I'm not one for suspense, Part2
Day 2 Preamble
I had not had a hot meal in three days so decided to get up early this morning and have some breakfast. I come across a Garfunkels eatery, Garfunkels is an American restaurant chain and this particular outlet was just of the Edgware road about a quarter of the mile from the Vic. I don’t mind paying over the odds for a fairly standard breakfast and must admit to having the nicest cup of tea I have had in a long time, but why must they pipe show tunes to there customers at 10am??? Really Dick Van Dyke’s singing chim chim charoo in his terrible English accent whilst sitting in a faux American diner first thing in the morning is just a little too much.
I catch up with Nicky waiting for the Vic to open, On entry he is immediately stopped by the eastern European receptionist who clearly takes her job far to seriously and makes him get rid of his coffee, the fact we are given free coffee all day seems to make this all rather unnecessary but this officious woman takes a great deal of pleasure in ordering people about. See looks like one of the tougher guards from prisoner cell block H and is quick to start picking on the Sik Tilt boys who whilst carting a very large camera and tons of other obvious recording equipment and wearing media passes have to prove to her they are in fact media!
Day 2
Day 2 started in dramatic fashion with Moneymaker bursting into a big chip lead after playing a huge pot with Norwegian
Age Spets. Moneymaker and Spets got it all in on the flop when Moneymaker was holding bottom set (
) and Spets had pocket aces, the turn gave Moneymaker quads and the hand was over.
Dutchman Nicky Roeg made a big move from the start of the day, coming in short stacked on 10,000 chips two consecutive double ups saw him hit 40,000 early and by mid afternoon he had built to over 100,000. Just show’s what a little patience (and a few well timed big pairs) can do!
The amiable Frenchman
Pascal Perrault becomes the beneficiary of a lot of gifted chips as an opponent blows up in front of my very eyes. This chap sitting on a 90,000+ stack which represents a hell of a lot of real world money in a £5,200 comp when the average stack is 25,000’ish loses 20,000 all in pre-flop KK vs a lowish stacks Q4 when his opponent rivers the wheel. The very next hand he raises from the SB and gets re-raised by Perrault in the big blind. He moves all in for some 66,000 or so more to be insta called by Perrault who clearly knows a tiled gift horse when he see’s one.
Matey boy shows KJ and Perrault QQ. The Queens hold and Perrault has a monster stack of 170,000+. Perrault latter eliminates good friend Fougeron and I can guess its not pretty as he almost knocks me over as he comes steaming down the stairs gesticulating and shouting words in French that I know, and I only know the dirty words. Mouawad eliminates one of the star draws of the tournament Negreranu and continues to impress with his solid aggressive play.
Katja Svendsen is also making moves taking down a huge pot and almost stacking day 1A leader
Nicolas Levi when he gets caught making a play at her with KJ only to run into aces all in pre-flop for a 150,000 pot. I can’t help but chuckle every time I walk past her table, every time she puts money in the pot its like she’s making a bet for the very first time “What are these things! I put seven bluey round things in the pot, Mr card giver man”. And then the former back gammon and chess champion lists poker professional as her occupation! Well some of the blokes must have fallen for it if the size of her stack is anything to go by.
Surrinder Sunar ends the day as our chip leader almost felting fellow big stack Erik Freiberg with set over set and sending shot stacked
Liam Flood out on one of the last hands of the day. Poor Freiberg is left with just 7,000 chips and must be no better than even money to bother turning up the next day, as he walks away dejected I nearly tell him how I once won a $5, 30 man sit and go on Party poker from 15 chips but think he will quite justifiably deck me if I do, so decide against it.
Day 3
A very early 9pm finish to Day 2 and the rest period is wisely used by the media contingent to get hammered in the Vic bar. 40 players return with 32 getting paid, Erik Freiberg does make the effort and is rewarded by being dealt the best hand when the money goes in pre-flop on the first hand of day his AJ V’s K10. Of Course the gods of poker have a wicked sense of humour and he gets knocked out when a 10 hits on the turn.
Carlo Citrone is the unfortunate bubble boy, the damage being done when short stacked he run’s AQ into AK. Someone else also wishing the day had never started will be
Ben Grundy, having played well to get himself in good position and having made some stunning calls he picks the worse time to bluff into PokerStars online qualifier Phidias Georgiou. Georgiou a former civil engineer from Cyprus playing his first major live event seemed a little confused about the size of the call after being re-raised by Grundy and had to be corrected and asked by the dealer for more chips. The flop comes 8 high and Grundy moves all and is mortified when Georgiou insta calls and shows top set to Grundy’s AQ.
Former republic of Ireland footballer
Tony Cascarino had been playing well and nursing a short stack all day. He was very unlucky to get knocked out when he raises half his stack pre-flop with queens and Georgiou commits him on a 9 high flop. Cascarino is relieved to see Gerogiou has AJ and takes it well when an ace peels of on the turn to knock him out. Cascarino gets the biggest round of applause of the day as he heads to the bar and can be proud of the grit he showed, he wind that pot and his on 160,000 and really in the game.
Georgiou is very active and raising almost every pot and seems to be on a roll and coasting to the final table. But then he takes a big hit when German online qualifier with a confusingly French sounding moniker Marcel Baran cripples him by pushing a flush draw on the flop that hits on the river damaging Georgriou’s stack and cracking his flopped top set of jacks.
Georgiou then makes a play I have seen online only too often, following from his cracked top set the very next hand he opens shoves from the small blind into Surinder Sunars big blind for some 110,000 or so. I know Sunar plays online but he must never have seen this fake tilt shove before and calls with KQ and is shown KK by Georgiou which hold.
De Wolfe, Sunar and Perrault are all eliminated late on day 3 and the flamboyantly dressed Jason Hacket is our TV bubble boy eliminated in 9th place. Jason had nursed a short stack all day and will be remembered for wearing a bright red shiny shirt that made some wag in the press box (Chilli or Snoopy I’m looking at you!) comment that it will be a shame that the EPT will be denied its first final tabelist dressed as a ready salted crisp packet. Florian Langmann and Joseph Mouawad are our chip leaders for the PokerStars.Com EPT 4 London final table.
DAY 4
The final day makes a nice break for the media, after hours of standing in the card room or running to and from to make posts the live feed makes life an all together less stressful affair. Unfortunately the poker is none to spectacular and hopes of a local winner are crushed early when the last two UK players, Paul Mendes and
Ian Cox are sent to the rail Seventh and Eight respectively. Both had played well and can be proud of there achievements, Cox in particular had played a very impressive and aggressive game and had been a constant pain in the arse for his table mates with his incessant pre-flop raising. I think when we see the final table with whole cards we will see he was really card dead as I fancied he would make a good run at it.
The first really interesting hand happens with six player remaining when chip leader Florin Langmann three bets all-in preflop the only other player with chips to significantly hurt him Mouawad holding pocket fours. Mouawad calls with ace king and hits an ace on the flop, for some reason Langmann is disgusted with this call and verbally admonishes his opponent for the next 20 minutes or so, all a bit childish buts its nice to hear someone finally break the silence as I swear this is the first words spoken other than raise, check or call at the final table!
With Mouawad winning this huge pot and having more chips than all the other players combined the play is removed from the tournament as it becomes a small stack push or fold game. Langmann proves to be the most adept at this mini-game of shove poker and eliminates Haugen, Egan and Baran. In fact the only player he does not remove is Lellouche who makes a very strange play with 7-3, re-raising a pot commited Baran who shows 7-7 which hold. The heads-up lasts a little over an hour and Mouawad has the better of it from the get go, his 300,000 chip lead quickly gets stretched and he is never behind. The end comes suddenly when Langmann commits all his chips with second pair of eights after Mouawad pushed all in with top pair Queens. The turn brings another queen and the EPT has its first winner from the Lebanon
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