Pokerstars.com Barcelona EPT - Day 3 - At A Glance

[JungleCat03]

Welcome back for Day Three of EPT Barcelona from myself and Jen here in Barcelona.

We witnessed a firecracker of a day yesterday. Sebastian Ruthenberg, the young German who picked up a stud hi lo bracelet at this summer's WSOP, began the day chip leader and maintained a healthy stack all the way through to the latter stages of the day.

Can he pick up his second big tournament in just a few months?

Also going well is Belgium Winamax player Davidi Kitai. Like Sebastian, he also won a bracelet at the World Series and is clearly another man in form who the field will be hard pressed to stop.

English hopes seem to lie with Stephen Chidwick, who is well in contention, especially after he de-railed Maz Nawab's tournament in dramatic fashion late on in the day yesterday.

Other young guns in the mix include Dane Jonas Klausen, who has looked in good shape throughout and the confident Swede Ramzi Jelassi, who has had some dire fortune in EPTs previously but will have gone to bed with the mantra "ONE TIME" ringing in his ears.

Today should prove to be incredibly exciting and we await the start like eager little beavers!

[JungleCat03]

Here is the list of remaining players in order of chip count.

One player I didn't mention in the intro is Jason Mercier, who won EPT San Remo, and the young American is a hair's breadth behind our own Stephen Chidwick here. Definitely a threat to take this down...

Davidi Kitai    544500
Dren Ukella    374500
Daniele Mazzia    374000
Stephen Chidwick    355000
Jason Mercier    345000
Steven Weusten    332000
Sebastian Ruthemberg    326000
Chad Brown    259500
Michael Keiner    293000
Jonas Klausen    237000
Joseph George Pelton    226000
Voitto Rintala    171500
Fintan Gavin    164000
Mikael Lundell    155000
Malte Strothmann    138500
Cornelis Alblas    133000
Ramzi Jelassi    133000
Pierpaolo Ruscalla    123500
Helfried Bernhardt    123500
Claudio Cecchi    120500
Mark Randal Flowers    119000
Jonas Molander    113000
Joel Nordkvist    109000
Salavatore Pengue    105500
Alessandro Longobardi    102000
Samuel Chartier    95500
Martin Nielsen    95000
Alexander Grishchuk    93000
Henri Juho Kristian Koivisto    81500
Alessandro Lusso    70500
Jose Vazquez Ortega    68500
Marko Tapio Vainio    68000
Mauro Corsetti    64500
Ronny Johansen    62500
Benianmino Speroni    59000
Andrey Chesnokov    17500

[Djinn]

Exit already!  Within three hands of the action finally kicking off, we lose shortest stacked Andrey Chesnokov.  With under 20k, those chips were always going in right off the bat, and they did, with the surprisingly great holding of .  He was called by Salvatore Pengue with .
Flop: 
Turn:
River:

And any dreams he may have had of shortstack comebacks hit the road.  Still, €17,300 should make it better.



We may be getting more photos like this today, sadly, as for reasonable reasons there is no flash and we're not allowed among the tightly packed tables.  Fair's fair on the players.  We have been promised a Media Rail, but so far it's only been running ten minutes and the rail is ten deep and shouting, elbowing and generally making life difficult.  I remember covering the final stages of Barcelona last year and I have never received so many shoves, minor bruises, elbows etc. from players railing friends or just gawkers who don't really know what's going on but there's a crowd so it must be good... you get the idea.  Deep breath.

[Djinn]

Prizes (ty Pokerstars):

1 - €1,361,000
2 - €792,000
3 - €455,000
4 - €351,000
5 - €292,000
6 - €227,000
7 - €178,000
8 - €119,000

9-10 - €74,400
11-12 - €49,600
13-14 - €37,200
15-16 - €29,700
17-24 - €24,700
25-32 - €19,800
33-40 - €17,300

[Djinn]

Another non-featured elimination!  It was German Helfried Bernhardt who'd previously given up a chunk of his stack to a preflop reraise all in from Henri Koivisto.  This time button Jonas Klausen raised, and Bernhardt moved in over the top from the small blind holding .  He was up against Klausen's and with the board giving them both a pair of Queens, the Ace kicker sent another to the rail and necessitated a table break. 

[JungleCat03]

With his bulging biceps, lantern jaw and flawless white teeth, Chad Brown has been described as "The GI Joe" of poker, but even this action hero of the felt can't win every flip.

He raced his pocket Jacks against the K-Q of the well chipped up Italian Daniele Mazzia and a board meant Mazzia's solitary pair of Queens gave him a decisive edge against the American that sent him to the rail and back to his usual activities of fighting wars single handed.

If it's any consolation to the burly American, Snoopy told me he was impressed with his guns, and coming from the man with the original pair of smoking Smith & Wessons, that is some statement.

Snoopy did add however, "if it came to it and I was forced to, I would unleash the pythons on him."

Make of that what you will...

Some photos of Chad just after his elimination to follow...

[JungleCat03]

And a shot of the recent eliminated German Helfried Bernhardt, the pony tailed man in the background, not the guy making the rude gesture in the foreground.



It's a lightning quick start today, and we've seen ANOTHER elimination, Italian Mauro Corsetti hitting the rail.

The Italian had let himself get very short and got his chips in, but his doublr through attempt failed and the silvery haired player is eliminated.

He did just squeeze into the next payout bracket however though, finishing up in 32nd spot for €19,800.

[Djinn]

Triple Double Up:

First it was Henri Koivisto who moved all in preflop over the top of a Michael Keiner raise - and not for peanuts either, the pot topped 250k as the cards went on their backs:
Koivisto: 
Keiner: 

Board:  .........  And the relief of the young Finn was obvious as he clapped his hands (just the once, mind) and said, "WOO!" which typified the relief of someone smacking the river when they Thought It Was Over...  Ramzi can't resist a little dig at the now stacked up Koivisto, whose hat was suddenly at a rakish angle (pictures coming - our battery recharging)... "Is that how you play in Finland?  All in with A-Q?"  They both smiled, though.

then

Mark Flowers doubled through Beniamino Speroni (ambiguous that, sometimes, doubled through, or was doubled through? - In this case it means Speroni won) - It folded to Flowers in the small blind and he quickly put enough chips in to cover his short stacked opponent.  Speroni looked at his cards, shrugged, and popped in the rest of his chips.
Speroni: 
Flowers: 

Flop: 
Turn:
River:   And the flush kept the Italian in the game, knocking a chunk out of Flowers.

then

Flowers got his chips back, and a little more, getting it in with vs. .  The flop of was looking fairly safe for him, and the rest of it blanked giving him some breathing space.  Here he is, in Barcelona shirt, and therefore mistaken for a local by lots of people standing behind me on the rail 

[Djinn]

Here's your current Chip Leader, Team Winamax's Davidi Kitai.  He made two hold'em final tables at this year's WSOP, winning one of them, and is looking to best his 11th place finish in the Barca EPT last year.

[JungleCat03]

Pierpaolo Ruscalla, I beleive, is the latest player to be thrust out of proceedings, racing his K-Q against pocket Jacks but a board of was of no use to him, so he exits in 30th place...

Ruscalla was one of the last of the older contingent still vying for the title and his exit leaves veteran German Michael Kiener fighting a lone battle against the hordes of aggressive young players.

[JungleCat03]

I had a quick chat with Mark Flowers as he sat at the table.

He leaned over and told me he'd had "a swingy day."

He was up to 180k early before losing a button vs BB race with A-K against pocket threes to knock him down. He then doubled through versus Jonas Molander with A-J v A-T.

A few more swings later, he reached some kind of equilibrium on his current stack of 120k or so...

He's clearly enjoying the local culture though, decked out today in a Barca football shirt with Messi across the back. That's bound to make him a bit of a favourite amongst the locals, but he'll need to find some spots to get more chips if he is to mount a serious challenge to the title at this point...

[Djinn]

In 29th place falls Joel Nordkvist, winning €19,800.  Enough for a flight to London, buyin to the WSOPE ME and a sandwich.  Damaged earlier and making a move pre with J-3, he found Q-Q behind him.  A Queen on the flop and he was already out of his seat before I could get an Action Shot: 



Sorry Nordkvist fans - I tried.

[Djinn]

Alessandro Longobardi, taking the old wise children's programme's advice to Paint the Whole World With a Rainbow, just doubled through courtesy of a pretty unlucky Jonas Molander.  Jonas raised to 20k preflop, and Longobardi pushed all in.  Call.  Simple as that.
Molander: 
Longobardi:

Flop:  smallheart smallheart   giving some new thought-I-might-not-need-those outs for Jonas
Turn and river:  bricks.

When the river was out and there was no danger of the Italian hitting the rail right there, he went a bit mental, leaping up, hi-fiving his two railers who combined sound and take up the space of ten normal ones, and clearly delighted to have escaped the jaws of defeat.  You can tell what Jonas thought of that from his expression (the guy in the black shirt with long hair on the left).

[JungleCat03]

Alessandro Longobardi, taking the old wise children's programme's advice to Paint the Whole World With a Rainbow, just doubled through courtesy of a pretty unlucky Jonas Molander.  Jonas raised to 20k preflop, and Longobardi pushed all in.  Call.  Simple as that.
Molander: 
Longobardi:

Flop:  smallheart smallheart   giving some new thought-I-might-not-need-those outs for Jonas
Turn and river:  bricks.

When the river was out and there was no danger of the Italian hitting the rail right there, he went a bit mental, leaping up, hi-fiving his two railers who combined sound and take up the space of ten normal ones, and clearly delighted to have escaped the jaws of defeat.  You can tell what Jonas thought of that from his expression (the guy in the black shirt with long hair on the left).

Ooops Jen, I think you
'd that post a bit!

Anyway, on with the poker.

Samuel Chartier started the day as a short stack but battled patiently for a spot, which he found, getting it in preflop with versus the As of tablemate Martin Nielsen.

The flop fell , Chartier's Kings holding and enabling him to double through to 170k or so whilst Nielsen is put on the backfoot, knocked down to sub 100k...

[Djinn]

Big Action on Last Hand before Break!

Knocked to hovering around 100k, Jonas Molander has been moving all in preflop here and there, like a sort of terrier nipping at the heels of his tablemates, but able to do some serious damage to at least three of them should they fight back and lose...

Anyway, just as the rail (which is now wedged between some metal barriers and some heavy empty tables, and looks like it may result in a fatality before the end of the day, such is the press of random people squeezing past the big sign that says PRESS ONLY - SOLA PRENSA) reached its height to date, Jonas moved in one more time, and this time Sebastian Ruthenberg took him on.  There was a pause while small blind Alesandro Longobardi kneeled up on his chair and did some melodramatic staring at both players, but they ended up heads up in the closing seconds.

Here's what I saw:
Ruthenberg: 
Molander:  ?

Flop:    Jonas looks resigned, ready to get his virtual coat.
Turn:   His mate Ramzi comes over to watch
River:   Ramzi gives him that knuckles-up thing, which is odd as it looks like that was the last gasp for him... but no, the pot is getting shipped to Molle..

He actually held which rivered a straight with help from only four board cards!  A large bit of luck back for him, and a double through from Sebastian.