Pokerstars.com EPT Dortmund: FINAL TABLE

[JungleCat03]

Diego hasn't said much during the tournament so far but he makes a raise which gets through and his stack is moving steadily upwards...


Mike McDonald now makes it 55,000 and Andreas calls in position.

POT: 152,000



No continuation bet from mike for once, he checks, as does Andreas.

TURN:

60,000 bet from McDonald, and Andreas furrows his brow...before calling, not leaving tooo much behind.

RIVER:

100,000 bet on the river from McDonald, Andreas shrugs and goes allin for not that much more...

Mike looks like he might throw up, but ultimately he throws his hand away.

"Definitely had T-J" thinks Lee Jones. We'll see on the feed i guess but I tend to think he may be right, although you never know with Andreas


Here are some of the chip counts...

970,000 Thorsten Haas
906,000 Diego Perez
717,000 Johann Strassmann
699,000 Andreas Gulunay
466,000 Mike McDonald
443,000 Claudio Rinaldi




Mike bets the turn, after limping in preflop. He is called by Diego. The pot is 240k going into  the river...

RIVER:

It's a blank river but Mike keeps up the aggression, betting 140k on the river...

Diego...

CALLS!


Mike shows Q-9 for 2 pair...Diego Mucks without showing! The young Canadian FINALLY takes down a pot of note which will encourage him no end I imagine...

[JungleCat03]

As the picture of Mike on his biography was from an earlier stage of the tournament, here's a more recent shot of him from the final table...

[JungleCat03]

Andreas Gulunay makes a big raise to 140k (!) and it is called on the button by Diego Perez

Flop:

Andreas bets out 200,000...

...If Perez calls then this will be his tournament on the line...

BUT, he passes after a while and the vocal supporters that have supported Gulunay cheers loudly and clap wildly from the rail.


Here's the chip counts as they atand after that hand...

Torsten Haase 962k
Andreas Gulunay 947k
Mike McDonald 710k
Johannes Strassmann 619k
Diego Perez Marco 487k
Calaudio Rinaldi 395k

[JungleCat03]

Interestingly in the  EPT live feed commentary, Elky commented he thinks that Mike McDonald is the best and most experienced player on the final table.

When you think that McDonald is only 18 years old, this just highlights the way poker has changed over the years!


Perez raises to 50k or so and is re-raised by Johannes Strassmann to 140k.

They played this situation out before and AGAIN after a short period of thinking, Perez pushes ALLIN!! 338k more for Strassmann to call! Cue some chewing...more chewing...more chewing.. finally Strassmann starts talking...

Strassmann "Why have you pushed?? Maybe you are feeling lucky??"

Perez: "What do you think??"

(It's like a Spanish-German version of Dirty Harry on the tables)

He loves his re-raises does Strassmann but once again he can't find enough to call so he passes and Perez receives a few cheers from his supporting contingent.

Strassmann shakes his head, disliking having to pass AGAIN to Perez's 3 bet...


Rinaldi shoves over the top of a button raise from Gulunay...

Gulunay tanks for a while but passes an Ace face up.

"SHOW IT SHOW IT!" say the crowd.

Rinaldi feels a bit of the showman about him this time, after not having shown down a SINGLE HAND all final. This time he shows...

! Deafening shouts of support from the rail as his fans go wild at his beautiful re-steal!

[George2Loose]

Interestingly in the  EPT live feed commentary, Elky commented he thinks that Mike McDonald is the best and most experienced player on the final table.

When you think that McDonald is only 18 years old, this just highlights the way poker has changed over the years!


Perez raises to 50k or so and is re-raised by Johannes Strassmann to 140k.

They played this situation out before and AGAIN after a short period of thinking, Perez pushes ALLIN!! 338k more for Strassmann to call! Cue some chewing...more chewing...more chewing.. finally Strassmann starts talking...

Strassmann "Why have you pushed?? Maybe you are feeling lucky??"

Perez: "What do you think??"

(It's like a Spanish-German version of Dirty Harry on the tables)

He loves his re-raises does Strassmann but once again he can't find enough to call so he passes and Perez receives a few cheers from his supporting contingent.

Strassmann shakes his head, disliking having to pass AGAIN to Perez's 3 bet...


Rinaldi shoves over the top of a button raise from Gulunay...

Gulunay tanks for a while but passes an Ace face up.

"SHOW IT SHOW IT!" say the crowd.

Rinaldi feels a bit of the showman about him this time, after not having shown down a SINGLE HAND all final. This time he shows...

! Deafening shouts of support from the rail as his fans go wild at his beautiful re-steal!

Yes 18 but some net players do start earlier.....

[JungleCat03]

Andreas raises the next hand and YET AGAIN Rinaldi pushes ALLIN!

Rinaldi's taking Gulunay apart with his re-steals and after sitting at the bottom of the leaderboard for most of the final Rinaldi is now inching up on the leaders, up to 5th now with 550k or so...


Mike McDonald raises to 60k, Strassmann re-raises ALLIN for another 500k or so...massive raise...

INSTANT CALL FROM MIKE!

Mike shows , finding a hand at last he can call one of these re-raises with...

while Strassmann is caught with one hand in the till, the other in the cookie jar and his pants well and truly down as he tables...

!

They call suited connectors the big hand crackers but will we see a bad beat here...

FLOP:

A set for Mike Mcdonald leaves Strassmann drawing dead though and he is already reaching for the players hands to shake as he departs the table, meaning

Johannes Strassman is OUT, eliminated in 6th place, winning  €152,000


One more hand is played where a 55k raise by Rinaldi is shoved by Haase, and he insta folds.


*****************************************************************
After that hand, we are now on a one hour break for dinner. We'll be back shortly
*****************************************************************

Here are the chip counts as it stands at the dinner break....

Mike McDonald 1,179,000
Torsten Haase 998,000
Andreas Gulunay 804,000
Diego Perez Marco 654,000
Claudio Rinaldi 480,000

[NoflopsHomer]

Hahahaha, I spam your thread with live updates from the DTD £300 event here:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=30973.0

[JungleCat03]

During this short hiatus, I can bring you important intelligence regarding the Press- Gummi Conflict.

I pass you over to General NewKemAll

"Thank you. Following the loss of our leader Jen "The Gummi Gobbler" Mason earlier in the day, we expected the Gummis to launch a counter attack  whilst our defences were weakened. We thought they would attack us on the usual fronts of the Silver Platters, but we received intelligence reports they had taken advantage of the earlier blizzards to launch an offensive through the snowy wilderness leading to the press room.

Satellite pictures were circulated, showing a crack group of snow commandoes moving in on the base. They may look like small, inoffensive creatures composed primarily of sugar and gelatin, but make no mistake, these little commandoes have all been trained to kill and are VERY dangerous( especially the yellow ones...)

Here is the footage we received along with closeups.



And in close up, we can see some of the bears are showing such confidence, they are even standing on their heads...





If these killing machines had reached the press room, the war would have been lost. They would have wiped out the assembled press in moments, leaving no one to cover the EPT.

The press were facing this threat with a brave face however...



Luckily, we anticipated their movements and launched "Operation Kick-some-gummi-butt" We showered the attacking unit with a bombardment of weaponry, causing massive casualties. We have footage of the aftermath, but be warned...it is NOT a pretty sight. Women and children look away now...




We beleive we wiped out the entire invasion force. Gummi reports have been circulated suggesting there was a lone survivor who buried himself in the snow to protect himself form the onslaught and could still pose a threat but we beleive this is just gummi propaganda.

[is it?]


That is all for now. You are safe people. We are winning the war!"

[JungleCat03]

We have resumed playing poker after the dinner break.


The players were showing lots of aggression pre-dinner when they were 6-8 handed. Now there are only 5 players remaining, will the players increase their aggression yet further?

Mike McDonald and Torsten Haase have the upper hand as it stands but all these players have a great chance of taking down the title.


Let's get back into the action...

[JungleCat03]

Andreas Gulunay has been pushed about by Rinaldi's reshoves on his raises so far.

Once again he raises it up and ONCE AGAIN Rinaldi pushes over the top...

....Gulunay huffs and puffs and doesn't like it BUT....finally he decides to look RInaldi up and HE CALLS!

Cards on their backs...

CLAUDIO RINALDI:

ANDREAS GULUNAY:

It's a 900k flip and a crucial pot...

FLOP:

A good flop for Andrea's Sevens...

TURN:   !

Rinaldi picks up a flush draw to go with his overcards. Can he hit a card he needs on the river??

RIVER: ....NO!


Gulunay's pocket pair holds, propelling him into the chip lead, meaning...

Claudio Rinaldi is OUT, eliminated in 5th place, winning €193,000

He did well to get himself into contention having started the final relatively short. A great result for the young Swiss player...


Perez and Thorsten see a flop after some raising preflop. With 277k in the pot,
the flop comes..... .

Perez checks and Thorsten bets out a whopping 300,000.

Perez eyes him dubiously BUT folds.

"Push and I call" says Thorsten.

"Next time, next time" says Perez as the verbal sparring grows apace, as the tension rises!

[JungleCat03]

Mike McDonald raises to 75k and faces a big re-raise from Diego, around 600k more...

It's half his stack to call...AND HE CALLS!

Mike has
Diego:

WOW! What a call from Mike!!!! Amazing! It's a 1,200,000 flip!

The flop comes..

Such drama, such a sick call from the young Canadian but he is rewarded by winning this crucial coin-flip. Diego cannot believe that he called there but it's too late as he missed all his cards meaning...

Diego Perez Marco is OUT, eliminated in 4th spot, winning € 234,200

Such a cold blooded call from Mike McDonald, he is really not fazed by the situation, money at stake, pressure of the cameras. That's some moment!

[George2Loose]

Sick call- good point JC not worried about looking silly on TV calling with deuces went with his read and called

[JungleCat03]

The final three payouts will be as below...

1 € 933,600
2 € 528,500
3 € 307,000


That knockout leaves us three handed, with Andreas Gulunay, Mike McDonald and Thorsten Haase all battling it out for the title. That sick pot a moment ago puts Mike in the drivers seat


Three handed all 3 players see a riased pot preflop..

The flop comes Q-5-3

Thorsten bets out 150k and Mike moves in!

Thorsten....CALLS!!!!

Mike shows Q-K for top pair and Thorsten...A-5 for 2nd pair!!

The turn and the river blank out, meaning...

Thorsten Haase is OUT, eliminated in 3rd place for €307,000

A great result for Haase. Good game.


But that knockout leaves us heads up...the aggressive canadian Mike "Timex" Mcdonald versus the local German player Andreas Gulunay.

Who will win the coveted prize? Mike has a 3-1 chip lead with over 3 million chips...what will happen next!

[JungleCat03]

Here is 3rd place finisher Thorston Haase leaving the final table to pick up his massive cheque for €307,000...





Here are the final two players Timex and Andreas preparing to play heads up...

[JungleCat03]

I'm off to snap the heads up battle, but just for you guys (cos I know you love your ladies) here's some beautiful girls to keep you going!


Dealer norkage



The beautiful Kara Scott, kindly posing for me (with a little bonus in the background)