Friday, 29th March 2024 10:03
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Deauville: Day 1b, levels 7 and 8 updates
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Updates from day 1b, levels seven and eight of EPT Deauville, brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young.

Latest chip counts are on the chip count page. The full payout structure can be found on the prizewinners and payout structure page. The EPT tournament structure can be found on the EPT tournament structure page.

Blinds:
Level seven: 300-600 (50 ante)
Level eight: 400-800 (75 ante)

10.27pm: Level end
That’s the end of level eight. By our reckoning, level nine is up next.

10.26pm: Kravchenko soaring
Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko is approaching the 100,000 mark. He just picked up a chunk more from Moreno Cordero by betting, and getting a call on a K♦ Q♦ A♠ A♥ 5♥ board. Kravchenko tabled 10♦ J♦ for the straight.

10.25pm: Coren fails to break duck
Vicky Coren had Tweeted earlier that wanted to break her Deauville duck, and get through to day two for the first time. Well, after struggling with a short stack for much of the day, that is not going to happen. She’s out.

She pushed for her last 8,075 with A♠ 2♥ but was called by Jakob Karlsson with his A♣ 10♦ . Coren needed help, but the Q♠ 3♦ 10♣ K♥ A♥ board was certainly not it.

10.23pm: Nearing the magic six figures
Ludovic Lacay is up to 98,000 after busting Didier Lambertini. There was a raise to 2,000 from the button that Lambertini called from the small blind before Lacay made it 6,000 to go from the big blind. The button passed but Lambertini moved all in for 17,000. Probably feeling priced in Lacay made the call with Kâ™  8â™  and saw he was up against A♥ J♣ and the board ran out 7♦ 9♣ 6♣ 2♥ 5♣ . The dealer was about to pass the chips to Lambertini until Lacay put his finger on his 8â™  to show he’s made a straight.

10.20pm: Tank/fold
On a board of A♠ J♣ 9♥ , Sergey Pomerantsev bet 3,000 and Pasi Heinanen made it 8,000 instead. Call. The turn was 5♣ and after Pomerantsev checked, Heinanen bet 12,000. Pomerantsev now raised, making it 25,000, and although it took about seven minutes, and the clock to be called on him, Heinanen folded.

10.15pm: Young-gun bluffed
The river had just been dealt making the board 4♥ A♠ K♠ Q♣ A♣ . Tristan Clemencon led for 6,800 from the big blind before a confident looking Samche Morda El Sayed raised it up to 14,000. Clemencon went in to the tank, asked the dealer to pull in the chips, looked in agony and then finally folded only to be shown 10♣ 5♠ by El Sayed. Clemencon now on 45,500.

10.12pm: Adventures of Freddy Deeb
Freddy Deeb is tucked into one of those tables wedged into the middle of the room, totally inaccessible, like Tibet, or quantum physics. But we got there, crampons and Kendal mint cake, and Deeb was there, dug in and holding the line, winning a hand against Sylvain Coeur.

Coeur had made it 3,000 to play on a flop of A♦ 8♣ 3♦ . Deeb called for an A♥ on the turn. Both checked that for a 7♦ river and checked again. Two pair for Deeb 5♠ 3♠ . Good enough. Deeb up to 104,000.

10.10pm: Former champion downed
A short-stacked Mats Iremark, who was champion here in season two, moved all in with A♦ Q♥ and was called by Gabriel Fhima with J♦ J♠ . The board ran 7♦ 3♦ J♥ Q♣ 6♥ to prevent us a first here in Deauville; a player reclaiming an EPT title.

10.08pm: Coren all-in
It’s Vicky Coren’s big blind and three people have limped in. “All-in,” announces the Team PokerStars Pro, and it’s for around 12,500. None of the limpers wants to play, however, so Coren stacks up an extra 3,200.

10.05pm: Another hand in the life of ElkY
Simon Brunet limps under the gun, and in the next seat along ElkY makes it 2,600. It’s folded back around to Brunet, who makes the call. The flop comes 5♣ 2â™  6♥ , Brunet checks, ElkY bets 3,300, ElkY takes the pot.

10pm: Pagano emerges at top of the pile
There are so many ways to report a poker tournament, one of them is to sit right here and look at Twitter and Facebook. Luca Pagano’s “friends” just received this dispatch: “Luca Pagano a 180.000!!! Media 46.000″ which I think means that he has 180,000 while the average is about 46,000. Chip leader?

9.45pm: Nitsche misses a trick, Thomas escapes
There was a raise and a re-raise pre-flop before Jean Frederic Thomas and Dominik Nitsche saw 4♣ 3♦ 2♦ . The turn cost them a further 6,000, Thomas betting and Nitsche calling (or that’s what it looked like). It was J♥ . They both checked and the river was Q♣ . Nitsche checked and so did Thomas, who showed 10♦ 10â™  . Nitsche was angry: “I wanted to check-raise the river,” he said, showing his Qâ™  Q♦ . Missed a bet there.

9.40pm: Bruel v Traply ends in a whimper
Patrick Bruel raised to 2,100 and Peter Traply re-raised in the small blind, making it 6,500. Bruel called. Both of them suddenly got a mite apprehensive through flop, turn and river, though. It came 8♦ 5♥ 5♣ Q♠ 10♠ and they checked all the way, the only posturing coming when Traply asked Bruel for a count and was told that the Frenchman had about 40,000. In the event, we might have predicted these hands. Bruel had J♦ J♥ and Traply had A♠ K♣ . Bruel took that one.

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Patrick Bruel

9.35pm: Anas Horribilis
If there’s noise heard in the tournament room it tends to come from a Frenchman. There have been a few things called out across the room, mostly from one or two characters, that gets the Francophone players in stitches while the rest of us mumble what the hell is going on. But English speakers have one weapon in their arsenal to help reclaim some of the airwaves. It comes in the form of Dario Minieri.

It helps that Minieri is a demon and has no fears when it comes to taking on one of the chip leaders. After Minieri raised from under-the-gun Anas Tadini called for a 2♣ 4♣ A♥ flop. Now Minieri made it 1,700 which Tadini called for a 3♥ on the turn. Check-check. The river came Q♦ . Another 4,000 form Minieri now. Tadini had had enough and passed his cards. Minieri showed him J♠ 9♦ .

“I never never ever have a hand,” said Minieri to Tadini who mercifully might not have understood a word. “I never ever ever have a hand,” continued Minieri. “You should bluff every hand. The maximum I’d have with you is jack-high.”

Tadini asked someone something in French, perhaps looking for a translation. For now though the noise was not French but English, albeit with a heavy Italian accent.

“There was a chance I was calling with eight-three,” continued Minieri, performing what is normally referred to as rubbing salt into wounds. Tadini simply got out of his chair for a bit and went for a walk.

Minieri is dominiating his table and the far end of the room. Can you really say you’re surprised?

9.30pm: Out-kicked
Peter Traply opened the pot with a raise to 1,550 and was called by Praz Bansi on the button and the two blinds. Traply then led for 4,100 and was only called by Bansi to see the 7♥ turn where both players checked. The river came K♦ and Traply found his betting rhythm again with a 9,500 bet. Bansi thought for a while and made a reluctant looking call with Q♦ J♦ . It was no good though as Traply showed him A♠ J♠ . Bansi down to 33,000 now.

9.15pm: Raymer’s queens fall
Greg Raymer is out, a victim of Samche Morda El Sayed. Those two had been at it for more than an hour, either side of the break, and eventually the Swiss got his man.

The condensed version is that Raymer got it all in with queens on a board of 8♥ 7♠ 6♥ and El Sayed called with 7♥ 4♥ , for the straight and flush draw, actually making him a favourite. The 2♥ came on the turn, filling the flush, and Raymer was gone.

“It would have been a minor suck out for my hand to have held up,” Raymer said. “It seems strange to need a suck out when your hand is ahead, but he had 17 outs twice.”

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Greg Raymer: Up close and out

That wasn’t quite the full story. Raymer went on to detail the circumstances of the pre-flop action. Raymer had been telling the table that he was sure he was about to get aces, and so when he picked up queens, he knew he could re-raise and get action. El Sayed opened, which he had been doing very frequently, and Raymer duly re-raised for about 25% of his stack.

He was surprised by El Sayed’s call, but stood by his shove on the flop.

He also told how the day had been going to that point, including the moment he folded a baby full house to rivered quads. They had both flopped a set, Raymer’s smaller, and when the board paired on the turn and then paired again on the river, Raymer thought there were far too many hands that could beat him. He was right. He showed his folded boat, and was shown those quads.

Still, it only bought Raymer another few hours at the table. And now he’s free to explore Deauville again.

9.10pm: An Azoulay light
David Azoulay waited until after the ten-high flop to get all his chips in with pocket jacks. It didn’t make much difference: Jean Bernard Bot had aces and knocked him out. There are still another couple of Azoulays in today’s field however.

9.08pm: Look who’s talking
The flop was all ready on the table. K♣ K♦ 3♦ . Jeff Sarwer had bet 3,100 with pocket queens only to be raised by Huo Jinfeng. Sarwer started talking to Jinfeng about the hand, creating some banter between them before Bingjang Ren in the two seat called the clock. Sarwer explained he’d take his time, talk things through and make his decision and did so in good time, turning over his queens. “Show one,” asked Sarwer grinning. Jinfeng let him pick one, the Kâ™  . Sarwer down to 50,000.

9.03pm: Hanging in there
British player Martins Adeniya is hanging in there with 16,000. His chip state was worse until he moved all in on a Kâ™  8â™  10â™  board. The all in was a pot sized bet of 8,000 and it worked as his opponent folded. Still a lot of work for the young pro to do if he’s going to make day 2.

9pm: Always happy
Ramzi Jelassi started things off with a raise to 1,500 from the cut-off and was called by Joseph Carlino in the big blind to see a 4♣ 9♣ 8♣ flop. Carlino check-called a 2,300 bet from the Swede before the turn came A♦ . Carlino checked and then folded to a 4,000 bet.

“Are you happy?” Carlino asked.
“I’m always happy” replied Jelassi. “But I can’t tell you if I was happy you folded though.”

Jelassi sitting on 37,000.

8.55pm: Cogan calls down Karam
Mylene Cogan, a professional player from France sponsored here by PokerStars, is having a great time of it on table 26. She just picked up a decent pot from Joseph Karam, making a good call on the river to her opponent’s undisguised chagrin. Those two, plus Yoni Houri were at a flop, costing 1,000 apiece, and after both Houri and Karam checked the 4♣ 10♥ 5♥ board, Cogan bet 2,700 on the button.

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Mylene Cogan: coaxed a bluff

Houri folded but Karam called and the turn came J♣ . Both remaining players checked that, encouraging a river of 2♦ from the deck. Karam bet 6,200 but Cogan was going nowhere. She called with K♣ 10♣ and Karam’s Aâ™  Q♦ was defeated.

8.52pm: Fitoussi set back
On a flop of 10♠ 2♣ 6♣ Antoanell Judet, under the gun, made it 1,800 to play. Still with him in the pot was French poker icon Bruno Fitoussi, who was ready with a raise, making it 4,000 in total. Judet called for a 10♦ turn card and checked to Fitoussi who made it another 6,000. Judet came back at him with a raise, 15,500 total, enough to prompt Fitoussi to check his cards a final time before folding.

8.50pm: From High Roller to bust
What seemed like just a few days ago (because it was just a few days ago) Dmitry Stelmak finished eighth at the PCA High Roller in the Bahamas for $66,885. Today he was back in Europe at the EPT. But his visit to northern France has been nowhere near as successful as his time in the Caribbean – he is out.

8.45pm: Skampa takes hit
EPT Prague champion Jan Skampa suffered a small setback on this hand. With the board running 7♠ 4♦ 3♥ 6♣ J♠ and around 15,000 in the pot, Skampa checked and then had to fold when Florent Leprovost made a 13,500 bet.

8.40pm: Minieri busts another
This time it’s Nicolas Atlan who bit the Dario Minieri bullet. Minieri made it 1,600, Atlan re-raised to 4,000, Minieri then went to 20,000 and that was enough to put Atlan all in. Call. It was A-Q for Minieri and A-J for Atlan, and nothing changed on the board to save the Frenchman’s tournament life.

8.35pm: Jean gone
Jean Ghebali is out. He had flopped two pair with A-9 on a board of 6-9-J-A, but was up against Didier Pitcho’s better two pair with A-J. The Q river changed nothing.

8.30pm: Barbosa busted
Joao Barbosa is out. On one of the first hands after the break, Jonathan Azoulay raised to 1,200 from early position, a min-raise. George Secara called from one seat to his left and Barbosa moved all in over the top, for what amounted only to about 6,775 more. Azoulay called, Secara folded and they were on their back.

Barbosa: A♥ 9♥
Azoulay: A♠ J♥

The board was blank: 2♣ 6♣ 2♥ and the turn terrible for Barbosa: J♣ . He’s gone.

8.25pm: Postprandial poker
The 324 players have returned from their break and are ready to crack on through three more levels until we’re done for the night.

Peter Eastgate is in the top five in chips at the moment. He’s pretty good, this fella.

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Peter Eastgate: good

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