EPT Dortmund: Day 1A - At A Glance

[Djinn]

The Pokerstars Dortmund EPT at Casino Hohensyburg will start at 3pm (2pm GMT).

[Djinn]

Well, the usual frenzy of registering, accreditation and milling is underway.  We don't have player lists quite yet, but I am off into the throng to bring some names back.  Plus, if you're the type to recognise people more by their screen names, there's a full draw of all qualifiers up on the EPT website.

Looks like it's heading for a pretty timely start, maybe actually at 3pm (2pm UK).

[Djinn]

Spotted as they squeeze through the tournament room bottleneck (Player ID checked as they seem to be handing out champagne, which is nice):

Andy Black
John Shipley
Dave Colclough
Iwan Jones
Mats Iremark
JP Kelly
Torstein Iversen
Mads Andersen
Pascal Perrault
Julian Thew
Pablo Rua

[Djinn]

And the cards are in the air - level one is progressing with quiet intensity, and there are therefore not too many giant pots to report.  No, wait, Homer has one.  But to stall until he can tell you, a few more people noticed on the first wander (the room is very tightly packed with tables, making the inner ones inaccessible unless you want to climb over players or squeeze through their chairs in an annoying way, which we don't):

Paul 'Pab' Foltyn  (right near the entrance and therefore very watchable)
James Feeney  (Gutshot online qualifier)
Joe Beevers
Osman Mustanoglu
Mike Tse
Andreas Hagen
Antony Mackay
Jeff Rogers
Steve Vladar
Henning Granstad

[NoflopsHomer]

Early position limps, Henning Granstad makes it 225, all pass to the limper who calls.



The limper check calls Henning's 350 bet.



Both players check.



Limper leads out for 1k. Henning makes it 2k. Limper calls. Henning shows but the limper was holding

[Djinn]

Joe Beevers gets it all in -

Yes, with 15 minutes left of Level One, the Mobster's tournament life was on the line.  For a good five minutes, too -

On a board of his neighbour (they're heads up and there's 3,800 in the pot) bets 2,000.  Joe thinks for a little while and moves in, for a total bet of 7,800.  This is a big decision for Initial Bettor (whose pink apparel deserves a photo; see below) and the full Time Bank is used, until he eventually concedes the pot to Joe.  Then they had a chat about it, but I couldn't hear what they were saying.

Elsewhere:  Bad Girl check raises on a flop when the button has a go for 800.  He doesn't want to call 2k, however, so she's off to a decent start.

After a not-so-decent start for Henning Granstad, he gets a little bit back from that neighbour on the river:  the board, and a valuetastic raise to 750 from 250 gets him paid off with his .  Slowly does it...

[NoflopsHomer]

Rubix Cube Update:

Mats Iremark has completed it. Then he got bored and messed it all up again and started to do it again.

Julian next to him is accumulating chips, he bet 600 on a board and got one caller and then bet a milky 500 on the river which is when his opponent folded.

Lee Mulligan is really cross with himself, he threw three chips in meaning to bet 700 into a 1k pot but picked up the wrong colours and bet 2,500. His opponent realised and moved in forcing the APAT Welsh Winner to fold. He has about 6k.

JP has about 3k, Jon Raab said something about running Queens into a set of 4's

Pab is above his starting stack now, having previously had 7k he's back up to 11k.

[NoflopsHomer]

Meanwhile Jeff Rogers is OUT. He held Fives on a J-5-3 board. His opponent had Jacks. Ouch.

[Djinn]

OK, despite the intermittent Wifi (which is great when On), here are the chip counts gathered in the break.  Just before the break - so you get table One in its entirety, and then a hastily swept few others as the clock counted down four minutes.  Here they are:

Table 1

Claus Schumacher   10,100
Tommy Dender        9,100
John Shipley           11,100
Samuel Lehtonen     7,500
Dirk Specht             15,000
Dilba Denurbarg        10,700
Daniel Ryderman       7,975
Ahmed Koc              13,600
Nicholas Donieb         7,700

Others Scattered

Jim Kerrigan             14,900
Michael Lunderskov   14,200
Elky                        17,000
Henning Granstad     14,250
Mark Bartlog              8,100
Pascal Perrault          10,650
Dave Colclough         10,000
Anders Wijk               7,600
Praz Bansi                 20,800  (the towers of "I've been stealing" green have mutated to red and blue "I've been outplaying" ones)
Bad Girl                     11,000
JP Kelly                     5,450    (only three red 500 chips remaining, but the black and green 50s and 100s add up)
Torstein Iversen         12,500
Mike Tse                    7,350
James Feeney            7,400
Pablo Rua                  10,250
Bruce Atkinson           12,000
Johnny Lodden           14,600 
Andreas Hagen           22,000
Tony Mackay              21,650
James Akenhead          9,100
Pab                           12,500  (Just been moved - not happy about it, but stabilising after that bumpy first level)

[Djinn]

Next to "The Blondie" at his right is a 45 man with glasses called Carlos Ferrón. Is one of my best friends with Pablo rua.

Can u show my his count chips. Thx

Hay 19,000+ chips - just saw him take down an ever-so-slightly dodgy pot on the river... the board read .  He bet out against his one opponent, button man Rolf WeiBhaupt, who called the river 2,500 (3,500 in the pot) and was shown .  Somewhere along the line, a gutshot was hit...
"Pokerstars play!" muttered the disgruntled German, and then some other stuff I couldn't understand under his breath but I think it was rude...

[Djinn]

Online high roller Arnaud Mattern is OUT after playing three hands (pretty much).  Tens took his stack under 10k in the first level (an Ace on the flop and a call there too switched him off) before two pairs of Queens did the rest of the damage.  The first time he re-raised on the button to 1,200 preflop, and got one caller, who checked the T-6-6 flop, Arnaud bet 2,000, and after nearly a minute Matey pushed in, making his fold quite easy (he was against K-K).

Then button Queens again, mid-position raiser made it 500 (blinds 75/150) with one caller and then a re-raiser to 1,500.  He called, with the intention of re-evaluating, he said, on the flop, if there was no Ace or King.  Or Jack.  In fact he wasn't 100% about this call, but when the board came down 6-6-4 he faced a 3k bet and with only 5,500 left went for it.  He was against Aces, no help, and an early dinner.

 

[Djinn]

So a few updated counts:

Sven Hoffelner    8,400
Michael Ellis         5,500  (a valiant effort after being reduced to 1,700 after his QQ ran into JJ earlier)
Iwan Jones        8,075
Steve Vladar      28,000
Pab                   15,400
Julian Thew        22,500
Osman Mustanoglu  8,600
ElkY                    16,500
Karl Mahrenholz     9,400  (Folded middle set on a 2 3 4 flop to a big blind all-in check-raise, not happy about it; lucky the dinner break fell now)
Henning Granstad   12,000
Mark Bartlog           13,850
Praz Bansi              20,400
Bad Girl                  7,300  (No, wrong, doubled up just now, but I have a story about her losing a pot, so let's pretend that's still accurate)
JP Kelly                  7,200
Torstein Iversen      15,450
Andreas Hagen        26,000  (Too early to tip him?)
Thomas Wahlroos     don't know but James Akenhead tells me he has 11,000.  That's 11,000 more than James.

[Djinn]

OK so after just six players were eliminated in the first level, we've had a few more now:

James Akenhead had an averagey stack (or a bit more, 15k) when a 'rock' raised to 500 preflop (blinds at 100/200).  His Sevens on the cutoff looked like they merited a call - fair enough - and the blinds jumped on the bandwagon.
Flop:  8-7-5  So when the initial raiser bet 2,000, it looked like a correctly identified, and picked off, overpair.  Raise to 5,500.  But no, the small blind pushed in now, which was around 8,000 to call - even if they'd limped their way into a flopped straight, it wasn't the worst call in the world ("I can fold," he says in the clear light of Hindsight)... No pair-up and a dinner-break exit due to the other guy's 6-4 straight.

[NoflopsHomer]

Praz has dropped 3k betting on a flop and having the big blind move in with . Turn and river were and filling the big blind up.

Elsewhere, JP raised from the small blind and was called by the big. He bet out 725 on the flop and was called and check/passed when the came on the turn when the big blind confidently bet 1200.

Finally Tony Cascarino moved all in on a board for 5k and got a quick pass from his opponent.

[Djinn]

That hand with Bad Girl which took half her stack or so - she was in the big blind with .  Limp from Matey in early-mid position, small blind makes up and the flop comes a tasty .  Bad Girl checks, Matey bets, call.
Turn:    Full house gets a check-raise from Bad Girl.  Matey calls.
River:    Now she checks, and resignedly calls the 1,500 (a small bet but a crying call).
Matey shows the mighty for the two-out rivered bigger house.  And as she mucks without showing he says, "King with a smaller kicker?" which was odd...but quite funny.