Thursday, 28th March 2024 14:31
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Snowfest: Day 1A, levels 3 and 4 live updates (150-300)
ept-thumb-promo.jpg

6.40pm: Fireworks
We were treated to a fireworks display at the PokerStars welcome party last night, but there were no more oohs and aahs than at Marijan Tomaskovic’s table a few minutes ago. Tomaskovic had rocketed into an early chip lead today, but has been going backwards since then. Here’s how the most recent chunk left his stack.

Jan Veit opened pre-flop, Tomaskovic raised, Veit moved all in and Tomaskovic called. It was about 20,000 in total. Veit showed A♠ J♦ and Tomaskovic 10♠ 10♦ .

The Croatian must have loved the flop, which came: 10♣ 6â™  4♦ . “Oooooh,” went the three or four people watching. The first “Aaaah” came on the Q♥ turn, and the Kâ™  river brought another round of both – although Tomaskovic’s was closer to “Aaaaarggh” as his opponent hit the runner-runner straight. — HS

ept_snowfest_fireworks.JPG

6.35pm: That does tend to win
Daniel Negreanu, Thomas Christensen and Fabian Gentile checked a 4♣ A♦ 6â™  flop. Christensen bet 1,500 on the Kâ™  turn and got two calls. On the 4â™  river he moved all in for 11,300 and Gentile made a call before Negreanu folded. Christensen tabled 4♥ 4♦ for quads. — SY

6.20pm: Russian leader
The seat once occupied by Thomas Bichon has been transformed from doom to boom. Although its occupant was absent, there was a stack of 140,000 in front of it, and Jeff Sarwer was on hand to explain how the Russian owner had been hitting hand after hand to get the stack to that level. The latest victim was Wesley Pantling.

Half the field, including that table, is now on a break for dinner. So we’ll have to wait another 60 minutes to discover who all those chips belong to. He’s our chip leader, whatever his name is. — HS

6.15pm: Terrorising Waterman
Santiago Terrazas is running low on chips and is looking for spots to get them in. Dennis Waterman raises to 800 under the gun and the Spaniard wastes no time in getting his chips across the line. The action folds back to the American who eventually folds deeming the additional 6275 too much to much heat for his hand.
— RD

6.05pm: Set over set, goddamnit
Marion Nedellec made it 800 and got called by Meike Busch before Henri Kasper made it 3,500. Both called. All three checked the J♦ A♥ 5♦ flop, but on the 10♥ turn Nedellec moved all in for 13,925. Busch called quickly but Kasper had seen enough, folding Q♠ Q♦ face up.

Nedellec turned over Jâ™  J♣ for the set, which caused a yelp and a “godddamnit” from Busch as she turned over 10♦ 10♣ for the smaller set. Nedellec now has 39,000. — SY

6pm: Mattern back with a bang
Arnaud Mattern’s day had been going downhill faster than the folks on the slopes outside. He was down to just 3,600 at one point, but has now spun it back up to around 29,000 – about his starting stack.

He’d got himself up to around 14,530 and then doubled up with A♣ K♣ against David Gomez, a PokerStars qualifier from Spain. They were all-in before the flop, and the board ran a Mattern-friendly Kâ™  5♥ 2â™  6♣ 10♥ . — SY

5.55pm: Tables breaking
One end of the tournament floor has large windows looking over onto the mountains – a beautiful backdrop to take in if any of the players looked up from their cards at any point – while the other end is emptying as table breakages take effect. There are 247 players left from the starting 269 with an increasing number of players looking to three-bet shove their chips in. — RD

5.50pm: Hougaard takes on Kravchenko, wins
Jesper Hougaard and Alex Kravchenko just got involved, with Hougaard coming out on top. The Dane made it 500 from the hijack and Kravchenko three-bet to 1,525. Hougaard called. It was just the two of them, and the flop came K♣ 8♥ 6♣ , which Hougaard checked. Kravchenko bet 1,525 and Hougaard called, bringing a 2â™  on the turn. They both checked this one, but then Hougaard’s bet of 4,425 on the 3♥ river was good for it. — HS

alex_kravchenko_snowfest_day1.jpg

Alex Kravchenko

5.45pm: Thorsson moves in
Sebastien Bidinger bet 2,700 at a flop of Q♦ J♥ 5♣ , about half the pot. Kristoffer Thorsson moved all in for about 14,700 more – and Bidinger thought better of it. He folded. Thorsson, the star of the recent Nordic Poker Awards, hasn’t had his best day of poker so far, but is still breathing well. — HS

5.40pm: De Melo metes out more
Stephen Chidwick bet 1,500 at a flop of 4♦ 5â™  3♥ and picked up a call to his left. Fatima De Melo, also with cards, made it 5,500 and the other two scurried out. De Melo has about 26,000 at the moment, which is plenty. She might also have some insider knowledge of Chidwick: Lex Veldhuis, who has no doubt encountered Chidwick at the online tables, is a good friend of De Melo’s. –HS

5.35pm: McFadgen not budging
UKIPT Galway 5th place finisher Michael McFadgen must have played a pot at some point today but it’s certainly not been at any time where we’ve been nearby. The Canadian is only a little under the 30,000 starting stack. Playing a patience game or just getting dealt rags? — RD

LEVEL UP. BLINDS NOW 150-300


5.30pm: The baby faced assassin strikes again
Santiago Terrazas is not a fan of Joni Jouhkimainen who is sat directly to his left. The young Finn, who we saw mixing it up with 5â™  8â™  earlier in the day, just took a huge chunk from the Spaniard with a flopped boat. Terrazas is down to 10,700 and Jouhkimainen is cruising on some 60,000. — RD

5.25pm: Max Pescatori enters the arena
We’re already in level three, but the Italian has only just turned up to take his seat. One problem, he had no chips. “Where are my chips?” he asked the dealer. The floorman was called and he trotted off to fetch Pescatori’s stack, which in the first few levels had been blinded down to around 27,000. — SY

5.20pm: Diamonds are Kastle’s best friend
Casey Kastle was all in for his last 11,000 with A♦ A♥ against Nouri Malik’s Jâ™  J♥ on an intriguing 7♦ 3♦ J♦ flop. While Malik was ahead with the set, he had to fade another diamond or one of the remaining two aces. But the turn was 6♦ to make Kastle’s flush, and the river 9♦ to double him up to 22,000. Malik is down to just a thousand or so. — SY

5.15pm: Dale pulls one back
Matt Dale has finally got his stack moving in the right direction knocking his opponent off the pot with a is-it-a-bluff or is-it-for-value bet on the river of a 7♥ J♠ 2♠ 4♥ K♠ board. Dale is back up to 24,000.

5.05pm: Lykov likes it
Max Lykov has close to 60,000, most recently taking a nibble from his neighbour, Antonio Scalzi. They each had about 1,700 in pre-flop and then they saw 6♥ 4♣ 5â™  . Scalzi checked and Lykov bet 2,250. Call. The turn was 2â™  and this time Scalzi check-called Lykov’s 4,100 bet, bringing a 2♣ river. Scalzi checked again and Lykov fired 9,175, which was enough to put Scalzi deep into the tank. After a clock was called, Scalzi folded, retaining a stack of about 33,000.

5pm: Mattern rises from the mat
Arnaud Mattern is back from the brink, winning with K♣ Q♥ against Elin Sjolander’s A♦ J♦ , all in pre-flop. “I’m shocked too,” Mattern said as the flop came with both a king and a queen. “It was almost a coin-flip and I know I’m not supposed to win those.”

His last 3,5000 was doubled by Sjolander, and there was the additional few chips of a couple of limpers, so Mattern has about 8,000 now. — HS

4.55pm: Mattern shaking his head
Poor old French Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern. Not only is he down to his bare bones (around 3500 from a starting 30,000) but he’s having to watch some terrible poker at his table. Players are calling big raises on dry flops with 3rd pair while others are checking down sets. Mattern is just shaking his head. It’s like being invited to a soft cash game only to realise you’ve left your bank card at home. — RD

4.45pm: It’s a video
Here’s the video start to the day…

4.40pm: This is going to be big
As the players file back from their first break of the day, official figures show 270 players registered to play today. With the usual higher turnout expected tomorrow, we may well be approaching a total field of 600.

Those we have lost already include Team PokerStars Pros Thomas Bichon, Marcin Horecki and Chad Brown. — SY

ept_snowfest_scene.JPG

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Austria: Rick “rubbish at Suffolk Poker” Dacey, Howard Swains and Simon Young

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app