EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo: Day 1A - At A Glance

[NoflopsHomer]

from the kingdom of Monaco. With over 600 runners and a tournament structure to die for, all three of us will be updating this event which starts at Wednesday 2pm (1pm GMT) and ends on Monday the 2nd of April. Yes, we are all in for the long slog here. So come join us!

This is the 'no-frills' zone. If you want pictures and interactivity, go to the interactive thread.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=21926.0

[NoflopsHomer]

At least 30 or 40 people still trying to register right now, including Steve Vladar and Jani Sointula, I'm thinking we could be delayed at least another half hour...

[NoflopsHomer]

Ok, Big TK just announced that everyone is starting with 15k chips instead of 10k, and we are playing 7 levels each day.

Shuffle up and deal...

[snoopy1239]

Spotted so far...

Uh-oh, this is going to be a tough update. To give you an idea of what lies before us, here are just a selection of the recognisable faces present today...

Magnus Petersson
Katja Thater
Kristian Ulriksen
George McKeever
Paul Gourlay
Jimmy Fricke
Rob Hollink
Greg Raymer
Terry Cook
Thomas Walhroos
Christoffer Stahle
Paul Linton
Ashely Alterman
Chris Moneymaker
George Panzer
Ben Roberts
Dean Sanders
Humberto Brenes
Barry Greenstein
Peter Willers Jepsen
Julian Thew
Ben Callinan
Marc Naalden
Noah Boaken
Carlo Citrone
Martin Wendt
Johan Storakers
Patric Bueno
Joe Raferty
Peter Eicchart
Tony Cascarino
Andreas Hoivold
Dave Gregory
John Conroy
Jules Kuusik
JP Kelly
Mark Teltscher
Victor Ramdin
Bernard Litman
Chris Smith
Dave Clayton
Nik Persaud
John Shipley
Jani Sointula
Stuart Fox
Kevin O'Donnell
Ramzi Jelassi
Steve Vladar

[snoopy1239]

Andor Darocai -- 13,000
Dave Colclough -- 13,500
Julian Thew -- 14,700
Peter Linton -- 15,300
Chris Smith -- 18,950

[Djinn]

Big hand reported to me now - resulting in an early elimination - It was watched by this perma-ring of spectators round Greg Raymer's table, and since he's the victor in the hand that crowd will only grow during the day, making it increasingly hard to get next to the WSOP Champ.  Never mind, if I'd wanted to shake his hand I could have done so in the lift which Floppy and I shared with him this morning...

OK the hand - all the action preflop.  OutMatey raised it to 150 preflop.  Hard to realise at this point how 100x this amount is about to get into the middle, isn't it...
Greg Raymer made it 450.  OutMatey re-re-raised to 1,500.  Raymer moved in.  Call.
Raymer showed: 
OutMatey showed: 

No spiked higher pair and I find this all so improbable I am going to have to go and count his stack.  I trust my source though, so up the story goes.

[NoflopsHomer]

4-way raised pot to 150 on Julian Thew's table.



All four check.

Turn:



Checked to Julian who bets 450, the player behind him and the big blind fold, the early position raiser calls.

River:



Check to Julian, who bets 1k, he gets a quick call and Thewy mucks just as fast. The other player didn't show his hand though, which surely he must do to take the pot? No-one on the table objected either, and the other player didn't even ask to see Julian's card. (Surely if you've called, you want to see someone's hand to see what they're bluffing with?)

El Blondie just pulled me up to tell me he just won a 5.5k pot with 74 suited, "It was only the Half-Wilson though." He flopped a Seven and turned the Four. Hope you're reading this Brian...

[NoflopsHomer]

There's a 15 minute break now, (and at the end of each level). We've been told that play will be 9-handed until the third day, which is when the feature table will be brought in, and at which point all tables will be 8-handed from then on.

[Djinn]

Ben Grundy News Now:
He tells me "I was nearly back in my room after 40 minutes.  I folded Kings preflop.  I can't believe I did that."

Well, the betting did go:  250 to his right, Ben makes it 1,000, Guy goes all in for the full 15k.  In level one.  Fair enough.  He seems to be raising to 200 preflop every hand now to make up for it.

[NoflopsHomer]

Big hand reported to me now - resulting in an early elimination - It was watched by this perma-ring of spectators round Greg Raymer's table, and since he's the victor in the hand that crowd will only grow during the day, making it increasingly hard to get next to the WSOP Champ.  Never mind, if I'd wanted to shake his hand I could have done so in the lift which Floppy and I shared with him this morning...

OK the hand - all the action preflop.  OutMatey raised it to 150 preflop.  Hard to realise at this point how 100x this amount is about to get into the middle, isn't it...
Greg Raymer made it 450.  OutMatey re-re-raised to 1,500.  Raymer moved in.  Call.
Raymer showed: 
OutMatey showed: 

No spiked higher pair and I find this all so improbable I am going to have to go and count his stack.  I trust my source though, so up the story goes.

Amazing all in ....and even more amazing call......after so little time gone so far!!

I can confirm all the action, I just to spoke to Greg during the break. Both he and the other player were already down to around 10k and the initial raise was from the button. Meaning that once the other player had made it 1.5k, Greg decided to push because he was out of position, a call would equate to 15% of his chips and he has to fold to any board with Ace, King or Queen on it. He was fairly philosophical about it. He said if they both had 15k still, he'd have probably just re-raised to 4k.

Oh well, what do I know?

[snoopy1239]

Kevin O'Connell -- 18,550
Johan Storakers -- 14,125
Barry Greenstein -- 17,500
Humberto Brenes -- 14,225
Ben Roberts -- 15,925
Josh Arieh -- 13,350

[NoflopsHomer]

Dario Mineri just scooped a big pot, I'm guessing all the money went in on the flop with Dario holding and his American opponent holding .

The turn was the so the river was unimportant.

Julian had 11k at the break, he made two pair in the blinds one hand but ran into a flush.

[NoflopsHomer]

Roland De Wolfe is OUT and in errrr, unpleasant circumstances...


All the chips went in on a flop, and I think both had around 15kish at this point.

Roland:



Unknown Mateyboy:



Turn:



So in fact Roland's is live as well has his FH outs...

River:



Roland, "You best go on to win this, but I don't think you've got much chance..."

[NoflopsHomer]

Also OUT is Swede Marcel Baran who made the money in Dublin...

He held on a board. Something you'd be prepared to go all the way with... His opponent was holding though...

[Djinn]

Chip Counts - Just a few, I gave up on the Comprehensive Count after 20 minutes.  Of course the see/write/walk lag might mean they are no longer 100% accurate, but they were then.

Paul Gourlay     10,950
Jimmy Fricke     21,750
Pete Linton      16,600
JP Kelly             9,475
Dave Colclough  19,400
Dean Sanders     8,550  ("It's been emotional.  Lost two large pots running QQ into AA).
Julian Thew      14,375
Martin Wendt     9,000  (He's a Dirty Stacker, at the moment, though, so can't be sure)
John Shipley      20,000
Stuart Fox        15,950
Jani Sointula      25,500
Johnny Lodden   8,550
Martyn Cavanagh  11,250
Nik Persaud        13,950
Ben Grundy        12,675
Viktor Ramdin     14,800
Bernard Litman   20,200
Santi                 11,500  (He only gets one name because I couldn't read his surname off his shirt and I've forgotten it)
Thomas Wahlrros  15,000  (A little bored by the hovering; "I've seen AQ, and flopped one pair so far this tournament.")
Andreas Hagen     21,750
Markus Golser       13,500
Rob Hollink           11,075
Greg Raymer        15,400
Jan Sjavik            20,800
Katja Thater        15,275
Jeff Kimber          12,750
Magnus Petersson  22,300
Dario Minieri           15,400
Ramzi Jelassi         14,600
Peter Eichhardt    15,650
Nicolas Levi           16,100
Steve Jelinek        26,400
Annette_15          9,300