Thursday, 28th March 2024 15:28
Home / Uncategorized / EPT €25K High Roller: Day 2, levels 16 & 17 (blinds 4,000-8,000, ante 1,000)
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8.20pm: Marafioti fuming
Matt Marafioti isn’t too happy that he’s short stacked but he has been grinding his way back up. He’s got one shove through and picked up a small pot against Dori Yacoub to get back to 140,000. Down but certainly not out. — RD

8.15pm: Two double-ups in two minutes
Sorel Mizzi and Paul Bernende both doubled-up with two minutes of each other on different tables.

Firstly Mizzi got it all with big slick versus the pocket tens of Javier Garcia. A king appeared on the flop and Mizzi’s up to 280,000. Garcia down to 300,000.

Then on the other table a flop was out as J9Q before all the chips went in between Berende and Oliver Busquet. Berende tabled 99 for middle set to Busquet’s K10 for a flopped straight. The Dutchman looked resigned to his fate but the turn came a magic Q to give a full house. He’s up to 640,000 now. Busquet is down to 450,000. –MC

8pm: Golser out-drawn and out
Luke Schwartz has eliminated Markus Golser to move to 450,000. He raised and then moved all-in when Golser three-bet. Golser had got his chips in good with AK to Schwartz’s AJ. The board came 7Q6K10 to make a straight for the Brit.

When the turn came Schwartz said “Ooh, more outs now” and when one of those outs came he shouted “YES. You lot are f####d now”. He then shook Golser’s hand and added “Unlucky.” –MC

7.55pm: Schwartz knocks out Golser
Full details coming.

7.55pm: Bari talking nonsense
Allen Bari is getting talkative. It must be something to do with his growing chip stack and the approach of the money spots. He raised from early position and was called by Michael Friedrich in the big blind. When Friedrich check-raised Bari’s 21,000 bet on the 332 board Bari folded claiming to have Kings. ‘You never bluff, right?’ he questioned. ‘I had kings.’ Sure you did, Allen, sure you did.

The next hand Bari raised under the gun to 18,000 and was called by Javier Garcia in the hijack. Bari check-called 23,000 on the 397 board before check-folding the 2 turn. This time he showed ace-king. — RD

7.50pm: The last Team Pro falls
Chad Brown, the last Team PokerStars Pro, has been eliminated by the big stacked Oliver Busquets. Busquets raised to 20,000 and then called Brown’s 75,000 all-in push. Brown tabled Q10 to Busquets AJ and the board ran K2A36. Brown flopped a gutshot draw that he to but failed to hit. Busquet up to 830,000. We’re down to 13 players now. –MC

7.40pm: Suck out by Saout
Mikael Azoulay has been eliminated by Antoine Saout. They got it all-in pre-flop with Saout behind with 77 to Azoulay’s 88 and the board ran K297A. Saout got lucky and hit his set on the turn. We say goodbye to the very entertaining Azoulay. Saout up to 450,000. –MC

7.30pm: Play resumes
Most of the players are back in there seats. Play is underway regardless. –MC

6.15pm: Chips and seat draw
There are fifteen players currently preparing for their final push towards the money and the final table. Eight places are paying out with the first pay out giving our high rollers €85,000. The winner stands to pick up an incredible €1,000,000. None of that will be decided tonight though. No, but the bubble will and one player will have to feel the agony and heartache of coming so close but yet so far. Here are the draws for the final levels of the day and the chips as they stand.

Table 1
1 – Dori Yacoub – 1,050,000
2 – Javier Garcia – 443,000
3 – Antoine Saout – 388,000
4 – Tom Marchese – 372,000
5 – Michael Friedrich – 466,000
6 – Sorel Mizzi – 151,000
7 – Allen Bari – 649,000
8 – Mikael Azoulay – 64,000

Table 2
1 – Chad Brown, Team PokerStars Pro – 95,000
2 – Matt Marafioti – 137,000
3 – Tobias Reinkemeier – 362,000
4 – Markus Golser – 151,000
5 – Paul Berende – 356,000
6 – Olivier Busquet – 762,000
7 – Luke Schwartz – 199,000

5.55pm: DINNER BREAK
Players are on a 90 minute dinner break now. Updated chip counts and two table seat draw on the way. –MC

5.50pm: Min-raise river bluff gone wrong
Ronny Kaiser is out after min-raise bluffing on the river. He Oliver Busquet and Chad Brown all saw a 6K7 flop where Kaiser led out for 22,000. Only Busquet called to see the A turn. Kaiser check-called a 45,500 bet from Busquet and they went to the 10 river. Kaiser checked again and this time Busquet bet 120,000. Kaiser only had twice as much as that left and moved it all-in. Busquet called and Kaiser said “You got it” and held his cards out facedown ready to muck.

Kaiser tabled 56 for a flush and Kaiser mucked and said “So sick”. Busquet into second place on 690,000. –MC

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Brave move from Ronny Kaiser

5.45pm: ElkY out as he runs into the nuts
Dori Yacoub is on fire and has just knocked out Team PokerStars Pro Elky with the rivered nuts. ElkY had bet 70,000 – around half of his stack – on the river of a 385K9 board when Dori Yacoub moved all-in. ElkY did not look happy with the news and seeing so many chips out there felt he had to make the call. Yacoub showed A7 for the backdoor nut flush and stretched his chip lead to around 950,000.

As Yacoub raked in the pot Matt Marafioti said, ‘I think we’re playing with Eli Elezra’s cousin here.’ — RD

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Dori Yacoub is close to one million chips

5.35pm: Stretching his lead
Dori Yacoub has extended his lead even further by moving onto 675,000. EklY raised to 13,000 and was called by Tom Marchese in the cut-off and the man himself on the button. The flop came 465 and ElkY’s 18,000 c-bet was only called by Yacoub. Heads-up to the 3 turn and ElkY check-called a 22,000 bet before both checked the 5 river. Yacoub tabled A5 and took the pot as ElkY mucked. –MC

5.30pm: More aces bad news for Lyndaker
Javier Garcia has gone on a bit of a tear and is up over 400,000 now. A large chunk of his chips just came from Richard Lyndaker who is out in 18th. Lyndaker’s three-bet shove came at just the wrong time. — RD

5.20pm: Berende all-in with aces
Paul Berende would have been out of this tournament at least twice last night if he hadn’t been saved by river cards, now he’s not far behidn the chip leaders with 380,000. Ronny Kaiser opened to 13,000 from the cut-off with 55 and Berende naturally three-bet from the button with AA to 26,500. Kaiser moved all-in and Berende obviously called. An ace on the KA7 flop left Kaiser drawing super thin. Kaiser is still fairly well stacked.

We have 18 players left. Check the chip counts by clicking here. — RD

5.10pm: Salamzy busts
Najibullah Salamzy has been eliminated by Ronny Kaiser. Kaiser opened to 13,500 and then called Salamzy’s 39,500 push from the small blind. Salamzy was ahead with his Q10 to Kaiser’s 97 but failed to stay there through the 765K6 board. We’re down to 18 players now. –MC

5.00pm: Blinds up and nowhere to hide
There are 19 players left and with only eight getting paid there really is little point in blinding yourself out at this point. Alex Kravchenko was one of the players that had to double or die and unfortunately for the Team PokerStars Pro it was the latter. Bubble dynamics will no doubt kick in before too long but we still have a few more players to lose first. — RD

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Alex Kravchenko was one of our most recent fallers

PokerStars Blog reporting team on the €25k High Roller in Monte Carlo (in order of coffees drunk today): Rick Dacey (5) and Marc Convey (3)

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