Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona - Day 1b - Interactive

[spacefrog]

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.

This guy right is Vikash Dhorasoo. Foot player and poker now.

You make me a job now here


Merci

[JungleCat03]

Scotty Nguyen is OUT at this point, but is still pulling in the crowds, seen here being interviewed by Rury Mason along with one of the favourites to take the down the WSOP Main Event final table, put on hold till November, Chino Rheem.

[JungleCat03]

And just for Dana, I grabbed a shot of Snoopy, beavering away but he had time to have a shot taken for his adoring fan( )

"I'll just pull a natural pose" he told me. And so he did...



Now some of you may think this is effected and is not in fact Snoopy's natural state but if you are of that opinion I urge you to think again.

This is standard Snoopy fare, he's been seen pulling the classic double thumbs up cheesy grin pose that has become his trademark ALL OVER THE WORLD.

What's more....I have proof.

Here he is in the midst of a warzone...

Click to see full-size image.

Sometimes if police are having trouble controlling particularly unruly riots, Snoopy is summoned...



He was even present for this momentous occasion.

One small leap for man...one double thumbs up from the beagle!

Click to see full-size image.

[Djinn]

Short stacks are finally starting to take the plunge preflop, leading to a flurry of 'on their backs' situations which draw a sprinkling of press and other players around the table... one player who seems to have honestly had under 3,000 since level one, and one hour ago had just 1,200 is Freddy Deeb.  I hovered vulturelike around his table for a while, but when he eventually shoved pre for his current 3,100 over the top of one preflop limper, there was no interest.  Not even any considering of it.  He seems surprisingly cheerful about the whole thing.

Meanwhile Julian Thew has drifted down to around 6k - still looking for opportunities (as I recall about now is when he gets his first double up, then another just before the end of the penultimate level, if previous runs can be used to predict the future).  He raised on the cutoff just a moment ago but was immediately re-raised by the button and let it go.  The large battery-powered fan he carries to tournaments must be of genuine relief here - it's a sweaty hot day outside, and rapidly becoming so inside too.  I even saw a guy with a hand fan, you know, the folding kind you wave yourself.

Short stacks which have BUSTED: Katja Thater (pictured)



Short stacks which won a big pot and aren't so short any more:  Nicolas Levi - A little earlier it looked like his stack was on the decline, but he got a few chips check-calling Luis Sevilla's chunky in-position flop bet (having called a raise in the s.b. and come threeway to a flop) of 2,450.  He checked the turn, and also the river, but there was no further action generated by Sevilla and Levi flipped when it was all over saying, "Nice check on the river.  Must have a pair..."

[Djinn]

This Luis Sevilla fellow (pictured) appears (from the small sample size you can gather before being moved on lest you bring censure on the Press as a whole for Loitering) to be a bit of a menace.



Two early limpers, one of them being Bruno Fitoussi, and Sevilla ups it to 1,400 preflop.  The limpers call while the blinds duck out.
Flop:   Check, check.  Over to Sevilla to bet, and bet he does - 3,250.  The first limper (the guy in the pink shirt) flats, only to find Bruno moving all-in for a total bet of 8,600.  Sevilla thinks for a while before calling the extra 5k and that gets it heads up.
Fitoussi: 
Sevilla: 

Turn and river....... and they split the pot with someone almost wistfully commenting, "Nice freeroll."  Pictured - the moment Bruno moved in and both players were left thinking, looking at him, the pot, the bet size etc. etc. while he had any tension he himself might have been experiencing squeezed out of his head by Frieda.

[NoflopsHomer]

And just for Dana, I grabbed a shot of Snoopy, beavering away but he had time to have a shot taken for his adoring fan( )

"I'll just pull a natural pose" he told me. And so he did...



Now some of you may think this is effected and is not in fact Snoopy's natural state but if you are of that opinion I urge you to think again.

This is standard Snoopy fare, he's been seen pulling the classic double thumbs up cheesy grin pose that has become his trademark ALL OVER THE WORLD.

What's more....I have proof.

Here he is in the midst of a warzone...

Click to see full-size image.

Sometimes if police are having trouble controlling particularly unruly riots, Snoopy is summoned...



He was even present for this momentous occasion.

One small leap for man...one double thumbs up from the beagle!

Click to see full-size image.

That crazy beagle, wherever will he go next?

[Djinn]

Another player who looks to be a bit of a brightly-coloured thorn in the side of his table is this guy, whom I was going to add as a late Hoody of the Day, seeing as his hoody has a large skull with rhinestone teeth on the back, small shiny jewelled skulls, giant gold and black chains down his arms, another large skull and golden flowers on the front, and the whole thing is that phenomenal turquoise colour.  But while trying to surreptitiously snap his outfit, it became apparent that not only did he have a healthy stack, but he wasn't exactly keeping a vice-like grip on it, getting involved in a lot of pots and generally putting the pressure on the others.  One hand I saw him play he was promptly re-raised by a player on his left and he gave up, having only invested 1,200 or so preflop. 

The very next hand, he raised again, and it folded round to this extremely youthful chap in the blinds who moved in for around 5,500.  He got a quick call from Turquoise Hoody who flipped , against the all in .



The board brought disjointed multicoloured cards, but one was a Nine which doubled up the short stack.  As for Aggressive Turquoise Hoody - Is His Face Bovvered?

[JungleCat03]

Julian hasn't managed to accumulate a stack just yet and is down to 7k or so. He motioned over to one of the adjacent tables though where the Swede Michael Lundel has accumulated a GIANT stack that looks to be round the 60k mark at this point.

"He just had AA versus A-K on a King high board. Took 20,000 off the guy...poker's an easy game sometimes!" joked Julian.

Michael looks to be a relatively unknown player, many of the press are unfamiliar with him but he's goiing great at the moment and if he maintains momentum, he'll be tough to stop.

Here is the man himself and his impressive stack.




Surinder Sunar looks to be having a slightly less impressive, but still effective day as he has moved slowly but surely up to 17k or so.

[JungleCat03]

NORK WATCH

First off we have a slightly blurry shot of one of the TV presenters here at the EPT, the blurriness of the shot not doing justice to quite how shiny this lady's cleavage actually is.

"I think she oils them up" Snoops observed. "I know I always oil mine up before I go on TV."

I got his opinion on this lady and he gave a definitive response...



In this photo, Bruno Fitoussi is the lucky man receiving the massage, and is currently on 15k or so. Snoopy felt obliged to proffer an opinion on (I assume) Bruno's play so far...

[Djinn]

This guy right is Vikash Dhorasoo. Foot player and poker now.

You make me a job now here


Merci

We have several openings at the moment.  Here are a couple of positions you might like to apply for:

Title:  Travel Agent
Description:  You need to book the update team mainly into the Nottingham Premier Inn a couple of times a month, argue with unprofessional hoteliers in San Remo in made up Italian until you lose the argument and have to move; occasionally keep the peace and oversee rock paper scissors for who gets the comfy part when there are three updaters to a room.
Position currently held by:  NoflopsHomer.

Title: Technical Supervisor
Description:  You need to lie on the table blowing cool air on/fanning the underside of Junglecat's laptop to stop it overheating and turning off. 
Position currently held by:  Two Books.

Title: Director of Operations
Description:  General runner for the updaters, bringing coffee or Coca-cola every thirty minutes, answering questions like "Who is this player I should really recognise but don't?"
Position currently held by: No one.  You're already doing the last bit for free actually so don't expect payment.

Title:  Tikay
Description:  Oversee every word posted on the forum, while simultaneously presenting something on Sky, driving to Notts and sleeping in a chair.
Position currently held by:  Tikay

[danafish]

I hereby volunteer to be tikay. I have my own chair and everything.

[Djinn]

Strugglewatch:

Stuart Taylor (pictured in pink) hadn't really got off the marks on last visit - "Five hours with no premium hands.  I finally pick up AK and run it into AK.  At least I didn't lose."



Doesn't beat the once-in-45-years depression suffered by Mickey Wernick at that last river of last hand of last level of last night three-outer.  A moment of silence for his Jacks, please.

[Djinn]

I hereby volunteer to be tikay. I have my own chair and everything.

We were hoping you'd go for Technical Supervisor, you'd have been a shoo-in.  The books tend to do badly at interview.  As for Tikay, I guess you could be in the running, although since you type with multiple fingers you're a little overqualified for the beaurocratic element of the job.

[NoflopsHomer]

I hereby volunteer to be tikay. I have my own chair and everything.

We were hoping you'd go for Technical Supervisor, you'd have been a shoo-in.  The books tend to do badly at interview.  As for Tikay, I guess you could be in the running, although since you type with multiple fingers you're a little overqualified for the beaurocratic element of the job.

Dammit woman!! Those two books have four small booklets to feed! Have you no shame?

[NoflopsHomer]

This guy right is Vikash Dhorasoo. Foot player and poker now.

You make me a job now here


Merci

Very good in Championship Manager 3 and the 2000/2001 edition. Got a lot crapper after that.