Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona - Day 1b - Interactive

[JungleCat03]

French ex-gaming champion and EPT Bahamas champion Elky is OUT!

He exited in unfortunate fashion, shipping his stack in on the turn with a queen flush, only to pick up a call from a player with Kings and a King high flush draw.

The extra suited card arrived on the river to render his flush 2nd best and send the Frenchman to the rail.


Yesterday's poker, though exciting was perhaps a touch more subdued than we might have expected. It was as if the European Poker Tour fuse had been lit but was a bit damp and was sparking intermittently.

Today though, the atmostphere seems that much more intense. There is a sizzle and crackle in the air that was absent on day one and it feels much more like the magnificent tournament the inaugural event of this year's EPT season deserves.

Perhaps this is partly as a result of the higher density of big names scattered like tough little diamonds throughout the field.

One table in particular has a big ring of star quality to it with Scotty Nguyen and his tousled shoulder length locks facing off against the diminuitive in stature, but giant in table presence Freddy Deeb. The two players are both previous winners of the WSOP $50k HORSE tournament, Scotty the current incumbent, and this should prove a fascinating battle as the day progresses.

Also on their table is Surinder Sunar, though he may be wishing he had received a kinder table draw!

Stu Rutter told me about an interesting hand that took place at his table. With 10,000 chips, it's pretty hard to go broke in level one you'd have thought and sometimes you do see players stacking off somewhat light given the depths in stacks.

In this particular hand though, it's pretty tough to get away!

Here's how it played out.

Matey A raises to 250 pre with what later turns out to be Aces and gets a call from Matey B with what turns out to be threes.

The flop comes A 7 3. Pretty sick. Gonna get worse though.

Aces bets, call. Standard.

Turn: A!

Aces checks his quads, B now bets 600 with his house, A calls.

River: 3!

Over to Rolf Slotboom...

Click to see full-size image.

"Shooo Shiccck!"

Quad Aces now CHECKS...B bets out 5.5k, huge overbet and Aces check raises all-in! Quad threes call...

That's a cooler folks! Quads over quads in one of the biggest comps in the world...nice. Possibly the only man who could have got away from this hand is Womble. I think he could have found a fold on the flop, turn and river...with either hand.

[JungleCat03]

Some shots of the action for you...

Daniel Negreanu is one of the most celebrated names in the game and if he calls, you come.



Even if you're Thomas Kremser...




Arnaud Mattern is another French EPT champion, taking down EPT Prague in the 2007/2008 season. He has had a reasonable start to the day, jsut above his starting stack at the moment and looks focused today though the genial Frenchman is always only a moment away from a cheeky toothy grin.

[jpean]

Matey A raises to 250 pre with what later turns out to be Aces and gets a call from Matey B with what turns out to be threes.

The flop comes A 7 3. Pretty sick. Gonna get worse though.

Aces bets, call. Standard.

Turn: A!

Aces checks his quads, B now bets 600 with his house, A calls.

River: 3!

"Shooo Shiccck!"

Quad Aces now CHECKS...B bets out 5.5k, huge overbet and Aces check raises all-in! Quad threes call...

Like some people says... JokerStars 

This EPT begins well !! action action action

[JungleCat03]

Surinder was no doubt very happy for the early break of his table containing Scotty Nguyen and Freddy Deeb. He managed to negotiate the early stages without getting into any trouble though, still on roughly 10,000 chips...



Tim Vance is playing today. The american winner of EPT Copenhagen had a rough time of it at the world series, failing in his quest to pick up a bracelet, but he remains positive for the future.

He said his plan for the day is to get through with 10,000 chips.

"Does that mean if you have 50,000 on the last hand, you'll try and donk off 40,000?"

He looked at me quizically, before saying "No, that would be a bonus!"

Tim made a lot of headlines during EPT Copenhagen, partly for talking into his hat which raised quite a few eyebrows...

It transpired he kept a picture of his daughter in his hat which he drew on for inspiration during tough times and he is back with hat and picture of daughter in tow today.

I asked him to pull an intelligent face for the camera and this is what he came out with. Er...



Tim Vance - 11,300 or so.

[JungleCat03]

Then of course we have Mr Popular himself Julian Thew.

Doesn't even have to play poker to win things these days as he proved by picking up the media's choice for player of the year.

He's quietly going along at the moment, just below his starting stack...

[jpean]

bye everybody, I've now to go to work...

I'll read all tomorrow morning when I'll be back.

Could you try to take a look on the frenchies please ? especially Arnaud Mattern and Isabelle Mercier if you have not too much queries.

[JungleCat03]

Excuse me updaters, I believe we were all promised some quality Trond today...

 

This was cheekily posted in the At A Glance thread, an abuse of power by you Miss Immanuel.

 

Nonetheless, as I am feeling generous, I can show you a little sneak shot of Trond picking up his award for "Newcomer of The Year" at the pokerstars party.

Doesn't he look smart!

[Djinn]

Well, there's definitely been a busier start to good ol' 1B - tables are breaking faster, players are playing faster, and the chips are beginning to gravitate towards particular stacks... I'll let you guess whose those are.  No ideas?  Here's a sample of chip counts to give you a skeleton idea:

Daniel Negreanu -- 9,575
Nicky Jedlicka -- 10,600
Freddy Deeb -- 2,320
Julian Thew -- 7,800
Scotty Nguyen -- 9,100
Sebastian Ruthenberg -- 12,600
Jonas Molander -- 13,000
Jan Sjavik -- 7,500  (just limp-reraised all in pre from mid position causing consternation but picking up the pot)
Luca Pagano -- 9,200 (EPT Player of the Year; Negreanu likes saying his name a lot; LucapaGAAAAno!)
Bruno Fitoussi -- 15,200
Gino Alacqua -- 10,400
Richard Ashby -- 9,000
Paul Testud -- 12,200
Jan Heitmann -- 6,000
Adam Junglen -- 10,100
Sorel Mizzi -- 11,800
Tim Vance -- 5,300  (just folded after torturing himself over a rivered spade on a board)

But who's shooting ahead of the pack?

Dario Minieri -- 21,200



Thierry van den Berg -- 26,000



Alan Smurfit -- 20,300



This Guy is Chip Leader, and a very neat chip stacker, mind currently blanking on name, but with you shortly -- 47,000:

[JungleCat03]

bye everybody, I've now to go to work...

I'll read all tomorrow morning when I'll be back.

Could you try to take a look on the frenchies please ? especially Arnaud Mattern and Isabelle Mercier if you have not too much queries.

Bit cheeky, trying to claim the canadian Ms Mercier as French.

You'd never catch the english doing anything like that as we've proved by sticking to our own homegrown stars over the years such as Lennox Lewis, Greg Rusedski and Kevin Petersen.

You should take a leaf out of our book!

We'll keep our eyes peeled anyway.

[jpean]

yes I know that she's canadian, but she worked a lot in Paris and I suppose that it's why a lot of people follow her in France

[Djinn]

Left out of the chip count lists, but just so he can have his own story, is a nicely stacked Stuart Rutter - on 30k.  Arrived at his table with the action frozen just like this:



Stuart had a big chunk of 1k chips over the line on the river with a board standing .  It at first looked like a monstrous overbet as the pot was around 3,000, but it transpired that his one opponent had around 3,000 behind himself, and Stuart was putting him to the test for the rest of his stack.  A lot of thinking, and some sinister near-grinning from Stu later, and suddenly Matey snapped and shoved his remaining chips in - only to find Stu flipping his for onlythenuts.

[danafish]

Excuse me updaters, I believe we were all promised some quality Trond today...

 

This was cheekily posted in the At A Glance thread, an abuse of power by you Miss Immanuel.

 

Nonetheless, as I am feeling generous, I can show you a little sneak shot of Trond picking up his award for "Newcomer of The Year" at the pokerstars party.

Doesn't he look smart!

You mock me, cat, and I will not tolerate it! Bring me Eidsvig! And then perhaps I shall admit that it was stupidity that made me post on the other thread rather than the desire to wield my considerable mod power!

Photos of Snoopy also much appreciated.

[JungleCat03]

Excuse me updaters, I believe we were all promised some quality Trond today...

 

This was cheekily posted in the At A Glance thread, an abuse of power by you Miss Immanuel.

 

Nonetheless, as I am feeling generous, I can show you a little sneak shot of Trond picking up his award for "Newcomer of The Year" at the pokerstars party.

Doesn't he look smart!

You mock me, cat, and I will not tolerate it! Bring me Eidsvig! And then perhaps I shall admit that it was stupidity that made me post on the other thread rather than the desire to wield my considerable mod power!

Photos of Snoopy also much appreciated.

The absence of Trond from the updates is merely a reflection of the apparent absence of Trond from the tables. Both myself and Jen have done several full circuits of the tables and his spiky haired and pointy chinned visage is nowhere to be found.

I hope he hasn't bust early but it appears this is quite a possibility.

There is one table with chips on it from a player who has yet to arrive so it is possible that Trond is still tucked up safely in bed.

Enjoy that thought.

[danafish]

Excuse me updaters, I believe we were all promised some quality Trond today...

 

This was cheekily posted in the At A Glance thread, an abuse of power by you Miss Immanuel.

 

Nonetheless, as I am feeling generous, I can show you a little sneak shot of Trond picking up his award for "Newcomer of The Year" at the pokerstars party.

Doesn't he look smart!

You mock me, cat, and I will not tolerate it! Bring me Eidsvig! And then perhaps I shall admit that it was stupidity that made me post on the other thread rather than the desire to wield my considerable mod power!

Photos of Snoopy also much appreciated.

The absence of Trond from the updates is merely a reflection of the apparent absence of Trond from the tables. Both myself and Jen have done several full circuits of the tables and his spiky haired and pointy chinned visage is nowhere to be found.

I hope he hasn't bust early but it appears this is quite a possibility.

There is one table with chips on it from a player who has yet to arrive so it is possible that Trond is still tucked up safely in bed.

Enjoy that thought.

 

[JungleCat03]

Some info from the tables.

Claudio Rinaldi, swiss player and finalist of last year's EPT Dortmund is staying roughly level with 9.5k at the moment...


Sebastian Ruthenberg, German winner of a bracelet at this year's WSOP is having a good day, up to 25k at this stage...

His table neighbour Tim Vance though, won't be adding to his EPT trophy cabinet today though as he has busted out in a set versus set coup. Unfortunate for the former EPT winner but he told me at the start of the day he just didn't want to do anything stupid and he can't blame himself for going out with a set really.


Freddy Deeb was very short (hoho) before, down to 2k but he has bucked his ideas up and is still very short but now has 6,000.


Sorel Mizzi is trundling along at an even pace, but is making progress, the betfair sponsored Canadian pro up to 16k right now...