Friday, 29th March 2024 06:28
Home / Uncategorized / EPT11 Malta: Geilich goes down fighting (quietly)

Ludovic_Geilich_eptmalta_HR_d3.jpgLudovic Geilich, taken yesterday, playing a short stack like the chip lead

The job was not an easy one for Ludovic Geilich this afternoon. Coming back for the final day’s play he had 33 big blinds. Not the shortest stack, but not one of the biggest either. He’d have to do something to change that, and do it fast.

You might say conditions were perfect.

Unlike yesterday, there was little conversation among the field when play started. You sense this suits Geilich. He’s no talker. Instead he lets his expression speak for him.

We got a glimpse of that in one of two hands he played today against Mike McDonald. Both players have stares that are particular to them. But while McDonald speaks of seriousness, Geilich’s says ambivalence. So when McDonald re-raised all-in pre-flop, Geilich looked as though he didn’t care about the raise, didn’t care about the clock being called, and didn’t care when his hand was declared dead when time ran out. He didn’t want to win the pot anyway.

It makes Geilich one of the more fascinating players to watch, even as a short stack. Primarily because he plays it like a big stack, staring down bigger opponents with that sleepy menace of his, until they think twice.

At least it worked some of the time.

When Marc Etienne McLaughlin opened from under the gun, and David Peters called next to him, the action reached Geilich in the big blind holding K♥ 9♥ . He was sitting with about 400,000 but called to see a 5♥ Q♠ 10♥ flop.

First to act, he looked at the board with his head titled to one side slightly, almost suspiciously, as though he didn’t trust the flop. There seemed only one logical thing he would do, and he did it, moving all-in to chase a flush with the last of his chips. McLaughlin declined, but Peters called, flipping over K♣ Q♣ .

Geilich’s chips looked meagre in comparison, and weren’t stacked in 20s. There was a pause as the dealer recounted to check how much it was for Peters to match, a last act of resistance from Geilich who left her to it, not prepared to go easily.

The turn came another ten, and the river the Q♥ . But while that made Geilich a flush, it made Peters a full house. Geilich’s rear guard offensive was at an end.

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Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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