Thursday, 28th March 2024 09:54
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Vilamoura: Levels 3 and 4 updates
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Updates from levels three and four of EPT Vilamoura, brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The EPT tournament structure can be found on the EPT tournament structure page.

Blinds:
Level 3: 100-200
Level 4: 150-300

4.40pm: That’s that
And with that, the level ends. There’s a 15 minute tournament break.

Pass the time by watching this interview with Bertrand Grospellier, better known as ElkY…


Watch EPT6 Vilamoura Day 1A Elky Interview on PokerStars.tv

4.35pm: Matt’s the way to do it
PokerStars qualifier Matt Johns is up to 49,000. He just picked up another nice pot by betting out 8,000 with the board showing Q♥ J♥ 6♠ 5♦ 5♥ , forcing a reluctant fold from Guillaume de la Gorce from France.

4.30pm: Flush wins
Andre Dias and Andrew Rawnsley had around 10,000 in the middle and five cards were out: 10â™  Q♣ 3â™  4♣ 6â™  . Dias bet 7,200, which put Rawnsley to the test. Eventually the British PokerStars qualifier called and Dias flipped Jâ™  Qâ™  . “Queen high flush,” explained the dealer. “Nice hand,” said Rawnsley, who mucked.

4.20pm: King Barbosa
Joao Barbosa and three other players, including Dragan Galic, saw a 3♣ 5♥ J♠ flop. The under-the-gun player led for 1,800 and was called by Barbosa and the big blind player. Galic folded from the button and stood up and whispered to me he folded J♦ 10♦ . The turn came down 9♣ and once again the initiative was with the UTG player who made it 5,600 to go this time and once again was called by his now two opponents. All three decided to check the 8♥ river and Barbosa took the healthily sized pot with K♥ K♦ as both his foes folded. The local lad has 74,000 now.

4.15pm: Mattern chipping up
Arnaud Mattern is up to around 48,000, most recently picking up about 6,000 from this hand: Mihai Manole raised to 750 from early position, which was called by both Günter Fortkord and Mattern. That’s when Vincentius van Rooijen raised from the button, making it 3,250, to which only Mattern was amenable. They went to a 7â™  10♥ 8♣ flop, which they both checked, but Mattern bet 4,225 on the 10♣ turn. Van Rooijen folded.

4.10pm: It started with a Boatman
Barny Boatman limped under-the-gun before Antonio Abreu made it 800 in seat one. The brilliantly named Haykel Cherif Vidal called in seat three, as did Finnish player Janne Raevaara in the big blind. Boatman did the same and they all got a flop: A♥ 3♦ K♦ . Stand by for some checking. Boatman checked, Abreu checked, Vidal checked, Raevaara checked. The turn: 3♠ . Boatman checked, Abreu checked, Vidal checked Raevaara checked. Still with me? The river: 6♣ . Boatman checked, Abreu checked, no wait, he bet 1,000. That changed everything. Vidal folded, Raevaara folded, Boatman folded. End of story.

4.02pm: May the force be with you
Maria “May” Maceiras – sister of Spanish Team Pro Juan – doubled up with A♥ J♥ when her flush draw on the flop missed – but the ace landed on the river to beat her opponent’s Q♣ Qâ™  . She’s up to 38,000.

4.01pm: Brown ups
Chad Brown took a nice pot off Antoanell Judet. PokerStars qualifier Dominykas Karmazinas had called under the gun, Brown came along for the ride, but Judet raised to 2,000 from the small blind. Only Brown called.

The flop came 5♣ 3♦ Q♣ , Judet bet 1,500, Brown raised to 3,000 Judet raised to 11,000, Brown called (still with me?). On the 7♣ river Brown bet 10,000 – and that was enough to force the Romanian to fold.

4.00pm: Slotboomed
Rolf Slotboom is struggling a bit on 12,000 chips and is playing a bit tricky to try and get back in the hunt. He limped from under-the-gun and then faced a raise to 800 from the button and a flat call from the big blind. A re-raise up to 3,400 from Slotboom soon put both players in their place though as they folded.

3.50pm: Stacked
There are a couple of big stacks over on table seven, where Dennis Boekel and Ljubomir Josipovic have approximately 70,000 and 75,000 approximately. Boekel took a decent pot from Ludovic Lacay, (see 2pm update in the last level post) and Josipovic recently finished him off. The details of the elimination were sketchy, but Lacay was spotted scampering out the door with two face cards exposed in front of him.

Another player with chip is Goncalo Santos, who is sitting with about 78,000.

3.45pm: Done by Deeb
Shaun Deeb is up to 70,000 thanks to the earlier duel with Mike McDonald. He’s adding more. After three other players at his table tried to get involved in a hand pre-flop before Deeb took the lot with a re-raise. A similar pattern developed a hand or two later, Deeb coming along with a raise as if to put an end to this nonsense. Up again.

3.40pm: Lucky no flush came
Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown limped in from mid position and saw a A♥ Q♦ 6♥ flop with both the blinds players. The big blind, who seemingly likes to dwell even when he’s checking, led for 350 and then slowly called Brown’s raise to 1,000. The small blind moved out of the way to leave the two remaining players to check through the Qâ™  turn and 6♦ river. Both didn’t want to show their hands but did after a prompt from the dealer they both revealed missed flush draws with 10♥ 7♥ for Brown and 8♥ 9♥ for the big blind. The big blind, no doubt, will be the happier of the two players with the chopped pot.

3.32pm: Level Four has just begun

3.30pm: All this in pictures
The video blog team have been out and about, setting up day 1a like this:


Watch EPT6 Vilamoura Day 1A Intro on PokerStars.tv

3.25pm: Barbosa on the up
Three players – Carlos Oliveira, Jason Lavallee and Joao Barbosa – see a flop of A♣ 3♦ 6♦ . They all check and the turn comes 9♥ . Lavallee checks, but Oliveira bets 1,050, which Barbosa calls. Lavallee gives up and the two remaining see an Aâ™  river. Oliveira now checks and Barbosa bets 2,600, which Oliveira calls. Barbosa tables A♦ Q♥ and it’s good.

3.20pm: Chad mucks
Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown was in the big blind and faced a 550 bet from PokerStars qualifier Antoanell Judet from Romania. Call. The flop came 4♥ K♥ Q♦ , and Brown checked then called the 625 bet from Judet. Both checked the 6♥ turn, but when Judet bet 1,025 on the 7♥ river, Brown got out of the way.

As we have mentioned, local laws here mean we are forbidden from taking photographs inside the tournament area. However, as luck would have it, the PokerStars Blog team are genius at MS Paint, and we have reproduced the above hand for you…

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3.18pm: The amazing Karmazinas
Antonio Palma opened for 1,200 on the button after Lithuanian PokerStars qualifier Dominykas Karmazinas and Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown had limped. They both called the raise for a flop of K♠ 2♦ 9♥ . Karmazinas checked, so did Brown but Palma was at it again, 1,525 this time. Again Karmazinas called and so too Brown for a 5♠ turn card. The pattern continued, Karmazinas and Brown checked to Palma who bet again, 6,500 this time. But in a change to the schedule Karmazinas now paused, asking Brown to let him see how much he had before announcing raise all-in. That did it. Two lightening folds and the Karmazinas scooped the pot.

3.05pm: Active Mercier
Jason Mercier currently sits on around 40,000 in chips and he seemingly got to this position by involved in every single pot. Okay so that might be an exaggeration but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say. Of the three hands in a row I just witnessed he only managed to win one though. Twice he was the aggressor pre-flop but he was raised out of the pot on both occasions when he c-betted on the flop. The third hand saw him call a raise pre flop and then take the pot away with a flop bet. Are his opponent’s wising up to him or does he have them where he wants? Time will soon tell us.

2.55pm: A Caribbean reunion
It takes a special kind of poker nerd to know this – hello! – but there’s a PCA 2008 final table reunion going on over at table one in Vilamoura, where Ricky Fohrenbach sits opposite Craig Hopkins. Just recently, Fohrenbach made it 550 from mid position and Alexey Yuzikov called from the button. Hopkins folded his big blind. The flop came 2♥ 9♦ 4♥ and that was worth 800 from each of Fohrenbach and Yuzikov. They checked the 10â™  turn and they checked the 10♥ river. Fohrenbach showed Q♣ Qâ™  , which was good.

2.50pm: The clock’s stopped for McDonald
Shaun Deeb and Mike McDonald were drawn next to each other and have been nattering all day. But the conversation stopped while they played out a big pot that ended the Canadian’s tournament.

The action folded around to Deeb in the small blind. He completed before calling McDonald’s raise up to 625. They saw a J♦ A♥ 9♣ flop. Deeb then check-raised McDonald’s 700 bet up to 2,025 before facing a min re-raise to 3,325. His response was to put McDonald all in and the call quickly came with a A♦ Q♦ that was ahead of Deeb’s drawing Qâ™  10♦ . The turn came 9♥ but the river came 8♦ to make Deeb’s straight to bust his opponent.

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Shaun Deeb

Deeb chip leading with 78,000 now.

2.40pm: Ins and outs
The tournament board is showing 136 players started today, and two of them are out. Ah, make that three. Mike “Timex” McDonald was recently spotted disappearing towards the door, a shout of “Seat open!” ringing in his ears. Details are imminent: PC Convey was there.

2.30pm: Into level three
Registration for today officially closed at the end of the last level, which manes the full numbers from the day will be with us soon. Only one player has been seen heading to the door so far – his shame will be saved a naming – but expect many many more to follow him as this afternoon fades into evening.

As mentioned previously, photography is forbidden inside the casino here in Vilamoura. But no one said anything about outside…

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