PokerStars.Com EPT Monte Carlo: Day 2 - At A Glance

[Djinn]

So what do those busted from the Pokerstars EPT Grand Final do with their day off?

[ ] Go down to the beautiful Cote d'Azur beach which is literally a street away
[ ] Eat some delicious local foods in delightful restaurants
[ ] Hang-glide off the spectacular cliffs
[/] Wait in a queue with other poker players attempting to squeeze into the first side event

[danafish]

Will you have an entire chipcount after the break ?

No, I'm afraid we're only getting the once-daily Official Pokerstars.Com Official Start Of Day Chipcounts and aside from that we're on our own. Snoops is doing counts right now for everyone he recognises, which will hopefully include everyone you want to know about.

One bit of sad news for the French contingent, ie. you, jpean, is that Copenhagen Final Tablist Nicolas Dervaux has just busted out. He found himself seeing a flop with Son Of Freddy Shaun Deeb, who was moved to the Table Of Legend a while ago after the little old lady busted the dog-playing-poker in an unbelievable* straight-flush-over-quads hand. That flop was and some kind of shenanigans/raising war (sorry, missed that bit) resulted in Dervaux being All In for 10 or 15k and Deeb Junior calling him.

Nicolas Dervaux -
Shaun Deeb -

Turn -
River -


* and also untrue

[danafish]

BUTTERSWATCH




Serial GUKPT go-deeper Mr Jonothon Butters was last seen betting out 10k on a flop, only for the improbably monikered Oyvind Riisem (identification courtesy of the nice lady from Betsson whose name I've forgotten, sorry ) to re-raise him a big ol' chunk, or enough to cover Butters. Butters sighed and folded.

[snoopy1239]

Stuart Fox -- 32,000
Vanessa Rousso -- 25,000
Eric Liu -- 205,500
Stevie Devlin -- 37,500
Alex Michaels -- 86,500
Luca Pagano -- 153,000
Robin Keston -- 38,000
Glen Chorny -- 147,000
Thomas Wahlroos -- 51,000
Daniel Zink -- 49,500
Conor Driman -- 42,000
Jan Sjavik -- 63,500
Mel Judah -- 75,000
Johnny Lodden -- 220,000
Manuel Palanca -- 27,000
Alex Kravchenko -- 43,000
Gus Hansen -- 46,500
Paul Testud -- 35,000
Raymond Rahme -- 55,000
Cyril Bensoussan -- 160,000
Adrian Gaville -- 53,000
Freddy Deeb -- 120,000
Michael Watson -- 33,000
Christoffer Stahle -- 18,500
Eli Elezra -- 37,500
Ted Dawson -- 32,000
Ben Sulsky -- 57,500
Jan Heitmann -- 81,000
Thierry Van Den Berg -- 32,000
Trond Eidsvig -- 42,5000
Michael Martin -- 80,000
Paul Leckey -- 48,000
Nicolas Levi -- 107,000
Barry Greenstein -- 25,000
Sorel Mizzi -- 61,500
Hans Ritburg -- 42,500
Antonio Esfandiari -- 42,500
Jonothon Butters -- 29,000
Marcel Luske -- 100,000
Neil Channing -- 43,500
Shaun Deeb -- 77,000
Stephan Kjaerstad -- 80,000
Stig Rasmussen -- 44,000
Danny Ryan -- 36,000
Benjamin Kang -- 185,000
Andrew Teng -- 42,000
Jonas Molander-- 46,700
Michel Abecassis -- 22,500
Woody Deck -- 117,000
Alexia Portal -- 66,500
Thomas Fougeron -- 38,500
Nadir Jorephani -- 29,000
Andreas Hagen -- 230,000
Patrick Bueno -- 127,000
William Martin -- 48,500

[Djinn]

Someone asked about Gus Hansen...

Well, he's mostly, recently, been in the tank. Here's my Dwell of the Day so far:

[let's set the scene.  There are 4 journalists watching this table] 
Gus is on the button.  He bets 4,700 after seeing a flop heads up.  It's .  He gets check-raised another 31,400 (all in).

[there are 14 journalists, and 3 random spectators watching]
Gus has just 35k behind himself, and counts it all out several times, cutting and recutting his stacks.  About 3 minutes pass.

[there are 17 journalists, 5 random spectators and 2 players from the side event watching]
Gus gurns, puts head into hands, runs hands through virtual hair.  Talks a little to himself.

[there are 17 journalists, 12 randome spectators, 2 players from the side event and a waiter watching]
As the TD comes over to either call time officially on the Great Dane or to shoo away the randoms, he passes.

That is about 11 minutes of my life I am not going to get back.

[Djinn]

Woody Deck is still flying high - on over 130k now.  Just now I discovered that Table Deck has a continual supertanker (see above) - a starting-to-lose-temper Sasha Rosewood confessed mixed desires to "Call the clock, it's ridiculous," and "Not be an a**hole."  Lucky Mr. Deck has absolutely no scruples about calling the clock - Looking at a board of which had paired the on the turn, he'd just checkraised his much shorter stacked opponent 30k (from 8k).  And called the clock on him. 

"You can't just call the clock."
"Yes I can."
"I've been like one minute.  This is a big decision for me."
"This is ridiculous, every hand is taking forever."  Woody is a little animated, jumps up from his seat and tells me almost verbatim what Rosewood did.  The TD calls the clock, and eventually he passes.

Woody throws over the , muttering about how he'd folded Kings earlier, and now bluffs early position or some such poker let-off-steam chat.  The guy next to him deadpans, "Are you a professional poker player."
"I'm a professional a**hole."
"No, you're a pro.  I mean like bluffing and stuff."

No idea what happened from that point but it will be interesting to see if the players who aren't the dweller keep their cool.

PS Please pretend that I could be bothered to get a new pic of Woody instead of using this one from Day One.

[snoopy1239]

The action is thick and fast now, the latest victim of the thick and fastness being Jonas Molander. He moved in with a pair of sixes but ran into the Pocket Queens of Oyvind Riisen. Riisen made a set and that was that.

----------

Splendid news for Connor Driman fans, he's doubled up to precisely 32,400 in a battle of the blinds confrontation with the small blind. I didn't see where the money went in (the Flop, I expect), but Connor's A-K was in great shape against his opponent's K-9 on a 9-8-A, the subsequent bricks giving the American the pot. The very next hand, the action folded round to Connor who lapped up the big blind to take his tally up to, if my Maths is correct, 33,300.

----------

Although proudly donning his arm-revealing wifebeater shirt, it was only the green of the baize that Antonio Esfandiari was beating, the High Stakes Poker pro begging, "One time" to the poker Gods as he found himself in with a chance of winning what would usually be a split pot. Raising to 3,400 in late position, Juris Bonders made it 11,000 from the big blind only for Antonio to raise again to 24,000. Juris quickly pushed all-in, and, in equally swift time, was called by Antonio, albeit with a minor sigh of exasperation. On their backs, and both players may have been relieved, Antonio only a very slight favourite with versus Juris' . Of course, Juris had two flush draws rather than one, but in the face of that undeniable fact, it was Antonio who made the draw, the first four cards coming . "One time!" shrieked Antonio. "One time!". As the River came an anti-climaxing , Antonio added, "God, one time, just one time. Not two time, just one time." As a result, Antonio remains around that 100k mark, but disappointed to not have received that slice of good fortune that would have seen him become a major threat.

[danafish]

Awesome blog you have here!  Love that it's interactive.  Are Gus Hansen or Thomas Wahlroos still in?  Any chance for pictures/updates... TYVM!!!

Yes, and yes, and probably yes to follow.

In fact Snoopy tells me that Mr Wahlroos is currently on 51k, and that Gus Hansen has 46.5k. He just knew that offhand, he hasn't just done loads of chipcounts. He's just that good. Obviously the best updater out of the three of us.

Snoops will you buy me a €20 hamburger?

Ahhhh, lovely, Thank you!

Hmm, now we've said all that, I actually can't find Thomas Wahlroos any more - his former table is now the side event, and I couldn't spot him after a couple of circuits, so for the moment presumed OUT.

Oh, and terribleness upon terribleness, Jen now informs me that Gus Hansen is also OUT. Details to follow.

[snoopy1239]

One player who is shooting for the stars is Ben Sklusy. Finding Pocket Jacks under-the-gun Benjamin made a standard pre-flop raise only to find the button re-popping to 10k. With one cheek resting in his hand, Sklusky slid in 40k and began riffling his black 100 chips in the other, his face unmoving and his eyes peering down towards the felt before him. The button meanwhile, huffed and puffed a little before pushing all-in with A-K. There was still some shrapnel to be called, but Ben turned over his cards before announcing, thus triggering the odd comment about dead hands. Luckily, there were no 'anal shooters', as one player called it, on the table, and Ben was allowed to make the call sans resistance. "Race time," declared Captian Benjamin Obvious as the cards were revealed, but it was the American who had his coin landing the right side, the 6-9-3-3-5 rainbow board earning him both the pot and a stack of well over 100k.

-----------

Stevie Devlin has been enjoying a remarkable surge of late, although he did lose a pot on the very last hand before the break. Starting the hand with 76k, Stevie raised it up to 3,300 in early position and received two callers. It was a three-way checkathon on the Flop before Devlin came out betting 6,200, on the Turn. One player called. A on the River led to another bet from Stevie, 15,500 this time, which, yet again, was called down. Stevie showed first, his unlikely to be ahead, and I was right with my prediction, Mateyboy showing for the Turned set to take the pot.

[Djinn]

Thierry van den Berg hits the rail after this hand:  It's a threeway flop (sorry, not sure of pre action, but I think TvdB may have raised in early position and received callers):    One of the blinds bets out a little bit, vdB Moves all in, and gets a very quick call.  He shows but he's been outflopped by .
"One time..." pleads the Dutchman, but the turn and river come .  There's a pause as it is determined that he's just covered, and he sighs, "Same thing, every time..." before shaking everyone at the table's hands and wandering off, trailed by cameras.

Thierry stands up as if turned to stone while his vanquisher calmly waits for the pot to be shipped to him.

[danafish]

Johnny Lodden has a lot of chips. Ms Isabellefrance may not be pleased to hear that he is also on the immediate left of Manuel Palanca, who is down to just 16k or so.

[danafish]

Yes indeed Trond fans, our beloved Tarantin-a-like has dropped a lot of chips somewhere along the way.   He's currently seated next to awesome magician and by the by German poker pro Jan Heitmann, off of whom he's managed to claw a few back.

One hand I saw involved Jan merely limping in on the small blind and Trond checking. Trond had around 20k at this point.

Flop - - they both check
Turn - - Jan bets 2k and Trond calls
River - - Jan bets 3.5k. Trond really dwells up at this point, asks the dealer to splash the pot so he can count it. He appears to do some complicated mathematics in his head before he sighs, and calls.

And I have to say it surprises me mightily that he is holding the totally ahead-all-the-way . Jan is holding . Lucky Jan that the spade didn't come.

[Djinn]

Johnny Lodden is now chip leader again, after winning a 60k AK vs 99 flip, knocking a player out in the process.  Jannicke says he's over 315,000!  Just another three days to keep it going, now...
_____________________________________

And here's a picture of the Devlin resurgence in action.  Spot the difference:

Hint - in one photo, he's checked and his opponent has bet around the pot - 14k.  In the other, he's check-raised all in and taken it down.

[snoopy1239]

Bad news: Stevie Devlin is OUT.

Good news: His chips went to a fellow Brit.

"I bad-beated him," confessed Stuart Fox with a rye smile. "A-Q versus A-K, Queen on the River."

[Djinn]

Requested Counts:

Matt Kurtz -- 160k
Benjamin Kang -- 155k
Jan Sjavik -- 30k
Nicolas Levi -- 90k
Thomas Fougeron -- 47k
Alexia Portal -- 70k
Johan van Til -- 190k
Cyril Bensoouson -- 115k
Manuel Palanca -- 26k (this represents a double up, and came with the cryptic:  "I got lucky.  I got unlucky.")