PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo: Day 4 - At A Glance

[snoopy1239]

Watching Joe Hachem's table, I did notice that Thomas Boekhoff won four consecutive pots, and would surely have been tempted to go for that monumental fifth. The first one was simple; Ace King under the gun, raised, won. The second hand he found Sevens on the blind and pushed small blinder Vincent Secher off the pot with a bet of 77k. Then, after winning a battle of the blinds confrontation with Joe Hachem with a small bet on the River of a checked board, he went on to raise the button and nick the blinds, the big blind being Isaac Baron who folded without much hesitation. Incredibly, I think I was the only one who noticed this little succession of victories, no one commenting on his four hands in a row achievement. He is kinda quiet though.

[snoopy1239]

David Miara -- 405,000
Vincent Secher -- 325,000
Thomas Boekhoff -- 370,000
Joseph Hachem -- 875,000
Isaac Baron -- 970,000
Robin Keston -- 1,500,000

Glen Chorny -- 1,100,000
Michael Martin -- 640,000
Johnny Lodden -- ?
Henrik Gwinner -- ?
Denes Kalo -- 820,000
Luca Pagano -- 770,000

[Djinn]

Johnny Lodden is the player whose stack has changed most dramatically during the start of Level 22 (just think about that for a moment - this is the 22nd 90 min level of this tournament!), but not in an upwards direction.  For a start he raised with , found Henrik Gwinner moving in behind with , called, and lost.  That on the flop cost him dearly - now down to 245k. 
_________________________________________________________

But elsewhere, moments later - won a pot for Boekhoff off Joe Hachem, who doesn't appear to be taking the downswings in luck with the same calm as some of them.  He is getting a massage, though, which surely must be a soothing thing.  Although he didn't seem delighted to see v. short stack Vincent Secher get it all in with vs. - his shout of 'one time!' getting my attention as the bathrobe-wearing superqualifier doubled to just over 400k.  Pictured, pre and post double up.

[danafish]

How are the two Frenchies ? (table Hachem)

Disaster!

Isaac Baron makes it 44k one off utg, which is all fine, until David Miara on the button makes it another 120k, leaving himself around 220k behind. Isaac dwells up for a bit, and we poor updaters are sort of resigned to the fold, when suddenly Baron announces all in! And Miara calls!

Isaac Baron - - expression very stern
David Miara  - - expression absolutely impassive

Board - - wait for it -

Miara's head actually drops to the felt. He looks like he's going to cry. All this to the accompaniment of some unbelievably rowdy cheering etc from Baron's railers."RAAAARRRRR!!!" is what it sounded like. Baron-railer expressions - all a bit like this:




Isaac Baron now on around 1.4 million, we reckon.

[snoopy1239]

Johnny Lodden is OUT. Plenty of Norwegian railers blocked my view somewhat, so I was unable to catch the full hand, but when managing to peek a look through some random girl's legs, I was able to witness Johnny Lodden calling the all-in of Henrik Gwinner for what looked to be about 225k. As he slid in the individual columns, Johnny kept his eyes peeled on his opponent, awaiting him to reveal his hand. In doing so, each column toppled forward and a domino effect of chips slid into the pot.

To the relief of Lodden, although ideally he would have liked to have seen a small pair, Gwinner showed , meaning he was racing against Johnny's . "Surely he can't win another race," commented a fellow Norwegian from the crowd, clearly hinting that Johnny's luck in those crucial coinflips hadn't been favourable. And it wasn't this time, the board coming to give Henrik the pot and Johnny the door. A calm, composed player at all times, Johnny uncharacteristically expressed how disappointed he was, his whole body sagging dejectedly as the Ace hit the Flop. But that's poker, as they say, and Johnny's out in 17th. Henrik, meanwhile, is the Gwinner and it'll be hard to wipe the Gwin off his face.

[danafish]

Mr Eric Liu OUT on the TV table; announcers saying that we're definitely playing down to eight tonight.

Have to say, worst case scenario, as far as your weary updaters are concerned, would be not playing down to eight tonight and having to come back early tomorrow. The thought of an extra two hours' lie in tomorrow is all that's keeping me going. That and the endless tea.

[Djinn]

Exit!  That of Eric Liu, in 16th place, winning him € 55,200.  Like this.

Valeriy Ilikyan, who seems to get involved (although fairly slowly) quite often – not sure about how he played on the feature table, but as soon as he hit the off-camera one it was the case – limped in mid-position, and Eric Liu raised on the button (+34k).  Ilikyan thought for a while, then called.
Flop:  .  Ilikyan checked, Liu bet 70k, and received a swiftish check-raise of another 75k.  Ilikyan had not-so-much behind after this, but Liu had slightly less, and when he eventually came back over the top for his whole stack, and was instacalled, he can’t have been too happy to be covered.

Liu showed: 
Ilikyan showed: 

The turn and the river:  and a round of applause sprang up for the American as he hit the rail, while Valeriy leapt out of his seat like it had just been electrified and started some high-speed Russian-sounding talking-to-self-in-joy.

[danafish]

Thank you lovely Mad Harper and lovely Pokerstars for these chip counts from the middle of level 22.


T    S    Name     Chips
1    6    Robin Keston               1,470,000
1    1    Isaac Baron               1,370,000
2    7    Stig Top-Rasmussen               1,304,000
1    3    Antonio Esfandiari               1,080,000
1    5    Glen Chorny               1,015,000
1    2    Oyvind Riisem                   920,000
1    8    Joe Hachem                   900,000
2    8    Denes Kalo                   820,000
2    5    Luca Pagano                   715,000
1    4    Maxime Villemure                   702,000
2    4    Michael Martin                   635,000
2    3    Henrik Gwinner                   576,000
1    7    Thomas Boekhoff                   320,000
2    1    Eric Liu                   316,000
2    2    Vincent Secher                   300,000
2    6    Valeriy Ilikyan                   270,000

[danafish]

Just before the break, Jen also reported that Michael Martin was getting bullied.




Not by small children as my illustration might suggest, but by a variety of people at his table. Twice in a row he raised in late position only to be re-raised off the pots.

[Djinn]

Very Rough Chip Estimates of the Non-TV Table:

Vincent Secher – 240k
Henrik Gwinner – 455k
Michael Martin – 680k
Luca Pagano – 800k
Valeriy Ilikyan – 440k
Stig Top Rasmussen – 1.52 mil
Denes Kalo – 700k

[danafish]

Isaac Baron seems to have taken a big hit somewhere along the line - down to about half his peak stack we reckon.

[danafish]

Yay!!! We have an exit!

I mean in the sense of course that it's getting late and your humble updates would love nothing more than to go back to their bedsit and go to sleep.

On the TV table, Thomas Boekhoff is all in with pocket Sevens against Antonio Esfandiari's A-J.

Board - an Aceful and Sevenless 8-A-8-2-9, and the German is AUT.

[danafish]

Oh NOOOO!

Vincent Secher is gone. Imagine if he'd won it! Winner's photos with him in a bathrobe!

[danafish]

From The Virtual Pen Of Mad Harper Who Does Not Use Capital Letters So I Must Use More To Compensate:



dear all

chips at end L22

 
T    S    Name     Chips
2    2    Vincent Secher                   194,000
2    3    Henrik Gwinner                   595,000
2    4    Michael Martin                   783,000
2    5    Luca Pagano                   900,000
2    6    Valeriy Ilikyan                   502,000
2    7    Stig Top-Rasmussen               1,610,200
2    8    Denes Kalo                   580,000
1    1    Isaac Baron               1,490,000
1    3    Antonio Esfandiari               1,538,000
1    4    Maxime Villemure                   845,000
1    5    Glen Chorny               2,156,000
1    6    Robin Keston                   703,000
1    7    Thomas Boekhoff                   222,000
1    8    Joe Hachem                   819,000


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[snoopy1239]

Yes, yes, it's true, the Hugh Hefner of poker is forced to return to the Playboy Tent, Vincent Secher pushing all-in over the top of Denes Kolo's 52k pre-flop raise for just 120k more. It actually took Denes quite a while to call, but when he did, he meekly revealed a sure-to-be-behind A-8o, inevitably dominated by the A-Ko of Vincent.

However, as we all well know, anything can happen in this game, and the cruel 8-3-3 Flop was proof of that. The Ten Turn and Five River was no good, and Vincent was gone. Denes celebrated loudly, whilst a graceful Vincent shook the hands of his opponents and left the playing area 70k richer.