PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo: Day 4 - At A Glance

[snoopy1239]

Full end of day chip counts:

Antonio Esfandiari (USA) -- 1,198,000
Robin Keston (UK) -- 916,000
Denes Kalo (Hungary) -- 642,000
Johnny Lodden (Norway) -- 623,000
Maxime Villemure (Canada) -- 600,000
Mostafa Belkhayate (Morocco) -- 523,000
Gerasimos Deres (Sweden) -- 494,500
Henrik Gwinner (Denmark) -- 487,000
David Shade Kruger (USA) -- 486,500
Thomas Boekhoff (Germany) -- 465,000
Rami Boukai (USA) -- 425,000
Eric Liu (USA) -- 398,000
Noah Siegel (USA) -- 388,500
Stig Top Rasmussen (Denmark) -- 373,000
Glen Chorny (Canada) -- 344,000
Oyvind Riisem (Norway) -- 340,000
Pablo Ubierna (Spain) -- 316,000
Peter Traply (Hungary) -- 300,500
Valeriy Ilikyan (Russia) -- 295,000
Claudio Pagano (Italy) -- 291,000
Jonathan Dwek (Canada) -- 282,000
Luca Pagano (Italy) -- 279,500
Amit Makhija (USA) -- 269,500
David Miara (France) -- 249,500
Isaac Baron (USA) -- 236,500
Joe Hachem (Australia) -- 214,500
Michael Martin (USA) -- 141,500
Freddy Deeb (USA) -- 140,500
Alexander Morozov (Russia) -- 133,000
Raymond Rahme  (South Africa) -- 133,000
Walid Bou Habib (Lebanon) -- 127,500
Benjamin Sprengers (USA) -- 127,000
Anders Berg (Norway) -- 124,000
Andrew Luetchford (UK) -- 116,000
Vincent Secher (France) -- 92,500
Anthony Chatelain (Sweden) -- 83,500
Tomas Brolin (Sweden) -- 74,000
Andreas Fluri (Switzerland) -- 61,000
Stefan Geim (Germany) -- 58,000

Play commences at 1pm.

[danafish]

Players Down, Courtesy Of The Pokerstars Fairies:

40 Stephen Kjaerstad Norway 38,000
41 Michel Carvin France 33,700
42 Pierre Hall Canada PokerStars cash qualifier 33,700
43 Haward Speer Germany PokerStars cash qualifier 33,700
44 Simon Faure France 33,700
45 Csaba Toth Hungary 33,700
46 Martin Rask Denmark 33,700
47 Borge Dypvik Norway 33,700
48 Andreas Hagen Norway 33,700
49 Mark Keightley UK PokerStars cash qualifier (DS) 29,400
50 Benjamino Speroni Italy 29,400
51 Gordon Vayo USA 29,400
52 Woody Deck Lithuania 29,400
53 Ricardo Sousa Portugal 29,400
54 Domenico Tinnirello Italy 29,400
55 Sorel Mizzi Canada PokerStars cash qualifier 29,400
56 Kari Somer Finland PokerStars cash qualifier 29,400
57 Sami Ovaskainen Finland 25,200
58 Massou Cohen France 25,200
59 Matthew Kurtz USA PokerStars cash qualifier 25,200
60 Cyril Bensoussan France 25,200
61 Brian Green USA 25,200
62 Rahal Kalil France 25,200
63 Clayton Maguire USA 25,200
64 Nikolaus Panopoulus Greece 21,000
65 James Campbell USA PokerStars cash qualifier (DS) 21,000
66 Giovanni Nervo Italy 21,000
67 Jan Heitmann Germany Sponsored 21,000
68 George Lind USA 21,000
69 Tom Stig Ahlberg Finland 21,000
70 Ian Prevost USA 21,000
71 Torbjorn Jonsson Sweden 21,000
72 Giovanni Bigoni Italy PokerStars cash qualifier 21,000
73 Morten Lokken Norway 17,000
74 Tommi Horkko Finland 17,000 75 Benjamin Kang Germany Sponsored 17,000
76 William Martin UK 17,000
77 Sean Bruder Canada PokerStars cash qualifier 17,000
78 Felipe Ramos Brazil 17,000
79 Ed De Haas Holland 17,000
80 Trond Erik Eidsvig Norway 17,000

[danafish]

Still to nip play for  :

1    € 2,020,000
2    € 1,179,000
3    € 715,000
4    € 589,000
5    € 421,000
6    € 337,000
7    € 253,000
8    € 168,000
9+10    € 126,000
11+12    € 101,000
13+14    € 76,000
15+16    € 55,200
17-24    € 46,300
25-32    € 42,100
33-39    € 38,000

[snoopy1239]

First out today was Andreas Fluri, who was closely followed by former International footballer Tomas Brolin. "He's been pushing his shortstack in for three days," observed a Danish blogger on the rail, but this time he was given a spin courtesy of Antonio Esfandiari. On their backs and the magician needed to pull something out of the hat, his in bad shape against Brolin's . However, if you're always the one all-in, it's unlikely you're going to survive them all, the second Lady on the Flop provoking a ripple of disappointed aahs from the crowd. Stoic as always, Tomas sat motionless as the Turn and River sealed his fate. A quick tap of the table and he was gone.

-----------

Just moments before the Brolin exit (I was dodging through the tables like a slalom skier), I witnessed the fiery Joe Hachem double through. On this occasion there was a distinct lack of emotion, his refusal to view the board as it is being dealt and his state of temporary meditation perhaps an effort to  display more composure after yesterday's Wood Deck kafuffle.

Up against Mostafa Belkhayate, the 2005 World Champ had good reason to feel composed, his Queens in cracking shape against the Moroccan's Pocket Jacks. A rainbow 9-4-8-2-9 and the Hach was bag, a slight clench of the fist his only show of emotion in what was a crucial hand at a crucial time.

[danafish]

We've got more exits here than a jumbo jet!




And indeed it must feel a bit like this for Mr Benjamin Sprengers right now:




He shoved with and got himself called by Stig Rusmussen with a dominated . Nevertheless Sprengers immediately announced, "Right, great game, guys. You know what's coming." Indeed -

[Djinn]

Joe Hachem gets in to the zone (or stabs self in eye) as the button is drawn in seat five (fascinating detail, eh?).  He raises first hand to 18k only for Valeriy Ilikyan (bottom) to re-raise to 45k.  He passes.  Going well, otherwise.





------------------------------------------------------------------
Radar up and Maxime Villemure spotted.  But not first hand.  On which he was big blind and AWOL.  Never mind, what's 6k when you have those nice stacks of 5ks eh?

[danafish]

Also OUT is Russian gentleman Mr Alexander Morozov - somehow finding himself all in with against the of Raymond Rahme. No miracle on the board, and Mr Morozov has hit the rail, and also shortstacked Mr Rahme enjoys a virtual double-up.

Click to see full-size image.

[snoopy1239]

Whilst Michael Martin pushes all-in uncontested on the feature table (Freddy Deeb took an age over his decision before eventually folding), Robin Keston is getting involved early doors. He called a 20k bet from Oyvind Riise on an A-6-4-2-J before checking down the River and showing a Six. Unfortunately, Oyvind revealed Pocket Queens to take the pot.

What I have seen thus far is that the structure is displaying a great deal of generosity, the players enjoying ample room to see some flops and play the streets. Of course the shorter stacks are still looking for opportunities to raise all-in pre-flop, but when two giant stacks lock horns, you can be treated to a number of interesting, and less formulaic battles.

[Djinn]

Stig Top Rasmussen makes it a double (pretty much)...

On the small blind, the green'n'yellow sporting Rasmussen, on a roll with the calling (why stop when you're on to a good thing?) just knocked young David Shade Kruger down to the felt. 

I caught the action from when Rasmussen was standing up and thinking about whether to call all-in on a flop of .  He had c. 300k behind and the pressure was on him after button Kruger had made the push.  "Wow," he said, bringing the audience in on his thinking process, "Wow. Wow wow wow."

Then, having finished the process, "I call."
Stig Top Rasmussen: 
David Shade Kruger:

Turn: 
River:

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!" screams Rasmussen.  "YES YES YES!" for emphasis.  He punches the air and turns to talk to the rail in Danish (what is it about the Danes - they produce the only expressive winners/losers amongst the Scandinavians    )

Kruger moves almost his entire stack in the direction of Rasmussen, who now must be on over 800,000.  Pictured:  David, who said not a word while watching his dream of EPT victory recede into the really-not-likely distance.

[snoopy1239]

Don't forget that you can watch the live action from the feature table right here on blonde. To view the live feed, please click one of the threads listed below:

(High Quality) http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=32581.0

(Low Quality) http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=32582.0

[danafish]

Valeriy Ilikyan raises utg to 22k, called by The Great Kalo.

Flop - - Valeriy bets 25k, and The Great Kalo calls.

Turn - - now Valeriy checks. The Great Kalo also checks.

River - - and neither of them feels like betting any more, they just check.

Showdown!

Valeriy - (interesting utg raising there, imo)
The Great Kalo -

The Great Kalo is victorious!

[danafish]

Go the guy wearing the bath robe 

I thought it was a lab coat.

Btw that's Vincent Secher, right? (You guys watching the live feed probably know more about what's happening on the tv table than we do.) Mr Secher, and this might be a lie, is allegedly currently staying in a tent in Nice owing to having no money, or general eccentricity, or something. Most odd.

[snoopy1239]

At this stage in the tournament, you simply have to win your coinflips, but unfortunately for Swedish player Gerasimos Deres, his coin was buttered the wrong side. Re-raised all-in by Frenchman David Miara, Gerasimos made a reluctant call with A-J, but was elated to find that he wasn't dominated, Miara and his Pocket Fives needing to avoid a Bullet and a Knave to survive. And with the board coming 9-4-7-K-2, that's exactly what happened.

Moments later Deres was OUT, Miara finding Queens after Deres had pushed with Sixes.

[Djinn]

And now for something completely different - some Names and Numbers.  Facts.  Cold, solid, facts.  All right, chip approximations by me...

Table 1

Glen Chorny -- 322k
Noah Siegel -- 490k
Amit Makhija -- 220k
Anthony Chatelain -- 85k
Walid Bou Habib -- 105k
David Miara -- 290k
Raymond Rahme -- 325k
Johnny Lodden -- 630k

Table 2

Eric Liu -- 380k
Isaac Baron -- 465k
Maxime Villemure -- 390k
Claudio Pagano -- 470k
Rami Boukai -- 430k
Andrew Luetchford -- 120k
Stig Top Rasmussen -- 820k
Antonio Esfandiari -- at least 1 mil but possibly more

Table 3

Oyvind Riisem -- 600k-800k dependent on whether the stacks behind the visible stacks were brown or blue
Robin Keston -- c. 1 million
Denes Kalo -- 670k
Stefan Geim -- 290k
Henrik Gwinner -- 340k
Peter Traply  -- 350k
Valeriy Ilikyan -- 290k

For anyone having trouble with their links/who doesn't like moving images and prefers words:  Freddy Deeb has busted out over on the TV table.  A-T (?) vs. JJ which hit a set for good measure.

[danafish]

An interesting hand on Table 3...

Robin Keston raises utg. Peter Traply calls him. Have to say Robin looks a bit nervous to me. Read into that what you will.

Flop - and Keston bets 30k. Traply considers, and calls.

Turn - - and now they both check.

River - and Mr Keston fires out 45k. Mr Traply considers for a while, and passes. Mr Keston's hands seem to be shaking a bit as he rakes in the chips. Massive bluff? Excitement from actually having an awesome hand? Rheumatism? We will never know.