Friday, 29th March 2024 04:48
Home / Uncategorized / EPT San Remo: Day 2, level 11 live updates (800-1,600, 200 ante)
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BREAK TIME
Level 2 is done and dusted. We’re a third of the way through the day already. 15 minute break for one and all.

3.15pm: Ruthenberg doubles
Not sure how it happened or who it was against as his opponent’s cards had already been mucked. The board was out and low and Team PokerStars Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg had pocket queens in front of him. The former EPT champ is now up to 95,000. –MC

3.10pm: We lose Lellouche
Anthony Lellouche is another recent casualty. He was heads-up with Erik Tamm of Sweden and the turn was already out to leave a 3♦ 8â™  9♦ Jâ™  board. The Frenchman bet 20,500 (about a third of his stack) before Tamm put him all-in. He called-off with 10♦ 6♦ and was up against J♣ 10♣ . His straight and flush draw missed on the 9♥ river. –MC

3.05pm: De Meulder watch
Mattias De Meulder has been moved to the right of Stefano Brega, one of the overnight chip leaders. Brega isn’t making it easy for De Meulder, but in a recent scrap at least, it was the Team PokerStars who came out on top.

It looked as though De Meulder had raised his button and Brega had called from the small blind. Then they had somehow got to the turn with the following four cards exposed: J♠ 5♠ 6♥ 5♣ . Brega checked, De Meulder bet 4,600 and Brega now raised to 15,100.

The 8♣ came on the river and Brega led for 22,000. De Meulder took a moment then called. Brega was reluctant to show, but was forced to table 9♥ 10♣ . De Meulder showed J♣ Qâ™  and said: “You give me a headache, man.”

Yep, and some chips. — HS

3pm: Not much, a little less, a bit more
Carla Solinas made it 3,700 before Ilya Gorodetskiy, on her immediate left, raised to 9,600 in the cut off. Solinas looked at Gorodetskiy, but he’s used to cold hard stares – he’s Russian – and ignored Solinas’s silent inquisition until she folded. He later led me to believe he didn’t have very much.

At the other end of the room Humberto Brenes was also folding, this time after making it 4,000 to go pre-flop only to be raised by Frank Rusnak who made it 13,400. Brenes asked something of 0303 but just as he did on day one, Rusnak said nothing.

Arnaud Mattern had no reason to say anything either when he took the last of the chips from Meyer Dieke who moved all-in for 11,000 pre-flop with K♥ 9♦ . Mattern called with A♣ Jâ™  and a blank board sent his stack up to 85,000. – SB.

2.57pm: Video
Here’s the video for the start of the day…

2.55pm: Shark in calm waters
Team PokerStars Pros Humberto Brenes (Costa Rica) and Juan Manuel Pastor (Spain) share the same table, and it’s Brenes (65,000) having the better of it against Pastor (41,000).

But on this one the Shark was reeled in. Brenes opened for 4,000 from cut off only for the Russian Voitto Rintala to re-raise to 10,000 from the small blind. It was folded back to Brenes who asked for a count of Rintala’s remaining stack. Brenes had him covered, but after checking back at his own cards he decided not to take the bait.– SY

2.50pm: Weird hand
You get to see many, many hands during the course of the day, but sometimes one or two leave you scratching your head. On this one Paul Berende, a PokerStars qualifier from Holland, opened for 3,500 and Federico Cipollini called from the seat to his left.

They saw a 5♦ A♥ 4â™  flop and Berende check-called Cipollini’s 5,500 bet. Both then checked the 6♦ turn, then on the Q♦ river Berende seized the aggression and bet 15,500. Cipollini, from Italy, made only the call.

Berende: A♦ Q♣
Cipollini: J♦ 9♦

So Cipollini had made the flush on the river, and only called. “Wow,” said Berende as he watched his chips move to the man next door.– SY

2.45pm: Ainsworth struggling
Jude Ainsworth has lost a large chunk of his chips in the early running and now sits behind only 41,000. On this one he saw a J♥ Q♣ 3â™  flop with Alfonso Illiano, but was forced to fold when the Italian bet 12,100.– SY

2.40pm: Still forcing it
Michael Eerhart, the overnight chip leader, has had a few accidents today and now sits on around 200,000 (about 50,000 less than he had at noon). But he’s still keeping up the pressure at his table, which includes Jason Mercier.

First Eerhart made it 4,000 pre-flop and got two callers. Both then folded when Eerhart bet another 4,000 at the J♠ 5♠ 8♦ flop.

On the next hand Eerhart opened for 4,000 again and this time Mario Ripepi called. On the 9♦ 2♥ 3â™  flop Eerhart checked then called Ripepi’s 8,000. Both then checked the 7â™  turn. On the Q♥ river Eerhart now bet 11,500. After a long dwell Ripepi folded. — SY

2.37pm: Naujoks departs
Sandra Naujoks is the latest Team Pro, and former EPT winner, to make the walk. She was seen heading out the door, leaving her 30,000 chips in the middle behind K♣ Q♣ . There was also a A♣ Q♦ exposed and a board of A♥ 6♦ 7â™  5♥ Jâ™  . So that’s that for Naujoks. — HS

2.35pm: Hedlund warming up
I was walking past Peter Hedlund’s table and he spotted me watching him and said “Steady steady so far” referring to is stack.

I responded with “I was actually thinking you are very quiet today.”

“Don’t worry” he said “I have a beer down here” while he pointed to the floor between his legs.

Ten minutes later Hedlund walked past me with a glass of what looked like cola and said “Swedish vodka!”

It wont be long before the Peter Hedlund show gets fully underway. -MC

2.30pm: Moreira de Melo’s stack getting Fatima
Fatima Moreira de Melo’s stack is up to 75,000 after getting two streets of value with pocket tens. She raised to 4,000 from early position and was only called by Giuseppe Pantaleo in the small blind to go a 7♦ 2♦ 3â™  flop. Pantaleo check-called a 6,000 bet here and a 12,000 bet on the 3♥ turn. The river was checked through and Moreira de Melo opened her tens and took the pot as her opponent folded. -MC

2.25pm: Squeeeeeeeze. Oh.
While most of us in the press room can just about manage first-level poker thinking, the majority of the best players are already thinking on the seventh or eighth planes. It wasn’t all that long ago that the “squeeze play” made its debut, but these days you see them pretty much every round, so much so that other players are deliberately teeing up squeeze plays with monsters, else calling them extremely lightly themselves.

The Finnish player Joni Jouhkimainen has probably seen a few of these – and just picked off Alexey Yuzikov with great aplomb. Jouhkimainen raised to 3,800 from mid position and Riccardo Marlin called from the button. That teed up Yuzikov for a squeeze from the big blind, and he moved in for 37,100 more.

Jouhkimainen didn’t think all that long before calling for about a quarter of his stack. Marlin got out the way and it was the original raiser against the squeezer, heads up.

Five years ago, Jouhkimainen’s A♥ 8♣ might have been considered a bit light for a pre-flop raise, let alone the call of an all in. But Yuzikov was forced to table 7♣ 4â™  for a squeeze gone awry. The board ran 6♦ 3♣ 3♦ 8â™  6♥ and the Finn moved up close to 200,000, while Yukikov headed for home. — HS

2.15pm: Scott frozen out
APPT regular Andrew Scott is out, victim of a pair of jacks which saw off his own pocket fives. Nothing hit the board to save Scott, making his first EPT a two day affair, and promoting Domenico Ficarra, the victor, to bang the table in delight. – SB.

2.05pm: How many players do you reckon can bust in the first level?
The answer to that is 122. Yep, 122 in 75 minutes. They love their crazy play here in Italy.

One player not to bust was Arnaud Mattern. He doubled up with a flopped set of queens, fading an opponent’s flush draw. The Team PokerStars from from France is up to 82,000 at the break. Good going Arnaud.

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Arnaud Mattern

2pm: On we go into level 11
After a classically frantic opening level of day two, we now enter the relative calm of level 11. (“Relative” is a key word there; it’s still bonkers.) That past level claimed the scalps of Dario Minieri, Lex Velduis, Andre Akkari and, right at the death, Pieter de Korver. The latter perished with pocket queens in a hand that was more than just a regular coin flip. Dennis Waterman raised under-the-gun, Fabrizio Ascari shoved and De Korver woke up with those queens in the small blind. He shoved and that left Waterman anguished. Eventually he folded his own pocket queens face up, leaving De Korver up against Ascari’s ace-king but with very few outs should he need to improve. A king on the flop left De Korver in dire straits – he never caught up.

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Andre Akkari: the smile didn’t last long. He’s out

PokerStars Blog reporting team (in order of elbows jabbed into ribs): Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young (4,331 each)

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