Online grinder Gabriel Kollander took the UKIPT Dublin chip lead at the bell with a stack of 151,900, swiping the overall chip lead away from Day 1A’s William Champion. The 23-year-old American, who plays under the name $indabank111 on PokerStars, is playing his first live tournament and, so far, things seem to be going well as he put himself at the front of the line for the €100,000 first place prize. All well except for the small problem of some errant chips, but we’ll come to that.

Before Kollander’s late surge, thanks to a large pot in the final couple of hands, David Brady was leading the race to be Day 1B chip leader with 114,000. Up until then it was looking like it may be a break in conventional poker wisdom; that the largest stack going into Day 2 would be from the first, smaller half of the draw. Brady wore a greedy hat and seemed to play as such, hoovering up chips like cocktail sausages at a Christmas party. It wasn’t blind gluttony. Late on he passed to a single raise on his big blind with relaxed discipline, his opponent flashed aces. Then Kollander came through.

Leading until late: David Brady

The Californian had been studying at the University of Hawaii when Black Friday struck and after some commuting back and forth decided to relocate to Toronto. Somewhat incredibly this is the online grinder’s first major live tournament, but he soon revealed some live inexperience.

Having already bagged his chips, Kollander was in the process of being interviewed by the PokerStars Blog, in the presence of tournament floor staff no less, when he absent-mindedly stuck his hand in his hoody pocket and pulled a couple of low denomination chips out, looking slightly confused as to what they were doing there.

Day 1 chip leader Gabriel Kollander

“Oh, I didn’t even know I had these. Is that a problem?” said Kollander.

The floor staff swiftly indicated that it was. Kollander put them on the table, they weren’t worth much.

“Sorry, I don’t know. I just found them. I think it was when I had that huge pot. I can just forget that I had them. I don’t care that much,” he chuckled, perhaps not realising the gravity of the situation.

UKIPT tournament director Toby Stone was called over.

“This should make a great blog entry. Guy has a load of chips but is an idiot at the same time and messes up the whole tournament,” said Kollander, while waiting for Stone.

“They were in your pocket?” asked Stone.

“I’m sorry,” said Kollander, looking equally amused and surprised by the chips appearance.

“I’m keeping them now. What were they doing in your pocket?” asked Stone.

Kolander explained that he’d won a big pot late on, that some chips must have fallen over the lip of the table – his stack was certainly large enough, that pot messy enough. The story checked out.

Chips, they have a tendency to roll

“You know you can never, ever put chips in your pocket in any tournament in the world?” said Stone.

“I didn’t realise I had. I prefer to display them out front to scare people.”

Stone seemed satisfied it was a genuine mistake, it certainly seemed to be. A lesson learnt for the online player: get better at stacking your betting discs.

Kollander’s topped a 398-strong field, which was exactly twice the size of that yesterday. Just 153 made it through among which were UKIPT Newcastle champion Richard Sinclair (30,100), Mark Muldoon (103,000), Martin Baláž (98,800), Sam Grafton (63,500) and, so we’ve been told, a Big Brother contestant by the name of Glen ‘Spiral’ Coroner (103,000).

Grafton, ‘high in confidence’ after his $234,193 SCOOP result (see 3pm: Getting the SCOOP with Sam Grafton), started badly, down to just 6,000 early on. Quad aces and a set of kings helped breathe life back into his tournament ambitions and he chipped up steadily from there. Come the close of play he had a short stacked WSOPE winner, Scott Shelley, on his right and a big stacked Martin Baláž to his left. Shelley also made it through (32,500). Many others did not.

Sam ‘Sam Squid’ Grafton

Andy Black turned up late, sleeping off the night before we’ve been told, and if the photos are to be believed wasn’t necessarily in the finest of fettle. His UKIPT Dublin adventure didn’t last but with 244 other fallers today he was far from alone. Craig Burke, looking for three from three Season 3 cashes, hit the rail, as did many others; Ian Woodley, Daiva Barauskaite, Damian Porebski, EPT Tallinn runner-up Grzegorz Cichocki, Michael Leedham, Paul Jackson, Albert Sapiano, Mick McCloskey and Ciaran Taggart were just a few players to go. They are now just footprints in the history of UKIPT Dublin.

Andy Black

Focus tomorrow will be on the 244 remaining players, the 153 of today that joined the 91 of Day 1A, and which can make the final 72 places that pay. The prize pool was confirmed late in the day and it looks like a juicy one. This season’s increase in buy-in has swollen the pay outs making some very attractive prize pools. To find out who makes it and who doesn’t, join us from 12 noon tomorrow.

To catch up with the action from today click on the links below. Click here to see combined Day 1 chip counts and here if you you want to see the prize pool.

Levels 1-4
Levels 5-8

All images are copyright of Mickey May and must credited as such. She can kick at head height even with an injured leg, which is something Chuck Norris is unable to.

Tags: action | black | black friday | italian poker tour | portugal | russian | tournaments | WSOPE

Gamble or be gone. Cashcid Linc would come to the final table with the right gambling mindset that got the German heads-up for the title but sitation remained calm enough to take down the SCOOP 2012 Event #32-M title. In what was a two-day affair looked like a massive rush to the exit as the 31 20-minute levels only left our final nine holding on to their chip overnight.

Players like Team PokerStars Pro Martin Staszko (104th place, $383.04), James “Andy McLEOD” Obst (22th place, $839.04) and Noah “Exclusive” Boeken (21st place $839.04) made the cash and threatened late but were swept up by the wave of scoops. 912 players piled into this Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament giving us a $182,400 prize pool which once again beat out the $150,000.00 guarantee.

Medium level Player of the Series leading SebbyGl did not signed up to risk getting a few extra points to bolster the lead. Tied for second place, cyberkanguru did sign up but faded fairly early in the first day finishing 406th. Also tied for second place in the standing was newly minted SCOOP champ Dan “djk123″ Kelly who would fare a little better, but finished out of the cash in 274th place.

Down to 12 players left and nearly 30 minutes of play before the tournament would take a break for the evening it was evident that we would reach the final table tonight. With the blinds at 10K/20K midastruck went looking for gold against a short-stacked theone93 preflop. 441,818 chips in the middle as theone93 needed to hit with [As][4c][Qd][9d] but was up against a better low draw [7s][2s][Qh][Ac]. Not a nut-nut hand but close enough as midastruck not only hit a flush but the wheel as well [5d] [Ts] [8s] [4s] [3c] ending theone93′s night in 12th place ($1,915.20).

Three minutes later trelskig would be in a similar short-stacked position as theone93 hoping to double up before the long break. RoxmorE had another plans and matched the pot bets from trelskig until both were all-in preflop. Suited aces [As] [5h] [Ad] [Qh] for RoxmorE would be a tall order for trelskig’s better low draw, pocket eights, and suited ace [8h] [2d] [8c] [Ac]. The flop [4d] [3c] [4c] was everything trelskig could ask for but the turn [Ks] and river [Td] came up woefully short as trelskig would be invited to day two finishing in 11th place ($1,915.20).

Eight minutes before the two tables would break for the evening superowl99, who finished runner up to ozenc in the high-version of this event last year would take a chance against paulgees81 by shoving [Ac][Th][7c][4c]. Unfortunately, the soon-to-be overnight chip leader was more than happy to call with suited aces [Ah][2d][4d][Ad]. Despite picking up a straight flush draw on the turn, the [Ts] [6c] [9h] [5c] [6d] did not get superowl99 out of this jam, and would not return to a SCOOP PLO8 final table as the final table was set below:

Seat 1: midastruck (515143 in chips)
Seat 2: remsi144 (567815 in chips)
Seat 3: Cashcid Linc (384854 in chips)
Seat 4: daxfut (406739 in chips)
Seat 5: XoTime (427582 in chips)
Seat 6: paulgees81 (1077729 in chips)
Seat 7: sitation (508921 in chips)
Seat 8: RoxmorE (460465 in chips)
Seat 9: DrKoolDan (210752 in chips)

RoxmoreE would be trying to get back into the spotlight today after taking down the Sunday Million a few years ago for $121K. But, the eyes would be on the overnight chip leader as paulgees81 brings a Sunday Million win from last year for $253K, Semifinalist in this year’s SCOOP Event #12-H (PLO Heads-up) for $33K, and (5th place ($14,700) Event #15-H (again fittingly Omaha Hi-Lo).

No passive play allowed at this final table as the players returned to 20 minute blinds and average stacks near 20 big blinds. True to form the final table’s second hand would have DrKoolDan and midastruck all-in preflop but they would split the 459,004 chip pot as the blinds immediately moved up to 12.5K/25K. Cashcid Linc showed a willingness to go toe-to-toe with the most accomplished player at the final table, taking down a 732,208 chip scoop from paulgees81early on.

Chip leader asks for more chips

paulgees81 would take a hit from losing the all-in to Cashcid Linc, but four hands later would take some of those chips from other sources. With the blinds still at 12.5K/25K, paulgees81 would open for 54,250 chips as DrKoolDan called from the cutoff and the blinds folded to see a [3h][Kh][8c] flop. paulgees81 kept the pressure on with a 146,000 chip bet as DrKoolDan felt it was time to double-up and shoved for 217,752 total. paulgees81 would make the call holding [Ah] [4s] [8d] [Jc] for a pair of eights and a low draw as DrKoolDan’s tournament hinged on [5h] [2h] [Ks] [As] top pair, a flush draw, and the nut low draw. Seemed ripe for a scoop by DrKoolDan as the turn [5s] gave DrKoolDan the nut-low, but the [2c] turned a 180 on the hand by giving paulgees81 the wheel and the 581,504 chip pot. Despite the uncool finish, DrKoolDan would take away $2,280.00 in ninth place.

sitation sits on the nuts

Blinds moving up to 15K/30K as two short stacks would try to pick the pockets of paulgees81. Watch below for the three-way all-in preflop between sitation, paulgees81, and XOTime ends with one player holding 1.2 million chips and one player holding eighth place cash:

XoTime: [Ac] [2c] [Qc] [3s]
paulgees81: [As] [5s] [2h] [Qs]
sitation: [Ad] [Jd] [6c] [Ah]

All three players holding premium hands but the all-diamond flop [5d] [Kd] [6d] would give sitation the nut flush. Two high cards later on the turn [Qd] and river [Th] shipped the entire 1.29 million chip pot to sitation, leaving paulgees81 with under 500K, and XoTime holding eighth place cash ($3,739.20).

Rox’d

The 15K/30K blind level went smoothly after that big three-way all-in and the 20K/40K blind level was much of the same except for Cashcid Linc dragging a monster one million chip scoop off daxfut. Seven hands after the seven figure pot RoxmorE would start the betting with a raise to 88,000 as remsi144 shoved all-in for 276,203. Holding a double-suited low hand [3h] [5d] [Jh] [Ad] RoxmorE made the call and needed a little help facing the aces of remsi144 [Ah] [As] [7s] [9s]. The low never materialized but the diamonds did [Jd] [6d] [7c] [Td] [9h] giving RoxmorE the nut flush and sending remsi144 home in seventh place ($5,544.96).

Not adding a SCOOP title today

Winning a Sunday Major such as the Sunday Million is a tremendous feat. Adding a WCOOP or SCOOP title to that gives you even more tournament cred. paulgees81 has the Sunday Million title and already made one final table in this series. And despite bringing the chip lead into today, it was not to be. With the blinds still at 20K/40K and down to 180,600 chips due to that million chip pot against sitation and only winning the blinds once since that hand, paulgees81 needed some serious help. A pot bet for paulgees81 to lead off the betting got a re-raise from midastruck as paulgees81 only had 40,600 behind to make the call holding [9c] [4c] [Jh] [8d]. midastruck however held a premium double-suited hand much better low possibilities [4h] [3h] [Ts] [As]. Neither player would connect to the [2c] [Qd] [5c] [7s] [5d] as midastruck’s nut-low plus ace-ten high played to win the 421,200 chip pot, as paulgees81 settled for sixth place ($7,368.96).

Nuts meet the second nuts

In the tournament’s biggest pot to this point, sitation would trade bets with RoxmorE preflop as both slowly got 1.59 million chips in the middle. RoxmorE turned up [2s] [Qh] [6h] [Ad] as sitation held the same low draw but with a suited aces [Ah] [2c] [4h] [As]. The board would give both players a hearts flush [9h] [5s] [8h] [Kh] [Td] but sitation’s ace-high allowed the Swede to extend the chip lead as RoxmorE got rox’d in fifth place ($9,192.96).

Winning ugly is necessary, but not nice

Thanks to the added cards, Omaha tends to produce more than its share of groan worthy boards where a player comes out of nowhere to win. Feast your eyes on the hand example below between daxfut and midastruck. Aces cracked and then… not so much.

midastruck held the aces [Ad] [Ac] [9h] [4d] after daxfut smooth called the raise from the small blind holding [3h] [2h] [3s] [4h]. The [3d] [6h] [Ts] got daxfut to immediate shove 239,781 chips in as midastruck wept over cracked aces. [6s] on the turn gave daxfut a boat but still open for hitting a low on the river. However, midastruck found the golden touch and wanted it all as the [6d] river counterfeited daxfut’s boat giving midastruck the higher full house for the entire 779,562 chip pot.

A brief chip-chop discussion would bring Team Online’s Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome http://www.pokerstars.com/team-pokerstars/team-online/adrienne-rowsome/ out on the floor. However Cashcid Linc had the need to gamble and sitation’s chip lead was a little too big to give any money away as the threesome got back into the game.

Struck is stuck

Blinds moving up to 25K/50K midastruck would take a massive hit against Cashcid Linc as a low draw missed against Cashcid Linc’s aces for a 2.1 million chip scoop. Three hands later holding only 291,182 chips midastruck tried to make something happen from the button with a pot sized raise as sitation called out of the big blind to see a [Jd] [4d] [5h] flop. sitation would bet enough to put the short stack all-in as midastruck called holding kings [2c] [Kc] [Th] [Kd]. sitation needed some help with [Ac] [6s] [5s] [2h] was a lock for a low if any non-pairing low card hit. A pair of aces [Ah] [As] was exactly the type of drop needed for sitation as midastruck golden reign came to an end in third place ($17,692.80).

Again the players would ask for Rowsome’s assistance but Cashcid Linc wanted an even chop despite sitation holding a one million chip lead. sitation declined the offer as Cashcid Linc was ready once again to GAMBOOOOOOOL!.

Take it, take it, ok I’ll just take it all

See this pretty thing? It will go around the winner’s wrist (or ankle if you are like Shaun Deeb with four of these watches)

Heads-up play consisted of mostly raise it and take it preflop for nine minutes until the big hand hit. With the blinds at 30K/60K both players had plenty of chips to hold out for a while as sitation retained the chip lead and made a raise to 142,00 from the button as Cashcid Linc called to see [Th][7s][6s] on the flop. Cashcid Linc checked as sitation pushed out 240,000 and Cashcid Linc check-raised to a little more than a million. Top set plus a flush draw is hard to get away from as sitation re-raised all-in holding [Ts][Jh][Tc][2s]. Cashcid Linc was true to the gambling form and called with the flush draw and an emergency low draw [8s] [Kh] [8d] [As]. The [8c] turn did not really help Cashcid Linc nor did the [9d] as the straight on the board would chop up a NLHE game, but in Omaha both sets played and sitation’s top set would take down the 4.3 million chip pot along with $32,832.00 and the SCOOP 2012 Event #32-M title!

Players Entered: 912
Total Prize Pool: $182,400.00
Places Paid: 117

$150,000 guarantee SCOOP 2012 Event #32-M $215 PLO8 results (05-18-12):
1. sitation (Sweden) $32,832.00
2. Cashcid Linc (Germany) $23,712.00
3. midastruck (United Kingdom) $17,692.80
4. daxfut (Austria) $13,224.00
5. RoxmorE (Norway) $9,192.96
6. paulgees81 (Canada) $7,368.96
7. remsi144 (Switzerland) $5,544.96
8. XoTime (Portugal) $3,739.20
9. DrKoolDan (Romania) $2,280.00

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Tags: 2011 | Baltic Poker Festival | belgian poker series | festival | news | pokerstars | pokerstars macau | team pokerstars pro | TOC | twitter | wcoop

SCOOP is all about great structures at buy-ins for all bankrolls, low, medium and high. The structures are so great, in fact, that PokerStars has migrated many of the events to two-day events so that the players can be rested and refreshed when making the late-tournament decisions that matter the most.

Sometimes, however, the players have other ideas. The action generated in 2012 SCOOP Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo threatened to turn a two-day event into a one-day affair. But the tournament did make it to its second day, with four players still in, and at the end of that second day DamienRise amassed all of the chips.

We’re 32 events into the 2012 SCOOP, and Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo is the closest I’ve seen to a guarantee not being met. PokerStars set the guarantee for this event at $75,000; the 4,282 registrants created a prize pool of $107,000. It was nowhere close to not meeting the guarantee, but it didn’t double the guarantee as many others events have (perhaps a statement about the desire of PokerStars players to play pot-limit split).

Nonetheless, 540 players wouldn’t have much to complain about, as they would be the ones carving up that prize pool. The lowest payout was worth $44.96; the largest, for the champion, a tidy five-figure sum of $16,808.74 and a Movado watch.

Six Team PokerStars Pro and five PokerStars Team Online players entered this tournament. All of Team Online failed to make the money, with Roy “GodlikeRoy” Bhasin’s bustout perhaps the most painful. He finished 544th, just four spots out of the money. The Team Pros fared better, with both Martin Staszko (144th, $112.40) and Marcin “Goral” Horecki (31st, $240.86) pushing into the money and making respectably deep runs.

Their runs, however, were not deep enough to make the final table in this two-day event – a final table that commenced late on Day 1 with these nine players.

Seat 1: AugustasN (5368352 in chips)
Seat 2: Martin Glöck (1381888 in chips)
Seat 3: remars81 (2048749 in chips)
Seat 4: partybong (2008173 in chips)
Seat 5: DamienRise (1912452 in chips)
Seat 6: willrobrobu (2108415 in chips)
Seat 7: Zlushchiy (3775258 in chips)
Seat 8: MikLoW86 (1346729 in chips)
Seat 9: eitan_2004 (1459984 in chips)

Average stack: 2,378,889

There was a former SCOOP champion among the nine. willrobrobu kicked off SCOOP in 2011 by winning the first event, Event 1-Low, $22 No-Limit Hold’em (6-max). To start this final table, willrobrobu was in a pile of players that could all claim to be 3rd in chips.

Those players were trying to scramble over each other even as partybong became the first player to get knocked off the final table. partybong’s open-raise to 200k was called by willrobrobu before Zlushchiy three-bet to 800k, inducing a shove to 941k by partybong. That was enough to fold willrobrobu but Zlushchiy called with single-suited aces, [ac][ah][2h][7h]. partybong had a reasonable hand, [as][kh][qc][2c], but it turned into nothing of significance, high or low, on a board of [6s][tc][th][2s][7c]. Neither player had a qualifying low, but Zlushchiy’s unimproved aces were enough to claim high and send partybong off to chill out in 9th place.

25 more minutes passed before MikLoW86 was 86ed from the tournament. Sitting in the blinds, MikLoW86 called a minimum-raise from under-the-gun player AugustasN. A bet and several raises on a queen-high flop, [6h][qs][8s], ensured that all of MikLoW86′s chips were in the middle with top pair and a strong low draw, [ac][qc][5s][3h]. AugustasN showed down a stronger low draw and a baby flush draw, [ad][kc][3s][2s]. The [as] on the turn filled both of those draws for AugustasN; the [3c] river changed nothing. MikLoW86 exited in 8th place.

It was another twenty minutes before eitan_2004 became the unfortunate 7th-place finisher. This time, the chips were all in pre-flop. AugustasN was the culprit again, showing down a strong [ah][qc][2h][3s] against eitan_2004′s [ac][ks][5s][6s]. Neither player made a low on the [4h][9s][jh][qh][5c] board, but AugustasN came up with the nuts, an ace-high flush, to claim the high and knock out eitan_2004.

The former SCOOP champion, willrobrobu, was unable to duplicate the 2011 SCOOP win at this final table. It was a case of a busted draw:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The blinds were 100k-200k and the average stack was about 4.3 million. With five players left, it was time to cut a deal. 21 big blinds wasn’t going to last very long at all in the split-pot version of this action game.

Once the deal was in place, there was one more elimination before Day 1 came to an end. On the very first hand after the deal was cut, short stack Martin Glöck four-bet shoved pre-flop with [jh][jc][5s][2c]. DamienRise, the pre-flop three-bettor, called with [ac][ks][8c][2s] and scooped the whole pot with two pair, kings and eights, on a board of [kd][8h][tc][9d][7d].

Day 2 started with the blinds up to 125k-250k. The fireworks began within five minutes of the resumption of play. DamienRise’s unimproved kings held up against remars81′s wrap draw, with all the chips going in on the flop. Neither player had a qualifying low. When remars81′s draw bricked out, Day 2 was over for remars81 in 4th place.

The stacks stayed relatively unchanged as the blinds rolled up to 150k-300k. AugustasN led with roughly 10 million, DamienRise followed with roughly 7 million, and Zlushchiy pulled up the rear with roughly 3 million. Sure, there were minor variations along the way, but each player’s relative chip stack remained the same until the moment when Zlushchiy picked up single-suited aces, [ah][ad][7d][4s] against AugustasN’s single-suited kings, [ks][kd][6d][7h]. It looked like a great piece of luck for Zlushchiy – until the river. The [jd][4c][js][th][kc] board made a full house for AugustasN and sent Zlushchiy to the rail in 3rd place.

That elimination left AugustasN as the leader to start heads-up play by about a 2-to-1 margin. AugustasN jumped out to the early lead, but one quick double-up by DamienRise drew the stacks level. A few more small pots pushed DamienRise into the lead, but then AugustasN fired back and took down a big pot with a flopped straight to reset the match. DamienRise responded by quartering AugustasN, all in pre-flop, to swing the lead back the other way.

But all good things come to an end, and so did this see-saw heads-up battle. After DamienRise limped the button in the 250k-500k level, AugustasN bet pot to 1.5 million. DamienRise called to a flop of [8c][9c][3h]. That flop brought another pot-sized bet from AugustasN of 3 million, leaving AugustasN 1.6 million behind. It went in after a raise from DamienRise. At showdown, DamienRise produced a strong hand: [th][tc][jc][qs], an overpair, a partial wrap draw and a flush draw. AugustasN showed down [js][jh][8s][7h], an overpair of jacks and a straight draw. The [4c] turn card gave DamienRise a flush and left AugustasN drawing to a low for a chop. The [7c] river was a low card, but not one that was of any use to AugustasN.

Day 2 was finished in less than an hour. DamienRise is a new SCOOP champion and will be receiving a Movado watch to prove it.

2012 SCOOP Event 32-Low, $27 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo results (including 5-way deal):

Number of entrants: 4,282
Places paid: 540

1st: DamienRise (China) ($9,149.00)*
2nd: AugustasN (Lithuania) ($16,000.00)*
3rd: Zlushchiy (Russia) ($9,435.03)*
4th: remars81 (Spain) ($7,974.10)*
5th: Martin Glöck (Germany) ($6,312.07)*
6th: willrobrobu (United Kingdom) ($3,479.12)
7th: eitan_2004 (Poland) ($2,408.62)
8th: MikLoW86 (Hungary) ($1,338.12)
9th: partybong (Germany) ($856.40)

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | belgian poker series | European Poker Tour | festival | italian | portugal | TOC | twitter | wcoop | world-series

I am not a psychiatrist. I am not a psychologist. I have no medical training whatsoever outside of a class in infant CPR which scared me away from children for several months. That is a long way of saying, I cannot, with any degree of medical certainty, diagnose PokerStars Team Online’s George Lind III with any sort of attention deficit disorder. But, if there was ever a time to offer a lay opinion, this is it.

George Lind recently won his first Spring Championship of Online Poker title. He did it in a Stud-8 event (as chronicled in this Exile on Main Street-themed recap from Paul McGuire). It was the sixth time he played a SCOOP Stud-8 tournament in his life. In the five previous runnings, he had a runner-up and third place finish.

So you’d think Lind would be really, really focused on the title. Instead?

“I was 6-12 tabling hypers throughout the final table,” he said.

For the uninitiated, the hypers of which he speaks are hyper-turbo sit & go tourneys. They are SNG crack, and in some jurisdictions considered a Schedule-1 amphetamine. Lind eats them or breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seriously, if McGuire was looking for a Stones tune in a Lind recap, he might have picked “Mother’s Little Helper.”

George Lind, crazy like a fox

Keep in mind, Lind did this while playing a Stud-8 final table–the kind of tournament where paying attention is sort of a big deal. I’ve played my fair share of Stud-8, and for people like me (read: sort of slow on the uptake), if I’m not watching every card that comes off the stub, you might as well just take my chips and call me a cab. And then ask the cab driver to run me over.

Lind? While he was freaking winning a SCOOP event, he was playing up to a dozen hyper turbo SNGs at a time.

The logical question is this: how much could Lind legitimately be expected to win in the hypers if he’s actually winning the SCOOP event?

The unexpected answer: Lind profited $80,000 in the hypers and 76,000 VIP player points that day.

As I said, I’m no doctor.

Two years ago, Lind took third in the very same event. He’s a man who has a brain that can flip switches faster than most people can find the switches to flip.

“It’s nice to have a chance to improve on that in such a big field tournament,” he said. “I’m really happy to finally get a SCOOP title after winning Player of the Year in 2010, but not actually winning an event that year. It’s definitely nice to get a watch to go along with my 2010 POTY trophy.”

As of this morning, Lind held the top spot on the low buy-in leaderboard. If he can manage to keep his head in the game, the payoff could offer a little more than pride.

“I’m hoping to win that PCA package with a consistent final few days,” he said.

Consistency? How much consistency can Lind possibly have if he’s dozen-tabling hyper tourneys?

Well, a lot apparently.

*Consult your physician before beginning any sort of Lind regimen. Side effects include trouble sleeping, motion sickness, and not having enough places in your house to hide all your money.

Tags: australia | belgian poker series | elky | micromillions | news | pokerstars | SCOOP | world cup of poker

Season 8 on the European Poker Tour was one for the ages. Not only were 13 champions crowned and millions of dollars won, but also, numerous memories were made. We’re here to talk about some of those memories, specifically the most memorable ones as we see them. It’s important to point out that these are in no particular order. Let’s get to it.

We’ll start all the way back to EPT London and Benny Spindler’s big win, which took place at the end of September and beginning of October in 2011. Spindler was often regarded as one of the best young players in the game, but he hadn’t won a major title to really solidify his stance. He had previous deep runs in all kinds of events across the EPT, the World Series of Poker and also the World Poker Tour, but no major victories.

When the final table in London began, Spindler was third in chips. He assumed the chip lead early on at the final table after picking off a big bluff from Mattias Bergstrom. Then, he won a massive flip with start-of-the-day chip leader Martins Adeniya to get a massive stack. When heads-up play began, only American Steve O’Dwyer stood in the young German’s way. Spindler had the lead to start the battle and it didn’t last too long.

Many were saying that because of Spindler’s previous close calls, this victory knocked the monkey off his back. When asked if he felt like he had a giant weight lifted off his back, Spindler simply shook his head and responded, “No.”

Benny Spindler

Speaking of EPT London runner-up Steve O’Dwyer, he had one heck of a season on the EPT and that brings us to the next memorable moment. He banked numerous cashes including two big final table appearances in London and then in Copenhagen. In London, O’Dwyer scooped £465,000 for his second-place finish to Spindler and in Copenhagen he took seventh for DKr 290,000. He also had a second-place finish in the EPT Campione High Roller for €74,000. Not a bad season for the American, who really broke out over on European soil.

If we’re going to talk about players who broke out during Season 8 of the EPT, the biggest of them all was German Philipp Gruissem. When it came to High Roller events, Gruissem always had his hands on a massive amount of chips deep at a final table it seemed.

Things all started when Gruissem took third in last season’s EPT Berlin €10,000 High Roller for €67,000. He then went on to win the EPT Barcelona High Roller for €234,500 and beat Igor Kurganov in the EPT London High Roller to win the title and £450,200. Along with those impressive scores, Gruissem took fourth in the EPT San Remo High Roller, third in the EPT Prague High Roller and cashed in the EPT Berlin Main Event. All of that came before he went on to final table the EPT Grand Final €25,000 High Roller and take third for €266,000. Basically, Gruissem is the resident EPT high roller and we can’t wait to see the results he puts up in Season 9.

It’s always been known that no player has ever won a second EPT title. In Season 8, Kevin MacPhee nearly did it twice and each time everyone was pulling for him to become the first to do so.

Kevin MacPhee

A former EPT Berlin champion, MacPhee’s first real shot in Season 8 came in San Remo when he found himself at the final table. Unfortunately, the short-stacked MacPhee couldn’t gather any momentum and bowed out in eighth place. From there, he recorded a few in-the-money finishes with aspirations of a second title, but the second really big push didn’t come until Berlin.

In the same city he won his first EPT title, MacPhee found himself still alive on the penultimate day with the field down to 24 players. With this being the last stop before the EPT Grand Final and the culmination of the season, MacPhee had a second EPT Main Event trophy dangling right in front of him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards for MacPhee as he was eliminated short of the final table in 19th place.

Even with hopes of a two-time champion in MacPhee falling, Anton Wigg and Vladimir Geshkenbein were two other former champions still in the mix. As the day wore on, it looked at though both of them may make the final table, but then Wigg fell in 14th place and left only Geshkenbein carrying the torch to a would-be two-time champion. But just like his fellow former champions fell before him, Geshkenbein headed to the rail short of the final table in 10th place to open up the throne to a brand new title winner.

One of those players remaining after Geshkenbein’s exit was Belgian pro Davidi Kitai. Although there may be some skepticism about the defining criteria behind Kitai’s WPT Celebrity Invitational win, he technically had a WPT title to go along with his WSOP gold bracelet coming into the final table and that made him eligible for poker’s Triple Crown achievement. Even though the excitement of having a two-time EPT champion crowned in Berlin was washed away with the eliminations of MacPhee, Wigg and Geshkenbein, Kitai could still win the Triple Crown and steal the headlines.

Kitai had a tough group of competitors in front of him, but he gathered a ton of chips early on in the final table to really put a stranglehold on things. From there, he seemed to cruise to victory and win a massive payday of €712,000 along with a prestigious EPT title.

While on the topic of close calls, plenty of big-name pros had their fair share of them this season, including many Team PokerStars Pros. Eugene Katchalov took third in Barcelona before fellow Team Pro Juan Manuel Pastor took fourth in London the following stop. Luca Pagano, who is arguably the best overall performer on the EPT since its inception, took seventh in Deauville and Pierre Neuville finished runner-up to Mickey Petersen in Copenhagen.

Speaking of Petersen, as if all those final table runs by team players weren’t good enough, the PokerStars Team Online member went out and won his first major title at EPT Copenhagen. Petersen seemed to use his youth, energy and aggressive online nature to beat down the older Team Pro until Neauville just couldn’t hold on any longer.

Prior to Copenhagen, another Team Pro had a major result and that was Viktor Blom. He conquered the elite field that came out for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller for his first major victory and $1,254,400. The final table was jam-packed with poker power, including some of the biggest names in the game maneuvering their way to the final five spots that were all in the money. Daniel Negreanu and Jonathan Duhamel finished in fifth and fourth place, respectively, and then Galen Hall fell in third before Blom dismantled Dan Shak to win the trophy.

Besides Blom winning his first major title, the other name that sticks out from the 2012 PCA was Duhamel’s. After scoring fourth in this event for $313,600, the 2010 WSOP Main Event champion took fifth in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo event for $17,990, won the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $239,830 and then finished runner-up to Leonid “Alex” Bilokur in the $25,000 High Roller for $634,550. Altogether, Duhamel scored over $1,200,000 from his trip to the Bahamas and shot his way to the top of nearly all Player of the Year leaderboards around the community.

Duhamel may have won over seven figures from his four cashes in January, but between the PCA and the EPT Grand Final alone, nine players had seven-figure scores. Those players included Blom and Bilokur for the aforementioned wins at the PCA along with John Dibella and Kyle Julius, who took one and two in the PCA Main Event. The rest of the list is made up by Justin Bonomo, who won the EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller, the second-place finisher from that event, Tobias Reinkemeier, the EPT Grand Final €25,000 High Roller champion Igor Kurganov and then places one and two from the EPT Grand Final Main Event, Mohsin Charania and Lucille Cailly. Just think about this for a second: nine people had a single score of seven figures or more just from the PCA and EPT Grand Final in Season 8. We, too, just said “wow” out loud.

The final moment we’re going to talk about was from the EPT Grand Final and it’s only fitting that arguably the most memorable moment from the entire season came at the final stop in Monaco. Everyone knows the name Justin Bonomo. He’s young, he’s solid and he has plenty of results on record. No week will compare to the one he had in Monaco, though, at the EPT Grand Final.

Things didn’t start off in the right direction for Bonomo, as he found himself firing in a second €100,000 bullet in the Super High Roller. Went it came time for the final table, Bonomo had a massive lead on the rest of the field. He rode that chip lead all the way to a victory and one worth a whopping €1,640,000 — easily the largest score of his career.

From there, Bonomo took his run good to the Main Event and worked his way into the money. We kept an eye on him at all times and he was playing with a massive amount of confidence coming off the big win. He ended up finishing in 28th place for €35,000, but we had yet to hear the last from him. After that very deep run from the field of 665 players, Bonomo entered the €25,000 High Roller and again found himself making a big splash. He bobbed and weaved his way down to the final eight and was at a second major final table within a week. Bonomo eventually fell in fourth place, but it was worth another €266,000 in prize money to put his weekly total at €1,941,000. Easily one of the best weeks of poker we’ve ever seen.

As much fun as Season 8 of the EPT was, we had a great time reliving all of the big moments with you here. When August rolls around, it’s going to be time for Season 9 of the tour and things will be kicking off in Barcelona. With all of these amazing moments from Season 8, Season 9 sure has a lot to live up to, but we’re confident things will be bigger and better than ever.

Tags: bahamas | belgian poker series | berlin | daniel-negreanu | festival | london | napt | news | planets | russian | wpt

7.05pm: Chip leaders
During the break my blogging colleague and I did a sweep of the tables to unearth the chip leaders. It’s still Niclas Martinsson who heads the field, he’s followed closely by Martin Baláž and Tom Kitt – he finished third in this event in Season One.

Niclas Martinsson, Sweden, PokerStars player, 94000
Martin Baláž, Czech Republic, PokerStars player, 84000
Thomas Kitt, Ireland, PokerStars qualifier, 80000
Terry Plummer, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, 59000
Patricia Mclean, Ireland, PokerStars player, 57000

I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle chips

7pm: Back at it
Cards are once more in the air, roughly 216 of the 398 players who started the day have made it to the start of level seven. — NW

6.45pm: And break
The remaining players are now on their last 15 minute break of the day. They’ll return to play two more levels before bagging and tagging. — NW

6.40pm: Taxi for…
Players continue to bust out in their droves here in Dublin, tournament staff are, it seems, shuttling us large numbers of Player I.D cards every 15 minutes or so. So…there’s no easy way to say this but: Ian Woodley, Daiva Barauskaite, David Caffrey, Philipp Hardy, Stacey Coore, Pauric Martin, Robert Nooney, Phil Bowler, Kieran Mccloskey, William Duffy, Aleksander Doan, David Van-Cauter, Mark Wagstaff, Mario Lazarou, Dominick Hever, Damian Porebski, Christopher Barrow, Nico Kostons, Thomas Dunwoodie, Anthony Rafter, Fiachra Meere, Rory Curtis and Noel Murphy are all free to hit Dame Street for a few beers. –NW

6.35pm: False celebrations
Never celebrate too soon. It’s bad karma, you know. Steven Bartley (not the PokerStars blogger) let out a yelp when his [9s][9h] connected better than Robert Scott’s [ah][kh] on a [9c][6h][ac] flop. The chips had all gone in pre-flop ad Scott was in need of a runner-runner.

Runner 1: [jh]

Runner 2: [7h]

Scott doubled to around 20,000 leaving Bartley short.

At another table Stacey Coore must have thought for a moment that his [td][8d] had won on the [2d][2c][7d][6c][3d] board. He’d shoved the flop and been tank-called by Darren Taylor with pocket threes, which had filled up on the river. Coore was sent to pasture, Taylor topped up to 35,000. — RD

Darren Taylor: raspberry blower

6.25pm: Chips
I’ve just updated the chip counts page, Niclas Martinsson from Sweden appears to be the current chip leader, he has 64,00. — NW

6.10pm: Atherton stacking up again
Lee Atherton is getting himself into a prime position for another deep UKIPT run. In Nottingham last month Atherton finished 15th for a decent £8,000 payday, but the big money final table just managed to elude him. On the penultimate day a short stacked Atherton three-bet jammed with [as][jc] into the [ah][kh] of Ian Senior. He failed to catch a jack, Senior’s kicker played.

Here in Dublin however things are looking up again. He’s just won a decent pot check-calling down with [9d][9c] on a [jc][jh][js][4d][2s] board against Alan Mcauly’s pocket sevens to chip up to 48,000. — RD

Lee Atherton sporting some facial furniture

6pm: Curse of the chip leader
They say that being chip leader can be as much of a curse as a blessing and Bastiaan Van Den Brink has definitely strengthened that argument. The Dutchman doubled up to 30,000 early on after eliminating a player and although he climbed to a peak of 34,000 he’s slid back down to around 18,000.

But, he’s still fighting and I just saw him pick up a useful pot. It folded to Keith Brennan in the cut-off and he put in a min-raise to 600. This bet was flat called by both Thomas Dunwoodie and Adrian Gray before Van Den Brink raised it to 2,900 from the big blind. This quickly forced out Brennan and Dunwoodie, but Gray, who was getting a massage at the time, was not so swift to fold. “You don’t want a call do you?” said Gray before eventually folding [4s][4c] face-up. — NW

5.50pm: Bettingen loses flip, still doing well
Tim Bettingen opened for 700 from the cut-off and was quickly shoved on by Rober O´Reilly from button. The action folded back to Bettingen who requested a count. The shove was for 5,350. Bettingen made the call.

Bettingen: [7c][7s]
O´Reilly: [js][td]

It wasn’t the ideal flop for Bettingen: [ad][qh][kd]. O´Reilly had flopped Broadway. The [2d] turn and [kc] made little difference. Bettingen still sits healthily on 40,000. Quinn up to 11,000. — RD

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, ANTE 25

5.40pm: Exits
There’s no easy way to say this but if you had a bet on: Mick Mccloskey, Nik Stylianou, Michael Pantelli, Grzegorz Cichocki, Peter Gors, Majid Iqbal, Euan Cameron, Eric Tam, Anibal De Campos Sanchez , Michael Muldoo, Marc Radgenn, Raymond Caabay, Michael Coleman, Gary Ludgate, Balbir Singh Potttiwal, Michael Leedham, Colette Murphy, Hasmukh Khodiyara, Noel O’Brien, Dimitri Pembroke, Andy Flannaghan, Antonis Poulengeris, Tobias Revenäs, Marko Ojdanic, Bill Mulrooney, Paul Jackson, Albert Sapiano, Shella O’Donoghue, Joe Murray, Robert Panayi or Etienne Kramer then tear up that slip, it’s about as much use as a chocolate fireguard as they’re all out. — NW

Mick McCloskey – one of 140 exits during the first five levels

5.30pm: Ludgate flops top set, busts
Gary Ludgate has just bust after squeezing jacks on the button. Ludgate flopped top set on a [j][t][7] flop and was check-called. The turn was an ace and Ludgate was check-raised into to. He called and was shown king-queen for Broadway. The board didn’t pair and he was sent to the rail. — RD

5.20pm: Graydon let off the hook?
Mick Graydon has chipped back up to around 12,000 after seemingly being let off the hook by Barry Foley. On a flop of [4c][6c][6d] Foley led for 1,400 and Graydon moved all-in for around 8,500. After a short think Foley passed [ac][qc] face-up. Quick eyebrow raise from Graydon who seemed happy to rake in the chips unopposed. — RD

5.10pm: Cookie getting chips
Tim ‘BakinCookies’ Bettingen is one of the many names and notable that we’re keeping track of on the chip counts page. The German is going great guns at the moment and he’s motoring along on 49,500. — NW

Tim Bettingen

5pm: Gilligan gets value
Ronan Gilligan might just have the most unenviable record in UKIPT main events – he’s finished runner-up on two occasions. The first of those was right here in Dublin in 2010, Max Silver got the better of him that time. The second was in Galway this season where Emmett Mullin defeated him heads-up. And, Gilligan’ two other Hendon Mob entries are for third place finishes so the man obviously goes deep or goes out early.

It’s looking more likely to be the former at the moment as he’s up to 29,000. I saw him bet 700 on the turn and 1,5000 on the river of a [8c][10s][4c][Kd][3d] board with [ks][7s] and get paid off. He’s looking comfortable right now. – NW

4.53pm: Someone was out on the tiles last night
Andy Black snuck in just before the end of registration and we’ve been reliably informed that he was enjoying himself out on the town last night. Our photographer Mickey May went hunting for the evidence.

Good papping by May.

Out last night? Maybe I was

Of course, I feel fine

Okay, maybe I don’t feel so great

But it was worth it

4.40pm: There’s no easy way to say this but…
If you’re relying on your percentage of Amby Travers, Ronald Lawton, David Langridge, Lars Stockenschneider, Sinem Melin, John Kelly, Mads Onsberg, George Power, Artur Olczyk, Chris Cooper, David Barnes, Darren Miller, Ciaran Taggart, Cathal O’Malley, Michael Sheridan, Thomas Gill, Krisztian Rack, Mark Spelman and Robert Lawrie to win you a new motorbike, you’re going to have to stick to your push bike. They’re all out.

Play is just about to resume. Antes kick in next level. — RD

UKIPT Brighton final tablist Sinem Melin, out

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Galway (in order of hot dogs consumed): Nick Wright (one) and Rick Dacey (soon to be one). Photos by Mickey May (who you calling a dog?).

Tags: australia | bowler | estrellas poker tour | eureka poker tour | gambling | german | pokerstars macau | tournaments | world-series

Tags: delicious | english | ept | facebook | harrah's | news | pca | poker-tours | SCOOP | wcoop

The Estrellas Poker Tour continued Thursday with 154 more players. On those Day 1B players, 37 qualified on PokerStars. When play concluded for the day, there were 72 players remaining. A total of 121 players will return Friday for Day 2 of the €1,000+€100 Estrellas Poker Tour Ibiza Main Event.

Casino Ibiza plays host to this event, the second time the tour has visited the Med’s favourite party island. A total of 269 players from 29 different countries have participated in this leg, including 47 Swedish players. In total, 32 players will cash, with the winner taking home €65,800 from a total prize pool of €258,240.

It was once again a tough day on the felt here in Ibiza, with many players being eliminated, including Estrellas Poker Tour 2011 Tournament Leaderboard winner (Álvaro Santamaría Velasco) and runner up (German player Fabian Deimann). Team PokerStars Online Javier Dominguez Gomez and Team PokerStars Pro Ana Marquez are other players who now have more time to concentrate on the remainder of the SCOOP schedule.

Team PokerStars Pros Juan Manuel Pastor and Jaume Niell Alomar, a finalist in Valencia, have both made it through the day and will be back on Friday for Day 2.

Juan Manuel Pastor

The overnight chip leader is Jaume Niell Alomar with 111,700 chips, followed by Pablo Rojas, who has 96,300 chips. In third position is Carlos Sanchez Brito, with 77,900.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | Battle of the Planets | eureka poker tour | festival | gambling | madrid | micromillions | news | pca | World Series of Poker

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

2.22pm: Back from the break
The remaining players are now back in their seats and level three is underway.

There’s no easy way to say this but: George Stewart, Marinos Mina, Richard Heelas, Kevin Steele, Dag Ahlse, Michael Watson, Gareth Parry, Darren Sweeney, Stephen Kenna, Roman Dohnal, Romero Borze, Daniel Perez, Jamil Ogunmakinwa, Michalis Michael, Julian Thew and Tomlin Colburn are not back in their seats as they were all eliminated during the first two levels. — NW

2.02pm: Break time
That’s two levels in the books, players are now on a 20 minute break. — NW

1.50pm: Blain picks one off
When you think of Ireland and poker, names like Padraig Parkinson, Fintan Gavin, Roy Brindley and Andy Black come to mind. There are all of the chatty, eccentric, up for the craic type personalities but there is another rarer breed of Irish poker player, the get it quietly type.

One player who fits that mould is Dermot Blain, no table histrionics, no fuss just impeccable table presence and consistency. The young Irishman has a string of impressive cashes to his name including winning the APPT Maccau Main Event in 2009 and a fifth place finish in the WSOPE Main Event in 2011.

I just saw a hand that encapsulated all this, he called a raise of 275 from Matthew Gilmartin and the two of them checked all the way to the river on a board of [2s][Qs][6c][8h][Jh]. At his juncture Gilmartin threw out a bet of 400, no insta-call here from Blain, he made a face that looked like he was chewing a wasp, thought for about 15 seconds and then called.

Gilmartin showed [8s][7s] but Blain had [Ac][Js] to take the pot. — NW

Dermot Blain

1.35pm: One for the cameras
Small round of applause for Damien Quinlivan who just three-barrel bluffed [8h][5h] into a [ad][jd][5d][6s][3s] board. Well, I assume it was a bluff. That would be some pretty thin value betting if not.

Mike Hill had opened the pot for 225 and had picked up three callers, including Quinlivan in the small blind and Mark Spelman in the big.

Flop: [ad][jd][5d]
Quinlivan led 450 and was called by Spelman. The others passed

Turn: [ad][jd][5d][6s]
Quinlivan fired another 1,000 into the pot. Spelman called again.

River: [ad][jd][5d][6s][3s]
Quinlivan confidently – perhaps too confidently – threw 2,600 into the middle. Spelman tank-folded.

Quinlivan took a look at his cards, looked up, caught my eye and showed the table the bluff. Bravo, sir. It was one for the cameras. Mike Hill was still chortling as I walked away. — RD

Mike Hill looking for his fourth UKIPT final table

1.10pm: Tables chips and exits
The table draw has thrown up the odd doozy, which we’ll be keeping an eye on. Like table 42 where Dean Lyall, Jeff Burke, Bastiaan Van Den Brink and Daiva Barauskaite are sat in a row. That table has already seen one elimination, earlier we reported how Van Den Brink had doubled up but didn’t have the name of the first player out. We can now report that the unlucky player to exit was Antonius Van Venrooij.

Meanwhile Richard Sinclair (18,000) and Iwan Jones (17,000) have got off to good starts whilst things have gone south so far for Julian Thew (7,000) and Nick Newport (13,900). — NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

12.50pm: Seat open
By this time on Day 1A two players (including Nick Abou Risk) had been sent to the rail, both as the result of aces versus kings (although the kings won on one occasion). Today it took a bit longer to lose the first player, around 50 minutes in fact.

The identity of the eliminated player is unknown but Bastiaan Van Den Brink was the beneficiary and he told me what happened: “I opened the button with [10][9], he three-bet with [10][5] and I called. The flop came [9][7][5] he c-bet, I called. The turn was a ten he fired a second barrel and I called. The river was a blank, he shoved all-in and I called.”

So two pair against smaller two pair accounts for the first player today, much more interesting than boring aces versus kings. — NW

12.35pm: Walking the floor
This looks to be a great event to play. A lot of players that you might not want to see at your table – think of the likes of Jake Cody, Matt Perrins, JP Kelly, James Keys, Chris Brammer, Rupiner Bedi – aren’t here because of the upcoming World Series, some have headed out early, and because of SCOOP, which has been hitting some unbelievable numbers.

That’s a chunk of tough players who would severely reduce your tournament expectation so to the 500 or so that are playing this €770 main event, well done, you’ve made a fantastic decision.

Among the players today that do have some previous are EPT winner Julian Thew, EPT and UKIPT regular Dermot Blain, Dean ‘deanosupremo’ Lyall and SCOOP hero Sam ‘SamSquid’ Grafton. We’ll be catching up with Grafton at the break to speak to him about his $234,193 bink. He doesn’t know it yet, but we will.

Thew is at a table nearby sporting a small red and yellow dollar bill badge. It’s not a bounty button, it’s a lucky charm from one of his kids: “I thought I’d check out its luckbox potential. I’ll give it a couple of hours,” said Thew.

Fifteen minutes of the first level remain. — RD

Julian Thew

12.20pm: Who’s here?
There’s a much larger field today than yesterday and amongst the 300 or so runners is a sprinkling of stardust. So far I’ve spotted EPT winner Julian Thew, UKIPT Champion of Champions Richard Sinclair who’s resplendent in his usual Day 1 Ed Hardy hoodie.

Also spotted were UKIPT Galway runner-up Ronan Gilligan, UKIPT Nottingham S2 fourth place finisher Tim Bettingen, Paul Jackson, Nicholas Newport and UKIPT Killarney champion Femi Fakinle.

True to form Fakinle was involved in a pot as I passed his table, he bet 600 on the river of a [8c][6d][8h][4h][9s], his opponent called but mucked when Fakinle showed [8s][6h] for a full house. Keep an eye on the chip counts page, where we’ll be keeping track of the names, notables and big stacks as stories develop on Day 1B. — NW

Femi Fakinle

12pm: And we’re off…
The clock is running/the cards are in the air/add your own ‘the tournament has begun’ euphemism here. — RD

11.50pm: Day 1B revving up
Today’s looking like a busy one. Plenty of players milling around and making their way to the tables. We had 199 player yesterday, 91 of whom made it through the eight one-hour levels. We’ll be playing the same today: no dinner break and done by 9pm. Lovely. The board is currently showing 300 players so we can expect a field of 500-plus.

We can break the news that the defending champion Dutchman Joeri Zandvliet will not be defending his title. He’s in Ibiza at the Estrellas Poker Tour trying win a new one instead.

Loading up the starting stacks

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Dublin (in order of score out of ten they give Ballymaloe relish): Rick Dacey (8 – it’s tangy, tasty and just a little bit naughty) and Nick Wright (7 – it’s no Devonian chutney, but it’s close).

Tags: 2011 | action | Battle of the Planets | european | julian-thew | news | TOC | wcoop | WSOPE

Watching the final table of the 8-Game tournament was a lesson in poker. Seeing the whole cards would be something any poker player could use to learn to be a better player. Six fine players fought so hard that was almost sweat beading up on my laptop screen. (That would have been terrifying but didn’t happen.) Team PokerStars Pro ElkY did his best but had to accept third place, and Chris Lee and Alexander Kostritsyn battled in an epic heads-up match for the title. After nearly 1.5 hours, Lee emerged victorious, and Kostritsyn was left with another second place finish.

*****

For poker players who enjoy a challenge, HORSE used to be it. Five games, constantly changing, pretty tough lineup. Not anymore. These days, they like to up the ante, so to speak, and play the increasingly popular 8-Game mix. Starting with Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, the games then change to Limit Hold’em Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, No Limit Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha. If that’s not a challenge, combined with 15-minute levels and a star-studded field, I’m not sure what is.

Event 31 was the 8-Game that players anticipated, and the high buy-in offered a $2,100 chance at a SCOOP title. Here’s the resulting field and numbers:

Players: 107
Guarantee: $75,000.00
Prize pool: $214,000.00
Paid players: 12

The field was small but deadly, and it contained a number of Team PokerStars Pros. The first to exit was Martin Staszko, followed by Chad Brown and Team Online’s Kristian “ChraismA3″ Martin. A bit later, Team Online lost two more representatives when George “Jorj95″ Lind exited in 47th and Anders “Donald” Berg took off in 43rd. Team Pros were next in the line of eliminations, as Jose “nachoberbero” Barbero exited in 33rd and George Danzer in 29th.

As play continued into the seventh and eighth hours, the field thinned slowly but surely. Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov exited in tenth place for $5,350.00, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements took off in eighth place for $8,025.00.

It took over 45 minutes for the final table bubble to burst, but it did when short-stacked stevie444 pushed on a [8d][8s][6s][Qc] board with [Jh][9h]. Joiso called with [7h][7s], though, and that held up to the [Ah] on the river. Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick departed in seventh place with $8,025.00.

CHUFTY in charge

The final table began in Level 34, a Limit Hold’em round with 2,000/4,000 blinds. The players’ starting stacks were as follows:

Seat 1: Ig123456789 (10,492 in chips)
Seat 2: Genius28 (121,422 in chips)
Seat 3: Kecinpulach (68,400 in chips)
Seat 4: ElkY (122,299 in chips)
Seat 5: joiso (70,228 in chips)
Seat 6: CHUFTY (142,159 in chips)

Ig123456789 doubled up on the first hand of action, but another move came a few hands later. After a CHUFTY raise from the button, Ig123456789 called all-in for 2,738 chips. Genius28 raised, and CHUFTY called. They checked down the board of [Js][Kh][Tc][5c][5s], and Genius28 showed [7h][7s]. Both other players mucked their hands, and Ig123456789 had to leave the part in sixth place with $11,235.00.

A few minutes later, in the Omaha Hi/Lo round, Kecinpulach gets involved with a relatively short stack. Kecinpulach, ElkY, and joiso go to see a reraised flop of [Tc][9c][Js]. ElkY bet, joiso called, and Kecinpulach raised. When joiso bumped it up again, Kecinpulach moved all-in for 9,275 chips, and both players called. The [6d] on the turn and [6s] on the river completed the board, a bet from joiso on the river prompted a fold from ElkY. Kecinpulach showed [Jc][3s][2c][Kh] for two pair, but joiso had [Qd][Ac][8h][Kc] for the king-high straight. Kecinpulach, winner of a 2011 SCOOP, was denied one tonight and finished in fifth place with $14,980.00.

Deep stack poker

The final four chip stacks were:

Seat 2: Genius28 (131,410 in chips)
Seat 4: ElkY (108,024 in chips)
Seat 5: joiso (146,028 in chips)
Seat 6: CHUFTY (149,538 in chips)

Joiso took the reins and climbed toward the 200K mark while ElkY slipped below 100K but recovered. CHUFTY, on the other hand, suffered and became the shortest of the four stacks. That was only in the first 15 minutes, though. Genius28 then became the short stack, but at the 10-hour break, CHUFTY had 100,001 chips and joiso sunk down to 106,803. ElkY was the new chip leader and Genius28 was close behind.

CHUFTY chopped

After the break, CHUFTY had the most trouble, though he was able to double through ElkY to almost 60K. But his stack thinned quickly again, and in the Stud round, all 5,602 chips went into the pot against Genius28 and joiso. A bet a call took them to fifth and then sixth street, at which point a bet from Genius28 prompted joiso to fold. Genius showed [9c][5c][9d][As][Qc][Ts][8s], and that pair of nines was good enough to beat the [Qs][Jc][Td][6s][7c][5s][4d] hand of CHUFTY. Richard “CHUFTY” Ashby, winner of a 2010 WCOOP, was eliminated in fourth place tonight for $20,330.00.

Deeper stacks

Three-handed play started with these stacks:

Seat 2: Genius28 (166,500 in chips)
Seat 4: ElkY (110,797 in chips)
Seat 5: joiso (257,703 in chips)

ElkY lost ground quickly and hovered under the 100K mark for much of the first hour, though chipping up was a frequent-enough occurrence to keep him in action. Joiso, on the other hand, increased his lead, and Genius28 took a few of ElkY’s chips as well but stayed far enough behind joiso that the former was comfortable enough.

ElkY eliminated

The last Team Pro standing was finally reduced to a stack of little more than 21K. In a Deuce to Seven hand, ElkY got involved with joiso. ElkY took one and joiso took two for a bet and a call, and joiso stood pat after that. ElkY took one card and was all-in, and took yet another one before showing [3c][4h][8c][2s][3d]. Joiso turned over [8s][4s][Jh][7c][Th], and that was enough to eliminated Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who simply has too many accomplishments to list here, finished third in this tournament for $29,960.00.

Tense battle

The final two competitors geared up for battle with these counts:

Seat 2: Genius28 (198,750 in chips)
Seat 5: joiso (336,250 in chips)

Genius28 was chipped down to less than 100K but battled back, hand by hand, through the Deuce to Seven round. By the time Limit Hold’em came into effect, Genius had a significant chip lead over joiso. The LHE round allowed joiso to make a comeback, though, and even the stacks.

By the time they began the Omaha Hi/Lo round, Genius28 was ahead by about 70K chips, but that lead increased as the level went on. By the time they made it to Razz, though, joiso climbed back up over 200K. But another level saw more difficulties for joiso, especially as they entered the last Stud round.

As the key hand began, joiso mentioned the elephant at the table in the chat box: ” I have 3 second places in scoops ” But with a stack of less than 40K, it was going to take a big comeback to grab that elusive win. The two go through the motions on third and fourth streets until all of joiso’s chips go in on fifth with [Ac][Jc][4c]. Genius28 showed [3h][Ah][7c] with his call. When the hands were complete, they were:

joiso: [3s][Kc][Ac][Jc][4c][Qs][Qh]
Genius28: [7h][7d][3h][Ah][7c][8h][As]

The full house eliminated Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn in second place – a record of his plight was mentioned in this blog last year – and he took home $39,055.00 to ease the pain.

Chris “Genius28″ Lee won Event 31-H and received $58,315.00 to go with the Movado watch and tournament title. Congrats!

2012 SCOOP Event #31-H ($2,100 8-Game) Results:

Total players: 107
Paid players: 12

1st place: Chris “Genius28″ Lee (Canada) – $58,315.00
2nd place: Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn (Russia) – $39,055.00
3rd place: Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (UK) – $29,960.00
4th place: Richard “CHUFTY” Ashby (UK) – $20,330.00
5th place: Kecinpulach (Czech Republic) – $14,980.00
6th place: Ig123456789 (Ukraine) – $11,235.00

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

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