Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona - Day 1b - Interactive

[Djinn]

Silent but deadly, like those venomous treesnakes or carbon monoxide, these are examples of players you won't find making a big fuss about everything, Table Captaining by talking all the hours the poker gods give, or celebrating by hi-fiving their mates on the rail and shouting like at the beginning of A Space Odyssey.  Although the press are attracted to bad behaviour, table lecturing, displays of emotion and general shenanigans like JC is to the bar at the end of a day's work, we respect those who get it quietly - and any of these players could get it.  Watch out for:

Sebastian Ruthenberg - Won a WSOP bracelet this year in Hi-lo Seven Card Stud to go at the top of a string of NLHE events he's cashed in to date.  Focused, he is representative of a new generation of German players giving the Scandinavians a run for their money.



Adam Junglen - Not terribly well known amongst the Europeans, and probably to just a select few in the UK who have one eye permanently connected to the internet, there were US requests to follow this youngster last season and impressed the crowd with his calmly measured yet fearless game.  One to watch.



Jan Heitmann - Nominated for EPT Player of the Year, Jan has almost-but-not-quite reached the dizzy heights of Championship titles several times, and is (apparently) some kind of celebrity in Germany, often trailed by camera crews along with pal George Danzer.  Behind glasses reminiscent of the bad cop in Terminator Two you get the impression he's humourlessly amassing data...but he's actually a really nice guy.  Having seen him do card magic, wouldn't like him dealing for me though.



Jonas Molander - Amiable Swedish player whose online successes probably mirrored live soon - first noted in Helsinki winning gnome-shaped trophy at the Helsinki Freezeout in 2005, he's travelled the world and is already a comparable EPT veteran.  Three times on the last two tables - could this year see him progress further?



Jan Sjavik (next to Luca) - consistent, doesn't look like he's bored but doesn't look like he minds what happens, aggressive when called for, the original Norwegian circuit winner.

[TioMac]

This Matey was faced with a decision for nearly all his chips in the first 15 minutes of play today.  He had made it to the river out of position against one other opponent, who raised him on a K-Q-x-x-x (no suits) board from 1,200 to 6,000.  This was my first witnessed Dwell of the Day, but it turned out that he wasn't prepared to lay down his .  Good thing for him, as as soon as he threw the call in the middle, his opponent tapped the table sheepishly, before revealing his pure bluff .  Early stack for this guy.

This guy is Tomeu Gomila aka Amatos on PS. He's one of the best spanish tournament players. Used to play 100R and 50R on PS, making some FT and winning one or two.

Put an eye on him. He's able to do the best or the craziest!

  GO AMATOS GO

[AdamG]

keep an eye on daniel negreanu - he's in need of a big EPT win

[TioMac]

keep an eye on Daniel Negreanu - he's in need of a big EPT win

I think Negreanu was out on 3rd level.

[Chili]

Dana - Feast your eyes baby!

http://www.europeanpokertour.com/barcelona/gallery/gallery.html


5 clicks to the right and he is all yours x

[danafish]

Omg ty ty!
 
I am absolutely loving his 70s chic thing. I think Jen and Rod are deliberately refusing to see him. Possibly they have actually been blinded by the tank top.

[JungleCat03]

Now with photos attached...

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...

[JungleCat03]

For those who are fans of the EPT Masseur, Frida Johansson (and who wouldn't be) here's a gratuitous shot of her treating a lucky player to a massage.

Enjoy!

[Chili]

Omg ty ty!
 
I am absolutely loving his 70s chic thing. I think Jen and Rod are deliberately refusing to see him. Possibly they have actually been blinded by the tank top.

I'm loving the look too, and the painted on tight jeans.  Very.....compact! hehe.

[AdamG]

For those who are fans of the EPT Masseur, Frida Johansson (and who wouldn't be) here's a gratuitous shot of her treating a lucky player to a massage.

Enjoy!

better pics please...

[Djinn]

Chip and Change...

Here are some updated counts as Half Two goes on dinner break (there is, apparently, a secret buffet room somewhere which can just accommodate half the field at once.  I think getting there involves pulling the right book on a shelf or twisting a beer mat the right way to reveal the hidden panel).

FRENCHWATCH, for jpean:

Paul Testud -- 8,125
Alexia Portal -- 7,500
Nicolas Levi -- 10,000
Bruno Fitoussi -- 11,300
Arnaud Mattern -- 9,000

Nicolas Levi, taking it seriously:



It looks like Isabelle Mercier may be OUT, as this gent, American Kasey Castle, is in the seat formerly occupied by the lady herself.



Here's Alexia Portal (7,500) (I'm pretty sure it's her) flanked by Brits Alan Smurfit (19,650) and Richard Ashby (15,100)



And check out Smurfit's card protector.  "What, this old thing?  It's just something I use to weigh my cards down."

[Djinn]

Hi there Blondes! We have requests from 2+2 for ya'll to follow if you get a chance please:

 David Schnettler
Joseph Melancon
Eric Green
Brian Clark

Adam Junglen, (Mark) Randal Flowers

thanks so much for any attention you can give.

sorry, add 2 more: Tommy Pavlicek & Shaun Deeb

Found another one, I think - is this David Schnettler?  If so he's on a modest 13,000 but still there, as I can prove with this photo:

[Djinn]

With his half of the room on a break, Stuart Rutter pops into the press room to say that that Quads vs. Quads hand came out out in favour of Smurfit, and that was pretty much the only hand he played on their first table.  Rutter's been moved three times already, and says that he's been progressively less happy with his table... as it is he has 23,000 after "Not playing brilliantly, but OK - I did get the rest off the guy you saw me stack a little earlier, after he made a surprise risky move with King high..."

He's been getting the odd playable hand, though, like the which hit a flop of pretty hard.  He said he wasn't too worried about getting stacked by draws vs. the player he was up against, "Just cards which stop my action vs. things like Jacks.  So I decide to get the chips in now."  He raises a bet of 1,200 to 3,000, but, contrary to expectations, there was no further action.  He won the pot.  That's not that fascinating is it?  But what happened next ended in Stu calling for a ruling - a French player on his table noticed, rightly, that one of Stu's cards was a little bent at the corner.  Yep, fair enough - new deck etc. etc.  But this player took that opportunity to flip both of Stu's cards over, giving the rest of the table an interesting peek into the hand, and how he was playing it.  "That wasn't entirely innocent," mused Stu, but met with absolutely no interest from the floor.

[Djinn]

Look who's here!  It's Steve Frezer, discarding the Suit of Authority for the Bright Yellow T-Shirt of Fun.  Good to see him on that side of a table again...although he needs to work on the speed of posing.

[JungleCat03]

I joined Arnaud Mattern's table recently in the blind hope I would catch an interesting hand. And my little pilgrimage to the Frenchman's table was not in vain as a big hand played out.

My hopes were not raised by the first hand I saw him play, raising it up to 550 from middle position before it was re-raised to 2,000  by the button.

Folded back to Arnaud, he didn't take long to lay his hand down, his opponent showing him pocket Jacks and Mattern tapping the table respectfully.

The blinds rose to 150 300 and Arnaud again raised it up, this time from early position and this time to 850. There was a call from the hijack before the button, in the form of Spaniard Raul Mestre, put 5k's worth of chips into the pot and announced " SQUEEEEEEEEEEEZE." (*)

(*) Actually he didn't do this.

Mattern now contemplated his decision, his head bowed thus like a buddhist monk deep in meditation.



And once he made his decision, he picked up all his chips (circa 6.5-7k more) and dropped them over the line, a cheeky grin of relief on his face as it was now out of his hands (like so)



The middle position flatter now laid his hand down whilst the committed squeezer Raul was obliged to call the additional 2k or so, and probably had an idea he was in trouble as he flipped up .

Mattern showed no outward signs of joy, but inside must have been very happy to see this as he showed down , dominating the Spaniard's hand.

A flop of appeared, offering a slim possibility of an outdraw but a heartless and jackless on the river meant Arnaud had doubled through to 16,000 whilst an irritated Raul began scribbling frantically in his tableside notepad.



Snoopy and myself tried to decipher his scribblings but were unable to do so, although my suggestion that he was writing "FFS run so bad" in Spanish seemed very possible.