Pokerstars.com Dublin EPT: Day 1A - At A Glance

[snoopy1239]

Good afternoon all and welcome to the At A Glance thread of this year's Dublin EPT. This thread will be for the bare facts of the live update with only the updaters' posts published. If you would like to view a more in depth update of the event and interact with the updaters, then please see the Interactive thread by clicking here

Play for Day 1A commences at 2pm.

Steindl    Johannes   Austria
Dodet    Daniel   Belgium
Lococo    Daniel   Canada
Mcdonald    Mike   Canada
Georgiou    Phidias   Cyprus
Hansen    Casper   Denmark
Hansen    Christoffer Egemo   Denmark
Hostrup    Carl   Denmark
Musa    Zlatan   Denmark
Rask    Martin   Denmark
Top-Rasmussen    Stig   Denmark
Jackson-Palin    Alexandra   England
Arutjonov    Aleksandr   Estonia
Manninen    Reijo   Finland
Mattila    Ville   Finland
Christophe    Benzimra   France
Gallienne    Mathieu   France
Grospellier    Bertrand "ElkY"   France
Perrault    Pascal   France
Testud    Paul   France
Zaicik    Jacques   France
Baran    Marcel   Germany
Koy    Adrian   Germany
Ruthenberg    Sebastian   Germany
Malnai    Csaba   Hungary
Black    Andrew   Ireland
Cahill    Edward   Ireland
Collin    Len   Ireland
Conroy    John   Ireland
Doyle    Conor   Ireland
Grimason    Andrew   Ireland
Mckeever    Fergal   Ireland
Muldoon    Michael   Ireland
O'Toole    Jay   Ireland
Rafferty    Joe   Ireland
Singh    Chris   Ireland
Alacqua    Gino   Italy
Blanco    Cristiano   Italy
Calabro    Davide   Italy
Manganelli    Manganelli   Italy
Minieri    Dario   Italy
Ruscalla    Pier Paolo   Italy
Boeken    Noah   Netherlands
Hollink    Rob   Netherlands
Ruiter    Daan   Netherlands
Smidt    Daniel   Netherlands
Van den Berg    Thierry   Netherlands
Veldhuis    Lex   Netherlands
Augdal    Terje   Norway
Fjellheim    Thomas   Norway
Granstad    Henning   Norway
Holt    Oran   Norway
Kjøndal    Kristian   Norway
Lodden    Johnny   Norway
Sjavik    Jan   Norway
Vreeswijk    Kevin   Norway
Nagy    Jonathan   Spain
Christensson    Simon   Sweden
Eskilsson    Hans   Sweden
Fredriksson    Patric   Sweden
Hellberg    Anders   Sweden
Hogbom    Michael   Sweden
Johansson    Mikael   Sweden
Jonasson    Gustaf    Sweden
Löfgren    Fredrik   Sweden
Skuja    Sebastian   Sweden
Storakers    Johan   Sweden
Stråth    Henric   Sweden
Wendt    Martin   Sweden
Asgcal    Mark   UK
Bedi    Rupinder   UK
Boatman    Barny    UK
Colclough    Dave   UK
De Wolfe    Roland   UK
Huckle    Jonathan   UK
Roberton    Jason   UK
Woodley    Ian   UK
Aronov    Oleksander   Ukraine
Hicks Jr.    Kenneth   US
Kamberis    Alex   US
Peters    Reuben   US
Billirakis    Steve   USA
Blackman    Seth   USA
Hamman    Christopher   USA
Ryan    Daniel   USA
Schaefer    Brandon   USA
Seidel    Erik   USA
Smith    Dan   USA
Smith    John   USA
Diaz    Franklin   Venezuela
Teran    Oscar   Venezuela

[snoopy1239]

Word on the poker grapevine is that there are 91 entrants in today's heat and that 7 levels will be played.

It's immensely surreal over here. Heading out in the cardroom, you are greeted by a sea of tables in an open-plan room which I estimate could seat 600. However, on one small side of the room is a batch of tables holding this year's Dublin EPT - it's almost as if we're watching some minor charity event or something. Having said that, within those 9 or 10 tables are a host of poker giants, as Chili eluded to in the previous post, each one now being blessed with an increased stack of 15k in order to cater for the severe lack of numbers.

As I write, I believe I heard the Tournament Director threatening a start within the next few moments, so hopefully we should be up and running very shortly.

[snoopy1239]

As I compliment under my breath a 3,500 call from Manganeli Manganelli on a against fellow countryman Cristiano Blanco (Manganelli showed ), Dave Colclough jumps out his seat like a leaping salmon to inform me that the said player is actually a calling station and totally "unbluffable". Yet, according to El Blondie, people are still trying to bluff him. Go figure (?).

[Chili]

News of an early exit and its bad news for a Hendon Mobster i'm afraid.  With only a sprinkling of brits in Day1a, 3 are playing on the same table including Barny Boatman & Ian Woodley (the other being Mark Ascgal, who is only playing his second ever live tournament).

Woodley, who self proclaimed was only his third hand and was playing tight, raised it up to 300 and got a caller in Boatman.  The flop was an innoffensive

 

Barny checked and Woodley made it 700, Barny reraised to 2,000 and Woodley was taking no prisoners bumping it to 6,000, Barny went all in and Woodley "put him on the flush draw" then called.

Barny 
Woodley 

No surprises came on the turn or river and Barny Boatman takes an early bath and Ian Woodley catapoults to circa 27,000.

[snoopy1239]

Catford-via-Mayo Irishman Len Collin, or 'Plastic Paddy' as Padraig Parkinson refers to him as, has seen his 15 stack bisected in half (that's to 7,500 for the non-mathematicians out there) after his flopped set was out-gunned by an open ended straight draw on the Turn. From the sound of it, Len thinks he could have got away from it because a heart also arrived and by the turn, he wasn't liking the cut of Mateyboy's jib when he blasted out a 5k bet. However, Len called with his trips nonethless and was sadly met by a 4-5 for the straight.

----------

I haven't borne witness to many all-ins, but one that I did have a ringside view to was Henning Grandstad's recent push. The board read and the Norwegian pro had his tournament life on the line with his remaining 5,150 sprawled across the felt. Dwelling up in typical pensive fashion was Stig Rasmussen. After a deep thinking session in the think tank, Rasmussen opted for the fold, but was in explosive mood upon being shown by a mischievous Granstad, Granismo (as is his moniker) adding, "You folded the best hand".

As Henning grinned like a Cheshire Cat, Rasmussen rose to his seat and paced a hole into the carpet beyond the table as he attempted to rekindle his composure... probably to no avail.

[Chili]

Joe Rafferty 10,000     and overjoyed at coming back from 2.5k in the first hour
Dave Colclough 24,000
Brandon Schaefer 20,000
Rupinder Bedi  10,500
Pascal Perrault 21,200
Eric Seidel  3,600
Henning Granstad  15,200
Ian Woodley 24,100
John Huckle  19,000
Alex Jackson-Palin  9,500
Jonny Lodden  35,600
Andy Black  17,500
Elky Grosspelier  11,200
Martin Wendt  17,400
Michael Muldoon 3,600 - Well he did have when I wrote it down, but has since typing this gone OUT
Christoffer Egemo Hansen  21,600



Dario Mineiri will be doing his homework back in the hotel after being eliminated from this comp. He was down to circa 2k at the time after a few mistimed moves, before running A-T into A-Q and failing to improve.

[snoopy1239]

My degree in educated guesses informs me that Johnny Lodden is the current chip leader after eliminating Jon Huckle's other half, Alexandra Jackson-Palin. Calling a Lodden pre-flop raise with , the two players entered a fierce raising war on a Nine high Flop with two diamonds, Lodden making the final call to Alexandra's push with A-9. Any diamond or Queen would have suffice, but it wasn't to be as the British lass is sent hurtling to the rail to support partner Jon.

-------------

We've located these players (I hope) and will post pictures and chip counts in just a jiffy. Meanwhile, fellow Irishman Len Collin has seen his yoyoing stack head north, a flopped set of threes against Pocket Queens seeing his count rise back over the 15k mark.

[snoopy1239]

Erik Seidel -- 5,300
John Conroy -- 15,250
Daniel Dodet -- 21,300
Len Collin -- 12,450
Dave Colclough -- 24,500
Cristiano Blanco -- 3,700
Manganeli Manganelli -- 2,250
John Smith -- 13,825
Hans Eskilsson -- 21,225
Johan Storakers -- 18,525
Pascal Perrault -- 18,750
Brandon Schaefer -- 9,225
Paul Testud
Rupinder Bedi -- 11,325
Paul Testud -- 12,775
Andrew Grimason -- 26,475
Jan Sjavik -- 6,875
Phidias Georgiou -- 24,350
Henning Granstad -- 8,000
Stig Rasmussen -- 16,900
Noah Boeken -- 15,425
Conor Doyle -- 18,575
Jon Huckle -- 14,525
Johnny Lodden -- 36,800
Marcel Baran -- 20,900
Kristian Kjondal -- 26,500
Thierry Van Der Berg -- 20,100

[Chili]

We just lost Henning Granstad in unfortunate circumstances.  Henning calls a raise with  and two of them see a flop of

 

Henning makes a bet of 1k and gets a smooth call from matey.  The turn is a  and it is checked by both players where Henning says "I had given it up by then!"  The river lands a mighty  for a set for Henning, he procedes to go all in and is called instantly as his opponent held  for the much better flopped set.

---------------

Erik Seidel is having a tough time of it so far, currently on 4,175 after seeing his button raise re-raised to 3,800 from small blinder Martin Rask and then called by Mateyboy in the big blind. The multi-bracelet winner quickly moved out of the way, only for Rask to check-fold the Flop to a 4,500 bet.

[Chili]

Just before the dinner break we lost blonde (George2loose) Rupinder Bedi.  He makes a raise with  and gets one caller, he is rewarded with a flop like this:

 

Rupinder bets out 800 but gets reraised 2,500.  Rupinder reraises again to 6K but matey pushes all in, Rupinder feels with 2k behind he may well be behind with all the action but has to call and is shown 66 for the flopped set.  He took it well, but obviously disapointed as was highly enjoying his first EPT.

[snoopy1239]

One of the more enigmatic characters is Danish player Stig Rasumussen, quite prepared to wear his heart on his sleeve and make every decision appear to be a highly stressful one. The last encounter to induce a huff and a puff was with Christophe Benzimra, the Frenchman putting Stig to a seemingly painful decision with a 2,675 to 8,000 re-raise on board.

With his face twitching like a three legged ferret, Stig eventually bet the lot and pushed all his chips across the line, although rather messily I might add. Christophe quickly called, but was dismayed to see that his was in need of assistance against Stig's .

A house-filling on the River and we were braced for a Stig explosion, one that came in the form of an exclaimed "Yes!", a slam of the chair, and the repetition of the phrase "Gut Poker, Gut Poker" (or at least that's what I think he was saying).

Meanwhile, Christophe was left to slip away in defeat as Stig took the pot unquietly.

He may be loud, but at least he's entertaining in what has been a rather quiet affair today.

[snoopy1239]

Following ElkY's recent demise, which I'm afraid went unnoticed by Team blonde, fellow shortstacker Brandon Schaefer faired rather better when his chips crossed the line, although divine intervention was required... by the bucket load.

With Schaefer pushing all-in over the top of an early position raiser with , Andy Black must have been grinning from ear to ear when he woke up with Kings, but after a Jack high flop with one club led to runner runner flush on the turn and river, the Irishman's smile soon turned upside down as he forced to double up his American foe.

-------------

Ian Woodley, who is far from being a nit, is enjoying a fast and furious rollercoaster ride which has finally slowed down at 32,000 after induring more than the odd loop-the-loop.

First up was a mild corkscrew, Ian raising it up with Pocket Fives before calling a small re-raise. A five on the flop with two spades led to a raising war with his re-raising opponent, but after Mateyboy showed and subsequently hit a third spade on the Turn, Wooders was ruing ever making trips at all. "I can't believe he re-raised me before the Flop with A-3," observed a bemused Londoner.

Soon after though, the rollercoaster ventured into a frenzied spin, Ian calling a button raise from Noah Boeken with Pocket Nines. Check-raising the Flop, both players checked the Turn before Ian hit a dream on the River. Out of position, Noah checked, and then called a 9k bet from Ian. Of course, Ian took it down, but Noah, who is now down to 4k as a result, had a face like a smacked arse, so one can only assume that he had a hand like Jacks or Queens.

However, as eluded to in the initial line, Ian isn't one to sit tight for a tournament and rarely welds chips to his stack, so don't be surprised if Ian is back playing big hands soon and ensuring that the rollercoaster is back in full flow.

[snoopy1239]

Len Collin -- 17,200
Thierry Van Der Berg -- 10,725
Conor Doyle -- out
Johnny Lodden -- 51,000
Phidias G -- 23,500
Jan Sjavic -- 9,125
Marcel Baran --32,600
Paul Testud -- 9,800
Stig Rasmussen -- 43,425
Martin Rask -- 43,425
Martin Wendt -- 12,200
Dave Colclough -- 43,000
Kristian Kjondal -- 36,200
Pascal Perrault -- 9,375
Johan Storakers -- 18,450
John Conroy -- 10,950
Andy Black -- 27,500
Brandon Schaefer -- 19,175
Andrew Grimason -- 36,175
Christoffer Egemo Hansen  -- 18,000
Noah Boeken -- 18,000
Jon Huckle -- 11,200

[snoopy1239]

As we creep into the last level of the day, we have lost a popular Frenchman in Pascal Perrault, the Hawaiian shirt-wearing long haired lover from er... not Liverpool, falling at the hands of Belfast's Andy Black, who's been as busy as a bee today. I only caught the end of the hand, but Pascal was all-in on a board of , but quickly called by Black's which I believe only edged into the lead on the River.

[snoopy1239]

Jon Huckle has been spotted on the rail with a dejected look, his tournament life reeing through his fingers like grains of sand. He raised pre-flop with A-T and was check-raised on a Ten high Flop by a straight draw, which obviously hit to send the Huckle packing. As he left, he wore a 'what can you do?' kind of expression on his face, if you can somehow picture my vision.