Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona - Day 1b - At a Glance

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[JungleCat03]

On my latest perambulation round the card room, there was a glut of big hands.

One of the spanish reporters approached me as we watched yet another small pot play out with little or no action. "Ohhh man! I hoped that would be the one!"

In truth it has been an exciting day, with lots of aggressive poker but for some reason there seems to have been a recent lull in the previous explosive action. Maybe the players are getting just a little tired...

One player who has ground manfully away today and hung in there without ever being able to get a decent stack going is Mark "Randall" Flower, who was so close to ETP San Remo glory, missing out by just one spot on the final nine players.

Still, he'd no doubt take 9th spot in this competition right now, seeing as he only has his starting stack left at this point of just under 10k...


Stuart Taylor looked like he had a good time at the opening party but he has shaken off the after-effects of vodka and red bull, patiently waiting for a spot today which arrived as he was dealt bullets which went in preflop as another player at the table was happy to commit with A-K.

No sick out draw provided Stuart a welcome double through to 18k or so...


Another Stuart who has had a bit more of a rollercoaster ride is Stu Rutter, who after hitting the heights with 30k earlier has run into a bit of a brick wall and is now down to 15k.

"Hit a bad patch" he told me although he was still happy to pull a grinny smily face for the camera, as you would expect of one of the friendliest players on the circuit...

[Djinn]

Kristian Ulriksen Takes Big Stack Hit; Not Happy About It



Intense young Norwegian Ulriksen (pictured) had amassed a very tidy stack of 62,000 by this, the penultimate level of the night.  Accumulating throughout the day, one hand undid a good deal of his good work.  With a decent, though not monstrous pot underway, a small-blind Ulriksen was heads up with Matey (sorry, this will all stop tomorrow when we can easily identify the remaining 300 or so), and had just bet out 8,000 on a board reading .  The splash of red 1k chips drew the press to the table, as Matey thought for a while, and then pushed in the two medium-sized stacks he had left.  Without a countdown, he quickly made the call:
Kristian Ulriksen: 
Mateyboy: 

Ulriksen made a noise which sounded like a cross between a growl and a cough as the river bricked before finding out that he had to give up 22,100 to his opponent who'd hit the perfect turn card.  I don't know how the betting on the flop and pre went, sadly, as that would have been interesting to know.  But it was very obvious that Ulriksen wasn't happy one bit.  A stretch standing up facing away from the table and furiously pressing a button on his mobile looks to cure him.  To be fair, the very close warm, people-filled atmosphere of the casino can't be helping players' temper any - only Julian with his big fan remains literally cool.

"Nice hand," he said, in a tone of voice which had he been outside would have attracted lightning.

[Djinn]

Other selected counts:

Surinder Sunar -- 13,500
Thierry van den Berg -- 15,500
Julian Thew -- 11,650
Sebastian Ruthenberg -- 19,075
Randal Flowers -- 17,100
Alexia Portal -- OUT
Jonas Molander -- 42,000
Nicolas Levi -- 15,000
Paul Testud -- 8,850
Sorel Mizzi -- 27,000
Andrew Teng -- 10,400
Alan Smurfit -- 17,900
Richard Ashby -- 13,900

[Djinn]

David Schnettler doubles up, dropping Dario Minieri (back) to the felt in the process.  Schnettler got it all in preflop with vs. Minieri's .
Flop:
Turn:    (somewhere between the flop and turn Dario started saying, "Ten of hearts!" quietly but emphatically)
River:

So Dario went down to 5,900 while Schnettler went up to 26,000.

[JungleCat03]

Mark Flowers - 10k



Stuart Taylor (possibly with a touch of sunburn) - 18k



Surinder Sunar - 14k



Stu "The Nutter" Rutter - 15k



Random man with comedy glasses of the day (Greg Raymer has a kot to answer for) - 8k

[Djinn]

The last five hands of the night have been announced, and as yesterday this period seems to spell minor disaster for the British players.  Just now David Schnettler took a large pot from Surinder Sunar - I am going to make a presumptuous assumption that it went in in the majority on the flop, as the board stood xclub xdiamond and Surinder held to Schnettler's .  That full house took him over 30k and Sunar down to just 5,800.

[Djinn]

Climbers of the day who have been hitherto unmentioned and we just have time to sneak a couple more pictures in as they bag and tag:

Sorel Mizzi - off to a bad start, but valiant comeback and beyond...


Michel Abecassis, French card bastion, flying the flag for Winamax along with several others who will give the day 2 field a run for their money tomorrow.

[JungleCat03]

Stu Rutter is now down to 10k.

He had a bit of an accident with this hand...

Holding 6-3 in the BB and forced to play, the flop fell out 7-3-2. He led and received two callers...

The turn was a 6 to give him two pair but bringing straights into play. He check called 2k...

The river was a relative blank and he put out what he said was a stop bet, only for his opponent to raise him...

"I felt like he would only riase with a made hand there so I threw them away. I'm 90% sure I was right" but he was left with a nagging doubt as his opponent didn't show his hand.


As we home in on the end of the day, here are some of the chip leaders at this point.

Jonas Klausen, the Dane who has come close to some big results but has never quite nailed it, is on over 100k at the moment and in prime position.

Also well placed is Sebastian Ruthenberg, the German who picked up a bracelet in the world series, defeating none other than Chris Ferguson heads up at seven stud hi/lo.

He also has just over 100k...

Michael Lundel and his stripy shirt are also in the select centurion club and fighting for the lead at this point...

The tiny but fearsome scarf wearing Italian Dario Minieri is a late casualty of the day, having been battling with a short stack for some time now and Sean Deeb has also joined him on the rail as well (though he won the last longer bet with his dad.)