Expekt.com Norwegian Championships ME: Day 2 - At A Glance

[Djinn]

Billy Ngo (pictured during the buffet break, rather than currently) told us that due to the lack of reportage on him, people were supposing his demise.  Not so!  He's on around 35k, about what he started the day with.  It's not like he hasn't been active - he got up to the dizzy heights of 75k within two levels, and then lost back all his profit raising utg with and finding a Matey with shoving and holding up.  Oh well - ever the optimist he says, "It's like I got a level for free."

[JungleCat03]

any news on goldenbollox? Not seen any updates from him today even though hes still near the top of the chip counts

Yes mate, apologies for this. I have some Thewy information which my recalcitrant computer crashing prevented me from putting up but without further ado, here's the latest THEWS...

Mr McCo*l (name has been partially blanked to prevent identification) raised it up to 9.5k from the cut-off, only to find the small blind re-raise to 18k...Julian Thew was in the big blind and now pumped it up to 40k.

The initial raiser now passed and the small blind had a little think.

After a very short pause M*ck M**ool called the clock on the small blind and he raised the smallish remainder of his stack pretty quickly, unsurprisingly as he held K-K.

Julian tapped the table to say "NH" as he could only table A-Q.

His fortunes improved dramatically though on a As and  julian was in great shape to take down what was a monster 90-100k pot, but a on the turn proved Julian doesn't always run good and a blank on the river finished things off.

An interesting hand that looks to have knocked Julian down to 80k or so...but controversial also as Julian felt that *i*k *cco*l had called the clock rather quickly there and was not 100% happy about this...

The photos form this hand seem to have been lost in the ether as my comp crashed but I'll put them up if they re-appear.

[Djinn]

I spot a 20k pot preflop, and sidle over to find that it's a fourway raised pot on a table which seems to have changed its entire lineup within the space of two levels. 
All of them check out the flop in a nonchalant "Hmm, so that's how it is," sort of way:

Pal Kristiansen checks, Robin Reed bets 8,500 now.  He's flat called by neighbour Mark Docherty, only to find Marcus Petterson upping it instantly to 25k.  Passes all round with the minimum of tank time.  Petterson grins slightly, while being begged to "show your pocket Sixes.." and in fact shows everyone the instead.

[JungleCat03]

How are Sam Trickett and Chris Bruce getting on?

Sam is OUT, I'm afraid. A casualty fo the early carnage, he was out in 125th spot...

Just off to check on Chris.


We are now down to 75 players. We are playing down to the money this evening ( or 2am - whichever comes first) With 54 spots paid I know what my money will be on given the heavy attritional rate so far.

[Djinn]

The Ian Frazer (now awake) vs. BA Kildalen saga trundles on... with Frazer first taking a good chunk off his Norwegian neighbour with, er, 2-4 (they seem to love to play this particular hand against him).  BA held K-J and bet the Jack-high flop, called by Frazer.  The turn brought a third club, and a "bad check behind" from BA.  So on the 2 river he paid off Frazer's 8k bet.  He subsequently won, however, an all-in-pre blind on blind race with (somehow) vs. Frazer's , dodging lots of stuff on a board that ended up being .

____________________________________________________________________

Elsewhere, lucky short stack mover inner on the cutoff Marius Grotan found the small blind waking up with .  Not looking great for his .  But it was the good old Sixes, two of them, which popped out and kept him in the tournament.

No such luck for Pink Cowboy Snakeskin Dude, whom I spotted on his mobile phone in the corridor, looking very OUT indeed.  The final table will be at least 60% less colourful now, whatever happens.

[JungleCat03]

Chris Bruce was quietly raking in a pot as I arrived and seemed to have 55k or so...

As I watched the very next hand he called an allin push from his next door neighbour for a chunk or his stack.

Chris flipped A-K, his neighbour showed J-J and the race was on!

A small scandinavian scowl breached the face of his opponent as an flop catapulted Chris firmly into the lead and he didn't relinquish this advantage as a and turn and river sealed the victory.

Going well at the moment with 80k+ here is Chris...

[Djinn]

Lovely pot for Kai Danilo Paulsen, who must be living right (or be the tough player he's suggested he was at the Irish Open etc.)... a bit of both manifest in this particular hand...

Paulsen raises to 5,500 preflop, called only by big blind Pål Knudsen. 
Flop:   Check to Kai, who bets 6k immediately, with a splashy-pot sort of call.  Accidental, of course.  All good.
Turn:   Check.  Check behind.
River:   Check a third time, and Paulsen now nonchalantly tosses in two 5k chips and is paid off immediately, only showing the .  And just the hint of a smile crossing his otherwise spectacularly impassive countenance.

[JungleCat03]

Julian's table just witnessed a biggish hand...

After there was a limp in early position, this snowballed into a limp-fest with 3 limpers behind, including Billy Ngo and Julian THew completing from the small blind. Round to Dave Smith in the BB, he shoved it allin for 35k more or so, only to find one of the limpers re-raising allin to isolate him.

Everyone else ran away shrieking, leaving Dave and Tage Almark to battle it out.

"Bad time to squeeze!" announced Dave sagely as he showed a weakish to Tage's dominating big slick .

The flop came and a moved Dave into the lead...

RIVER: ... "YES" shouted Dave, happy to have survived this encounter, only to have it pointed out to him that Tage had in fact made the nut flush with that card..."Sorry young man didn't see that" said Dave as he departed.

Here he is shortly after that hand about to squirt Julian with his flower...



And Dave Smith's executioner, Tage Almark.

[JungleCat03]

Here are the remaining players as we stand...

11   1   Daniel Rudd
11   2   Erik Kindlien
11   3   Ørjan Skommo
11   4   Pål Knudsen
11   5   Stig Rune Kveen
11   6   Rolf Galåsen
11   7   Andrew Shepherd
11   8   Kai Danilo Paulsen
11   9   Steffen Kongelf
12   1   Frank Porturas
12   2   Stein Hansen
12   3   Martin Rasch
12   4   Peter Brusdal
12   5   Joachim Lundgård Thorkildsen
12   6   Ian Frazer
12   7   Bjørn Andre Kildalen
12   8   Geir Lian
12   9   Stig Moen
21   1   Jan Erik Hoff
21   2   Robin Reed
21   3   Mark Docherty
21   4   Magnus Skumsnes
21   5   Bent Skammersrund
21   6   Simen Derås Jacobsen
21   7   Marcus Pettersson
21   9   Pal Kristiansen
22   1   Thomas Wullum
22   2   Tage Skare
22   3   Tommy Fineide
22   4   Bjørn Andre Hovden
22   5   Christopher Bruce
22   6   Timm Stokke
22   7   Ole Johan Knudsen
22   8   Øyvind Larsen
22   9   Roger Johannesen
23   1   Peter Lars Micael Lindstrom
23   2   Jim Jakobsen
23   3   Sondre Sagstuen
23   5   Frode Hoel
23   6   Jan Olav Sjavik
23   7   Kim-ove Hagerup
23   8   Brede Sandkjernan
23   9   Thomas A. Middelthon
31   1   Sven Hugo Vian
31   2   Petter Hammer
31   3   Ove Balsnes
31   4   Håvard Holder
31   5   Arne Kristian Falkenhaug
31   6   Daniel Steine
31   7   Thore Andre Nordbø
31   8   Barlien Sondre
31   9   Kristoffer Ustad
32   1   Thomas Thorkildsen
32   2   Vegard Nygaard
32   3   Øystein Halland
32   4   Svein Arnesen
32   5   Erik Borkvik
32   6   Odd Eivind Ulvund Balgaard
32   7   Kjetil Skau
32   8   Jostien Petterson
32   9   Morten Langbraten
33   1   Bjørnar Koss
33   2   Martin Gudvangen
33   3   Thomas Olavsrud
33   4   Tage Almark
33   5   Michael Mccool
33   6   Platten Daniel
33   7   Billy Ngo
33   8   Stig Thomassen
33   9   Julian Thew

[Djinn]

We were convinced for a goodly proportion of Day One that Robin Reed (pictured) must be a sneaky Brit flying under the radar.  But no - his story is a Norwegian one, and pretty interesting for that.  Apparently he's a recent (perhaps talking months rather than years) convert to poker, and tournament NLHE after getting sucked into the vortex of Norwegian gamblers that is Johnny Lodden's house.  He moved in there a non-player, sort of didn't surface for a few months while discovering, practising, and playing the game, and is now more than holding his own against his countrymen in a format they've made their own in recent years.  I guess if you move into a house full of Scandie poker players, it's going to either drive you crazy fast or set you on a very steep learning curve...

[JungleCat03]

I jsut had a chat with Julian about how today has panned out...

"Not the best session for me!" he said as he has seen his stack cut from 120k at the start right down to 50k.

Apart from that A-Q K-K hand earlier which he lost, he also lost a big pot where he raised it up with Ah , found the BB re-raising to 13k and decided this was an opportune moment to set the BB in for 45k or so...EVENTUALLY the BB made what was a very brave call with A-T, much to Juliana's chagrin and it held up.

"The marginal situations haven't gone my way today but with 50k, I'm still in there..." Good luck Julian.


I noticed Chris Bruce raking in another pot as I passed his table and he seems to be going about his business in a quiet but very effective way at the moment.

I also saw M**k Mc*ool re-raising a player on a K-8-x high flop, his opponent dwelling before passing what he claimed was Q-Q. Mick showed him J-8. Mi** is going well at the moment with an increasingly large tower of chips that looks to be over 100k...

[Djinn]

We're down to just 60 players...the end of the day is truly already in sight as the plan is to play to 54 (where the money starts).  If you've forgotten about the money, then here it is, the payout list:

1st    £70,362
2nd    £39,836
3rd    £24,897
4th    £17,320
5th    £14,072
6th    £9,742
7th    £7,577
8th    £5,412
9th    £4,330
10th    £3,031
11th    £3,031
12th    £3,031
13th    £3,031
14th    £2,165
15th    £2,165
16th    £2,165
17th    £2,165
18th    £2,165

19th to 27th    £1,500
28th to 36th    £1,250
37th to 45th    £1,000
46th to 54th    £750

[JungleCat03]

I'm afraid Julian has fallen by the wayside and is OUT. No details, I'll find out what happened when I catch up with him.

60 players left, 6 more eliminations and we will have our final 54 players which will bring a close to today's activities...

Myself and Jen are off to catch the action. Back soon!

[Djinn]

Tumbling head first towards the bubble, here's the exit of one of those nearly-theres... Daniel Rudd, like so...

He raised preflop to 6,300, called by big blind Pål Knudsen.
Flop:    Check; check
Turn:   Check to Rudd who bet 7k.  Knudsen called.
River:   Now Knudsen bet out 10k.  After a deliberate self count, an impassive Rudd moved all in for around 40k total.  Into a big dwell, Knudsen thought and twitched and flashed his cards to some dudes on the rail behind him (not a word said by any of them, though).  Eventually he shouted, "Call!"  and was rewarded with a muck by Rudd who just quietly exited while Knudsen raked in a big pot and shouted what sounded like, "Hey HO Hey, Yes!  Yes! Bambambam!"  In fact, that's exactly what he said, with some hand clapping and table slapping for good measure.  Pictured, looking calmer than he was.

[JungleCat03]

We approach the finish with no signs of the frnatic action abating.

First off, we had Erik Borkvik riaisng to 6.5k from middle position. A shortstack re-raised allin and Erik was priced in to call with his K-J. The shortstack was in good shape to double up with Q-Q and this continued with a flop of .

A killer blow was delat on the turn though as the fell and an irrelevant on the river meant we lose one more combatant as the number of runners falls to 57...


I also found out about Julian's exit hand...

He raised it up with and was called in one spot. The flop came and both players checked. The turn was the and Julian checked once more only to find his opponent betting 12k. Julian now check raised allin for 40k or so....long dwell from his opponent who finally called with , no spade.

A very brave call and a spade-less, 6-less river meant that Julian's tournament was over!!