Pokerstars.com EPT Dortmund: Day 2 - Interactive

[Djinn]

Jacques Zaicik is OUT in pretty dramatic circumstances...

With a stack of just under 63k at the beginning of the end of the hand (all will become clear), there was around 30k in the pot with Zaicik staring down young American Christian Harder as he put in a bet of 19,800 on the river...

The board:  .  I don't know how they got the money in and when, just that there was still a lot behind on either side as this bet was made.  Zaicik squirmed a little bit, took enough time that I started to play music in my head (a kind of screensaver for lengthy dwells) but then announced, "All in."

This clearly surprised Harder as he was now the one under pressure - with 44,300 to call it would cripple him if he made the wrong decision... It was like a weird reversal of pressure - now Jacques Zaicik was calmly counting down his stacks while his opponent made a pain face.  He thought for a while, and then said, "I call."

Zaicik showed
Harder showed   and his two pair took the huge pot and eliminated his opponent, who was pretty cheerful about it, talking to some people on the rail - I didn't understand what he was saying, but his body language was universal - "Oops.  That didn't work."

[JungleCat03]

Overnight Chip leader Frenchman Cyrille Chabot is still in contention, looking to have 120k or so...




Spaniard Aniol Alcaraz is another player who is doing well at this stage with over 100k in chips. As I watch his table he raises twice in quick succession both of which face no resistance, which prompts me to think of the terrible pun that will follow this photo I snapped of him...



There's no escape from Alcaraz!

[Kara]

"There's no escape from Alcaraz!"

Ouch

[Djinn]

No sooner do I send the Cat to fill in the gaps in our gallery than the erstwhile short stacks all seem to get a new lease of life...

Brandon Schaefer -- 72,500
Ramzi Jelassi -- 63,000 after successfully racing his against Steve Jelinek's .  "I have been chip leader late in an EPT and lost 5 coinflips and gone out before the final, " [I paraphrase] "Now I am going to win 5 coinflips and win it."
Steve Jelinek -- 42,300   He thinks that if your overcards are going to hit, then the flop's the only place for it.  In this instance it was later.  "If you've missed the  flop, that should be it," he railed at the poker gods, "Then it's not fair any more."

[JungleCat03]

With 44 players left, shortstacked swede Anders Henriksson felt he needed to increase his stack to reasonably have a chance of winning.

His first shove with A-9 ran into the dominant Q-Q of a player who I didn't recognise, and who also had hidden his identifying card from view (curses!)

The gods clearly felt he deserved punishment for this behaviour and rewarded the more easily identifiable Anders with an A-2-4 flop. The 3 on the turn opened up some split possibilities, which arrived when a 5 on the river earned Mr A Nonymous a partial reprieve as they players ended up splitting the pot with a shared wheel straight.


Anders was in no mood to slow down though as he shoved a few hands later with A-7 which was called by another short stack, Stefan Wrenger, who had been dealt



in the form of a pair of bullets.

Lucky in the previous hand, Anders was drawing even thinner this time.

The cards fell ...opening up the possibility of an outdraw, but a on the river ended any hope of that and Anders picked up his coat, shook hands amicably with his table and departed the tournament.


43 players remain...

[Djinn]

(re)Introducing...

Mike McDonald... Flying under the radar for most of today, he just leaped to our attention by winning possibly the biggest pot of the tournament, catapulting him into Leader Status with his new 335k stack.

I was up some stairs, down the hall and in a soundproof box when this hand kicked off - I am going to merely repeat what I heard, which is as yet unsubstantiated, which is that he and Mats Iremark got it all in preflop with K-Q and J-J respectively.  Two Queens later and we're down one strong player and up one giant chip leader with no fear whatsoever.  Whoever squeezed who, it turned out to be fireworks...

Chip Leader:

[Djinn]

With 44 players left, shortstacked swede Anders Henriksson felt he needed to increase his stack to reasonably have a chance of winning.

His first shove with A-9 ran into the dominant Q-Q of a player who I didn't recognise, and who also had hidden his identifying card from view (curses!)

The gods clearly felt he deserved punishment for this behaviour and rewarded the more easily identifiable Anders with an A-2-4 flop. The 3 on the turn opened up some split possibilities, which arrived when a 5 on the river earned Mr A Nonymous a partial reprieve as they players ended up splitting the pot with a shared wheel straight.





43 players remain...

It was Brandon Schaefer's Q-Q...as the Ace came he was probably resigned to losing that one, but when the wheel came and the dealer was chopping the pot, someone on the table said, "Now who's the lucky one?" To which he replied calmly, "I think he's the lucky one."

It appears that that was short lived - however I did manage to snap Anders Henriksson before he made his way railwards...

[Djinn]

And also introducing... The winner of that two-pair-call-a-river-check-raise hand a little while ago, now the proud owner of a stack that I can imagine getting a pretty long way towards the final table - Christian Harder.  Apparently qualified online, from the US, no more info other than Stuart Rutter saying that he remembered he "could play."

So there you have it.

[neeko]

News from the far more important front line where the Danish Vikings from Oslo (Gummi bear division) are attacking southwards.

However a final defence has sprung up from the few remaining (uneaten) Jelly babies, they will defend europe from these runhotlagtardgummibears.

[JungleCat03]

Manfred Bass is one of the remaining players holding a meaty stack of 140k or so.

He has made the most of a large slice of fortune earlier in the tournament.

He had got the bulk of his chips in against an opponent, holding on a board, his opponent making a good call with .

With his opponent holding the Jack high flush draw to go with his pair of jacks, Manfred had to hit a 6 outer on the river to realistically survive, which he duly did when the arrived on the river...

Here is Manfred shortly after that crucial hand...

[Djinn]

Final snap of the batch - Dan Carter next to Claudio Rinaldi, who's never been in terrible danger chipwise today, in fact rarely dropping out of the top five.  Some fierce competition on that table, which also features Jan Heitmann.

[Djinn]

A little better late than never - here are the top spots, a little out of date but still pretty accurate, as they move into the post-bubble mash-up...

Mike McDonald -- 315,000
Diego Perez Marco -- 215,000
Marco Liesy -- 208,300
Claudio Rinaldi -- 200,000
Jan Heitmann -- 196,000
Michael McDonald -- 187,000
Christian Harder -- 185,500
Marcel Luske -- 172,000
Daniel Ryan -- 160,000
Johannes Strassmann -- 154,200


(JC is going to bring you the frantic-paced wince-inducing bubble hand in just a minute - P.S. I was wrong earlier about there being 36 paid.  It's actually 40.  It all happened so fast.)

[NoflopsHomer]

(re)Introducing...

Mike McDonald... Flying under the radar for most of today, he just leaped to our attention by winning possibly the biggest pot of the tournament, catapulting him into Leader Status with his new 335k stack.

I was up some stairs, down the hall and in a soundproof box when this hand kicked off - I am going to merely repeat what I heard, which is as yet unsubstantiated, which is that he and Mats Iremark got it all in preflop with K-Q and J-J respectively.  Two Queens later and we're down one strong player and up one giant chip leader with no fear whatsoever.  Whoever squeezed who, it turned out to be fireworks...

Chip Leader:

I think he won a side event at the Aussie Millions, I'm sure his Dad would be able enlighten us further...

[JungleCat03]

41 players left....40 paid.

You know what that means folks!

It's -time...


So we're hand-for-hand, with Thomas Kremser announcing each hand in turn as he walks from table to table.


Suddenly a big pot is played out, and the crowds gather round the table in question.

On a Q-T-3 flop, Stefan Wrenger gets all his chips in versus Brandon Schafer after raising UTG, then shoving the flop for 2x the pot, Schafer quickly calling. When you see the hands, you'll see why...

I'll pass over to the excellent commentary of Thomas Kremser.

"Stefan Wrenger is allin with T-T, a set of tens, and Brandon holds Q-T for two pair.

The turn is a ...Queen [oh my god!] and the river is an Ace, meaning Wrenger is our unlucky bubbler..."

Poor Wrenger, especially when it was revealed by one of the players (after the hand) that they had folded a queen, effectively meaning he got a one out, slap in the face, bad beat on the bubble of one of the biggest tournaments in europe. Poker can be so harsh...

Wrenger grabbed his coat angrily and stormed out of the poker arena looking sick as a dog who has come home hungry from a hard day's work, only to be told the following by his housemate...

Click to see full-size image.

[Djinn]

Double-Double Elimination!

You heard me right, folks - triple all-ins on two tables simultaneously saw Diego Perez Marco's take on and ... in pretty excellent shape to make a big stack even bigger...which is exactly what happened.

Right then Thomas Kremser announced what he called another 'interesting hand' on the table behind - threeway all in: vs. (Johannes Strassmann) vs. (Ramzi Jelassi).

A appeared on the flop, but people weren't finished intaking breath before a followed on from it.  Strassmann had both of his opponents covered, so another close-but-not-quite finish for Jelassi as a 200k pot heading the other way becomes his last.

It looks like play might stop when we reach 32 players - or in the unlikely event that doesn't happen, at the end of the current level.