Thursday, 28th March 2024 21:23
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Madrid High Roller: Day 1, level 5, 6, 7 & 8 updates (500-1,000, 100 ante)
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9pm: Selbst busts at the death
Just as the last hands were being dealt, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst bust. Andrew Lichtenberger had ben 2,500 and she moved in for 13,100 total. Call. Selbst was nicely ahead with A♣ K♦ against J♠ Q♣ but the board ran Q♥ 7♦ 5♠ 10♣ 10♦ to send the NAPT double winner home empty-handed.

Play is now over for the day. I’ll have a full wrap for you shortly, and full chip counts will be with you soon.

8.50pm: Isildur1 through the murkiness
With the last four hands of the day being dealt now, we’ll be dark for a while as I dash around like an idiot trying to get chip counts. Right now, it looks as though Viktor Blom is edging the chip lead with 205,000 over Benny Spindler’s 200,000. For those interested, Tom Dwan is down to 16,000.

ElkY has had a rough couple of levels and is down to 44,000.

Once we have some accurate counts we’ll be back!

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Viktor Blom

8.25pm: Lodden pressure
Johnny Lodden was a feared online player in his day. In fairness he still is. So he must be delighted to be sitting with the newer generation of online whizzes. Tom ‘Durrr’ Dwan, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom and Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz. And it’s Lodden piling on the pressure, open-rasing for just above the minimum and meeting with minimal aggression, apart from one hand where Will Molson three-bet to take it down.

8.20pm: €525,000 to the winner
The final numbers are in and the men with calculators have worked out the prizes. With a total of 58 entries we will be paying eight places. The last paying position will get €45,000 but that shoots up to the €525,000 for first.

1 € 525,000
2 € 316,000
3 € 185,000
4 € 135,000
5 € 100,000
6 € 72,000
7 € 57,500
8 € 45,000
Total prize pool €1,435,500

8.10pm: Final level
This is the last level of the day, with blinds at 500-1,000 and a 100 ante. We have 38 players left.

8.05pm: Jacobson out
This little post is restricted to one fact only: Martin Jacobson is out.

8pm: Down to five tables
And that means we have around 40 players left from the 58 starters. We’ll be paying eight places, and we’ll have those prizes with you as soon as we can.

7.50pm: Durrr sitting with Isildur1!
It had to happen eventually, and now we finally see two legends of the online game sharing the same table in real life. But we had to wait a while. Durrr – Tom Dwan – was more than seven hours late getting here.

When he did finally turn up, he was assigned a seat to the direct left of Viktor Blom. Alas there was not even a hand played before the table was broken.

But happy days! Both Blom and Dwan were re-drawn at the same table. They are yet to lock horns, but surely it’s only a matter of time?

When Dwan arrived, his starting stack of 50,000 had been blinded down to 27,200. That’s some way short of Blom’s 140,000 – but we know these two have traded big stacks before on the virtual tables.

7.25pm: Durrr on his way
We’re told to expect Tom ‘Durrr’ Dwan in the building shortly. From his Twitter: “Gonna be about 7hrs late to ept highroller, fml lol”

7.20pm: In a Scandi sandwich
Eugene Katchalov, the new Team PokerStars Pro, is alone on a table full of Scandinavians. He sits with David Sonelin (Sweden), William Thorson (Sweden) Jens Kyllonen (Finland) Juha Helppi (Finland) and Sami Kelopuro (Finland).

As you’d expect, there’s a fair amount of action on this table. As I passed by Sonelin had open-raised to 1,900 but was then forced to fold when Helppi three-bet him to 6,400 from the small blind.

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William Thorson

7.10pm: Qualifying king holding on
Martin Jacobson, the Swede who looks certain to win this season’s EPT Online Quailfier of the Year award, is still in here but finding it a little sticky. He’s on 28,000, and wasn’t able to improve on that when he and Yevgeniyy Timoshenko checked down to chop a 6♣ K♥ 6â™  4♦ 6♦ board – 10-9 for Jacobson and 10-8 for Timoshenko.

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Martin Jacobson

7pm: Spindler tops the lot
We were a little slower in restarting the level as the green 25 chips were colored up. Once the level got under way, however, German player Benny Spindler established himself at the top of the chip counts.

He has around 150,000 despite losing a few just now to Bryn Kenney. On a 2♦ 8♦ Kâ™  flop Kenney check-called Spindler’s 3,000 bet. That slowed them both down to a check on the 9♣ turn, but on the 4♦ river Kenney fired out 7,400 and that was enough to force Spindler to fold.

Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom is not far off with 140,000.

6.45pm: Final stretch
The players are playing once again. Blinds are now creeping up, now at 400-800 with a 100 ante. Two levels to go, folks.

6.35pm: Break
Players are on a 15-minute break. We’ll be back for the final two levels shortly.

6.25pm: Reinkemeier up
Tobias Reinkemeier pulled in a nice pot. On a 3â™  Qâ™  Q♥ 8♥ board Vanessa Selbst and Sandor Demjan checked and the German, who won this event last year in Monte Carlo, bet 12,000. Both called and then all three checked the 6♦ river. Reinkemeier showed 7â™  7♥ and that was good for the pot. He’s up to 70,000.

6.20pm: Some bloke called Blom
Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom looks to be our likely current chip leader. I did not see him involved in a substantial pot, but he now has 140,000 while ElkY has slipped to 60,000. I guess that’s our answer right there.

6pm: Scrap that chip leader
McLean Karr has taken a hit to his stack, dropping to around 115,000 after tangling twice with Masa Kagawa. The first one lost him a chunk, and the second was just as expensive. The flop was 5♦ 10♥ 6♦ and Karr’s 6,000 bet was called by Kagawa. The turn was 5♥ and Karr bet another 11,750. Again Kagawa called. The river came Aâ™  and this time Karr bet 18,750 – mucking as soon as Kagawa announced call. The man from Japan declined to show.

That puts Kagawa on around 120,000 and among the chip leaders with ElkY on 130,000.

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ElkY and Viktor Blom

5.50pm: Thorson aggression
William Thorson is moving up the gears, laying out hefty bets to force opponents off hands. First he did it on a Q♥ 9♣ 10♣ 4♦ 5♠ board, and he followed it up a few hands later with a 14,000 bet on a J♥ 7♥ 7♠ flop.

5.47pm: Leaders
McLean Karr appears to be our leader right now, sitting on about 150,000. ElkY (120,000) and Sandor Demjan (100,000) are also doing well.

5.45pm: Level up
This is level 6, where blinds are now 300-600 with a 75 ante.

5.30pm: Down to six tables
As the field slims down – the clock showed 48 left a few minutes ago – some pretty meaty tables are coming together. Here’s one: Vanessa Rousso, Vanessa Selbst, Tobias Reinkemeier, Bryn Kenney, Jason Mercier and Benny Spindler. Phew.

5.20pm: Food news!
In a remarkable turn o events, the dinner break has been scrapped. Bad news for anyone who is hungry, but good news for me as my working day has now been shortened by 75 minutes. Hoorah!

5.10pm: EPT champ down
Michael Tureniec, who won EPT Copenhagen for $680,000, won’t be bagging up the cash from this High Roller event, busting to Roberto Romanello.

McLean Karr kicked it off with a raise to 1,025 which as called by Steven Kelly before Roberto Romanello bumped it up to 2,800. Now Tureniec moved all-in for around 3,800 total. It was back to Karr who raised once more to 8,700. Kelly folded but Romanello moved all-in for 49,000. Karr looked a little aghast but let his hand go.

Romanello: A♣ K♣
Tureniec: A♦ 10♦

“Oh no,” cried Karr. “I had a pair.”

But he was not regretting the fold for long… the board ran 8♥ 4♣ 3♦ Aâ™  6â™  to pair Romanello up with a better kicker than Tureniec.

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Facing the exit: Michael Tureniec

5pm: PCA champ here
Galen Hall melted many a female heart as he romped through the field to lift the PCA main event trophy (and $2.3million) back in January. He’s recently added to what is already a star-studded field at the EPT Madrid High Roller, where he sits currently with 61,000. Let’s see if the Spanish Señoritas fall for him like they did back at the Caribbean.

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Galen Hall

4.50pm: Selbst v Rousso
Just before the break Vanessa Selbst Tweeted that she took a healthy pot off Vanessa Rousso.

“Won a couple medium pots then a big one off Vanessa R where she minraises J659rT river I shove she folds. Up to 95k now.”

4.45pm: Here we go again
The break is over and we’re on the second half of the day. We still believe there will be a 75-minute dinner break after level 6. Blinds are now 200-400 with a 50 ante.

Among the big boys right now are Sami Kelopuro (120,000) and ElkY (105,000).

Meanwhile, here is a lovely photo of a fountain that adorns the front area of the Casino Gran Madrid. That’s EPT business development manager Kirsty Thompson in the fountain. This photo, and all the others on this organ today are supplied by our snapper extraordinaire Neil Stoddart.

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PokerStars Blog reporting team (in order of anything at all): Er, Simon Young

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