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

[JungleCat03]

And....action!

Swede Jonas Molander faced the small blind to short stacked player Claudio Cecchi's BB and when he found K-2, he set the Italian in.

He may have been beating the Italian's range, but he wasn't actually beating his hand as the Italian made a quick call with A-T and was looking at a double through.

Molander has run very well in this tournament though, winning big flips and A-8 against Aces and the dealer was about to do him another favour as he peeled off a flop of 3-9-2 to give Jonas a pair.

The turn was a 9 and left Claudio sweating on an Ace, Ten or Three on the river which was...

...a FOUR!

A blank on the river consigned the Italian to 16th place, worth a meaty €29,700  but short of the big prizes at the top.

[Djinn]

Stephen Chidwick eliminated in 15th place, winning €29,700

Re-raising all in preflop with , Samuel Chartier was only too happy to get his stack in with .  The board came busting the internet prodigy but introducing him to the EPT in style.  Here he is doing the Brief Loiter of Shame.



Funnily enough, moments earlier Jason Mercier had popped over to have a quick chat with the grey-hoodied Canadian - maybe he was whispering, "Right, Aces - that's the way forward."  To be fair, Chartier had moved all in a couple of hands before with no call, so maybe it was more along the lines of, "Play a hand!"

Jason Mercier nipping over from the TV table.  "Who, me?"



Apologies for not showing your face, Mr. Chartier, but you know how it is stuck in a small gap between tables behind you.

[Djinn]

Jonas Molander eliminated in 14th place for €37,200

He calls another Sebastian Ruthenberg shove preflop with - Sebastian has this time and it isn't looking good for him...The flop brings no excitement, but without being able to see the table Sebastian's face says all that needs to be said about the turn - an .  A 5 on the river makes a chip count necessary as their stacks are very close, but it turns out that the German covers his Swedish opponent, and we're down to 13 and he's up to over half a mil in chips.

Ruthenberg - chips once more

[Djinn]

Mark Randal Flowers finishes in 13th place for €37,200

The shortest stack on a table which randomly drew ALL the biggest stacks today, he moved with , and got Davidi Kitai giving him a spin with . 
Not in terrible shape, especially considering the flop.
Turn:
River:   and a slightly disappointed but even-tempered Flowers just misses out on the final table.

[Djinn]

No Mercy Mercier... no, wait...ah whatever:

Jason Mercier raises to 43k on the button, and big blind Daniele Mazzia reraises to 116.  Back to Jason, who just announces all-in, thumping down large towers of yellow 5k chips in a very determined manner.  This does the trick nicely, and may put off the blinds threebetting him for fun soon again...

[JungleCat03]

Sebastian Ruthenberg just raised it up to 45k from UTG, only to face an all-in re-raise by Italian Benianmino Speroni
 for 100k more or so.

With A-K it was an easy call for Sebastian, though had he seen his opponent's cards, he may have laid it down as Speroni had stumbled into a very favourable situation, showing down bullets.

Sebastian shrugged as if to say "Whatcha gonna do?" and once Thomas Kremser was summoned over to announce the action, the dealer gave us a flop.

It popped out , opening a small window of opportunity for Sebastian to crack the bullets but a Queen on the river shut that window with a bang, as the Italian doubled up to 350k, whilst Sebastian's stack was reduced to roughly the same...

[Djinn]

Benianmino Speroni finishes in 12th place winning €49,600

On Table Of Short Stacks a threeway pot brews between all in Speroni, re-raiser Sebastian Ruthenberg and Mikael Lundell... on their backs!

Speroni: 
Lundell: A-K
Ruthenberg: A-K

A very decisive board came out of K-A-T-7-A - the two who aren't Speroni tap knuckles, split the pot, and play continues apace.  Pictured, the eliminated Italian, before the consoling rail welcomes him.

[JungleCat03]

And no sooner than the dust had settled on Speroni's exit than Klausen is all-in also.

He took a shot to double up his 220k stack against the man who earlier took all his chips German Dren Ukella. He pushed over the top of Dren's late position raise but Ukella quickly called him.

The Dane was in bad shape, his A-4 needing a lot of help to outrun the German's pocket Jacks.

The flop fell ...the turn was the and needing an Ace on the river to stay alive in the tournament, the dealer dealt out the !

A full house for the German sends Jonas Klausen crashing out in 11th spot, winning €49,600 and we continue 10 handed as the final table rapidly approaches.

[Djinn]

Davidi Kitai and Jason Mercier tangle, in a multi-raise battle preflop... Davidi raising, Jason re-raising (150k), Davidi adding 207k...and then facing an all-in from Jason!  Over 600k each - this could be the biggest pot of the day.  Having committed so many of his chips, it looked like Davidi was going to agonise for a bit and then put in the rest.  But no!  He actually folded, with an expression of mortification, after a dwell which looked like lemon juice being squeezed in his eye.  1 mil for Mercier.

Neither player has spent any time today off the Feature Table, so our photos are from far away.  JC doesn't have the steadiest of hands, so it looked like a good idea to steal closeups from the flatscreens Pokerstars is showing us the footage from EPTLive on.

Kitai


Mercier

[JungleCat03]

A quick picture of Irishman Fintan Gavin, taken shortly after Jonas Molander busted Italian Cecci with K-2. He gently chided the Swede, telling him "K-2? That'll work on him but not on me!" warning him off stealing his big blind.

Good to see the players are still able to have fun at the tables, despite the high prizes at stake...

[Djinn]

Exiting in 10th place - Salvatore Pengue (€74,400)

Moving in preflop, a count was being issued when I approached the approach to the table... covering Pengue, Samuel Chartier thought about it for a good while, then announced call, precipitating the usual swarm of cameras and Thomas Kremser - for which we were delighted as he then announced exactly what was going on:
Pengue held , Chartier . 
Flop:
Turn:
River:  

Here are both players, the one in the permahood about to eliminate the one with the glasses:



And a more subdued Salvatore than we've become accustomed to took his leave, causing the final table break of the EPT Barcelona, which is still ongoing.

Added Bonus Photo:  Chartier with face visible to rail.  Crikey, wouldn't want to accidentally spill a drink on him.  Woe betide potential muggers - it's not worth the €74,400 he's guaranteed at worst.

[Djinn]

CHIP COUNTS - FINAL TABLE

Martin Nielsen -- 392,000
Davidi Kitai -- 458,000
Dren Ukalla -- 1,880,000
Mikael Lundell -- 913,000
Jason Mercier -- 1,007,000
Samuel Chartier -- 931,000
Daniele Mazzia -- 621,000
Fintan Gavin -- 370,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg -- 483,000

[Djinn]

Understandably cagey now, an odd hand developed between Dren Ukalla and Samuel Chartier... Chartier made it 48k to go, and then called a weird re-raise to just 100k out of the blinds.  Flop:  .  Dren checks, Samuel checks.
Turn:   Dren bets out 50k.  A brief think; call.
River:    Dren immediately puts in a bet of 75k.  A brief think, and he gives up the pot.


It has just been announced that the blinds are going to be reduced to 12k/24k ante 3k.  Give them a bit of a break.  To be fair, tomorrow may have been faster than necessary if it kept progressing at this rate.

[Djinn]

Threeway to a flop of , and Martin Nielsen's bet of 70k gets rid of Samuel Chartier and Sebastian Ruthenberg.  He shows K-Q. 

That doesn't speed the action up any, and with the more relaxed blinds, it's Irishman Fintan Gavin with less than 240k who must be feeling the pressure keenest.  Although his patience seems to belie this.

[Djinn]

Slow slow slow.  A few interesting pots threaten, but sort of fizzle, like:

When Samuel Chartier re-raised neighbour Jason Mercier to 140k preflop, and Mercier was having none of it, although the small blind had a serious dwell.

or

When it folds to Fintan Gavin in the small blind and he says, "I tell you what I'm gonna do - I'm gonna be nice to you," and limps.  Big blind Sebastian Ruthenberg thought for a second and put him all in.  "I have to..." he began, practically out of his chair, before it became clear that what he had to do was pass.