Live updates from day 2, level 9 of EPT Kyiv Sports Poker Championship brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young.
Click refresh to see the latest updates below, while the latest selected chip counts can be found by clicking right here. Blinds 100-500-1,000.
3pm: Fox clubbed
Over on Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko’s table, the poker god’s dealt a lethal blow to Elio Fox. The young New Yorker, who qualified for this event using his PokerStars Frequent Player Points, just had his aces crushed.
“I raised pre-flop and got two callers,” he said. “The flop came with two clubs, I checked one guy bets 5,000, the other calls and I re-raise to 20,000. One folds but the other (Niculae Badulescu from Romania) called. The turn was a seven, and I push my last 17,000 – he calls. He hit his Q♣ 7♣ flush when the J♣ came on the river.
“It was disappointing but this was my first big live event with PokerStars and I have enjoyed it. I plan on coming back to play some more soon.”
Badulescu now moves up to 95,000.
2.57pm: Aces for Arnaud
There was a raise to 2,500 and a call before Arnaud Mattern re-raised to 6,400. The original raiser then raised again for an all in amount of 22,900. The player caught in the middle of this raising sandwich folded but Mattern snap called with A♥ A♣ . His opponent sheepishly tabled J♥ 9♥ and the board ran out 10♠9♠5♠3♦ 4♥ . Mattern up to 52,000 now.
2.55pm: Demidov done; joins media row
Two laptops down from me on media row sits Ivan Demidov. Happy to have him here, but his presence unfortunately means that his tournament is over. The Team PokerStars Pro couldn’t add to his World Series successes in the first EPT in the CIS, but will no doubt return.
2.50pm: Sergil’s day is done
We’ve also had to bid farewell to Eren Sergil, our FPP qualifier and friend from the past few days. We met him in the bar on the eve of the tournament. Then met him again in a restaurant at the end of day 1a, and then again in the bar at the end of day 1b. No doubt we’ll run into him again tonight even though his tournament is now over. He couldn’t build on a short stack today and is out. Not before our video bloggers caught up with him however.
Watch EPT Kyiv S6: Eren Sergil FPP Qualifier on PokerStars.tv
2.45pm: Galic slays Simpson
Dragan Galic is now past 200,000 and claims to have been hitting cards all day. “Pocket sevens, pocket nines, pocket queens,” he said. “The whole time I have strong hands.” This is possibly part-bluff because he has been raising every single pot, but there’s certainly an element of truth to it, as Dray Simpson can testify. Simpson and Galic got it all in pre-flop — about 40,000 for Simpson — but his Jâ™ J♦ were inferior to Galic’s Qâ™ Q♥ . There was no jack on the board and Simpson was slain by the Dragan. “That was unfortunate,” said Simpson as the dealer slid his chips to Galic. “Why couldn’t you have had the sevens that time?”
2.40pm: Getting out of a Rutter
Stuart Rutter was hanging on to his tournament life by a thread. He just moved his last 7,300 into the middle from under-the-gun only to run in to an opponent’s “big slick” that dominated his ace-ten. Not to worry though as a lovely ten fell on the river to give him a bit more hope.
2.10pm: New chip leader!
We have a new chip leader emerging from the pack. Canada’s Jeff Sarwer is now nudging close to 250,000 – and it’s fair to say he is currently running over his table. As I passed by he was stacking chips after a series of raises pre-flop that met with no resistance.
As the numbers continue to tumble – we’re now down to 143 players – Sarwer was as surprised as anyone to see someone still with around 30,000 chips at his table four-bet all in with Jâ™ 8â™ only to walk into his opponent’s Aâ™ A♣ .
Meanwhile Shaun Deeb, now on 114,000, and just won a handy pot. He raised pre-flop to 2,300 and got one call. The flop came 7♦ 7♥ 3♣ and Deeb bet out 3,400. Call. A 8♦ on the turn saw Deeb lay out 6,200 – too much this time for his opponent, who mucked. Deeb showed 7â™ 8â™ to the table, for the monster turned full house.
“I actually do get good hands sometimes,” he laughed.
2.05: Bluffing Deeb
Shaun Deeb raised to 2,600 from late position and was called by the big blind before the flop came down 2♦ A♦ 8♣ . It was checked to Deeb who continued with a 2,600 bet. Call. The turn came 7â™ and Deeb bet 3,200 when checked to him again. Call again. The river brought the dangerous looking J♦ and the big blind checked for a third time. Deeb’s bet this time was a little bigger, well a lot bigger in fact as it was all-in. It was a huge over bet for the size of the pot but it worked as the big blind folded only to be shown 6♥ 3♥ for a complete bluff.
