Sometimes even the best laid plans go to ruin. Yesterday I attempted to do an orbit with Eugene Katchalov and then three hands in his table broke, no problem I just started again at his new table. Today I thought I’d spend an orbit with Czech Team PokerStars Pro Martin Hruby, he had around 38,000 to start the orbit but would bust half way through it. Then a hand later the table broke. This then is the inaugural ‘half an orbit with’…

Team PokerStars Pro Martin Hruby

The blinds during play are 300/600 ante 75 and in hand one the button is in seat one. Also seated at the table at EPT8 Prague champion Martin Finger and Mariusz Klosinski, he finished 6th in the Eureka Main Event here last year and then followed it up with a ninth place finish in EPT9 Prague.

Seat 1: Sergej Barbarez, Germany, PokerStars player, 18,100
Seat 2: Martin Hruby, Czech Republic, Team PokerStars Pro, 38,000
Seat 3: Mariusz Klosinski, Poland, 48,000
Seat 4: Hicham Benbelaid, France, 32,200
Seat 5: Iosif Beskrovnyy, Russia, 106,000
Seat 6: Sotirios Koutoupas, Greece, 18,000
Seat 7: Leonid Spielmann, Austria, 47,500
Seat 8: Ayhan Karlitag, Turkey, 15,225
Seat 9: Martin Finger, Germany, 44,000
Seat 10: Pawel Jaskolski, Poland, 35,300

Hand 1: Hicham Benbelaid raised to 1,200 from under-the-gun, Sergej Barbarez called on the button and Martin Hruby then raised to 4,400 from the small blind and Benbelaid was the only caller. The flop fell 2♣ K♦ K♣ , Hruby c-bet 4,400 and Benbelaid smooth called. The two players then checked down the 7♦ turn and 5♥ river, Benbelaid showed pocket eights which were ahead of Hruby’s A♠ J♥ .

Hand 2: Sotirios Koutoupas opened to 1,200 from early position and Hicham Benbelaid came along from the big blind. Both players checked the 10♠ 3♥ 7♦ flop but a bet from Koutoupas on the K♥ turn won him the pot

Hand 3: It folded to Pawel Jaskolksi in mid-position, he opened to 1,300 and Iosif Beskrovnyy flat called from the big blind. On the 3♣ 4♠ 6♣ Jaskolski c-bet 1,625 and Beskrovnyy made the call. The 7♥ fell on the turn, again Beskrovnyy checked and again Jaskolski bet, this time the Pole fired out 2,600.

There would be no smooth call from Beskrovnyy though as he check-raised to 6,600 total, the hand was far from over though as Jaskolski called the extra. The 9♠ completed the board, Beskrovnyy bet 6,600, Jaskolski called and said: “Do you have the five?” Indeed Beskrovnyy did, he showed 5♦ 2♦ and took the pot with the turned straight.

Hand 4: From under-the-gun+1 Ayhan Karlitag raised it up to 1,200, it folded all the way to Hicham Benbelaid on the button. The Frenchman certainly seemed interested and indeed he bumped the price of poker up to 2,500, Karlitag showed no fear, making it 5,925 to go and leaving exactly 10,000 back. After eyeing up his stack Benbelaid moved all-in and Karlitag snap called.

Benbelaid: A♣ A♠
Karlitag: A♥ A♦

Wow! Aces against aces! You don’t see that too often, the K♥ 7♠ 5♠ Q♦ J♣ board kept it friendly and if you listened really closely I swear you could hear someone saying: “Everybody loves a chopped pot.”

Hand 5: From middle position Pawel Jaskolski opened to 1,300, Martin Hruby flat called only for Hicham Benbelaid to three-bet to 3,500 from the cut-off. The original raiser folded but Hruby did not. Instead he moved all-in for 28,250 and after getting a count Benbelaid made the call – he’d have around 15,000 if he lost the hand.

Benbelaid: A♠ Q♥
Hruby: Q♠ J♠

The 7♣ 9♠ 7♥ 10♦ 10♠ board kept the Frenchman in front and Hruby tapped the table before heading to the exit.

Hand 6: It folded to Iosif Beskrovnyy in the cut-off, he raised to 1,200 and Ayhan Karlitag smooth called from the big blind. On the A♠ 5♣ 6♠ flop Beskrovnyy c-bet 1,300, Karlitag check-raised to 2,800 and Beskrovnyy flicked in the call. On the K♣ turn Karlitag checked, Beskrovnyy took the chance to bet 4,300 and Karlitag made the call. On the 9♦ river Beskrovnyy bet again, this time 5,000 and Karlitag once more decided to call. The Russian showed A♣ J♣ and it was good as Karlitag opened A♦ 3♠ showed that he’d called down with an inferior ace.

Before there was time to play the next hand a member of the floor staff arrived and the players were given new seat assignments.

Tournament Update:

– We’re approaching the end of level eight
– The final number of players for today is 949
– Roughly 520 of them remain
– The total number of runners for this event is 1,315
– Another four EPT Champions played today taking the total to 12, they are: Steve O’Dwyer, Mickey Petersen, Dimitar Danchev & Kent Lundmark.
– However O’Dwyer is one of the notables to exit in the last two levels. Other well known players to lose their chips include: Erich Kollmann, Kenny Hallaert, Jason Wheeler, Tudor Purice, Lasse Frost, John O’Shea, Martin Staszko, Goran Mandic, Ben Martin, Michal Vojtisek, Marc Convey, Robert Cezarescu, Andrew Chen, Kevin Iacofano, Max Silver, Paul Berende, Robin Ylitalo, Chris Dowling, Thomas Ward, Niklas Astedt, Marc Macdonnell and Tim Finne.

Martin Staszko is one of those to bust

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

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