blonde poker forum

So, with a genunine star-studded field, who are you picking to take this one down?

Gregory Genoveve -- 694,000
William Thorson -- 418,000
Eric Koskas -- 449,000
Jason Mercier -- 1,591,000
Antony Lellouche -- 1,192,000
Dario Minineri -- 1,832,000
Dag Palovic -- 585,00
Marcus Bower -- 278,000

I'm going for Antony Lellouche.

Final starts at 3pm CET. 2pm UK. 11pm in Taipei.

Hi to All

GL to the 2 Frenchies and have fun todays !

1              € 869,000

2              € 505,000

3              € 287,600

4              € 223,600

5              € 188,500

6              € 140,600

7              € 111,800

8              € 76,700

is the live feed working for anybody else? kick off in 4 mins right?

Hello from the cat as we approach the start of today's proceedings.

After four long days, jam-packed full of smoking poker, the 700 strong field has been whittled down to a mere 8  players on a final table overflowing with poker talent and intrigue.

All the ingredients for a classic final are in place. The setting is beautiful, both the decandent and lavish internal view, and the peaceful, sun-bathed old town outside. My limp words don't do justice to the visual feast on offer so I'll post up some pictures shortly.

The player list is no less impressive.

With two Italians, Dario Mineri and Gregory Genoveve for the home crowd to cheer on, there is bound to be plenty of noise. This will be especially true if the young Dario, who is somewhat hero-worshipped in these parts, can fulfil his talent, retain his chip lead and take down his first EPT. Swede William Thorson has a long series of impressive cashes, including a 9th place performance at the recent Caribbean EPT. He's already assured to go one better than that today and if he can tame the aggressive Dario, also has the game to win. Two Frenchman, the highly unorthodox Eric Koskas and Anthony Lellouche will be adding some gallic flair into the mix. The two young gun Americans, Jason Mercier and Marcus Bower, who have already earned fearsome reputations online as accomplished players will be looking to add a major live title to their list of achievements whilst the field is completed by the loud and unusual Slovakian Dag Palovic.

The road to EPT glory is almost done, but who will find a final sprint finish to take down the San Remo title?

what are bower and mercier's online monikers?

And we're off!

Dario raises hand one. There's a surprise! He's called by Eric Koskas. I missed the flop action but on the turn of a 8s 6s 6c 3h board, Eric moves in for 370k.

Dario and Eric now begin a long humourous conversation with Eric repeatedly asking Dario to call him, Dario running through a list of hands Eric might have "It's very suspicious ...hmm...flush draw....straight draw?" Eventually Dario folds..."I knew you would fold" Eric tells him.

Here are the player profiles, courtesy of pokerstars.com.


Seat 1: Gregory Genovese, 37, Rome, Italy -  694,000 chips
Investment broker Gregory, 37, has only been playing Hold’em for a year but has played Italian poker – a form of five-card draw – for a long time.  This is his firsta major live tournament  - he qualified via a live satellite back in his home city of Rome.  Aside from his passion for poker, Gregory is a massive soccer fan and every Sunday goes to watch AS Roma – the same team that Dario supports. Gregory is being cheered on in San Remo by girlfriend Diana – the couple have a 17-month-old baby Gianmarco.

Seat 2: William Thorson, 25, Varberg, Sweden – former EPT finalist  - 418,000 chips
William, who turned 25 last Saturday, is one of the most popular players on the EPT tour – everyone’s "favorite fisken". With his fearless attitude and sharp tongue, he can terrify everyone at the table while still wearing a huge grin on his face. Willie Tann once said, as a joke, that when he got old he wanted to be just like William. Final table bubble at this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and two more major final tables without a win including 3rd place in last season’s EPT Dublin.  He also came 13th in the 2006 WSOP for $907,000. With all this in mind, William is determined to win San Remo. Online, William focuses on Omaha cash games but prefers tournaments when he plays live. Outside of poker, William is keen on horse-trotting  and he and his father own several trotting horses back in Sweden. 

Seat 3: Eric Koskas, 35, Marseilles, France – PokerStars qualifier - 449,000 chips
Eric – “moumouth” on PokerStars - is one of France’s best-known and most colourful poker characters. This is his first EPT final table although he won the €1,000 side event at last year’s Grand Final two years ago. He has played strongly here in San Remo – lying 2nd each day but says he played horribly in the last few minutes of Day 3 and lost 65% of his chips including a $1m million pot against Jason Mercier. Eric, who married his wife Julie during the 2006 World Series and has a 17-month-old daughter Lea-Marie,  is looking forward to the final table and desperately hoping for a heads-up against his great friend Dario. For the last year, he and Dario have been playing $5k heads-up against each other on PokerStars but have had to postpone their nightly game while they play EPT San Remo.  He also came 118th at this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January for $16k.

Seat 4: Jason Mercier, 21, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, PokerStars qualifier - 1,591,000 chips
The PokerStars.com EPT San Remo has been a baptism of fire for 21-year-old Jason, playing in only his second live event. He mainly plays cash online. The American spent three years studying to become a maths teacher before discovering online poker which he has now turned into a lucrative career. Although he busted out on Day 1 of the PCA, he captured the chip lead on Day 2 in San Remo and hasn’t looked back since. Jason qualified via the Steps system on PokerStars but almost pulled out when his travel buddies opted for a trip to Amsterdam instead.  Outside of poker, Jason is a huge basketball fan and coaches the team from his former high school. He rates William Thorson as the biggest challenge at the table today “I’m glad I’ve got position on him”, he said.  He also says hi to his best friend Darko back home.

Seat 5: Antony Lellouche, 28, Paris, France - former EPT finalist - 1,192,000 chips
Parisian Antony Lellouche mainly plays live poker in high stakes cash games around the world. He is both respected and well-liked by his peers and mentors, including the "godfathers" of French poker Claude Cohen and Jan Boubli. Antony turned pro nine years ago, honing his skills at the smallest limit games at the Aviation Club. Fearless and intuitive, Antony has already made two WSOP final tables and come close in two EPT Grand Finals - 12th in 2005 and 21st in 2007. In October, he came 6th at EPT4 London for €140,081 – making this his second final table in one season.

Seat 7: Dag Palovic, 33, Bratislava, Slovakia - former EPT finalist – 585,000 chips
Dag is used to the limelight after a career as child actor on Slovakia TV and later presented his own TV music chart show. He studied law in Vienna, French in Belgium and also an MBA in Prague.  His first game of poker was when he was 22 – an evening of five-card draw which he won. He waited another nine years to play his next game and hasn’t looked back since then. In December Dag came 7th at the PokerStars.com EPT Prague for €93,600. Dag is engaged to fiancée Zuzana, a model – currently shooting the cover for Marie Claire in Miami, she is hoping to make it to San Remo in time for today’s final table.

Seat 8: Marcus Bower, 24, Pennsylvania, USA - PokerStars qualifier – 278,000 chips
Marcus “ALLin2k5” Bower is on his first EPT final table and clearly has his sights on the top prize. His success so far is extra special for him as he is also half Italian. Although today’s short stack, he is confident he can come back.  Marcus plans to give a large portion of his tournament winnings to his brother’s charity “Physicians for Humanity” which helps underprivileged children who can’t afford private health care. Marcus has being playing poker for 4 years - mainly plays razz and NLHE – both online and in casinos. He rarely plays tournaments and this is by far his biggest win. He turned pro as soon as he left school but is still considering returning to college to study media and communications. He qualified via the PokerStars Steps satellites for San Remo – starting one morning and qualifying by the afternoon.

 


     



   

Dario raises to 72k and after a long stare down by Marcus Bower in the BB, who looks like he is considering moving in, he eventually wins the blinds and antes (60k btw) when Marcus folds...

anyone elses live updates just a green screen?

Three players see a flop of


4c 4s 2h.

They alll check.

TURN: 2c

William bets out and is called by Anthony Lellouche.

RIVER: 9c

Now William bets 80k and Lellouche calls after a short dwell.

Thorson shows down a 4 for a mighty full house and Anthony quietly mucks...

Dario raises to 85k and is CALLED by Anthony Lellouche OOP. He's going to find it hard to play Dario from there!

FLOP: Kh 2h Th

Dario bets 130k after Lellouche checks and....Lellouche folds.

One more pot to the agressive Italian.

My pick still going well  :)up GO Mr Thorson

the low quality feed is fine here

Dario raises and wins the blinds again. Is anyone going to stop the Italian!

---

William raises it up to 85k and Dario calls.

Aspades 4d 9h comes the flop. 100k by William and Dario passes 3-3 face up. Well done the Swede!

Eric raises it up, picks up the blinds and shows 9-4 proudly. The crazy Frenchman is so unpredictable but you have to like him!

As promised here are a few shots of San Remo for you to savour. First off the town as viewed from the casino balcony...

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13853&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13855&g2_serialNumber=1)

A few internal shots of the sumptuous casino...

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13857&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13859&g2_serialNumber=1)

Good luck to my best friend Dag.............NOT!

Bower and Lellouche get it in preflop! Bower pushing over the top of Lellouche's raise. He has no fold equity as he has got so short and is called instantly.

Bower  has taken a shot at doubling up with 4-4 whilst Lellouche holds A-J.

It's a  folks!

Here come the cards...

8h 9h Ks 7s.............. Aspades!!!

The river is sweet for Lellouche giving him the pot and meaning we have out first elimination from the final table.

Marcus Bower is OUT, eliminated in 8th spot, winning € 76,700

Don't forget the live feeds are here:

High Quality -- http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=32581.0

Low Quality -- http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=32582.0

After that elimination, a quick photo showing you the final table, now missing Marcus Bower...

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13861&g2_serialNumber=1)

Lellouche limps for 24k, Dag Palovic raises to 96k, Dario calls and Lellouche folds.

2s 3d 6d

"All-in," says Dag.

"Call," says Dario instantly.

"You have a set? Ahhhhhhhhhh, Bitchinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay," sceams Dag.

Dag shows Qd Qh, Dario has 3c 3s.

8c

8d

Dag Palovic is OUT in 7th place winning €111,800

Players are on a short break for 10 minutes.

Was that actually a set for Dario vs. overpair(?), or A3/A2 type stuff?  San Remo looks like it has actual sunshine.  Nice.

Oops, sorry, have edited it.

Eric Koskas rasies to 75k and Gregory Genoveve, who has been very quiet so far.... PUSHES!

Koskas is allin if he calls "CALL!" everyone thinks he says BUT he actually says "COUNT"...

"You move allin with nothing because I am crazy???"

"Ace eight or ace ten you have" is Eric's analysis. TT+ is mine for the nitty Italian.

Eventually,  Eric passes and Gregory leans back, sighs and sweeps up his chips...

Jason Mercier raises to 60k or so, called by Anthony Lellouche and Dario says nothing, but he might as well have said "SQUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEZE" as he raises it up another 200k!

Gregory Genoveve, who hasn't acted in the hand yet now leans back in his seat! We all know when he does that that he has a pretty good hand. Lee Jones thinks he has Jacks and I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were true...

Eventually he passes though and Dario picks up another big pot uncontested!

The Italian is really destroying this final table so far...

William button raises to around 65k, Jason re-raised to 225k, William moved in and Jason called.

Ahrt Qh for William, Ad Kh for Jason.

5c Kd 6c Ac 4d

Willian Thorson is OUT in 6th place and takes home €140,600

William has a post-mortem with his Betsson teammates Soren Kongsgaard and Johnny Lodden. William looks a bit shell-shocked and his friends know they can't offer any words that are going to help at this point.

Gregory raises, Eric re-raises him and Gregory calls!!!

Eric has 7d 7c

Gregory Ac Kc

FLOP: 3s 2d 9d 8d 6s! No help for Greogry meaning Eric's pocket pair holds and he goes MENTAL, high-fiving the rail jumping around and generally showing his joy in the most effusive way possible.

It's a big hit for Gregory and Eric is up to 968,000.

Anthony Lellouche raises to 100k, and sits there looking cool in his sunnies...

Greogory's BB and very short now he thinks about it a bit, but ultimately folds with a pained expression.

Anthony shows A-T and rakes in the pot...

Dario raises to 90k, Gregory, very short, moves allin for 122k and Jason calls behind as does Dario...


FLOP : 7s Ad 5d.

120k bet by Jason Mercier. "He's definitely got A-Q or a set of sevens" is John Duthie's commentary on the live feed. Bit of a tight range John!

Dario folds and Jason shows Ahrt 3c.

Gregory shows Th 9s and is drawing to a runner runner stright 2 pair or trips.

TURN: Qc! This isn't one of the cards Gregory needs to stay alive, meaning...



Gregory Genoveve is OUT, eliminated in 5th spot, winning €188,500

****Following that elimination, the players are on a short break*****

Here is a picture of a cat till we return.

(http://bp3.blogger.com/_ez9UzAGPSPU/Rt6pQt-1mkI/AAAAAAAAADw/DLNmEh701iE/s400/funny-cats-a10.jpg)

Chip Counts:

Dario Minineri -- 2,395,000
Jason Mercier -- 2,368,000
Antony Lellouche -- 1,276,000
Eric Koskas -- 956,000

Dario raises to 100k, just over 3 BBs and Eric quickly....CALLS!

The flop comes.....8c 3s 9c

Eric pushes ALLIN and Dario folds! Eric leaps about like he has many iriitating itches but he's happy and his supporters on the rail congratulate him warmly and vocally...

A few final shots.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13863&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13865&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13867&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13869&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13871&g2_serialNumber=1)

Jason and Koskas see a flop together...

Jh 5c 6d
 
CHECK, CHECK

TURN: 8c

Eric bets 200k on the turn and Jason...CALLS! Eric looks a bit unhappy at that...

RIVER: 8h

Eric moves allin immediately!!!! Jason ( and his 15 water bottles he has beside him) sits there pondering and CALLS!

Eric shows T-3 o/s which is no good versus Jason's hand which was a mere 5-9 for bottom pair!!!! Very nice call from Jason and as he had Eric covered this means we are down one colourful crazy Frenchman...

Eric Koskas  is OUT, eliminated in 4th spot, winning €223,600

Dario raises to 140k, Jason repopped to 340k. Dario asks for a count. Jason has around 3 million back, Dario has about 2.6 million.

7h 2d 8d

Jason checks, Dario bets 400k, Jason moves all-in and Dario snap calls.

Dario shows Qd Qs, but exclaims, "Ahhh, noooo!" when he sees his hand is vunerable against Jason's Ad 4d.

4h

Jason gets an extra two outs.

3d

The crowd go silent and the pre-final table favourite has gone.

Dario Minineri is OUT in 3rd place winning €287,600

Jason has around 5.7 million chips to Antony Lellouche's 1.3 million.

well that was lightingly quick!!!!

Jason riases to 95k, Anthony Lellouche reraises to 380k Jason moves ALLIN and Lellouche CALLS!!!!!

WOW 2nd hand and the players find themselves allin!!!

"Do you have a pair??" asks Jason. "Yes" says Lellouche...

Lellouche 7d 7s
Jason Ks Qd!


FLOP: Aspades Qs 4c Jason storms into the lead!

TURN: 8c.....
The Frenchman needs a 7 to save him now...

RIVER: 2c ! No! It's over incredibly quickly and we have a new EPT champion!

Anthony Lellouche is OUT, eliminated in 2nd spot, winning €505,000

Jason Mercier is THE WINNER OF THE SAN REMO EPT winning €869,000

 ;letsparty; ;letsparty; ;dewi; ;letsparty; ;letsparty;

A new champion crowned, the young American, only 21 years of age takes down the massive first prize and writes himself into history, both for his amazing victory and for the quickest heads up battle in EPT history. What a moment!!

Floppy is out getting some pictures of the happy winner and unlucky 2nd place finisher Anthony Lellouche...

All the excitement of a final table in just three short hours.  Such a pity you're now going to have to amuse yourselves for the evening in San Remo.  Watching the sunset and drinking cocktails I know is a poor substitute for recording hundreds of short handed confrontations, but you might as well do it now.  Good job.

As committed reporters, we are obviously devastated that the final was over in such a short period of time and we didn't get to witness a titanic struggle of epic proportions. I will drink my cocktails in the sun with an outward visage of pleasure that is only masking the deep inner turmoil and melancholy within.

HU Action:

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13875&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13881&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13883&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13885&g2_serialNumber=1)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=13891&g2_serialNumber=1)

Rod swears he looks like Jake Gyllenhaal...

he does look like Jake Gyllenhall!

(http://innerjoejoe.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/jake-gyllenhaal-smile-large.jpg)

Great updates guys!

too quick for me...

But GG Frenchies, and thanks for the update !

And that's everything guys, enjoy the DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/index.php?affiliate=blonde)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/index.php?affiliate=blonde) update. Monte Carlo will follow in a weeks' time or so, wrapping up the EPT season. Meanwhile, all this update action has left some reporters craving to play themselves, or succinctly put by Christin from IntelliPoker, who said, "Poker is like porn to me, the more I watch, the more I want to get involved!" :D

;stickaforkinme;

At least Kara is not wearing a bunny suit.