Thursday, 28th March 2024 10:23
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Copenhagen: Into the final stages

1.40am — Soren Jensen from Denmark is eliminated in second place for DKK3,521,429 or €472,463
2-7-8 with two spades on the flop. Soren checks. Tim, now with sleeves rolled up, did the same. The turn is a three, another spade. Soren bets 115k and Tim calls quickly. The river is a four, a spade, giving the board flush and straight possibilities. Soren moves in. Tim gets up, looks over at Soren and says “It’s been nice playing with you sir… I call.” Tim turns over A-T of spades. The nut flush. It’s over.

1.25am — The same careful game being played by both players. It’s a little quieter now. None of the hoopla of celebration that came before.

1.10am — Soren is all-in on a flop of 6-7-K. Casino Copenhagen was close to sleep but now, from out of nowhere, Soren moves in. Tim calls. It’s Q-7 for Soren for a pair of sevens. King-four for Tim which puts him in the lead with Soren covered. This could be it. The turn is a queen. Incredibly Soren jumps ahead. The river a seven giving Soren with a miracle full house. He’s doubles up and we play on. Both stacks are fairly even.

1.06am — You may remember the often referred to final in Copenhagen two years ago with a heads-up match between Mads Andersen and Edgar Skjervold that took us passed 3am before it finished. It seems the official time on that heads up was three hours, which makes this heads-up, between PokerStars qualifier Tim Vance and Soren Jensen, the longest in EPT history.

1.05am — Blinds are now up to 50k/100k.

12.45am — Players take another 15 minutes break.

12.30am — Soren is all-in again, pre-flop. Tim asks for a count… Soren has 1.1million. Tim begins clapping. “What’s your pair?” he asks, and thinks some more. But this doesn’t look good. “I gotta fold it.” Soren takes the pot…

12.25am — Blinds are currently 40k/80k at the moment.

12.15am — 7-7-2 on the flop. Tim checks in the dark and Soren bets 80k. Called. The turn, an ace, Tim checks in the dark, Soren bets, 80k. Called. The river is a deuce. Tim checks, Soren moves all-in. For a moment it looks as if Tim might talk himself into calling, but there’s little in the pot to risk it and he folds. Soren shows him A-7.

12.10am — 128 hands in this heads up match. On a J-J-T-T-J board Soren moved in. Playing the board? Tim didn’t take the chance, laughing it off and mucking his hand. Good fold, Soren flashed the jack for quads. Heads up play has now entered the fourth hour.

12am — Anina Gundesen, who became the first woman player to make an EPT final table here back in season two, has just come into the press room after saying hello to a few fellow Danish players. “So have the chips been going back and forth…?” she asks. Well, in a way Anina, but very slowly…

11.50pm — Pre-flop and a 200k bet from Tim. Soren pushes all-in.

“Are you giving up sir?” asks Tim. Soren walks off. “Won’t talk to me? Won’t even look at me? You got a hand? Got an ace?”

They both agree they can’t beat an ace…

“I can’t and I call…” says Tim who shows K-Q. He’s in a world of trouble though and Soren shows pocket kings.

“Dumb call…

Q- 7-J-K-2

The queen brought some hope, the king on the turn sat everyone down again.

“Bad call, bad call, bad call,” says Tim, like he’s scolding a dog. We’re back to where we started.

11.40pm — Tim raises pre-flop 200k. Soren calls. The flop comes 8-2-T with clubs. Tim makes it 200k and Soren re-raises 400k. This gets a quick call from Tim for a turn, a queen of spades. Still two clubs on the board. Soren checks, so does Tim. The river is a jack of clubs. Tim moved all-in and Soren calls, showing his two pair clinched on the turn, but Tim leaps up with joy, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” he has the flush.

Soren claps – there seems little else to do – there’s no high five from Tim who is now back in the possession of the chip lead – and it’s a big one – 3.7million to 870k.

“I’m a little groggy – I’m just glad I don’t have to drive home.” says Tim.

“I should have raised you all in on the turn.” says Soren.

“Yes you should have.”

“Nice hand. You deserved it… an expensive mistake.”

Soren is now the picture of frustration…

11.30pm — The board read J-3-7-6-3. There’s no betting and Tim shows a seven whilst Soren turns over trip threes.

11.20pm — Soren bets pre-flop and Tim calls. The flop comes Ac-7c-5c. Tim now makes it 200k which Soren re-raises – just the minimum though – 400k. Tim calls and someone somewhere falls off their chair. This is now a huge pot of over one million.

The turn is a five of clubs. Oddly both check. The river is a two of diamonds. Another 400k from Tim which Soren calls. A-8 for Soren, just A-2 for Tim.

You might be able to predict Soren’s reaction by now. He starts screaming, chest butts his brother on the rail and comes back to high five Tim – perhaps the last person he should be approaching, but Soren’s reaction is something along the lines of a tournament win. He now has a one million chip advantage over the American.

The break — In the break I took a walk around the stage. This is quickly (or slowly) becoming one of the slowest heads up battles in EPT history. It’s not yet the longest, unofficially that title goes to one of two other EPTS – Barcelona in season one was a four an a half hour heads-up trawl; and Copenhagen in season two, which saw the heads-up match between two top drawer players in Mads Andersen and Edgar Skjervold – finishing shortly before the Casino closed. The camera crews on that day had just 15 minutes of film left. If you look up the word ‘relieved’ in the dictionary you see a photo of the camera men from that day.

Yet despite this nobody has moved. The rail birds sit in the same place they were hours ago and only Thomas Kremser seems to be flagging. A colleague brings him coffee and whilst I can’t be sure I think he added more sugar than he normally would.

Soren Jensen talks to some friends. Tim is probably outside having a smoke. That as a few minutes ago. They’re back now and ready to continue on into the night…

Tim Vance – 2.9million
Soren Jensen – 1.6million

The blinds are now 30k/60k.

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