Friday, 29th March 2024 06:09
Home / Uncategorized / EPT London, Day 1A: Level 5 & 6 (blinds 200-400, ante 50)
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7.19pm: Grub’s up!
That’s a 90-minute break for the players and three more levels when they come back. Then there’s Day 1B which should be, by all accounts, a monster. — RD

7.17pm: Wigg gets his revenge
Anton Wigg has just doubled through Celina Lin with pocket tens against A♦ Q♣ . Wigg flopped a set on a 10â™  5â™  A♣ flop and no runner-runner could save Lin from doubling the Swede up at the TV table. — RD

7.10pm: Not “all-in”, “Celina Lin”
Celina Lin just dodged an early exit from the main event, in a hand on the feature table against former EPT winner Anton Wigg.

All-in with A♦ Q♥ , Wigg called with K♥ K♣ . The cameras focused on the two players and the board was dealt.

J♦ 5♠ J♥ A♥ 8♥

Lin had winced on the turn, looking unreasonably embarrassed for her piece of good fortune, but gratefully raked in her new chips regardless.

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Busting from APPT PAGCOR Chairman’s Cup in Manila earlier this year Lin had said that part of the poker player’s job is to travel around the world getting knocked out of tournaments. Well Lin has travelled half way around the world but is still in this one, up to 33,000. — SB

7.07pm: UKIPT round-up
We’ve still got a few of the UKIPT champs and heavy hitters in the running. Michael Graydon has been getting shovey with his last 12,000 on a tough table with Arnaud Mattern and Greg Raymer. Jamie Burland is doing well with 59,000 (see below) and both Femi Fakinle and Gilles Augustus are hanging on in there. Augustus is currently on 16,000 and will needs to hope that Tony Bloom doesn’t pick him off. Mike Hill, third place on the UKIPT leaderboard before this tournament began, looks like he may have bitten the dust. He was short when I last saw him and unless he’s moved table he’s come a cropper. — RD

7pm: Brighton winner rocks
UKIPT Winner Jamie Burland’s day has taken a turn for the better this last level. First he doubled-up with aces versus an opponent who four-bet jammed on him with queen-jack. Then moments later he was three-betting again but this time with ace-king and he was called and managed to extract value on a 8♦ Qâ™  9♥ 7♥ Kâ™  board with A♥ K♦ . His opponent held queen-ten. He’s up to 59,000 chips. — MC

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Jamie Burland is just one of the UKIPT champs still in the field

6.50pm: Seeing double
Barry Greenstein has doubled up to 20,000 against a player now departed (I don’t mean dead). He shoved with pocket sixes and was called by queen-jack. The board ran 7♥ 8♦ 4♦ K♥ 9â™  to go Greenstein’s way and condemn his opponent to an early departure. — SB

6.45pm: No such thing as luck
“Arnaud Mattern just got lucky.”

Those were the words whispered back through the crowd as he stacked up around 120,000 chips.

On a flop of 2♣ 5♥ 10♦ Mattern checked to Martins Adeniya who bet 5,275. Stephane Albertini, who looks like the drummer in Almost Famous, called before Mattern check-raised to 16,650. Adeniya called, forcing out Albertini, before the 7♦ turn. Mattern then moved all-in for 40,000, about the size of the pot.

Adeniya called, a move appreciated by Mattern, showing K♥ K♣ against the Team PokerStars Pro’s 6♦ 5♦ . Enter luck, stage left, with the A♦ on the river.

“Arnaud Mattern just got lucky.”

Not that lucky. He’s up to 120,000. — SB

6.37pm: Collopy and Eames
John Eames is sat on Jim Collopy’s left-hand shoulder* and has largely been quite at the table from the action we’ve seen. He’s on around 24,000 after nicking a small pot away from the American with a bet on the river of a 6♦ 3♣ K♣ 3â™  5♥ board. Collopy is sat happily with 37,000 or so.

Tournament destroyer Allen Cunningham, who has $10,430,000 in live tournament winnings to his name, is sat even more quietly on the other side of the table. — RD

* He’s not literally sat on his shoulder.

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Allen Cunningham playing the waiting game

6.25pm: East meets West
Alex Kravchenko, fresh off a win in Event 61 of the World Championship of Online Poker, is up a little in the EPT Main Event.

On a board of 5♣ 8♦ 5♠ A♣ 10♥ Kravchenko bet 6,000 and waited for a response from Dan Smith. At the table the Team PokerStars Pro is a fearsome looking chap. Eyes hidden behind aviator glasses, he may not have the British stiff upper lip but certainly has the steely Russian lower one. He also has two iPods in front of him.

Smith made the call, instantly mucking when Kravchenko turned over K♥ Kâ™  . Kravchenko up to 42,000. — SB

6.20pm: Tide has turned for De Goede
Pim de Goede had a huge 155,000 stack earlier on but has managed to lose the majority of it to drop down to 54,000. De Goede opened from early position and was called in four spots, which included Marcin Horecki and Marcel van Klinken. It was the latter player that stayed the course against De Goede who bet 4,150 on the flop and was called by Van Klinken who called 6,550 on the 4♣ turn. De Goede appeared to give up on the 4♥ river and slowly checked. Van Klinken made a small 2,825 bet and De Goede groaned: “If you bet 15,000 I would have been happy calling. Now I don’t know.”

The Dutchman tossed in 3,000 to call and was shown Kâ™  9â™  for two-pair. De Goede told our Dutch PokerStars blogger that he had 5♣ 6♣ for a small two-pair and busted flush draw. Crying call for sure. — RD

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Pim de Goede’s flying start has more than stuttered

6.13pm; Flopping the joint
Allan Baeke is up to 47,000 after eliminating an opponent. They saw a A♣ J♦ K♣ flop before all the chips went in. Baeke tabled Q♦ 10♣ for the nuts bettering his opponent’s Aâ™  Jâ™  for two-pair. The rest of the board bricked-out — MC

6.10pm: Great Scott and Mueller out
Greg Muller informed me of his bust-out a while ago. He was short-stacked and limped with kings and then moved all-in when there was a late position raise after a few more limpers joined the party. Unfortunately for him the raiser was punishing the limpers with pocket aces. As he was explained me Andrew Scott walked past and and gave me the I’m out look. He was on the feature table but the TV time didn’t work out too well for him. — MC

6.05pm: Three in the middle
Pim De Goede, Marcel Van Klinken and Mathias Kuerschner are wedged into their chairs, no escape behind them with players on the adjacent table battling them for space. With nowhere to go may as well play a hand.

Kuerschner raised to 2,700 from the button after some earlier betting. Both De Goede in the hi-jack and Van Klinken in the cut off called for a 8♣ 4♦ 5♣ flop. De Goede and Van Klinken checked before Kuerschner bet 5,800. That action went back to De Goede who called before Van Klinken raised to 15,000. Kuerschner passed and De Goede leant forward to examine Van Klinken’s stack. He had 40,000 to his own 120,000. He made it simple. “I’m all-in.”

Van Klinken raised his eyebrows, leaned back in his chair and looked at his card like a man who’d left his reading glasses at home. “Call.”

De Goede showed J♣ Jâ™  to Van Klinken’s 5♦ 5â™  . The turn 4♥ and river 6â™  sent the chips to Van Klinken, who stacked up more than 110,000. De Goede slipped down to about half that, tapping the victor on the shoulder. — SB

5.56pm: De Wolfe done
Roland de Wolfe will not be adding to his EPT Dublin title here in London. Out. — RD

5.52pm: Demidov exhilarated by the action…
Ivan Demidov looks like he’s been having some long nights. The Russian Team PokerStars Pro can barely keep his eyes open, which may or may not be some huge con to disguise an aggressive three-betting range. Either way he’s up to 55,000 after busting Tristan Clemencon with A♣ Q♣ to Aâ™  10♦ which went all-in before the flop. — RD

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Ivan Demidov: “I’ve busted someone?”

5.45pm: Channing hard to reach
Neil Channing has been at one of those hard to reach tables tucked in just behind the TV table. A couple of surreptitious elbows and shoulder barges later and we were through to his table just in time to see him fail to defend his big blind. Mr Channing, you have let us down. — RD

5.40pm: A course of Kyriacou
There’s a body language seminar taking place on the third floor of the Hilton Metropole this afternoon. Christopher Kyriacou did not attend. Instead he’s offering a course in the spoken kind on table 20, an obligatory audio course that starts when he arrives and ends, or will end, when he leaves.

On a flop of J♠ 9♣ 4♠ Jeff Duval checked to Jimmy Ostensson.

“You have to bet,” said Kyriacou. “You have to bet. Check, man, check man.”

Kyriacou was intent that Ostensson should either check or bet, which is also in line with the rules of the game. Ostensson bet 2,450.

“You don’t listen,” said Kyriacou, turning to me. “Write that down. I told him, he didn’t listen.”

I wrote it down and tried to look busy. The action by now was back on Duvall who raised, getting an immediate fold out of Ostensson.

“I told you, I’m from London,” said Kyriacou, unintentionally giving his accent a touch of the Van Dyke. “I know, listen…”

Everyone listened. They didn’t really have much choice. — SB

5.30pm: Is that a double-up? Joep is it
Team PokerStars Pro Joep van den Bijgaart has doubled-up to 36,000 after fading an opponent’s flush draw. He raised to 700 from the button and was called by the BB to go to a 9♣ 6♣ 5♣ flop. The BB checked to face a 1,300 bet that he raised to 6,000. The Dutchman quickly went all-in for 16,350 and was called. Show down:

Van den Bijgaart: 9â™  6â™ 
Big blind: K♣ 4♦

The 6â™  6♦ turn and river only improved Van den Bijgaart’s hand to a full house and a full double-up. — MC

5.20pm: Collopy passes the blame
Jim Collopy had just reseated himself next to Matt Marafioti with a crash. A plate next to the table was tipped over sending cutlery skittering across the floor. Collopy instantly pointed at Marafioti who looked largely unimpressed with the beaming Collopy. — RD

5.15pm: Play begins
Setting up the TV table took a little longer to get set than usual and so the tournament clock was paused for an additional 15 minutes. This could be a long day. — RD

5pm: Level five is here
The second break of the day is over. There is a new feature table assembled for this level. We wont be able to get near but here’s the notable chip counts from that table at the moment:

Kevin MacPhee, 70,000
Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren, 47,000
Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin, 19,600
Anton Wigg, 24,400
Andrew Scott, 25,300

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Vicki Coren set for another TV appearence

PokerStars Blog reporting team at EPT London (in order of paleness) Rick Dacey and Marc Convey (rosy), Stephen Bartley (standard ginger paleness) and Simon Young (is there a colour whiter than white?) with Photos by Neil Stoddart and Mickey May.

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