Friday, 29th March 2024 11:11
Home / Uncategorized / EPT10 London: A round on the “other” table

Some people are never happy. You’ll but them a bar of Dairy Milk and they’ll say they like dark chocolate. You’ll shout them a pint and they’ll spill it in their laps. These are the people who sit in front of their computer and watch EPT Live on Day 5 from London and complain that they are not getting to see what’s going on on the other table, the one away from the studio lights.

For those people — and for the less impolite, who just like poker — here’s one from our occasional “A Round With…” series, taking a forensic examination of one orbit of action from the outer of the two tables here at EPT London. You can see everything from the main table on our award-winning webcast, so here’s our award-ignoring text version.

The orbit in question took place with seven players over there, with the following approximate stacks:

Seat 1 – empty
Seat 2 – Stefan Vagner, Slovakia, 1,200,000
Seat 3 – Nicolau Villa-Lobos, Brazil, 450,000
Seat 4 – Robin Ylitalo, Sweden, 1,900,000
Seat 5 – Javier Etayo, Spain, 1,600,000
Seat 6 – Jan Olav Sjavik, Sweden, 1,100,000
Seat 7 – Senh Ung, UK, 450,000
Seat 8 – Jeff Rossiter, Australia, 1,800,000

They were in level 24 with blinds at 12,000/24,000 and a 3,000 ante.

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The secondary feature table at EPT London (pictured before Neophytos Neophytou was eliminated from seat one)

Hand one – button with Jeff Rossiter
Folded to Jan Sjavik in the hijack, he raised to 48,000 with two gold chips, worth 25,000 apiece. Senh Ung folded but Rossiter, who has spent many months this year playing the big cash games in Macau, doesn’t give up a button without a fight. He three bet; Sjavik called after the blinds got out the way.

The dealer pulled in the chips and prepared to deal the flop as Rossiter took another peek at his cards. He then glanced at the J♥ 10♠ A♣ flop, waited until Sjavik tapped the table, and tapped it right back. The turn came Q♠ and both players checked again. This was rapidly fizzling out. The 2♥ came on the river, and they both checked again.

Sjavik tabled 3♠ 3♥ with not much belief that he had the best hand. Rossiter flipped over his Q♥ 9♥ and took it down.

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Jeff Rossiter, foreground, and Senh Ung

On the rail, Nik Persaud and Paul Newey chatted about the ownership of some multi-million dollar companies, and exchanged stories about losing with aces in the High Roller event. Persaud lost with the bullets this morning, and Newey said he lost two buy ins within a single orbit, both times having aces cracked. The talk of multi-million dollar company ownership brought some solace, it seemed.

Hand two – button with Stefan Vagner
It was folded around to Jeff Rossiter in the cut-off and with metronomic precision, he raised to 48,000. Button, small blind and big blind all folded. Two out of two for Rossiter.

Hand three – button with Nicolau Villa-Lobos
Persaud and Newey drifted away, offering their good luck to Senh Ung before they left. Ung clearly has some supporters in high places, even if his chip stack was one of the shortest in the room.

The action was folded to Rossiter in the hijack and he raised again, this time to 48,000. But he wasn’t getting this one through. Javier Etayo called from the big blind. Both players checked the 6♦ 2♦ 3♣ flop and they saw a Aâ™  turn. Etayo checked, Rossiter bet 67,000, a delayed continuation bet, and Etayo called.

The Q♠ came on the river and both players checked. Etayo tabled 6♥ 7♣ and the flopped pair of sixes was too good for Rossiter. He mucked.

Hand four – button with Robin Ylitalo
This one made it all the way round to Robin Ylitalo on the button and he opened the pot, making it 52,000. “Four bets fifty two thousand,” whispered the dealer, who is also mic-ed up and provides all the crucial information to the TV loggers. He does so under his breath, like a late night talk radio DJ presenting the most boring/least religiously troubling graveyard slot ever broadcast.

Jan Sjavik called in the big blind, taking them to a flop of Kâ™  4â™  Aâ™  and Sjavik checked. “Four bets forty-six thousand,” whispered the dealer, describing Ylitalo’s continuation bet in similar tones. “And now we hear from Eric in Rathole Haven who thinks serving spicy food in our elementary schools means the terrorists have won,” he didn’t add.

Sjavik called. The turn was Qâ™  and Sjavik checked again, returning the action to Ylitalo. His hands were now shaking quite significantly as he fumbled for a tower of blue chips, worth 100,000. He capped the blue chips with four reds, worth 1,000 each, and slid out a bet of 104,000.

By this stage, the small army of camera operators and sound recordists had stepped forward to capture the action. There are three each of them, plus a couple of floor producers recording what happens either for those EPT Live ingrates or the television broadcast. This had the makings of a significant pot, especially when Sjavik called, and it shook them from their slumber.

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From left to right: Robin Ylital, Javier Etayo and Jan Olav Sjavik

The 7♦ came on the river and Sjavik checked for a third time. This time, Ylitalo bet 218,000, using four gold, three blue and three red chips. The boom camera swung over head just in time to watch Sjavik fold and us all wonder what the fuss was about.

Hand five: Button with Javier Etayo
Nicolau Villa-Lobos opened this one from the hijack, making it 51,000 and perhaps pointedly targeting the other small stack at the table, in front of Senh Ung in the big blind. Ung called, however, and it was the two shorties only who were involved.

The flop came J♠ 6♦ 5♠ , which they both checked. The K♥ came on the turn and Ung bet 27,000, which Villa-Lobos called, his head propped on his fist, peering through straggly hair at his opponent.

The 10♣ came on the river and after they both checked, Ung tabled 10♠ 9♠ with a flourish that intimated he thought he had now won the hand. He was right. Villa-Lobos mucked.

Hand six: Button with Jan Sjavik
This one was folded around to the cut off, from where Javier Etayo opened to 52,000. Only Jeff Rossiter (remember him?) called from the big blind and took a flop of A♣ A♥ 10♦ , which he checked. Etayo bet 36,000 and Rossiter folded.

Hand seven: Button with Senh Ung
Stevie Chidwick arrived on the rail, having busted the High Roller and killing some time before the 8-Game event. Kevin MacPhee also showed up, insisting they go “change up a bunch of money and get some Nando’s”, the American player having discovered, and grown quickly addicted, to England’s premier chicken outlet.

Chidwick began discussing rock climbing with Jeff Rossiter, who folded his hand and came over to the rail. Rossiter said he has just taken up climbing and suggested they try to find somewhere in Paris next week, where they will be playing the World Series of Poker Europe. It was, apparently, a date.

Back at the table, Robin Ylitalo raised to 52,000 from early position, but didn’t get much respect. Jan Sjavik called from the cut off, as did Senh Ung on the button and Stefan Vagner in the big blind. It took four of them to a flop of 8♦ Qâ™  4♥ .

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Stefan Vagner

Vagner checked and Ylitalo bet 67,000. This time it was good enough as three quick folds followed.

That was the end of our orbit, during which the rich (Ylitalo, Rossiter) got richer and the poor (Villa-Lobos) got poorer. Indeed, Villa-Lobos would not last another orbit. He lost a huge pot to Ung, when the short stacks both found big pocket pairs and Villa-Lobos’s tens were smaller than Ung’s kings. The Brazilian bust soon after.

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Nicolau Villa-Lobos, busted in 13th

Follow all the action from the EPT London main event on the EPT London Main Event page, with chip counts and hand-by-hand reporting. Follow the High Roller event on the High Roller page. EPT Live is at EPT Live.

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