Thursday, 28th March 2024 12:56
Home / Uncategorized / EPT10 Sanremo: The fun bit, and the not so fun bit. The two sides of the tournament room

There’s a happy end of the tournament room and a not so happy end of the tournament room. Artem Litvinov is sitting in the happy end.

“I’m very happy,” he said, speaking to Toby Lewis one table along, who had spotted him and greeted him warmly. “Now, I drink beer and I’m very, very happy. Later I drink vodka, and then…”

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Artem Litvinov

There’s a nice spirit to the game in this part of the room, the busy end that was also used yesterday and today is fully booked. Lewis laughed along with Litvinov, who insisted to his table mates that this was a “friendly game.”

“For now,” joked Jackson Genovesi in the seven seat.

Two tables along one player arrived with a sandwich from the bar. Tudor Purice opposite looked on enviously. A bite was taken and Purice was offered half, which he politely turned down, insisting that he was too hungry to settle for just half and that he’d get his own.

“Don’t bother,” Purice was told, as both he and the man eating the sandwich paused to stare at its contents.

Meanwhile it’s a different scene across the gangway, where irritation and a certain degree of bitterness are more prevalent.

The bitterness was in a hand won by Andrey Lobzhanidze, set over set, who then banged several times on the table before shouting some words in Russian, which tends to put everyone on edge. He’d shown a set of tens over the set of threes shown by his opponent, who left the scene as fast as he could.

The irritation is in the shape of Nacho Barbero a table along, who was victim to a misunderstanding on his table that reuired a lengthy debate with the floor person.

Barbero kept saying “two-fifty” which is what he was insisting Zhapar Sultanov had said over in seat one. The board was dealt, showing ace-queen-king-ten-nine. Barbero was insisting that Sultanov had said 250, and not 2,500 which was what Sultanov was in turn insisting he had meant.

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Jose “Nacho” Barbero

Everyone else chipped in with their version of events, but Barbero’s cause was a losing one. For his part Sultanov was happy to let the floor person make the decision, by which he would abide.

“I’m not denying I said 250,” said Sultanov. “But I meant 2,500.”

This didn’t help Barbero’s mood. Actually it made it worse, but he was getting no shift from the floor, who seemed to be involved in three separate conversations. Finally, Barbero gave up.

“I’m folding two pairs,” he said, mucking kings and tens face up. Then, when Sultanov didn’t show Barbero took umbrage.

“It would have made it easier if you’d shown,” said Barbero, calling on Sultanov to show compassion. But Sultanov was having none of it and played on. Barbero kept muttering things, mainly the words “two-fifty”.

Full coverage of EPT Sanremo is on the main EPT Sanremo page. There’s hand-by-hand coverage in the panel at the top and feature pieces below.

Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter.

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