Friday, 29th March 2024 05:31
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Prague: Day 1b, level one and two updates
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Updates from day 1b, levels one and two of EPT Prague, brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc “The Conv” Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young.

Latest selected chip counts are on the chip count page. The EPT tournament structure can be found on the EPT tournament structure page.

Blinds:
Level 1: 50-100
Level 2: 75-150

2.15pm: Level ends
That’s the end of level two. Wouldn’t you know it? We’re already done with a quarter of the day. Players are on a 15-minute break.

2.05pm: Here from Romania
Two players who started out today had secured their seats at a satellite run at the recent PokerStars Romanian Poker Championship.

One, Marius Dunca, has already bitten the dust. Antony Lellouche had raised and Dunca called. The flop came 10♦ 9♦ 10♣ , and it was checked to Lellouche who bet 700. Call from Dunca. On the Q♠ turn, Lellouche bet 1,200, Dunca made it 3,100, Lellouche moved all in and Dunca called for his last 10,000.

Dunca: K♥ J♣ for the straight
Lellouche: 10♠ J♣ for the trips

All looked well for the Romanian, until the Q♣ on the river filled Lellouche’s boat. Dunca is out.

But another of the Romanian duo, Baloi Dan Gabriel, is still in and has quite a table for company, including as it does Dario Minieri and Alex Kravchenko!

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Baloi Dan Gabriel

2pm: Ainsworth going nicely
New Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is off to a nice start, up to 42,000. He just lost a few though on this hand: On the turned board showing 6♦ 9♥ Q♦ 6♥ the Irishman had bet 3,600, called by Fabrice Cecchini. Both checked the 10♣ river. “Do you have a pair – a pair is good,” said Ainsworth, in no mood to show his hand. Cecchini did not have a pair, and tabled Aâ™  K♣ . That was still good enough.

1.53pm: He huffed and he bluffed but couldn’t blow the house down
Dragan Galic was under-the-gun and heads-up with an opponent on the button. The turn was out and gave us a A♥ A♣ 9♦ A♦ board and Galic check-called a 1,600 bet. The river came J♥ and Gailc led for an instant 4,000 bet. The button player thought for a long while and eventually said “If you’ve got it, you’ve got it” and made the call. Galic didn’t have it as he could only muster K♣ 10â™  and that didn’t stand up well to the button’s Jâ™  3♦ for a full house.

1.45pm: Overspill
The tournament director Thomas Kremser was required this afternoon to direct some tournament players to the cash game area, such is the size of the day 1b field. But there’s no shortage of serious talent in the overspill. On one table sits Manuel Bevand, Noah Boeken and Tristan Clemencon. On another, there’s ElkY and Darus Suharto, and on a third there’s Sebastian Ruthenberg, Chaz Chatta, Sorel Mizzi and Huck Seed. Unfortunately for all the spectators, those tables will be the first to break today.

1.40pm: Time please
Michael Tureniec made a slight recovery to 1,000 chips but that’s as high as he went before being busted out.

Mr. Cantonati did the damage in that hand and he nearly got himself involved in another pot worth over 50,000. There was over 7,000 already in the pot and the turn had been dealt giving us a K♣ J♣ 10♥ 4♥ board. His opponent, Gustavo Zito, was first to act and went all in for 27,775. Cantonati thought and talked to his opponent for a few minutes before another player called the clock. Cantonati used up the full minute before folding K♥ J♥ face-up. Another player at the table assured Cantonati that Zito had ace-queen, making the Italian feel a bit better about folding such a big hand.

1.30pm: Other stars
As was fully expected, some other top talent has appeared in today’s field. Let’s hear it for:
You’ll hear him before you see him, it’s Peter Hedlund!
You’ll hear him before you see him, it’s the bracelets jangling from his wrists. It’s Vitaly Lunkin!
Seconds out, Theo Jorgensen.
Plus how about these two online big hitters: Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi.

1.10pm: Level 2 begins
One level down already.

1.075pm: Spin-dler it up
Three players saw a 2♦ Q♥ 10♥ flop before Spindler and the player in the small blind got in to a raising war. The small blind player, who had already lost half his stack, was the first to get the last of his chips in the middle and was called by Spindler with A♥ Q♣ . What did the other player have? The mighty holding of 10♣ 6♥ is the answer. It was all over when the A♣ fell on the turn and Spindler is up to 46,000.

1.05pm: Table of interest
The field is so large today – official numbers expected in an hour or so – that some tables have been set up in the area set aside for cash games. One one of them are three names to be reckoned with: Huck Seed, Sorel Mizzi and Team PokerStars Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg. Early action is slow, although the three are enjoying some early banter, much to the dismay of the other players who have the misfortune of sharing the same table. At least they’ll be getting an early table break.

1pm: Sarwer drops
Jeff Sarwer, the new kid on the block of the EPT scene who is causing much excitement with his early results, has lost a chunk in the early going. In the big blind, he called a mid-position player’s 350 bet and they saw a Kâ™  K♣ 3â™  flop. Both checked that, but on the 2â™  turn Sarwer made it 300 – call. The 3♦ river saw Sarwer’s opponent lead out with 725. He folded a deuce face up. “That’s the problem with playing a deuce,” Sarwer said. He’s down to around 20,000.

12.55pm: Early aces for Van den Berg
Thierry Van den Berg found the beloved pocket aces – Aâ™  A♣ – in the early running and won a 2,000 pot as a result. The board was a tricky-looking 7â™  9♦ Q♣ K♣ K♦ , but the Dutchman’s 800 river bet was called anyway.

12.50pm: Tureniec roller coaster
Michael Tureniec is having an interesting, albeit hair-raising start to his day. He somehow find himself down to the felt with just 250 chips left from his starting 30,000 – but has now doubled up four times and sits on a slightly more healthy stack of 3,500.

12.45pm: Boris might need headphones
Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker gets a lot of attention wherever he goes and you can understand why. It must be nice for him to finally shut out all that attention and sit down at his table and just play cards. This is not an easy task though when you look over the baize and see Peter Hedlund as a table mate. You don’t even have to be Boris Becker to get attention from Hedlund. This is a man who doesn’t require you to talk back to him to think he’s in conversation with you. Time for your I-pod Boris?

Hedlund just took a pot of Becker too. Hedlund bet 600 on the turn and river and was called down both times. The board read 6♥ 8♥ A♠ Q♣ Q♥ and when Hedlund revealed A♥ J♣ Becker mucked.

12.35pm: Read all about it
Such is the breathtaking (!) array of the highest quality (!!) coverage provided on PokerStars blog that sometimes we’re writing (!!!) stuff that gets buried beneath all the other content. But we don’t want you to be starved, so here’s what you may have missed.
First up, there’s a beautiful introduction to Day 1B, or then there’s a run through of the stacked tournament field.

12.25pm: Early Cooler
Michael Tureniec is down to just 250 chips after running pocket kings in to a neighbor’s pocket aces. There was an early position raise before a Mr. Cantonati and Mr. Tureniec got into a raising war that saw them both all in. The board ran blank and one is our current chip leader, the other is likely to be first out.

12.15pm: Cards in the air
Play is underway on day 1b.

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