PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo: Day 1B - At A Glance

[snoopy1239]

Welcome to Day 1B of the PokerStars.com EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final. Play is due to start at 1pm.

This is the At A Glance thread and will involve updater posts only. For a fuller update and the chance to interact with the updaters, please visit our Interactive thread by clicking the link below:

[danafish]

Morning all! We have coffee and a packet of miniature salamis we found somewhere. Mmm.

Here is a list of yesterday's survivors:

Stephen Kjaerstad   111200
Chris Min Lee   96050
Johnny Lodden   88425
Mostafa Belkhayate   88275
Driman Connor   87675
Shaun Deeb   84375
Thomas Boekhoff   83350
Shane Reihill   82150
Nils Christian Paulsen   80825
Beniamino Speroni   80525
Gilbert Abela   78875
Peter Wolfgang Roche   78425
Pierliuigi Tiziani   77225
Claudio Stefano Rinaldi   74475
Noah Siegel   73725
Tommi Horkko   73150
Sasha Rosewood   72125
Woody Deck   70800
Terris Preston   70125
Morten Lokken   68700
Maxime Villemure   68000
Juris Bonders   67800
Valeriy Ilikyan   67450
Kenny Hallaert   67000
Clayton Maguire   66800
Domenico Tinnirello   58100
Sebastian Zink   58050
Andreas Torbergsen   56600
Enrico Mognaga   56325
Dan Glimne   54725
Sorel Mizzi   52550
Alexander Uskov   52550
Nordine Bouya   51400
Thomas Fougeron   50300
Jean-Pierre Gleize   49100
Jan Heitmann   48900
Mel Judah   47450
Eduards Kudrjavcevs   46650
Stuart Michel Fox   46600
Aliaksandr Dzianisau   46550
Marcel Luske   46375
Andre Santos   46000
Travis Klein   45975
Trond Erik Eidsvig   44525
Christoffer Stahle   44225
Thomas Bichon   44050
Luca Pagano   43750
Eric Liu   43600
Derek Vandamme   43400
Nicolas Levi   43250
Ronny Alex   42550
Patrick Sacrispeyre   42125
Andreas Fluri   41875
Anthony Chatelain   41225
Peter Traply   41000
Rahal Samir   40575
Kirill Rabtsov   38875
Andreas Sarling   38625
Josh Arieh   38500
Nikolaus Panopoulus   37800
Jonathan Dwek   37600
Richard Fohrenbach   37500
Stefan Gerim   37475
Cecilia Borg   36575
Joshua Gould   35550
Jason Mercier   35375
Fabrizio Baldassari   35275
Freddy Deeb   35175
Benjamin Locatelli   35100
Christoph Niesert   34900
Ian Prevost   34875
Fadi Kamar   34550
Thomas Wahlroos   34500
Giovanni Bigoni   33775
Tomas Brolin   33175
Pawel Chmiel   33175
Karl Gal   33075
Humberto Brenes   32700
Jeremy Wray   32525
Raymond Rahme   32225
Joakim Osth   31675
Dominik Stopka   31675
Ryan Fisler   31600
Gualter Santos   31550
Ryan Daut   31425
Anna Wroblewski   31325
Teodori Saverio   31150
Thomas Richter   31050
Carl Olson   30775
Fowzi Baroukh   30325
Stefanie Bergener   29825
Pier Paulo Ruscalla   29450
Ross Boatman   29000
Csaba Toth   28400
Pierre Xavier Lenoir   28300
Josef Klinger   28150
Jan Olav Sjavik   27500
Martin Rask   27225
Stephen Devlin   27100
Simone Coppari   26375
Gino Alacqua   26275
Thierry Van Der Berg   25975
Peter Feldman   25725
Robin Keston   25425
Eric Scalisi   25200
Kari Somer   24825
Mark Bech   24775
Michel Abecassis   24550
Gianni Mocchi   24450
Paul Maddern   24400
Steven Van Zadelhoff   23875
Alexander Argoe   22575
William Edler   22250
Nadir Jorephani   21850
Pablo Ubierna   21825
Alec Torelli   21325
Anthony Gregg   21275
Edward Lawson   20000
Osman Mustanoglu   19650
Vladimir Kochelaevskly   18525
Christer Bjorin   18250
Noah Boeken   18250
Samuel Chartier   17700
Matthew Kurtz   17550
Adam Levy   17500
Ricardo Sousa   17175
Sandra Edlund   17075
Pierre Baronville   17025
Daniele Masini   16775
Adam Sword   16775
Dominick Raynis   16725
Tommy Pavlicek   16075
Halldor Mar Sverrisson   15975
Carl Johan Ericson   15850
Dorrance-Bowman   15500
Andy Greekfish   15425
Luis Merino   15425
Tommy Dender   15225
Alexander Morozov   15050
Severin Walser   14950
Guillaume De La Gorce   14875
Max Tobias Persson   14700
Scott Sitron   14450
Eliahu Ilan Elezra   14400
Christian Togsverd   14250
Patrik Antonius   14000
Mario Puccini   13950
Benjamin Kang   12600
Richard Nadler   11775
Iliodoros Kamatakis   10900
Owen Crowe   10475
Andreas Hagen   10275
Rahal Kalil   10200
Mike Bartholomew   10075
Nathan Doudney   10000
Miguel Magan Tier   9800
Asbjorn Lunde   9775
Stephane Michel Sage   9650
Ken Justin   8800
Konstantin Bucherl   8750
Mikhail Ustinov   8475
Josef Kollarits   7450
Gordon Vayo   7325
Jared Hubbard   7225
Johan Van Til   7125
Francois Tardieu   7075
Anders Henriksson   6700
Barry Greenstein   5825
Martin Wendt   5575
Christophe Perraud   5325
Ditspong Pinpramot   4750

[danafish]

...And indeed an extremely provisional and incomplete player list for today, all courtesy of the fine figure of a woman that is Mad Harper of Pokerstars. At the time of, er, us arriving a little while ago, people were still dumping massive wads of €500 notes on the registration desk, so expect more people than this to suddenly appear on a revised player list at some point soonish:

Name                       Country                      PS Status
Jerzy Hajdamowicz    Poland    
Gerasimos Deres    Sweden    
Andreas Larsson    Sweden    
Matthew Hopkins    UK    
Kevin O'Connell    UK    
Joey Lovelady    UK    
Martyn Bebb    UK    
Alexia Portal     France    
Manuel Bouvant     France    
Anthony Lellouche     France    
Ludovic Lacay     France    
Thierry Cazals    France    
Jean Claude Perrot    France    
Christian Lohmann    Denmark    
Jonas Molander    Sweden    
Tero Laurila    Finland    
Ørjan Holt    Norway    
Andrey Zaichenko     Russia    
Marc Goodwin    UK    
Uffe Holm    Denmark    
Thor Hansen     Norway    
Johan Storakers    Sweden    
Juha Helppi    Finland    
Jérôme Mangin    France    
Charles-Edwin Mangin    France    
Derwiche Imad       
Leroy Soesman    Netherlands    
Denis Patout    France    
Daniel Elkeslassy     Morocco    
Joakim Frank Angle    Sweden    
Keith Johnson    UK    
Michael Ehrencrona    Sweden    
Felice Piccaluga    Italy    
Minal Patel    UK    
Michael Keiner     Germany    
Fabrice Soulier    France    
Raúl Mestre    Spain    
Luis Sevilla    Spain    
Diego Pérez    Spain    
Victor Escudero    Spain    
Simón Muñóz    Spain    
Jose Valero    Spain    
José Espinar    Spain    
Max Pescatori    UK    
Roger Suter    Switzerland    
Stig Top Rasmussen    Denmark    
Thomas Dolezal    Austria    
Jonathan Friedberg     USA    
Ramez Fouad Haddad    Lebanon    
Souhail Joseph Nassar    Lebanon    
Ghassan John Bitar    Ghana    
Mikael Lundell     Sweden    
Rony Jazzar    Lebanon    
Janno Cazemier    Dutch    
Juan Manuel Pastor    Spain    
Mark Phillips     London    
Fraser Dunphy    Ireland    
Afzal Hussain       
Antoine Arnault       
Jan Bendik       
Ariel Adda    UK    
Dieter Albrecht    Switzerland    
Mickey Wernick    UK    
William Thorson    Sweden    
Tore Lagerborg     Norway    
Surindar Sunar     UK    
Jean Phillippe Rohr    France    
Carl Hirschman    Switzerland    
Gus Hansen     Denmark    
John Dwyer     Ireland    
Neil Channing    UK    
Wooka Kim    Japan    
Simon Faure    France    
Anthony Gil    Switzerland    
Cristiano Bruschi     Italy    
Julien Sallin    Switzerland    
Fabrice Andreani    France    Cash
Ziv Bachar    Israel    Cash
Isaac Baron    US    Cash
Chad Batistia    US    Cash
Boris Becker    Germany    Sponsored
Saul Berdugo    France    Cash
Anders Berg    Norway    DBI
Remy Biechel    France    DBI
Yngvi Bjarnason    Norway    Cash
Keith Block    US    DBI
Andrew Boccia    US    DBI
Erik Bodén    Sweden    Cash
Dan Borén    Sweden    Cash
Rami Boukai    US    Cash
Franz Bracher    Switzerland    Cash
Tobias Brieler    Germany    Cash
Steven Brown    US    FPP
Chad Brown    US    Sponsored
Sean Bruder    Canada    Cash
Mory Bruno    Switzerland    Cash
Jonothon Butters    UK    DBI
Gregory Byard    US    DBI
James Byrne    UK    Cash
James Campbell    US    Cash (DS)
Rey Cardenas    US    Cash
Gerald Carter    Canada    Cash
Yau Wan Chan    US    Cash
Glen Chorny    Canada    Cash
Selim Citak    Turkey    DBI
Marco Compagno    Italy    Cash
Vicky Coren    UK    Sponsored
Spencer Cossette    Canada    DBI
Brice Cournut    France    Cash
David Cowling    Canada    Cash
Daniel Didech    US    DBI
Børge Dypvik    Norway    Cash
Jacob Eaise    US    Cash
Sondre Eftedal    Norway    Cash
Josh Egan    Australia    Cash
Jospeh Elpayaa    US    Cash
Shawn Eno    US    Cash
Alain Faust    France    Cash
Maor Feldinger    Israel    FPP
Leonardo Fernandez    Argentina    Sponsored
Martin Fernandez    Argentina    Cash
Miguel Fiatt    Costa Rica    Cash
Bobby Firestone    US    Cash
Leca Frédéric    France    Cash
Benoit Gariepy    Canada    Cash
Jeffrey Garza    US    Cash
Adrian Gavile    US    Cash
Jima Geary    US    DBI
Herbert Gelman    US    DBI
Celii Gianni    Switzerland    Cash
Gavin Griffin    US    Team PokerStars Pro
Bertrand Grospellier    France    Team PokerStars Pro
Joe Hachem    Australia    Team PokerStars Pro
Scott Hall    US    Cash
Pierre Hall    Canada    Cash
Harald Hautzinger    Germany    Freeroll
Peter Heim    Austria    Cash
Thomas Henck    Germany    Sponsored
David Hickman    US    Cash
Cristobal Hidalgo    Spain    Cash
Patryk Hildebranski    Canada    Cash
Sándor Hollaar    Netherlands    Cash
James Honeybone    New Zealand    Cash
Carl Hostrup-Pedersen    Denmark    Cash
Nathan Hudson    US    Cash
Gail Hummel    US    Cash
Jan Iversen    Norway    Cash
Faraz Jaka    US    Cash
Ali Jalali    Germany    Cash
Joris Jaspers    Netherlands    Cash
Peter Jetten    Canada    Cash
Mikael Johansson    Sweden    Cash
Mark Keightley    UK    Cash (DS)
Fredrik Keitel    Germany    DBI
Yury Kerzhapkin    Russia    DBI
Hafiz Khan    US    Cash
Brad Kliever    US    DBI
Alex Kloos    Germany    FPP
Goran Kojic    US    Cash
Tomasz Krzesiñski    Poland    Cash
Mario Kühl    Germany    Cash
Martin Kværnstuen    Norway    Cash
Florian Langmann    Germany    Cash
Ronnie Larsson    Sweden    Cash
Michalle Lau    US    Sponsored
Paul Leckey    UK    Cash
Ivan Lehoczky    Hungary    DBI
Stevie Levy    US    Freeroll
Randy Lew    US    DBI
George Lind III    US    DBI
Pakinai Lisawad    Thailand    Cash
Sander Lylloff    Denmark    Sponsored
Jared Mahoney    US    Cash
Amit Makhija    US    Cash
Emil Malevsci    Bulgaria    Cash
Armando Marquez    Spain    DBI
Michael Martin    US    DBI
Roberto Massullo    Italy    Cash
Arnaud Mattern    France    Sponsored
Mike McDonald    Canada    Cash
Guido Meacci    Italy    Cash
Edmond Melamed    France    Cash
Dustin Mele    US    Freeroll
Erlend Melsom    Norway    DBI
Joseph Michael    US    DBI
Dario Minieri    Italy    Team PokerStars Pro
Chris Moneymaker    US    Team PokerStars Pro
Jospeh Mouawad    Lebanon    Sponsored
Philippe Narboni    France    Cash
Peter Neff    US    Cash
Daniel Negreanu    Canada    Team PokerStars Pro
Lee Nelson    New Zealand    Team PokerStars Pro
Jussi Nevanlinna    Finland    Cash
Xuantien Nguyen    US    Cash
Vinh Nguyen    Denmark    Cash
Armando Pagliari    Canada    Cash
Steve Paul-Ambrose    Canada    Team PokerStars Pro
Richard Pettibone    Costa Rica    Cash
Stephane Prevost    France    Sponsored
Gunnar Rabe    Sweden    FPP
Victor Ramdin    US    Team PokerStars Pro
Andreas Rathje    Germany    Cash
David Redlin    US    Cash
Shane Reihill    UK    Cash
Jordan Rich    US    DBI
Niels Rikhof    US    Cash
Jesse Rockowitz    US    FPP
Paul Rotstein    Belgium    Cash
Vanessa Rousso    US    Team PokerStars Pro
Runar Runarsson    Iceland    FPP
Sebastian Ruthenberg    Germany    Sponsored
Daniel Ryan    US    Cash
Loïc Sabatte    France    Sponsored
Eric Samuelian    France    Cash
Carsten Schlesener    Germany    DBI
Calle Schöldborg    Sweden    Cash
Torsten Schulz    Germany    Cash
Michael Schulze    Germany    Sponsored
Vincent Secher    France    Cash
Jospeh Serock    US    Cash
Eric Sfez    France    FPP
Christian Simunic    Germany    FPP
Todd Sisley    Canada    DBI
Matthew Smith    US    Cash
Marc Smits    Netherlands    Cash
Rumit Somaiya    UK    Cash
Mike Sowers    US    Cash
Haward Speer    Germany    Cash
Benjamin Sprengers    US    Cash
Bernd Stadlbauer    Austria    Cash
Ben Stark    US    Cash
Gunther Steinbach    Germany    Cash
Daniel Stern    Canada    DBI
Frank Stumpf    Germany    Cash
Jan Suchanek    New Zealand    Cash
Benjamin Sulsky    US    DBI
Paul Testud    France    Cash
Yevgeniy Timoshenko    US    Cash
Marin Truvnev    Netherlands    Cash
Jospeh Udine    US    Cash
Christopher Ulsrud    Norway    Cash
Per Ummer    Cyprus    Cash
Bas van Beek    Netherlands

[danafish]

And they're off!

[Djinn]

Play has begun, and although I struggled to spot early action other than you might expect with a 10k stack, 90 min clock and 25/50 blinds, Dana says she's seen some odd play already, chips are flying on at least one table.

I saw one flop:  it involved Kevin O'Connell raising preflop to 200, getting three callers and a flop.  Checks all round, and then Kevin called a 600 bet on the turn only to fold on the river to a 1,600 bet.  His chip count, therefore: 14,200. 

Meanwhile the floor was called as a becowboy-hatted latecomer sat down in a seat 9, but didn't give the dealer his seat ticket.  "Didn't they give you a card when you bought in?" asked the dealer.  "No," replied the jovial American, "I gave them €10k, they didn't give me anything at all."  Oops. 

[danafish]

Good Lord, craziness here already. I just saw a gentleman call off about half his stack with A-Q on a King-high board. The gentleman who raised him obviously had fourth pair. Amazing.

Meanwhile I have found Mr Michael Martin, who says "Hi mom!" for when Ms TheReader appears. He says he's tired, but appears most cheerful. He's right at the back of the room, next to the window, and as I was chatting to him the curtains opened and oh my God the sunshine! I could live here forever and I swear I'd never get used to it. Will most surely get some photos of the awesome, awesome view, as soon as Snoopy lets me have the camera. 

My first circuit of the cardroom in numbers:
Cowboy hats = 4
Pink/fuchsia shirts = 5
Times Steve Frezer pulled my hair = 1
Extra green chips that Maz Nawab has somehow added to his stack = approximately 10
Miniature salamis/woodland animal poos I have consumed = 8 urrrrr 

[danafish]

A crowd has formed around a table, and it is because Daniel Negreanu, Paul Testud, a Mateygent sat in what must not be the funnest place to be today in that he directly to Daniel Negreanu's right, and a Canadian gentleman called Benoit Gariepy (omg I love it when people have their names on their shirts) are seeing a flop. Said flop is . They unspectacularly check it.

Turn - and now Mateygent bets 300. Negreanu and Benoit call, Paul Testud passes.

River - and Mateygent bets 700. To which Negreanu makes it 2k. Benoit passes, and Mateygent dwells up, grinning. He seems very pleased with himself. I think it's because Daniel Negreanu's just raised him. The crowd around the table is now unreasonably large for a smallish pot in Level 1. Eventually he folds. How happy he looks to be losing to Daniel Negreanu! Or something.

[danafish]

Hi! 

I have an quite unusual request for you guys today.
Any chance you could take some kind of closeup pic of some chips?   would like to know how close those replica sets are to the real thing:)

Ok, shall do, although a curious thing - yesterday the 5k chips were white, and today they are a sort of beigey brown colour. Either somebody spilled their coffee on them, or, more likely, they are today using for the tournament the chips that they were yesterday using in the sit n gos. So bear in mind that there may indeed be more than one design of Official Pokerstars EPT Tournament Chips, if that's what you have...

----------

Andrew Teng is currently on 13,450 and sharing a table with fellow Brits, Manuel Palanca (12,575 - "I keep bluffing off my chips, that's my problem"), Paul Ephremsen (11,500 - "I've had A-K beaten twice") and Paul Bracken (15,000 "We had a great piss up in Manchester last year"), not to mention a cucumber cool Mats Iremark, the EPT Dueville winner flying high with almost 30k in chips.

[danafish]

While I was sunning myself taking photos for your edification, Mr Maz Nawab wandered outside. He was shaking his head and was clearly in serious need of nicotine - "I was up to 19 or 20k. I don't really know why I got involved with this German kid." Must admit I feared the worst for a moment, but it turns out he's currently on a Just Fine 16 or 17k. Apparently the hand in question involved Maz holding a pair of Nines and Kid German holding Jacks, although Maz was fairly sure he had A-K or similar. That hand saw him drop down to around 12k, but he's been doing a pretty good job of clawing it back since.

---------

Like a machine gun rattling out an flurry of bullets, a swift raise, re-raise, re-re-raise, all-in, call causes a sudden showdown on the far table, one man turning over Kings, the other Aces. A King-less board later and we're a Spaniard down, leaving young American Joe Udine to stack up his newly acquired stack whilst simultaneously thanking the Poker God's for his good fortune.

-----------

Another famous face that has been spotted today is Italian Pirate and former WSOP bracelet winner Max Pescatori. As I joined his table, he was seemingly praying to the poker gods with his hands clasped before him. With a 7h-5d-Th Flop on board, Max had called an initial bet of 1.2k, only to find Mateyboy push all-in for 8k behind him, with the initial aggressor following suit with an all-in of his own. Hesitant to fold at first, Max did eventually pass, likely pleased to see the aggressor turn over 5h-5c for a set of Fives. Surprisingly, the all-iner could only muster a Ac--Kc (he understandably smirked when he saw how much trouble he was in), and quickly exited stage left as the turn and River dealt out blanks.

[danafish]

I'm afraid all we know currently about number of runners etc is that there are 449 remaining at this moment in time. From the virtual pen of Ms Mad Harper:


dear all

I don't think I'll have a full list for today until about 6pm. The tournament team had a computer problem - it's now fixed but it's set them back time-wise.

Best wishes
Mad

[Djinn]

Here it is:  The back of Boris Becker's head.  Yes, as you see he's attracted quite a media frenzy, being famous for at least one thing other than poker...

As I pretended to be much more interested in Runar Runarsson (the guy with the sunglasses looking suspiciously upwards) the media gent opposite me kept a firm track on the tennis star's face and a floorman or security person came up to me and insisted I turn my flash off.  I was then sort of watched as I went to the nearby tables, and felt it only prudent not to annoy him on that round.

Incidentally, all this concern being shown about Boris at the table (i.e. Stop the Flashing or he Might Get Distracted in his First Big Tournament) seems counterintuitive - he's surely creating a lot of media buzz for Pokerstars and must be used to the paparazzi blinding him with their cameras by now.  I do, however, feel for the other players at the table.


___________________________________________________________

Some level Two chip counts:

Chad Brown -- 7,300
Paul Testud -- 20,200
Daniel Negreanu -- 18,500
Casey Kastle -- 16,400
Max Pescatori -- 13,700
Gus Hansen -- 14,800
Marc Goodwin -- 10,800
Andrew Teng -- 9,175
Mats Iremark -- 32,500
Manuel Palenca -- 10,500
Paul Bracken -- 14,000
Joseph Serock -- 11,750
Ram Vaswani -- 11,900
Juha Helppi -- 17,000
Dario Minieri -- ?? Think I saw him at the beginning of the day, but you never know with him - would gamble on OUT
Neil Channing -- 19,100 (Wants to know who his supporter is...so who are you Supporter of Channing?)
William Thorson -- 21,000
Vanessa Rousso -- 8,200
Joey Lovelady -- 21,800
John Tabatabai -- 11,125
Thomas Dunwoodie -- 17,825
Thor Hansen -- 15,850
Kevin O'Connell -- 8,700
Vicky Coren -- 10,450
Micky Wernick -- 14,300
Rumit Somaiya -- 13,300
Chris Moneymaker -- 4,000

[Djinn]

Slightly disappointed by the hat after all that build up.

How about that of Wooka Kim?  She seems an intriguing character, what with the, er, hat, and the shades and the big box of Macadamia chocolates.  Like she might have bumped off a rich husband and be fleeing the country, stopping only for a brief high-stakes poker tournament.

Not really, of course - she actually won the Everest Poker 'Live the Dream' package which means she may be a familiar face on the tournament circuit for a while to come.  Well done her.

[snoopy1239]

With Dana and Jen doing hatwatch, hoodiewatch, wristwatch and every other watch under the sun, I feel I should get involved with a watch of my own.

Drum roll please maestro...



BORISWATCH

After a slow (ahem) back and forth start, Boris has dropped down to 7,925 after locking horns with Mateyboy. After some brief pre-flop action, Boris check-raised a T-8-x Flop, and Mateyboy called. Both players checked down the raggy Turn and River before Mateyboy revealed T-8 to take the pot. Boris, meanwhile, showed an inferior pair of Pocket Nines.

[snoopy1239]

Sharing a table with Gavin Griffin is Jon Friedberg, just one of many players in this room who seem to have won a World Series bracelet. He currently has 8,725 after doubling up an opponent. "Do I have to show if I call?" asked Frieberg as his foe pushed all-in for 1,950 on a Flop. The answer, not surprisingly, was yes, but this didn't seem to deter the American, Jon calling with and being shown . At this point, Gavin Griffin piped in with a "You would have folded if you didn't have the Ace of Clubs," but that joke almost turned into a reality, the Turn bringing a before a River left one player mighty relieved.

Also on this table is a sunglassed up to the max Joris Jaspers with 17,925, and a battered and bruised Gavin Griffin with just 2,450.

[danafish]

And not forgetting a bit of eye candy for the ladies, Mr Danny Ryan (21k at the last count):

Click to see full-size image.

Also the perennial Ladies' Favourite (never saw it myself), Gus Hansen, currently seated next to Mr Marc Goodwin: