Grand Prix De Paris: Final Table - At A Glance

[Djinn]

WE HAVE ACTION!

David Redling made it 42k to go on the cutoff, and found small blind Will Ma re-raising to 120k.  He decides after a brief ponder to flat call.
Flop:    Will bets out 140k, which looks like it might be just under half of what David has left.  He gets a prompt call. 
Turn:    Will puts his opponent all in, and gets instacalled...

Will Ma shows: 
David Redling shows: 

River: 

And David Redling doubles through to become chip leader (saying, "You almost got me there, I didn't think you had Aces or Kings...AK perhaps..." while Will Ma is under 500k for the first time in a couple of days...

[Djinn]

And our new young giant stack just sent Jeffrey Lisandro to the rail in 6th place (for €66,020)...

In brief:  small blind (Lisandro) with vs. big blind (Redling) with - all in preflop (although I can't imagine it wouldn't have been on the flop, somehow):
Flop:
Turn:
River:

And Queens remain David Redling's lucky cards today, having just won him a hand which could very well have taken him out, they remove another player from the table, bringing them down to Five...

[Djinn]

Chip Counts at the break:

Jeff Wallace             172,000
Will Ma                     594,000
Runar Runarsson       320,000
Ram Vaswani            650,000
David Redlin             1,100,000

That final leading stack has been honoured with the appearance of the Red Plaque (pictured).  Many thanks to Sabine for bringing it out of its cupboard...we like a license plate-sized 200k chip on the table for absolutely no reason...one of the highlights of this tourney every year

[Djinn]

And we've lost our short stack - valiant attempt at the double-up given, Jeff Wallace pushed once again (with , on the button) and found a caller in Will Ma, with on the small blind.  Finding himself a little dominated (again, by the same player) he fails to improve, with the board coming a final .  "Good game"s all round, as he takes his leave - and a spot on the rail...

...so Jeff Wallace is our 5th place finisher, for €79,230

[snoopy1239]

We have a big pot and it involves the Hendon Mob's Ram Vaswani, who raised it up pre-flop to 75,000.

The lively Will Ma made it 200,000, only for Ram to nonchalantly announce all-in, slightly waving his hand forward in that cool calm, "Aaaah, it's only money" manner that only Ram knows.

After a few minutes in the think tank, head bowed down deep in thought as seems to be the norm with the Canadian, Will Ma lifts up his head and says, "I know this is going to look like a crazy move, but I think there's a wide range of hands you could be making that bet with" and makes the call.

Ram Vaswani =

Will Ma =

A rather shocked group of onlookers raise their eyebrows in befuddlement, but the Canadian is keen to defend himself, pretty much echoing his previous statement.

Flop =

Ram, as seems to have been the case this final, lets his emotions uncharacteristically slip (although still only marginally), and the look of combined disgust and disappointment is evident for all to see. His shoulders slump somewhat, and he can only look on with disdain as the dealer lets the final two cards hit the felt...

Turn =

River =

No help, and a shocked Ram, seemingly motionless as he looms over the table, can only look on as Ma apologises for what is a huge beat in a huge pot.

The dealer requests 617,000 from Ram, after the wounded Hendon Mobber sighs, "How much is it?", and casually shuffles through his €25,000 plaques as if they were raffle tickets.

Down to 120k, but not out, Ram looks like a shot deer, and I'd be very surprised if he gets himself back into this year's Grand Prix de Paris final after such a major setback.

[Djinn]

Now autoallin on the big blind with , Ram is up against the of Runar Runarsson...
Flop: 
Turn:   
River:    Runar quietly marvels to himself, in the manner of all poker players ever:  "I actually won on the river card!"

Meanwhile a very dignified-in-defeat Ram shakes hands all round, hearing the contrite Will Ma saying (about the previous hand):  "I overestimated how crazy you were - I thought you were completely crazy..."
"No probs mate.  I've done it myself."  In two years of updating, that is probably the kind of thing you hear the most rarely.  Honestly.

So Ram Vaswani becomes the 4th place finisher, winning €105,640

[snoopy1239]

3-handed:

Will Ma (Canada) -- 1,250,000
Runar Runarsson (Iceland) -- 883,000
David Redlin (America) -- 733,000

[Djinn]

The last fifteen minutes have seen no flops - two walks and two preflop raise-and-takes.  Once Runar Runarsson did the "arm-wave-tapis" where you just brush the air over your chips and announce all in, over the top of Will Ma's preflop raise; Will laid it down.
Then David Redlin called Runar's raise (from, oddly, it being threehanded the cutoff and under the gun).  85k each, and the flop came:  .  Check-check.
Turn:  Check-check
River:    Runar checked and David's 100k bet won him that pot.

Snoopy's turn to stand like a lemon by the table trying to stay out of the way of the photographer...

[Djinn]

Runar Runarsson makes it 85k to go on the button...small blind David Redlin re-raises, a further 240k.  This includes the Red Giant Chip.
"You want to give me the plate?" asks Runar, before descending into a very long dwell.  This culminates in the usual questions he asks before making his big decisions:  "You want me to call?"  "Why so much?"  "You have a pair?" 
David Redlin calls the clock.
Runar passes , leaving himself a stack of 485k.

[snoopy1239]

"Tapis! Tapis" exclaims the Icelander, his 85k being re-raised to 165k by Will Ma, who, after a brief dwell, decides to gamble for 345k more with .

Runarsson, who stacked his chips up like the Lost cast heading out to sea on a raft, flips over a leading, but not dominating .

Board =

The whole of Iceland (pretty much the three fans in the crowd) go mad and Runarrson leaps in the air like a salmon shouting "Yes, yes!" at the top of his voice.

"Your bet with the other media guys looks good now, huh?" he says to me cheerfully.

Er... I do only have €1 at stake, but yes, it don't look half bad now. 

[snoopy1239]

Chippy update:

Runar Runarsson (Iceland) -- 1,425,000
Will Ma (Canada) -- 857,000
David Redlin (America) -- 503,000

[snoopy1239]

David Redlin is OUT and becomes the 3rd place finisher winning €158,460

Raise from the button (Redlin), all-in Big Blind (Runarsson), tapis, tapis, tapis, etc

Redlin =

Runarsson =

Board =

[snoopy1239]

Runar bets 140k, Will announces all-in (circa 1 mil more) and, although asking for a count and whatnot, Runar folds, leaving him with around 1.4 million in chips.

Both players see a cheap Ac-Ts-Kc Flop. Runar bets 50k, Will calls. Turn = 4c, Runar checks, Will bets 140k, Runar folds.

Runar makes it 140k pre-flop, Will calls. Flop = Ks-3s-Ac, Runar bets 175k, Will folds.

[snoopy1239]

Board =

Runar bet 50k on the Turn and 100k on the River, both called by Will Ma who was swiftly shown for the straight.

As a result of that hand, among many others, Will Ma has been ground down to 550k.

[snoopy1239]

Due to the blinds being as high as 25,000 and 50,000 with a running ante of 5,000, it hasn't taken Will Ma to get right back into this, stealing (or maybe not) his way back up to a commendable 750-800k.

----------

Soon after...

Runar makes it 75k pre-flop, Will calls.

Flop =

Runar bets 125k, Will pushes all-in, Runar folds.

As a result, Will now has 1,175,00.