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.

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“Form” in poker can be a strange old thing. People talk about “run good” as if it’s the sudden equivalent of liquid gold pouring out of bathroom taps. On the other hand, the player “running bad” might feel as though they are trudging through an arid desert without a drop of water in sight. (And even when they do find a well, then winch up the bucket to find it full of sand, maybe with someone else’s bad beat story kindly printed out, rolled up and poking out.)

The kind of players who enter $25,000 High Roller events tend to be less susceptible to the whole superstition thing. They know that a bad run will be cancelled out if they stick with it long enough, and that it’s sensible not to get too carried away by an uptick in form. Even Jason Mercier and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier don’t win every flip they play.

However this event in Monaco affords us the opportunity to conduct a very small investigation into the nature of short-term run good, based on its slightly unusual entry policy.

If you cast your mind back to yesterday, you’ll remember us talking about players re-entering the tournament after losing all their chips. For the first four levels, busted players could cough up another $25,000 and get another 50,000 tournament points. Clearly people didn’t believe that much in run bad if they were encouraged to buy in again.

At the other end of the spectrum, there were also a handful of players in the tournament who had won their seats via a live satellite event on the eve of the big dance. Those players were, by definition, running good, having paid only one tenth of the entry fee to book their spot.

So what became of the re-loaders (ie, those running bad) and the satellite winners (ie, those running good)? Let’s find out shall we.

The players who bought back in yesterday were as follows, and what transpired after they bought a second stack is in brackets:

Re-entries:

Dan Shak (32,500 chips at end of day 1)
Govert Metaal (38,900)
Daniel Negreanu (102,700)
Faisal Alfalasi (Busted)
JC Alvarado (Busted)
Viktor Blom (67,500)
Imad Derwiche (40,100)
Martin Finger (203,700 – top 10 in chips)
Tony Gregg (Busted)
Eui Kim (Busted)
Mikhail Korotkikh (Busted)
Mike McDonald (213,500)
Scott Seiver (Busted)
Roger Tondeur (Busted)

Daniel Negreanu. Has apple. Not afraid to use it

Satellite winners:

David Deutsch (Busted day one)
Vincent van den Fluit (341,200 – second in chips)
Martin Schleich (Busted day one)
Peter Akery (73,600)
Sorel Mizzi (120,200)
Dori Yacoub (Busted day one)
Ivan Kudriavtcev (Busted day one)
Igor Kurganov (279,900 – top ten in chips)
Andries Swart (Busted day one)
Georgios Karakousis (Busted day one)
Ognjen Sekularac (Busted day one)
JC Alvarado (Busted day one)

So seven of the 14 players who re-entered went on to dust off their second stacks too, with only really Martin Finger and Mike McDonald putting their re-entries to really good use.

Martin Finger

On the other hand eight of the 12 satellite winners were out before the end of yesterday, but of those whose survived – in particular Vincent van den Fluit and Igor Kurganov – prospered still. (You’ll notice that JC Alvarado won a satellite, busted, and bought back in. So he fits in both groups.)

I’m not at all sure that this really tells us anything. Indeed, probably all it really does is convince us once again that poker doesn’t really respect the rules of run good or run bad, at least not at this level.

Since all this tortuous calculation began, Viktor Blom has doubled up and then busted from the tournament. And Sorel Mizzi has also lost his 120,000 overnight stack. So any perceived run good that he was experiencing is also over.

Viktor Blom: Buy, bust, re-buy, sleep, bust

And so, they play on. There are 37 players left, meaning eight have departed already. That’s a full table. Now to lose three more.

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The High Rollers are back in Monaco today. Less than 11 hours after bagging up their stacks at the end of Day 1, the 45 survivors from a heated opening ten levels in this $25,000 buy in event have returned to push on through, into the money and then on to an eight-handed final table.

Trimming a field of 45 down to the mandatory eight can often take some time. But bubble play at a High Roller event tends to be markedly less tortuous than it can be in any regular tournament. Having wagered a quarter to play, most aren’t really concerned with picking up a slight return on their money. It’s all about a big score, and today’s the day they will be trying to get a stack to go into the deepest stages.

As action progresses – and it is due to begin at noon – you can follow blow-by-blow coverage and chip-count updates on our live coverage pages. We will apply a smattering of colour on the rest of the Blog.

So settle down and we’ll begin. Here are the starting tables and stacks, etc.

Day two table and seat draw
(Table, seat, player, chips)

45 1 Liv Boeree 112,600
45 2 Mike McDonald  213,500
45 3 Faraz Jaka 109,300
45 4 Phil Ivey 271,500
45 5 David Sands 139,300
45 6 Joseph Elpayaa 121,200
45 7 Martin Finger 203,700
45 8 Andrew Badecker 350,000

46 1 Max Lykov 96,200
46 2 Peter Akery 73,600
46 3 Alexander Uskov 261,900
46 4 Artem Litvinov 227,400
46 5 Oleksii Kovalchuk 88,400
46 6 Haralabos Voulgaris 125,500
46 7 David Peters 80,100
46 8 Philip Gurian 77,600

47 1 Vincent van der Fluit 341,200
47 2 David Williams 90,000
47 3 Alexander Venovski 51,800
47 4 William Reynolds 203,700
47 5 Philipp Gruissem  170,800
47 6 Grayson Ramage 29,100
47 7 Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom 67,500
47 8 Sorel Mizzi 120,200

48 1 Igor Kurganov  279,900
48 2 Alex Bilokur 141,400
48 3 Nathan Schoo 63,300
48 4 Zachary Clark 96,700
48 5 Chris Moorman 261,700
48 6 Noah Schwartz 230,200
48 7 Michael Telker 112,400

49 1 Dominykas Karmazinas 29,000
49 2 Dan Shak 32,500
49 3 Govert Metaal 38,900
49 4 Patrik Antonius 307,500
49 5 Richard Lyndaker 124,700
49 6 Imad Derwiche 40,100
49 7 Andrey Pateychuk 108,000

50 1 Daniel Cates 34,000
50 2 Jason Somerville 52,400
50 3 Roman Romanovsky 201,100
50 4 Daniel Negreanu 102,700
50 5 Sami Kelopuro 310,000
50 6 Bryn Kenney 261,300
50 7 Justin Bonomo 204,200

Andrew Badecker: chip leader

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Tags: Baltic Poker Festival | belgian poker series | eureka poker tour | france poker series | napt | planets | poker | wbcoop

As our American friends tend to enjoy repeating, the great game of cricket can be impenetrable to people who don’t really understand its subtleties. It is indeed the sport in which a game can take five days to complete and even then no one wins.

Another of cricket’s unusual quirks is that for long periods, even the most avid follower will not really be able to tell who is in the lead. “Who’s winning?” someone might ask late on day two, and the cricket fan will likely reply: “Difficult to say really” before rambling on about the state of the pitch, the importance of the next partnership, overcast weather conditions due for day five and such like. You will often be well advised to wander away and leave them to it.

Major poker tournaments can be a lot like cricket in this regard. Once the felt starts cracking early on the fifth day, it can be much more difficult to get a read on the tricky players. And flushes are far more common under overcast skies.

Of course not. That is a joke. That is a cricket joke. But the wider point is this: much like cricket it can sometimes be really difficult to know who is winning a major poker tournament for much of the time. A player can double up on the first hand and surge to the top of the leader board, but the chances of them still being there at the end are very slim indeed.

Similarly we almost never see a pillar-to-post champion. You can be chip-leader at the end of the day before the final, but if you have a stinker when the tournament gets to the business end, your dreams will be in tatters.

The high roller event

As reporters, all we can really do is write what is happening at any one time, without any specific inside knowledge as to its longer-term relevance. A player getting knocked out is terminal for him or her, but the winner of the hand is only marginally more likely to go on to climb the winner’s rostrum.

At the moment, my colleague Donnie Peters is writing the hand-for-hand updates on this EPT High Roller. And he is also updating the chip count page. You can easily follow all that by clicking in the usual place, and that offers the most traditional answer to the question “Who’s winning?”

However we can also offer a brief snapshot, to tell you what’s going on right now in the tournament room. Its relevance is unclear. But it is only marginally less relevant than the chip-counts.

Boeree mixing it with Ivey
Few players over the past few years have been more focused and committed on a career in poker than Liv Boeree. She is the player who went from rank amateur on a reality show to the dizzy heights of EPT champion and Team PokerStars Pro. And almost all of it was due to hard work, persistence, and knowing how to grasp opportunity when it is presented.

Liv Boeree, high rolling

For all amateur poker players in the modern game, the pinnacle of achievement is playing against Phil Ivey, still clearly in the top three poker players alive, and maybe in the top one. Young players have gone to sleep for about the past 10 years dreaming one day of locking horns with Ivey.

For Boeree, that dream is now reality. In this High Roller event, she is now to Ivey’s immediate left – and she is making her positional advantage pay. Boeree has about 30,000 more chips than Ivey and is really putting him to the test.

Just recently, Boeree, on the button, had bet 21,000 on the river, looking at a board of [4d][4c][6d][as][9s]. Ivey was deep in contemplation, his unflappable demeanour visibly undermined. He counting out calling chips, then counted out raising chips, then put them down again. He peeled off his headphones and tossed them on the table. He looked to the sky, then to the ground. Then he called and was shown [6c][6h]. Ivey scooped up the sixes, put them with his own hand, and tossed the four cards into the muck.

Boeree is not only tangling with Ivey, she’s putting him to the test.

Hello, the internet
You might have heard by now that Viktor Blom is the man behind the Isildur1 account. His online performances have probably been watched by more people than any other player’s. Today he is back in the live environment, playing his second $25,000 bullet in the High Roller. And yet it must be like home from home.

Viktor Blom

Also on Blom’s table this evening are Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney and Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro, two other huge online players. Alex Kravchenko and Dan Shak, live pros both, are also involved on that table. It could yet get very ugly indeed.

How about this for tough
Lex Veldhuis busted some time ago from one of the most difficult tables ever assembled in live poker. And Mike Watson has also now bust from there. But no worries, because this slab of felt is still a beast: Alex Gomes sits with Sorel Mizzi and Max Lykov and Patrik Antonius and Ivan Demidov.

Rather them than me.

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Tags: 2011 | european | harrah's | lapt | pca | rio | SCOOP | tcoop | team pokerstars pro | UKIPT | wbcoop | world-series

If you’ve ever read anything about the European Poker Tour (EPT), chances are you’ve read about this whole two-time winner hoodoo. We’ve written about it so many times, the keys practically type themselves. In short: no one has ever won two EPTszzzzzzzzzz.

Wake up!

Thing is, a quick glance around the High Roller field in Monaco today goes some way to explaining why no one has ever done the main event double. Quite apart from picking up a second trophy, some of poker’s dyed-in-the-wall legends have never even won a first.

It’s really quite stunning. Here are a few of the players in the Salle des Etoiles this afternoon, with the number of EPT titles in brackets beside their names:

Erik Seidel (0), Will Reynolds (0), Tom Marchese (0), Isaac Haxton (0), Vanessa Selbst (0), Bryn Kenney (0), Sami Kelopuro (0), Scott Seiver (0), Chris Moorman (0), David Williams (0), Dan Shak (0), Lex Veldhuis (0), Sorel Mizzi (0), Ivan Demidov (0), Jonathan Duhamel (0), Mike Watson (0), William Thorson (0), Martin Kabrhel (0), Daniel Negreanu (0), Toni Judet (0), Jason Sommerville (0), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (0), Daniel Cates (0), Phil Ivey (0), Alex Gomes (0), Dan Smith (0), Eugene Katchalov (0), JP Kelly (0), Philipp Gruissem (0), Steve O’Dwyer (0), Tobias Reinkemeier (0), Viktor Blom (0), Justin Bonomo (0) and Faraz Jaka (0).

Vanessa Selbst: In good company

You get the picture – and if this little lot haven’t managed a single title between them, you can see why it’s so hard for anyone to get another.

Of course, there also are some former main event champions in the field: Mike McDonald, Christophe Benzimra, Max Lykov, Martin Finger, Mark Teltscher, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier, Martin Schleich, Patrick Antonius and ElkY. And a significant number of them have already picked up High Roller titles too.

Kevin MacPhee

We’re not saying this lot aren’t celebrated. Far from it. But they seem to have about as much chance as you or I at becoming the first two-time champ.

*****

Tournament update:

At the end of the first level of play, there were 51 players on the entry list, of which 50 remained. At the end of the second level of play, there were 100 players on the entry list, of which 99 remained.

Now, even as we get close to the end of level three, the board shows 113 registrations and 112 still in.

But unfortunately this isn’t all as clear as it sounds. During this extended registration period, players have also been able to re-enter, once and once only. Govert Metaal, our first faller, did so. Ditto Daniel Negreanu. Tony Gregg busted and bought back; Kevin MacPhee busted but didn’t.

Viktor Blom busted and said he would be buying back but hasn’t yet. And doubtless in the coming hour a load more will be busting and maybe buying back, but maybe not. That number represents buy-ins, rather than actual people, and it’s impossible to keep up with it all at the moment.

So it’s as clear as mud, but hang in there and we will soon find out what is really going on.

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The Day 2 seat draw below shows that we have 394 players remaining from the 665 that started. Chip leader Nick Yunis, yes he of joint fourth place in the EPT Player of the Year race, sits on table 1 with the likes of Tony Gregg (double PCA final table finisher), Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin and EPT regular Manuel Bevand.

We’re slated to play six 75-minute levels today with a dinner break after the fourth level of the day. We suspect a seventh level may be played if we’re close to popping the money bubble. Click here for live coverage and more features from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Daniel Negreanu will be grinding his 22,400 stack

(Table, seat, name, chips)
1 1 Hafiz Khan 71,500
1 2 Thomas Wahlroos 24,300
1 3 Nicola Bordignon 41,400
1 4 Tony Gregg 34,700
1 5 Nick Yunis  191,700
1 6 Michel Carvin 59,800
1 7 Manuel Bevand 16,300
1 8 Victor Ramdin 7,000
1 9 Vadzim Markushevski 49,500

2 1 Andrew Badecker 83,800
2 2 Beatrice Sitbon 17,100
2 3 Aneris Adomkevicius 46,100
2 4 Aage Ravn 57,200
2 5 Barry Greenstein 71,100
2 6 Christophe Benzimra 25,000
2 7 Claus Bek Nielsen 37,700
2 8 Lawrie Inman 100,800
2 9 Casey Kastle 10,600

3 1 Martin Wendt 53,600
3 2 Suat Uyanik 33,200
3 3 Craig McCorkell 8,500
3 4 Ole Schemion 64,400
3 5 Patrick Renkers 23,700
3 6 Thibaud Genegou 16,900
3 7 Nils Svensson 76,800
3 8 Levon Bouchikian 45,400
3 9 Andrew Pantling  91,500

4 1 Jose Manuel Nadal 69,800
4 2 Andrey Gulyy 59,100
4 3 Philippe Narboni 16,200
4 4 Ricky Tang 23,200
4 5 Andrey Bondar 29,900
4 6 Mats Gavatin 48,100
4 7 Santiago Nadal Sordo 85,600
4 8 Alessio Isaia 139,600
4 9 Stephane Albertini 38,000

5 1 Ermo Kosk 10,600
5 2 Ivan Kudriavtcev 186,200
5 3 Daniel Studer 50,100
5 4 Vito Lonigro 31,900
5 5 Phillippe Rouas 17,800
5 6 Jeffrey Gross 26,800
5 7 Nathan Schoo 65,100
5 8 Emin Aghayev 82,500
5 9 Mick Graydon 40,500

6 1 Daniel Di Pasquale 65,400
6 2 Stephen Reynolds 78,200
6 3 Fioroni Aroldo 11,500
6 4 Vojtech Ruzicka 43,400
6 5 Marc Colomé 34,800
6 6 Andrea Benelli 53,200
6 7 Xavier Detournel 25,800
6 8 Lothar Meier 19,100
6 9 Vladimir Geshkenbein 103,900

7 1 Bryn Kenney 30,600
7 2 Bruno Launais 77,500
7 3 Edward Teems 59,700
7 4 Tom Marchese 112,000
7 5 Sergiy Baranov 23,700
7 6 Clayton Mozdzen 40,700
7 7 Marat Begenov 10,500
7 8 Olivier Douce 48,600
7 9 Kevin MacPhee 16,800

8 1 Mikhail Korotkikh 61,300
8 2 Marc-Andre Ladouceur 101,300
8 3 Adrian Veghinas 84,600
8 4 Dieter Albrecht 42,100
8 5 Cristea Ionut 52,100
8 6 Alain Daien 24,200
8 7 Andrei Stoenescu 17,700
8 8 Evgeny Taranyuk 11,200
8 9 George Danzer 31,200

9 1 Ignat Liviu 36,700
9 2 Rade Jovanovski 16,000
9 3 Sandor Demjan 43,000
9 4 Sorel Mizzi 61,600
9 5 Oleh Okhotskyi 74,000
9 6 Steve O’Dwyer 101,600
9 7 Alexey Sudarikov 22,800
9 8 Ziv Caspi 27,600
9 9 Mikalai Pobal 51,800

10 1 Zoltan Szabo 35,400
10 2 Fowzi Baroukh 28,600
10 3 Lucien Cohen 21,900
10 4 Mickael Tribert 45,600
10 5 Alain Goldberg 74,700
10 6 Vanessa Selbst 54,900
10 7 Yulius Sepman 16,000
10 8 Aubin Cazals 93,500
10 9 Ville Wahlbeck 61,700

11 1 Kenny Hicks 40,000
11 2 Giuseppe Pantaleo 19,600
11 3 Marco Leonzio 58,800
11 4 Mesbah Guerfi 24,300
11 5 David Peters 67,400
11 6 Toby Lewis 12,500
11 7 Scott Seiver 99,800
11 8 Clyde Tjauw Foe 82,600
11 9 Javier Garcia 48,000

12 1 Idris Ambraisse 125,000
12 2 Ariel Mantel 48,200
12 3 John Eames 157,200
12 4 Geert-Jan Potijk 116,000
12 5 Martin Schleich 59,300
12 6 John O’Shea 39,900
12 7 Yury Kerzhapkin 23,600
12 8 Johnny Lodden 12,600
12 9 Tudor Grangure 30,400

13 1 Benoit Albiges 43,400
13 2 Rumen Nanev 51,300
13 3 Jeffrey Hakim 25,900
13 4 George Lind 35,900
13 5 Vanessa Rousso 17,000
13 6 Sam Trickett 65,800
13 7 Nacho Barbero 105,400
13 8 Juan Gonzalez Venzano 85,500
13 9 Griffin Benger 10,600

14 1 Daniele Guidetti 42,300
14 2 Gaelle Baumann 35,400
14 3 Francis-Nicolas Bouchard 26,200
14 4 Mike Carter 12,400
14 5 Basil Yaiche 54,300
14 6 Ramon Romero Lanz 63,300
14 7 Jesse Martin 93,500
14 8 Seamus Cahill 78,900
14 9 Samuel Chartier  18,400

15 1 Bruno Fitoussi  14,000
15 2 Jonathan Villeneuve 58,500
15 3 Jean-Noel Thorel 100,400
15 4 Yannick Del Curto 30,400
15 5 Ognjen Sekularac 47,900
15 6 Igor Malyshkov 20,200
15 7 JP Kelly 83,700
15 8 Sinel Anton 69,100
15 9 Nicolas Chouity 38,700

16 1 Jason Somerville 13,200
16 2 Dimitar Danchev 67,000
16 3 Roman Romanovsky 58,300
16 4 Andrey Zaichenko  42,000
16 5 Mikhail Petrov 19,550
16 6 Dragan Kostic 34,400
16 7 Michael Kolkowicz 93,600
16 8 Justin Bonomo 79,000
16 9 Vincenzo Andrea 26,400

17 1 Matthias De Meulder 23,900
17 2 Leon Viellevoije 30,900
17 3 Kyle Julius 16,600
17 4 Phil Ivey 72,000
17 5 Anton Ionel 7,200
17 6 Sebastian Veghinas 48,600
17 7 Martial Blangenwitsch 60,000
17 8 Andrey Demidov 104,400
17 9 Maksim Kolosov 40,700

18 1 Marc Zaicik 35,800
18 2 Timofey Kuznetsov 99,700
18 3 Humberto Brenes 77,700
18 4 Carlos Sanchez Vegas 53,600
18 5 Kut Fu Chow 27,600
18 6 Daniel Negreanu 22,400
18 7 Marcel Luske 63,200
18 8 Maxim Panyak 6,700
18 9 Elliot Smith 45,700

19 1 Vladislav Varlashin 20,700
19 2 Maria Ho 55,500
19 3 Adham Beainy 47,000
19 5 Maroun Jazzar 25,300
19 6 Walid Bou-Habib 85,700
19 7 Ben Warrington 104,800
19 8 Dermot Blain 66,000
19 9 Marco Falanga 34,300

20 1 Keven Stammen 46,800
20 2 Dmitry Grishin 81,300
20 3 Jose Carlos Garcia 12,100
20 4 Paul Testud 28,900
20 5 Spencer Hudson 57,900
20 6 Bolivar Palacios 65,600
20 7 Giacomo Maisto 23,200
20 8 Kunimaro Kojo 36,900
20 9 Dario Minieri 94,700

21 1 Yann Brosolo 18,200
21 2 Chanracy Khun 43,700
21 3 Andrey Kuznetsov 33,900
21 4 Zachary Clark 24,100
21 5 Michael Telker 60,900
21 6 Ole Nergard 80,500
21 7 Patrick Sacrispeyre 8,500
21 8 Jason Mercier 52,200
21 9 Mickey Petersen 98,800

22 1 Joackim Fissenko 24,000
22 2 Flavius Puica 54,400
22 3 Pavel Gonchakov 67,200
22 4 Christopher Hunichen 32,200
22 5 Annette Obrestad 82,400
22 6 Anatoly Gurtovoy 118,100
22 7 Joe Cada 17,000
22 8 Vincent Verdickt 4,700
22 9 Liv Boeree 44,900

23 1 Amit Makhija 32,000
23 2 Yury Gulyy 26,500
23 3 Joao Nunes 14,000
23 4 Sergey Baburin 21,400
23 5 Fabrice Soulier 73,300
23 6 Jonathan Karamalikis 89,600
23 7 Andrey Danilyuk 60,000
23 8 Terje Augdal 49,500
23 9 Jude Ainsworth 41,000

24 1 Malte Moennig 136,900
24 2 Rasmus Vogt 25,000
24 3 Marcus Hellner 17,800
24 4 William Thorson 31,000
24 5 Marius Pospiech 12,500
24 6 Cengiz Ulusu 114,300
24 7 Alexander Venovski 48,500
24 8 Isaac Baron 40,100
24 9 Pratyush Buddiga 69,900

25 1 Javier Gil Candelas 10,800
25 2 Rodrigo Dos Santos Caprioli 36,800
25 3 Martin Kabrhel 167,800
25 4 Richard Toth 52,900
25 5 Samir Moukawem 24,000
25 6 Bryan Piccioli 60,900
25 7 Oleksandr Vaserfirer  43,200
25 8 Robert Sova 17,400
25 9 Martin Finger 85,900

26 1 Ilan Boujenah 117,000
26 2 Noah Boeken  83,900
26 3 Erik Cajelais 45,300
26 4 Raphael Kroll 27,100
26 5 Chris Oliver 58,900
26 6 Darko Stojanovic 13,300
26 7 Tibor Nagygyorgy 19,900
26 8 Konstantin Tolokno 39,600
26 9 Andrey Pateychuk 67,800

27 1 Thomas Muhlocker 40,200
27 2 Mathew Frankland 81,500
27 3 Frank Koopmann 113,900
27 4 Andrea Dato 30,700
27 6 Ben Vinson 65,500
27 7 Pierre Neuville 51,100
27 8 Janos Molnar 16,700
27 9 Chris Moneymaker 24,000

28 1 Klimashin Nikolaevich 80,400
28 2 Habib Esses 12,600
28 3 Matt Perrins 95,100
28 4 Chao Fei Wang 44,700
28 5 Adria Balaguer 18,700
28 6 Fady Kamar 62,300
28 7 Martins Adeniya 24,900
28 8 Vadzim Kursevich 53,300
28 9 Anders Berg 31,800

29 1 Jason Wheeler 112,900
29 2 Erich Kollmann 12,300
29 3 Martin Staszko 26,600
29 4 Juha Lauttamus 35,700
29 5 Vladimir Troyanovski 86,700
29 6 Michael Watson 45,800
29 7 Mikhail Semin 59,000
29 8 Roberto Menache 68,200
29 9 Emile Petit 21,000

30 1 Andres Artinano 125,200
30 2 Jamie Rosen 9,100
30 3 Damien Rony 49,900
30 4 Paul Vas Nunes 21,700
30 5 Imad Derwiche 27,400
30 6 Vasili Firsau 87,300
30 7 Jonathan Azoulay 33,700
30 8 Adam Levy 66,800
30 9 Oleg Larichev 41,300

31 1 Thomas Dolezal 54,700
31 2 Kristian Lunardi 20,200
31 3 Lucille Cailly 63,500
31 4 Jonathan Ben Soussan 99,000
31 5 Paul Berende 82,100
31 6 Rupert Elder 36,100
31 7 Andrew Dean 14,300
31 8 Simeon Naydenov 28,200
31 9 Tony Viklund 46,000

32 1 Christopher Brammer 67,500
32 2 Igor Sharaskin 47,300
32 3 Ghosn Fadi 30,400
32 4 Mikhail Ustinov 58,000
32 5 David Vamplew 15,500
32 6 Franck Blanc 160,800
32 7 Dorde Jovanovic 40,000
32 8 Pedro Pellicer 21,400
32 9 Ana Marquez 85,200

33 1 Nikolay Losev 59,500
33 2 Michele D’Aniello 71,500
33 3 Michael Dietrich 88,600
33 4 Vadim Vadimovich Belov 22,100
33 5 Dan Shak 33,200
33 6 Jean-Philippe Piquette 15,110
33 7 Mikael Azoulay 41,200
33 8 Omar Jadaa 27,200
33 9 Stephen Chidwick 49,000

34 1 Tobias Reinkemeier 35,625
34 2 Eric Qu 51,600
34 3 Riu Cao 90,600
34 4 Jan Petersen 61,200
34 5 Daniel Gomez 41,800
34 6 Chady Merhej 75,300
34 7 Yngve Andersen 20,200
34 8 Giulio Mascolo 10,210
34 9 Tauras Narmontas 27,600

35 1 Salman Behbehani 41,400
35 2 Shane Sigsbee 52,300
35 3 Carlos Mironiuk 75,700
35 4 Philip Gurian 19,300
35 5 Samantha Cohen 93,500
35 6 Jorge Galino Lopez 5,100
35 7 Torsten Brinkmann 24,200
35 8 Emanoil Savin 60,700
35 9 Robert Shields 32,900

36 1 Oleksii Kovalchuk 65,600
36 2 Adrian Schaap 76,400
36 3 Erik Seidel 56,500
36 4 Hamad Almannai 91,400
36 5 Joao Ribeiro 29,600
36 6 Alexander Uskov 36,000
36 7 Talal Shakerchi 45,100
36 8 Viktor Ivanov 13,800
36 9 Amichai Tzvi Barer 22,900

37 1 Anton Thorarinsson 22,100
37 2 Bruno Lopes 57,600
37 3 William Reynolds 29,900
37 4 Jeffrey Rossiter 39,600
37 5 Pius Heinz 87,100
37 6 Thomas Gabriel 68,500
37 7 Tristan Clemencon 121,100
37 8 Marvin Rettenmaier 45,400
37 9 David Sonelin 12,200

38 1 Faraz Jaka 42,900
38 2 Salvatore Bianco 71,600
38 3 Martin Vallo 88,600
38 4 Kevin Vandersmissen 29,700
38 5 Michael Winkels 16,100
38 6 Angel Guillen 60,200
38 7 Viacheslav Goryachev 51,100
38 8 Ilkin Amirov 36,000
38 9 Toni Judet 22,500

39 1 John Andress 41,900
39 2 Marco Della Tommasina 60,200
39 3 Chris Moorman 19,100
39 4 Jorge Carlos Delgado 73,800
39 5 Joris Springael 11,600
39 6 Guillaume Darcourt 49,500
39 7 David Sands 160,300
39 8 Thomas Mjeldheim 34,600
39 9 Liutauras Armanavicius 25,500

40 1 Freddy Deeb 114,600
40 2 Ibrahim Ghassan 20,900
40 3 Daniel Reijmer 32,100
40 4 Antonino Venneri 15,000
40 5 Joel Bez 45,000
40 6 Georges Ghossan 53,500
40 7 Ondrej Vinklarek 83,200
40 8 Fatima Moreira de Melo 61,500
40 9 Philipp Gruissem 24,600

41 1 Isabelle Mercier 23,900
41 2 Jonathan Turner 40,200
41 3 Noshrevan Gadelia 1,000
41 4 Cristiano Guerra 31,400
41 5 Kenny Hallaert 61,300
41 6 Dan Abouaf 89,100
41 7 Alessandro De Michele 49,800
41 8 Jesus Esteve 75,200
41 9 Alain Roy 16,400

42 1 Anatoly Chen 26,200
42 2 Eduardo Borio Carlini 21,300
42 3 Philip Parsons 67,300
42 4 Georges Dib 96,300
42 5 Dori Yacoub 14,100
42 6 Oleg Bychkov 82,600
42 7 Sandra Naujoks 37,100
42 8 Leo Margets 55,100
42 9 Borge Dypvik 46,200

43 1 Dominykas Karmazinas 81,600
43 2 Bernard Guigon 57,300
43 3 Joep van den Bijgaart 13,400
43 4 Mohsin Charania 68,300
43 5 Reza Mostafavi Tabatabaei 110,900
43 6 Mathieu Clavet 30,100
43 7 Jose Angel Latorre 46,800
43 8 Jesus Cortes 23,500
43 9 Freddy Darakjian 39,900

44 1 Robert-Andrei Pescaru 27,600
44 2 Andoni Larrabe Sánchez 181,300
44 3 Max Martinez 63,400
44 4 Jason Gray 34,600
44 5 Melanie Weisner 15,900
44 6 Sergio Castelluccio 83,100
44 7 Sergey Kishnev 50,600
44 8 JC Alvarado 43,000
44 9 Antoine Saout 22,300

Tournament snapshot
Level 9: blinds 400-800, ante 100
Players: 394 of 665
Click here for live coverage and more features from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Tags: australia | Baltic Poker Festival | barry-greenstein | european | france | news | pius heinz | pokerstars macau | portugal | Tony G | victor-ramdin | videos

Something is about to happen that will make history in the country of Monaco. For the first time in eight seasons of action, the European Poker Tour will host a €100,000 buy-in event. Never before have EPT players paid so much for a single tournament buy-in. Monday at 14:00 in Monte Carlo, the Super High Roller event will kick of a full week of tournament poker at The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final.

There is barely any way to overstate how intense the festival’s first event will be. Included among the the confirmed players are some of the biggest names in the game. 2011 PCA $100,000 Super High Roller winner Eugene Katchalov will join 2012 PCA Super High Roller champ Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom in a fight for what is sure to be a gigantic first prize. Here are a few of the names who have already committed to taking their €100,000 seats.

Daniel Negreanu

Jason Mercier

Scott Seiver

David Sands

Dan Shak

Tony G

Artem Evgenievich Litvinov

Leon Tsoukernik

Tobias Reinkemeier

Masa Kagawa

Patrik Antonius

Jason Somerville

Sorel Mizzi

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier

Jonathan Duhamel

Dan Smith

Blom’s victory in the Bahamas last January was his first major live tournament championship. Now he will take this first big chance to prove his success wasn’t a fluke. After he won his last event, he left us with these words: “I hope it isn’t my last.” His commitment to showing up this week shows he cares about more than cash games.

Viktor Blom after his PCA victory

It must be pointed out, there is a great difference between $100,000 and €100,000. The euro is doing a lot better than the dollar these days, so the €100,000 event comes out to something like $132,000. This is not the kiddie pool we’re swimming in this week.

Also, just like the Super High Roller $100,000 event in the Bahamas, this Super High Roller is a reload tourney. If you think nobody would rebuy in such a big event, think again. It happened twice in the Bahamas.

The Super High Roller is just the first of 37 events that will play out over the next week. The highlight of the festival is the Grand Final main event, the championship tournament of a 13-stop season that’s taken players from Barcelona, all over Europe, and back to Monaco for the first time since Season 6. To see a full schedule of all the events in the coming week, check out the PokerStars EPT Grand Final schedule.

The PokerStars Blog will have full coverage of the Super High Roller, €10,000 main event, and €25,000 High Roller though the coming days. Our live coverage will begin Monday at 14:00 right here on the EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller live updates page.

Join us here for all the action as we close out Season 8 of the European Poker Tour.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | bahamas | Baltic Poker Festival | elky | estrellas poker tour | festival | france poker series | isildur1 | Super Tuesday | tcoop | world-series

The invitation is the kind that few people receive and fewer people accept. The favorable RSVP list is one of the shortest in the world. And yet, it’s the biggest deal in European poker this month.

In just three weeks, the EPT will host its first ever European-based Super High Roller event. The €100,000 buy-in event will be the toughest tournament on European soil and serve as the opening event for this year’s Season 8 closing festival at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

The prize pool for the event is already at €2 million. Twenty of the biggest players in the world have already put down their cash.

Here’s a list of the people who have committed to the event so far:

Daniel Negreanu

Eugene Katchalov

Jason Mercier

Scott Seiver

David Sands

Dan Shak

Tony G

Artem Evgenievich Litvinov

Leon Tsoukernik

Tobias Reinkemeier

Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom

Masa Kagawa

Patrik Antonius

Jason Somerville

Sorel Mizzi

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier

Jonathan Duhamel

Dan Smith

You might recall, Eugene Katchalov won the $100,000 Super High Roller at the 2011 PCA. Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom won it in 2012. Now, the buy-in is bigger, the event is in Monaco, and both of those champions are on the list to play.

Viktor Blom after his Super High Roller win

This will be the first time the EPT has hosted an event of this size in Europe. With 20 people already signed up, it’s looking to be a success before it even gets started.

“We’re extremely pleased to have such a fantastic response to the first ever European Super High Roller event and we look forward to welcoming some of the biggest names in international poker,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly.

Also of note: this is a reload event. In the event somebody goes broke, they can buy back in. Don’t laugh. It happened twice during the PCA Super High Roller this year.

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier said, “There are some big names signed up to play, and that always makes for an exciting tournament, not only for the players at the table, but for the spectators too.”

The PokerStars Blog will have full coverage of the Super High Roller and the rest of the big EPT Grand Final events beginning three weeks from now.

The only question now is who else will sign up? Any predictions? Leave them in the comments section.

Tags: delicious | ept | poker | portugal | president | SCOOP | tcoop | team pokerstars pro

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is supposed to be one of the premiere events in the poker world. It did not disappoint! It was absolutely gorgeous and I got to share hosting duties with the lovely Kristy Arnett. Just in case you haven’t seen the white sandy beaches, the palm trees, the water parks, or Kristy in a bikini, check out this video.

PokerStars kicked off the tournament series in style with the $100,000 Super High Roller. The action was intense and there were even two re-buys; one by businessman and Big Game regular Bill Perkins, the other by Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel. It worked out for Duhamel because he ended up in the top five that cashed. He also ended up having an incredible PCA in general, but, more on that in a bit.

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu and last year’s Main Event champion Galen Hall also cashed this huge event. Heads-up play ended up being Dan Shak against Team PokerStars Pro Viktor ‘Isuldir1′ Blom. Blom shipped the first-place prize of $1,254,000. Prior to this win, Blom had never appeared in a video interview before. However, in light of this huge live victory, he finally spoke.

Blom really proved that he has a presence in the live tournament circuit. And I finally got a better glance at what it is like to grind online. PokerStars Team Online’s Randy Lew set up a grind station right by the media row and proceeded to set a Guinness World Record. He played almost 24,000 hands in eight hours and made a profit. It was insane to watch. He NEVER stood up in the entire eight hours.

Of Course the Main Event attracted a huge field of 1,072 players. Like bees to honey, poker players love the PCA. The final table ended up with quite a few online players. But, the winner was day trader John Dibella.

Meanwhile Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel was leading the way in the $25,000 dollar High Roller. He played five events and final tabled four of them! And he shipped one of the $5,000 side events. He ended up besting the incredible High Roller field to get heads-up with Russian player Leonid Bilokur. Bilokur took down the event. But it was definitely a profitable trip for the 2010 WSOP Main Event winner.

Needless to say, even though I didn’t get too much time in the sun, I had a ball. I treasure the opportunity to spend some quality time with the best players in the world. Hopefully next year, I get to go to the party!

Tags: elky | ept | eureka poker tour | france | gambling | italian poker tour | news | pius heinz | planets | team pokerstars pro | TOC | wcoop

Some people have voices that carry, other do not. Sean Deeb is certainly in the first group, Vanessa Rousso the second. Deeb’s chuckle can be heard from almost any point in a tournament room and, much like those eyes that follow you in old painting, it always sounds like it’s just a couple of tables away.

It must be something to do with her pitch or accent but I can never decipher what the hell Rousso is saying. Not one word. It’s all a soft jumble to me, perhaps it me, everyone at the table seems to be able to hear. I could be missing absolute gold but unless I clamber onto the table it’s just not going to happen. She might be elucidating on the importance of four-betting light against Deeb or talking about what levels or rake are acceptable or not. I just don’t know.

Vanessa Rousso

What I do know is that her chip stack is moving in the right direction at the expense of Deeb and Sam Stein who are both on sub 40,000. Stein is the shorter having lost a small pot to Lady Maverick on a [kh][6h][ah][3c][th] board with a raggedy ace to Rousso’s [ac][jc]. A less polarised board could have cost him more.

Rousso is up to around 130,000 and seems comfortable in her situation here with double bracelet winner JP Kelly stacked with 70,000 two seats to her right and Dan Shak – who for some reason always reminds me of Chevy Chase – one seat further. Rousso has won more than half-a-million dollars in live tournaments each of the last three years and she’ll be keen to get herself into the black for 2012 with a solid score here. A min-cash in 16th will pocket you $58,020. Make the final table and you’ll book a six-figure score and the High Roller champ will take $1,134,930. Here’s a reminder of what they’re playing for.

1. $1,134,930
2. $634,550
3. $380,730
4. $271,950
5. $217,560
6. $181,300
7. $145,040
8. $108,780
9-10. $79,770
11-12. $72,520
13-14. $65,270
15-16. $58,020

Tags: archives | Asia Pacific Poker Tour | black | day 5 | entertainment | news | SCOOP | TOC | World Series of Poker