EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo: Day 4 - At A Glance

[Djinn]

15 Minute Break...

One report-worthy hand - a multi limp pot, checked by Soren Kongsgard in the big blind got a four-way flop of .  Small blind Jelinek checked, Carlos Mortensen bet 40k, called by neighbour Pete Giordano.  Pass from Steve - Soren then made it 160k when action returned to him.  A quick pass from Mortensen, a slow one from Giordano...

Other than that it's raise-foldx5 or raise, re-raise all in, pass (that one from Josh Prager over the top of Steve Jelinek, who's been standard raising preflop a fair whack in the last 15 minutes).

[snoopy1239]

TV Table:

(1) Kristian Kjondal -- 1,000,000
(2) Steve Jelinek -- 950,000
(4) Soren Kongsgaard -- 910,000
(6) Josh Prager -- 550,000
(7) Carlos Mortensen -- 450,000
(8) Peter Giordano -- 600,000

Table Commoners:

(1) Ram Vaswani -- 499,000
(2) Eric Van Der Berg -- 235,000
(3) Alex Kim -- 343,000
(4) David Peters -- 400,000
(5) Gavin Griffin -- 2,356,000
(6) Andy Black -- 1,169,000
(7) Mark Karam -- 1,160,000

[snoopy1239]

Alex Kim has doubled up, all-in with A-K vs. Marc Karam's J-T on a J-K-T Flop, Turn came 9, but the River brought a crowd gasping Ace.

Marc put his hands on his head in frustration/despair, whilst Alex seemed to take it all in his stride as if he'd picked up the blinds.

[snoopy1239]

Pete Giordano is OUT in 13th.

Josh Prager raised 50k, Giordano made it 150k (I think), Prager moved all-in and Giordano called.

Prager =

Giordano =

Board =

Not been a good day for Kings.

[NoflopsHomer]

Couple of hands here:

Marc Karam makes it 75k from the SB, Andy Black in the BB (before he got moved) made it 250k. Marc passed, Andy showed .

Short stacked Eric Van Der Berg pushed for 181k, Ram called from the button.

Eric:



Ram:



Board:



Ram down to 360k, Eric up to over 400k

Been a short break to move the big blind (Andy Black) to the feature table to replace Pete Giordano. During which Ram went for a ciggy break with Kevin O'Connell, and from what I heard, I don't think Ram rates his own chances.

[snoopy1239]

David Peters is OUT in 12th winning €66,360

Interesting hand.

David makes up the small blind, Alex Kim makes it 60k and David, after a dwell might I add, flat calls.

Flop =

David checks, Alex Kim bets 100k and David moves all-in, once again, following a spell in the think tank.

Alex Kim, laid back as ever, shrugs his shoulders, points towards the board and nonchalantly announces call.

Alex =

David =

Turn =

River =

And after an all American collision, we have lost our 13th man - a quiet and reserved young gent in 19-year old David Peters who was perfectly well behaved throughout.

[Djinn]

Severely short-stacked Ram was on all-in watch by us, and sure enough, pushed in just now from the small blind after Alex Kim raised on the button.  It was 192k in total - Call.
Ram showed: 
Alex showed: 

Flop:    (Big TK tells the assembled crowd that Ram doesn't want to see a Queen)
Turn and river:    and back up to 400k, tired or not...

[Djinn]

Carlos Mortensen just had his tournament on the line with , all-in preflop against (Kristian Kjondal).
The Ace waited to the river to come (at which point the Spanish press went bananas in here) but to be honest it was a straight race when the money went in.

[NoflopsHomer]

Gavin Griffin makes it 60k and Eric pushes for 200k more, Gavin passes the , Eric shows Queens.

A few hands later, Alex Kim makes it 60k from UTG, Gavin calls on the button, Marc makes it 200k from the small blind, Eric passes. Alex moves in, Gavin passes and Marc calls, saying "Please have Queens!" as he flips over . Alex shows . The usual hubub starts and Alex just has Marc covered.

Board:



This leaves Alex with 52k and he's BB so the 30k extra goes in the next hand of against small blind Eric's

Board:



Still very short, Snoopy is ready like a vulture....

[snoopy1239]

We're now on the 15 minute break, but the last several hands on Table Ram made for highly intriguing viewing for little ol' me at ringside.

There's definitely a contrast in strategies - whilst Gavin Griffin has decided to sit on his stack and wait for Ram or Kim to depart, the aggressor of the table is Marc Karam, who is clearly trying to take advantage of Gavin's approach over these last several hands by bullying the smaller stacks. However, although Kim and Van Der Berg (the latter in particular) are playing patient poker, Ram Vaswani is quite happy to shovel it all in, whether Kim is down to the wire or not, and this was on full display when he re-raised Mark Karam's 60k bet all-in for 462k. Laid back with the Top Gun shades, Ram twitched his foot underneath the table, but above was as a cool as a cucumber, seemingly giving off no signs of a tell.

The very next hand, these two locked horns once again (I swear, Karam is either going to remove or double up Ram at some stage within the next 20 minutes), only for Karam to return the favour, moving all-in to Ram's 40k bet (Ram had limped on the button) on a Flop. As is the way with this table, no amateur dramatics and Ram folded instantly, with no real sign of remorse. Simply an 'okay, you got me, next hand' kind of attitude which is a joy to watch and perfect for the flow of the game.

Then, with recent double-upper (but still very short) Alex Kim allowing himself to land on the big blind with just 70k and blinds of 10k and 20k, he decides to take a gamble with after Karam had made an inevitable button raise with .

Of course, Karam called the extra shrapnel in a jiffy, but was chagrined and understandably frustrated to see his opponent make trip Nines on a Flop. "Queen," demands Kim in a reverse psychology (or Gusology) moment. But, with Karam looking on quietly, although anxiously out of his seat, no Nine or miracle runner runner arrives with the Turn bringing a 2 of spades and the River a harmless 5 of clubs.

"Alex is up to 200k," adds Big TK, and after Gavin Griffin takes the small blind away from Ram with a 60k bet from the big, the dum dum sounded and we moved into the 15 minute break.

[Djinn]

Well, been tableside for a while, and have to say that Gavin Griffin has now taken over the role of aggressor, and quite convincingly too.  Raising from the small blind, button, and cutoff in a row, skipping two and then raising the next three, he might have been pushed off two of these pots by Marc Karam (once on the flop, once preflop; Karam showed ) he seems absolutely undaunted, calm, confident, and still pretty much awake. 

So, that's six of the last nine hands he's been putting pressure on short stacks Kim and Van der Berg (the latter with just 150k or so).  No rivers; no showdowns.  It looked like the Dutchman was pretty tempted to push preflop the last time (Gavin button raising, him on B.B. with just 120k behind) but he decided to wait for a better opportunity.

[snoopy1239]

Carlos Mortensen is OUT in 11th winning €66,360

Very hard to see the hands here, but it looked like Carlos was eliminated by Josh Prager. I distinctly heard the comment, "straight on the Turn" which sounded pretty decisive.

[Djinn]

Interestingly, it was about this time that the players seemed to notice what I mentioned earlier - the hands per hour discrepancy between the TV table and the 'normal' one.  Thomas Kremser had a sympathetic ear, as not only is that clearly the case regularly, but the TV table at the time had six players, the regular one five.  Instead of complaining about the set-up in general, however, they asked that they be put hand for hand.  It must have been really bad, the hph lag, if playing hand-for-hand with an odd number seemed like a good idea to the table with the short stacks on it...

[NoflopsHomer]

The likable Alex Kim has gone in 10th place winning €99,550

Gavin and Marc Karam (pictured called his push in the blinds and checked the flop before Marc bet 100k on the turn and Gavin folded.

Marc:



Alex:



River:



And the internet qualifier has gone and we are on one table. Eric Van Der Berg is REALLY short though, so we don't expect it too last too much longer.

[Djinn]

And in one hand, we lose the Ninth place -

An almost compulsory move in in the first six hands, Eric Van der Berg found a more than reasonable hand with , moving in over the top of Soren Kongsgard's preflop raise.  Soren called with . 
Flop: 
Turn:
River: 

And the Ace-high flush on the river makes this the quickest TV-table bubble we've ever seen, ever.

Eric Van der Berg finishes 9th, winning €99,550