffer Sonesson -- 17,000
Andreas Torbergsen -- 18,000
Stanley Chon -- 11,900
Mike Murray -- 3,500
Mika Turpeinen -- 12,500
Johannes Steindl -- 13,225
Lars Laarsson -- 3,600
Edward Katzka -- 9,975

Xiaobiao Cai

Table 11

Christian Grundtvig -- OUT
Stig Top Rasmussen -- OUT
Nazim Kicik -- 24,600
Gerd Wandel -- 19,800
Daniel Ryan -- 24,900
Ben Grundy -- 20,000
Jan Heitmann -- 23,000
Sigfried Stockinger -- 12,800
Sebastian Freudenberg -- 6,900
Kai Herold -- OUT
Jonas Soerensen -- 6,525

Table 18

Henrik Lennholm -- OUT
Remy Biechel -- 1,900
Pascal Perrault -- 21,300
Frank Werder -- 17,100
Derya Apuhan -- 4,675
Benjamin Kang -- 20,000
Brandon Schaefer -- 17,800
Harald Dohm -- 14,300
--
Thor Hansen -- 12,075

Table 16

Peter Ameskamp -- OUT/Moved
Christian Taepper -- 13,650
Luis Tier -- ??
Horst Koch -- 5,400
Pouya Pouya Majd -- 30,000
Guillaume de la Gorce -- 9,400
Stuart Rutter -- 13,075
Henrik Sjöberg -- OUT/Moved
Vincent Courtois -- 6,975
Tomas Brolin -- 16,625

Table 17

Luca Pagano -- OUT
Nikolaos Panopoulos -- 6,025
Hugo Marialva Felix -- 9,900
Nicolas Levi -- 43,500
Rasmus Edenfall -- OUT/Moved
Antony Lellouche -- 8,450
Luis David Sevilla Petit -- ?14,500?
Tyler Friederich -- 24,925

Table 13

Rami Boukai -- OUT?
Frederik Hostrup-Pedersen -- OUT
Markus Neuhoeffer -- 5,600
Roy von der Locht -- 13,700
Ben Wolbers 1 -- 25,000
Andreas Hoivold -- 19,700
Gleb Privalov -- OUT
Rolf Slotboom -- 16,300
Felix Pham -- OUT
Michael Finn -- 20,000
Patrick Bueno -- 5,175

Table 12

Ulrich Trautenberg -- 18,125
Alexander Clauss -- 10,950
Markus Gisdol -- 4,450
David Lacoste -- OUT
Georgios Gatselos -- 9,800
Dario De Angelis -- 12,750
Marciano Elie -- 8,625
Drobyna Denys -- 9,500
Andrew Atmaca -- 19,200
Anthony Spinella -- 13,100

And the other table:

Aram Sargsyan -- 14,850
Michael Lang -- 16,700
Fabio Bianchi -- 10,775
Maurizio Carra -- 16,350
Kenan Satici -- 14,400
Marcus Tandler -- 24,575

And following on from Jen, here is the final table, table 14.

14   1   ??      14200
14   2   Marten Jensen      9125
14   3   Daniel Carter      14150
14   4   Bertrand Grospellier   25125
14   5   Marcel Luske      19275
14   6   Van Leest      11200
14   7   Michael Keiner      8775
14   8   Frank Rotter      6275
14   9   Eric Larcheveque   10400

I stopped by Dan Owston's table. He is still hovering around 8k or so..."Got lots of these chips!" he said brightly, before pointing to a largish stack of green chips (the smallest denomination 25 chips)...

..."er, did you enjoy the dinner. Worth €70?" I ask.

..."well it was worth 70p" was his dismissive response. "Nah, it wasn't that bad. Best meal I've had since....thursday!" Good to see Dan laughing and joking.

I managed to snap a quick pic of him, in full Marcel Luske mode. Let's hope he can emulate Marcel's chip accumulation skills as accurately as his sunglass orientation technique.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8694&g2_serialNumber=1)

Here was Ram Vaswani, fresh back from the dinner break and relishing the opportunity to further add to his growing stack.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8696&g2_serialNumber=1)

In case any of you doubt the depth of support for Miss Obrestad and Mr Negreanu behold the ever present crowds surrounding their table. Believe it or not, these two snaps are during a quiet moment!

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8702&g2_serialNumber=1)

(That's Kid Poker getting the massage in the foreground from one of the skilled massage girls, Suki)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8704&g2_serialNumber=1)

(Annette is the small brunette, positioned in seat 8 of the right hand table)

Daniel Negreanu was fortunately in the process of doing a quick audit of his chips as I pass him by so handily, I was able to see he had a tad under 20k.

Stuart Rutter was crippled not long ago. He called me over and I saw straight away things were bad...

"I can't win a race" he said exasperatedly. "Lost a 19k pot AK v QQ..." Poor guy looked so glum. Pretty much every tournament I've done updates on for blonde, Stuart Rutter has had zero luck and, illogical though it is, you can't help but feel semi-responsible. Nontheless, he may be scarf-less today, but he is not yet chip-less, and with 4k it is still possible he could make an exciting comeback, and we'll all be cheering for one of the nice guys of poker if he does. Come on Stu!

A large, stocky semi-mohicanned man was seen belllowing with joy, and deafening all those nearby as he raked in an enormous 30k pot.

How this hand played out I don't know but I could see a board of T-3-4-8-A and the large mohicanned man holding A-J in front of him whilst his somewhat slimmer opponent(who looked like a stick man next to mohican man) had the initially dominating but ultimately vanquished Q-Q sitting in front of him. It was hard to see where the bulk of the chips went in, but if it was pre-river and that is where the ace fell then Q-Q man was incredibly unlucky to lose such a critical pot.

Sadly both players had disposed of the cards they have been requested to keep near them, so I can't identify them. Mohican man and stick man they will remain for now...

Elky Fails To Accumulate Really Really Big Stack News Now (courtesy of Marc Convey):

The chip leader (until a minute ago) has been playing fast and loose, raising all the time preflop and generally starting to annoy left-hand-side neighbour Marcel Luske, who was to be heard muttering good-naturedly about how, "I'm not going to let you push me around...steal my blinds...steal their blinds..." etc.

The fateful raise came from Grospellier on the cutoff, and button Luske called the most recent EPT champ - blind - preflop.

The flop came 9h 5d 6h. Elky bet out 1,300, and the Dutchman, with more words to the effect of, "No more of your irksome table captaincy..." just pushed, for 17k(!). Elky thought about it for a while before saying that he wasn't prepared to lay that hand down, and called.
Grospellier: Tc Td
Luske: 9s 5c

No improvement and he's doubled up a formidable opponent in position on him. But this is the second knock-back from chip lead to well-above-average - I am sure the young Frenchman can deal with it.

At 200 - 400 - 50, stealing and perhaps more importantly re-stealing is a fine art that can augment the better players' stacks considerably. It is a fine line between success and failure though.

First off we had Russell Carson raising to 800 from the hijack, only to be met by Ricardo Sousa (I beleive) re-raising to 2,800 from the button. (re-steal attempt perhaps?)

The curly haired youngster Carson asked Ricardo how much he had back (roughly 15k) before saying quietly "I reriase" and making it an additional 8k...

Sousa's cards hit the muck superquick, indicating a re-steal gone wrong, whilst Carson happily bagan adding the chips to his already bulging 25k stack.

(I told you this re-stealing is complicated...)

(http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/JapanProj/FLClipart/Adjectives/difficult.gif)

Next there was Michael Durrer raising to 1500 from the hijack and again running into a button raise from the quiet but aggressive Annette Obrestad.

Michael only had about anohter 5k behind so he shoved it in and Annette called very quickly, holding Ac Kc to Michael's dominated Ad Ts.

Both players watched the flop carefully.

Jc Qs 3d.

"I'd like a King please dealer" Michael requested. If only it were that easy...

TURN: 9s

"ooooohhhhhhh" went the assembled rail at the increased threat of an outdraw.

"Deuce deuce deuce" was the high pitched plea from the young Norwegian.

RIVER: 9c

So, no outdraw, no bad beat, jsut another elimination as Michael shook Annette's hand and joined the rail whilst Obrestad's stack has grown to close to 30k and she is becoming an ever-growing threat to take down the competition, even if we are still at a relatively early stage of proceedings.

Dan Negreanu(or Barry Negragnu as our amusing Canadian colleagues in the press room insist on calling him)'s stack looks to be fluctuating, but not in the right direction as he is now down to 13k or so...

Dan Owston was mid conversation with someone as I went past him, so I didn't get a chance to get an update from him, but I did notice his stack seemed to have dwindled a little to 6400 or so...

Well, well, well.

I wandered past Dan Negreanu's table on my travels and noticed he had increased his stack somewhat from earlier, holding over 20k.

Here he is, looking a tad bored and listless, as he always does in my pictures. (When I take my camera off him though, naturally he is a picture of joy and boundless energy - I run so bad!)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8732&g2_serialNumber=1)

However, as I return to the press room, news filtered through to us that Negreanu has increased his stack yet further by winning a monster pot. The news was related to us via our Canadian neighbours in the press room, Owen Laukkanen and Martin Derbyshire (I told them I could turn them into stars in the UK if they revealed salient details of Negreanu's big win - shhhhhhhhh!)

On a flop of 4c 5c 8s, all the chips flew in with Negreanu holding the draw-tastic, flushing and straigtening 6c Tc and his opponent, Iliodors Kamatakis, who allegedly took an age to eventually call, was holding 5s 5d for a set...

The turn was a blank and the river fell as the 7h, leading Iliodors to yell in delight as it was not a club to complete Daniel's flush.

"Yeh I missed my flush....but I've got a straight buddy!" pointed out Negreanu helpfully, as he swept up the latest boost to his chips and dumped Kamatakis out of the competition.

The animated Canadian superstar has now moved ominously up to 40k...

Stu Rutter and Dan Owston are still surviving, albeit on life support.

Stu told me "I just want to make day 2....that will be some achievement!"

Quote from: JungleCat03 on January 30, 2008, 11:38:09 PM

Stu Rutter and Dan Owston are still surviving, albeit on life support.

Stu told me "I just want to make day 2....that will be some achievement!"

On my last foray amongst the players, neither Stu nor Dan were in evidence suggesting both had been eliminated, Stu just falling short of his aim of making the 2nd day. Bad luck guys.

Dario De Angelis was seen betting out on a K 5 5 7 board and causing Patrick Bueno to fold, kindly deigning to show the correctitude of his decision by flipping over a deadly pair of bullets. And then, perhaps less charitably, laughing about it.

(Bueno seemed to see the funny side too though...)

There are only a few hands of the 300 600 level remaining so at this point it is worth highlighting some of the leaders...

Jioí Kulhánek looks to have in the region of 70k or so and will be in the thick of things come the end of day shakedown. I'm running ouot of adjectives to describe him but I'll go with the effervescent Daniel Negreanu is up there too with 60k+ as is the Norwegian prodigy Annette Obrestad who still has at least 50k, possibly slightly more. It looked as though the less well known Marcus Golsef was a player who had plenty of chips as well which will be sufficient to put him in the higher echelons of the leaderboard...

Another notable name, Marcel Luske has around 55k in chips, meaning many of the renowned players coming into day 1b have risen like little pieces of cream to the surface, and all the above will pose a major threat to take down the tournament.

The final level is now complete. We will be sent full and frank chip counts tomorrow around midday so will post these up when we receive them.

Before we head off to rest our weary heads, just a final update for those of you who were touched by the stories of yesterday's heroes.

Yes, the Gummi Bear watch was in full effect today.

Despite the devastating losses the bears suffered yesterday, they nonetheless bravely regrouped and sent out a full complement of ~~men~~ bears ready for today's battle...

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8700&g2_serialNumber=1)

Once again, there were many casualties at the greedy hands of the assorted press, but the bears refused to cave and although once more, only the strongest (well, yellowest) bears survived, a small force made it through the day, ready to take up arms and plunge headfirst into the inevitable conflict tomorrow.

Raise your glasses people for these gallant warriors, who will surely be assigned heroic status in the annals of gummi bear history. We love the malleable little guys...

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8736&g2_serialNumber=1)

That's it for now folks. Thanks for following us and make sure you tune in for day 2.

With such a strong set of players still remaining, it should prove a mesmerising journey to the final table and ultimate champion. I can't wait but till then...

;stickaforkinme;

blonde poker forum

Poker Forums => Live Tournament Updates => Topic started by: JungleCat03 on January 30, 2008, 12:23:03 PM