It’s not quite an aptronym, where your name suits your job*, but it’s not far off. William Champion leads the Day 1A field with 129,700. The fast talking 46-year-old father of four got chipped up in a big pot where he turned top set against Barny Boatman and got paid on all three streets. That set him up for a rollicking performance which rolled the beaming Northern Irishman up the chip counts into the lead. Those chasing him are Paul McCaffrey (112,000), Marc McDonnell (106,600), Michael Farrelly (90,400) and Graeme Crozier (86,900).

Champion, a data storage engineer by day, classes himself as a poker enthusiast who has thrown himself into the game, partly in thanks to working in Paris where he plays live tournaments four or five nights a week. Between that and all the strategy reading something seems to be paying off: he is well above the 32,802 chip average of the 91 players that made through Day 1A. A total of 199 entered today, we should see that many and more tomorrow.

*Think Bill Hammer for a blacksmith or Angela Spam for a marketing executive.

William Champion, Day 1A chip leader

The big stacks at the top may not be names that you’d recognise but that’s certainly not to say that plenty of known faces didn’t turn up to play today. Notable players that made it through include Sam Razavi (20,800), Robert Csire (12,700), Richard Haile (20,400), David O’Connor (10,500), Max Silver (21,100), Jason Tompkins (34,100) and Dara O’Kearney (20,700). To see all the players that made it through click through to our chip count page.

UKIPT Season 2 leader board winner Sam Razavi

Plenty of others bust including two-time UKIPT winner Nick Abou Risk who was the second player out, much to the relief of the rest of the field, after running kings into aces, while plenty of the old guard ultimately met the same fate. Surinder Sunar ($4,588,736 in live winnings) and the Boatman brothers (a combined $3,994,819) both failed to make Day 2 but as Barny said: “You don’t win anything for making Day 2.” But neither do you make anything for busting Day 1.

Ross Boatman, brother of Barny

Rob Yong, owner of the Dusk Till Dawn poker club, fell in the penultimate level of the day five-bet jamming close to 20,000 into Bruce Jones who made the call with pocket queens. Yong held five-nine offsuit. His club’s poker director, Simon Trumper, will not be in Day 2′s chip counts either. Jones finished the day with 73,000.

Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth had an up and down day, some of the former but unfortunately ending on the latter thanks to the last season’s leader board champion Sam Razavi. It wasn’t the most straightforward of days for Razavi either who seemed to bemoan suck out after suck out before turning the corner and finishing the day a little below average. Ainsworth will have to console himself with the thought of winning his second SCOOP $10,300 main event this weekend. We caught up with Ainsworth which you could read about by clicking on this link and scrolling to 3.05pm: Catching up with Ainsworth.

Day 1B starts at 12 noon tomorrow and we expect to see a larger field than today. Join us for all the fun and frolics.

To catch up with today’s action click through the links below:
Levels 1-4
Levels 5-8

All images are copyright of Mickey May and must credited as such. She’ll force feed you with Danish liquorice until you lose your mind in a sugar-induced psychosis if you don’t.

Tags: entertainment | ept | facebook | gambling | micromillions | pokerstars macau | portugal poker series | SCOOP | tcoop | TOC | wbcoop

8.40pm: Tussles at the top
As play winds down for the day, there’s 15 minutes left the inevitable ‘last three hands’, klaxon can’t be far off, it appears that only two players have broken the six figure mark. It’s still William Champion out in front, he has around 110,000 but Marc McDonnell, who has 102,000 is hot on his heels. — NW

8.30pm: More head to the rail
There’s no easy way to say this but if you’re looking for any of the following; Surinder Sunar, Mark Coyne, Patrick Rooney, Wei Li, Adrian Tracey, Robert Elkin, Chris Dowling, David Path or Ashfaaq Taus, then you’re better trying the bar or the cash tables. Don’t head to the main event tables, they’re not there. — RD

Surinder Sunar and Liam Flood: there, there, it’s going to be all right…

8.25pm: Minimal damage
Such was the gravitas of this hand for UKIPT Cork champion Sam Razavi that he devoted two tweets to it! “WOW! I call c/o 3x raise out of BB w/A-10; flop A83 he fires flop I call; turn Q chk chk riv total brick I bet half pot he flats A8… ..I feel like I won the hand!!! Can’t believe I lost the absolute minimum.”

Razavi is definitely in a happy mood, he was overheard saying: “Not long to jagerbomb time, I feel like a kid on Christmas eve.” — NW

8.15pm: A few small skirmishes
There hasn’t been much in the way of ‘double up or go home’ fireworks that you usually associate with the last level of the night, but nonetheless there have been a few small skirmishes to report.

Three players including Timothy Boyle and Ann Tran Dinh paid 1,200 each to see a flop of [8d][Ad][9d], it checked to Boyle who bet 3,250, call from Dinh. The [Kh] fell on the turn and Dinh wasted no time in moving all-in for around 12,000, Boyle insta-mucked.

Elsewhere Andrew Laurie got two streets of value with [Ah][9s] on a [9d][Qs][3s][Ad][3d] board by betting 2,200 on the turn and 3,000 on the river.

There’s 30 minutes left in the day and 104 players remain. — NW

8.05pm: Exits
There’s no easy way to say this but: Patrick Murray, Nuno Ascensão, Charles Fabian, Milorad Dobrijevic, Rob Yong, Janos Jeszek, Dean Hutchinson, Peter Andrasi, Mark Cullumbine, Shawn Kelly, Simon Brooks, Fergal Nealon, Martin McGeough, Simon Trumper, Devron Hasselnook, Gerard Hall and Antonio Gagliano are all amongst the 44% of the field who’ve been eliminated so far today. — NW

7.55pm: Yong five-bets light?
The @PokerStarsBlog just received a tweet that we felt deserved to be aired, Yong is out after all and we did not see his elimination.

“Shout out for Bruce Jones playing the UKIPT? He says he just knocked out Rob Yong with QQ when Yong 5-bet shipped 95off” tweeted @RobLloyd91.

We hunted Jones down and indeed that had happened. Jones had opened with queens in the hijack, Yong had three-bet out of the big blind and had then tried to make Jones pass his 6,200 four-bet with an all-in of nearly 20,000. It did not work. Easy pot for Jones. — RD

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75

7.50pm: Two pots for O’Flynn
Ian O’Flynn has chipped up to 30,000 after winning back-to-back pots, both of which had been opened by a resurgent Sam Razavi. He first flatted a 2,700 three-bet from Joseph Lalor only stabbing at the pot on the river of the [kh][3h][2d][8c][8d] board. Lalor passed. The next hand he jammed the river of a [kd][5s][3s][5d][ad] board after being led into for three streets. He took the pot without showdown. – RD

7.45pm: Chip counts
News of those still alive as we head into level eight. Max Silver was covering his stack and didn’t want me to see it, 24,000 he proffered eventually which is less than the 38,000 we previously clocked him at.

He was chatting to Jason Tompkins about a hand, “I don’t want to check-raise the turn, I think you’ve got a made hand,” was all I caught, Tompkins is up to 37,000 he may well have taken some of Silver’s chips. Chipleader William Champion has increased his stack to 120,000, Fergal Nealon is at the other end of the scale as he’s hanging on with 5,700. Dara O’Kearney (14,300) and David O’Connor (14,250) seem to be stuck in neutral, whilst Richard Haile (25,000) will be hoping to increase their stack in the last level of the day.

7.35pm: Ainsworth’s boat sunk
Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth is out having just busted in what he described as: “A cooler, my usual UKIPT really.”

The heavy action occurred on the river, with a full board of [9][9][5][J][9] on the felt Leonard White led for 3,500, Ainsworth moved all-in for 7,000 and White called. Ainsworth showed a jack for nines full of jacks but White had [Kd][9d] for quads.

“I could’ve just called on the river and left myself 10 big blinds,” said Ainsworth. “But I didn’t think he had the nine, I put him on a smaller pair than me. Back home to play SCOOP’s it is.” — NW

Ainsworth’s day is done

7.25pm: Numbers on the board
The board currently shows that 120 players remain from the 199 that started the day, giving an average stack of 24,875. If you’re anywhere near that then you’re doing okay. Ross Jarvis certainly seems to think so, “I’m singing M-People,” he said, doing an embarrassing little dance in his chair.

We think he’s alluding to the ‘Moving on up’? — RD

7.15pm: Razavi doubles through Ainsworth
No sooner had he doubled up, Team PokerStars pro Jude Ainsworth was knocked back down again.

I was alerted to a big pot by Sam Razavi’s booming baritone: “Don’t do it to me,” he said in the general direction of the dealer. The situation when I arrived was this: Razavi was all-in on the turn of a [9s][8s][Ah][Jd] board with [Ad][9c] up against Ainsworth who held [8h][7s].

The river card was the [6c] and Razavi said, half stupefied: “I didn’t lose, I didn’t lose, the way I’ve been running I thought it was coming.”

“You’ll have to repay the favour and double me up now,” said Ainsworth who is down to 8,000, Razavi meanwhile doubled to around 29,000. — NW
7.10pm: Zero sum game
There’s no easy way to say this but if: Paul Portelli, Kyle Johnston, Michael Kane, James Waldron, Martin Dench, Alex Scullion, Daragh Davey, Mark Buckley, Chistopher Czilinsky, Paul Romain, Frank Stevens, Nicky Power, Andrew Kelly or Kevin Killeen offered to swap a percentage with you durin the break then you’ve been had as they’re all out of this tournament. — NW

7pm: Ainsworth double
Jude Ainsworth has doubled through Chistopher Czilinsky in a battle of the blinds. Ainsworth made it 1,000 from the small blind and Czilinsky jammed from the big setting Ainsworth’s 11,500 stack all-in. Ainsworth made the call.

Ainsworth: [ad][jh]
Czilinsky: [9c][9d]

Ainsworth flopped it as the board ran out [as][6s][kh][7c][7s] to double up to 23,000. Czilinsky bust shortly afterwards. — RD

6.50pm: Chip leaders
The players are back in their seats for the final two levels of the day, these fellas are the chip leaders with 120 minutes or folds, calls and raises to go:

William Champion - 101,000
José Esteban – 66,000
Ross Hall – 64,000
Neil Raine - 56,000
Con Collins – 54,000

Ross Hall

6.35pm: Break! That calls for a montage
The players have just gone on the last break of the day so in the meantime we’ll post up a hat-based montage of some of the Day 1A players. ‘Why?’ you may ask. ‘Why not?’ we reply.

Joseph Lalor: hat, curious

Fintan Hand: hat, Kermit

Sur-in-der hat Sunar

Sur-out-the hat Sunar

6.25pm: Chip counts
We’re busy updating the chip count page as often as we can and have just done another batch. We can tell you that Thomas Hall (42,000) is among those doing well. On the next break (eight minutes) we’ll be doing a sweep of the tables to unearth the big stacks. — NW

6.18pm: Last year’s final table
UKIPT Cork runner-up David O’Connor is getting it quietly with 28,000 while UKIPT Dublin, Season 1 winner Max Silver is not, he’s gassing away at Jason Tompins who also made the final table here last season. Silver is up to 38,000, Tompkins also performing well on 30,000.

Last year’s runner-up Chuck Fabian looks like he’s got a tough couple of hours of grinding ahead of him though, he’s down to 13,000. — RD

Jason Tompkins is setting himself up for another run

6.05pm: Boatman bites the dust
A short while ago Ross Boatman was knocked out and his brother Barny has now joined him on the rail. “I had about 12,000 to start the hand and I’m in the big blind with [7][5] off-suit. It folded to the button (Ross Hall) he’s min raised and I’ve called,” explained the elder Boatman sibling.

“The flop was [9][5][4] with two diamonds, I’ve checked, he’s bet half the pot, I trebled his bet and he set me all-in. I put him on the flush draw, I knew exactly where I was and at that point it was too late to do anything apart from put the chips in and hope to hold up. He had [Ad][3d] and hit an ace on the turn.”

After claiming the scalp of the Hendon Mobster, Hall is up to 46,000. — NW

5.58pm: Fallen, busted, done and dusted
There’s no easy way to say this but if you’d had a premonition that Cormac O’Dea, John Hughes, Graham Pound, Martin Nathorst-Westfelt, John Hanaphy or Anthony Keogh would win UKIPT Dublin you are not a psychic. They are all out and, let’s face it, evidence for ESP abilities is pretty slim. — RD

5.50pm: Whiteside on the right side this time
Earlier (see post at 3.52pm) Dicky Whiteside lost a three-way all-in against Ross Boatman and Stephen McGrath which left him with around 2,000.

Well he’d spun that up to 6,000 and has just got some much-needed chips back from McGrath. It was all-in pre-flop with Whiteside holding [As][Kh] whilst McGrath had [Ah][Jh]. The board ran out [Kc][2s][10d][7d][Ks] and Whiteside is close to getting back to starting stack. — NW

5.40pm: The rollercoaster ride of Razavi
It’s been an up and down level for Sam Razavi who was down to 10,000, doubled up, then got up to 30,000 only to slide back down to 17,000. He told me about his latest hiccup. ” I raised with A-10 the flop has come [10][8] rag and I’ve bet 1,100 he (Aidan Connolly) raised to 3,100, I’ve made it 8,800 and he calls with just 14,000 back.

“The turn was a jack, the river a brick and both got checked through, he showed [J][9] meaning he’d called off a lot of his stack on a draw, if the turn is a blank I’m all-in. — NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25

5.35pm: Yong doubles with aces
Rob Yong, now on what seems like a steady stream of cigarette breaks, has doubled up with aces to around 12,000. Thomas Ward was the player that he doubled through looking more sullen than ever when he tabled pocket tens and was told by the player opposite him, Darren Kearney, that he’d passed two tens. Not exactly the news that he wanted hear. Ward mucked his hand on the turn of the [4s][5h][js][kc][6s] board. Kearney apologized shortly after.

To see the chip count page you can click here – or in the widget on the right of the page. — RD

Thomas Ward (left) and Rob Yong

5.30pm: Done in Dublin
There’s no easy way to say this but if you were relying on: Dario Festa, Owen Robinson, Ondrej Drozd, Priit Brikker, Conor O’Driscoll, Graham Parkin, Ross Boatman, Patrick Mulcaire, Chris Barclay, Barry Carson or Mateusz Warowiec to buy you a pint of Guinness with their UKIPT Dublin winnings then you’re going to be waiting a lot longer than the 119.5 seconds it takes to pour a pint of the black stuff, as they’re all out. — NW

5.20pm: Haile fail
Richard Haile has enjoyed a string of results on the UKIPT making five cashes since UKIPT Manchester in March of last year. That puts him joint third alongside Jamie Burland for number of cashes and just behind Sam Razavi (six) and Rupinder Bedi (seven). Four of those were relatively small cashes but the last one, UKIPT Galway this season, was a final table finish for €10,900. The boy is making progress.

Haile appears to have got off to a solid enough start but just lost a small chunk to John Keown after calling 675 and 1,675 on the turn and river of a [7h][3h][js][4d][4c] board. Haile looked unsure on the river but made the call. Keown’s [jc][8h] was good enough to take the pot. A small setback but Haile is still likely to have his name in the counts come the end of the day. — RD

Richard Haile

5.10pm: Razavi doubles with diamonds
UKIPT Cork winner Sam Razavi is up to 21,000 after doubling up with a flush. He tweeted: “Doubled to 21k! Call 79d from bb, flop 7 hi 2diamonds (mbn)…chk/raise/snap guys shove. He has the mighty ak off. Kd instant delivery turn.”

Meanwhile Max Silver, who has never failed to final his local UKIPT tweeted: “Swingy day so far but up to 24k from 15 and a low point of 5k.”
– NW

5pm: Chip counts
Nicky Power is one of the most consistent players on the Irish poker scene having racked up earnings of $386,005 since 2005. He’s always a danger when he gets chips and has nearly trebled his starting stack here as he’s up to 40,000.

One of the real up and coming stars of Irish Poker is Jason Tompkins, he’s been consistently cashing since 2009 and had a breakout year in 2011 including a fifth place finish at UKIPT Dublin in September 2011. He’s going the right way about repeating that success as he’s chugging along on 33,000.

Meanwhile Barny Boatman (18,000) and Dara O’Kearney (16,000) are just above starting stack whilst Fergal Nealon (13,050) and Devron Hasslenook (13,800) have slipped the wrong side of the break even line. — NW

UK legend Barny Boatman

4.50pm: Esteban eliminates two
José Esteban is the early chip leader as he’s up to 70,000 after eliminating two players, in two separate hands at two different tables. I’ll explain.

In the first he had raised to 700 from middle position, Barny Boatman flat called from the small blind before Maximilian Bassil moved all-in for 3,000 total from the big blind. Back on Esteban he made the call and Boatman got out the way.

Bassil: [Kd][Qs]
Esteban: [Qh][Js]

“Here comes the suckout,” said Bassil and he was proved right as the board ran [2d][6h][Jc][6d][Jd], that hand took him to around 50,000.

That table then broke but he soon found himself involved at his new table. I joined the action to see a board of [Ah][3c][6d][Ks] on the felt and the pot size was around 12,000. Action was on Esteban who fired out a bet of 5,550, call from Paul Doyle. The [9s] completed the board, Esteban set Doyle all-in for his last 9,000, and Doyle announced call, Esteban showed [Ad][Kc] whislt Doyle mucked his hand. — NW

4.40pm: Halfway through the day
The players have returned to their seats, the 160 of the 199 which remain anyway. This is the last level without antes, the point at which the men separate themselves from the boys and the grinders just annihilate everyone. Stay with us as the big stacks start to emerge.

Cash games and side events are also running throughout. — RD

Starting stacks are fast becoming short stacks

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Galway (in order of Danish liquorice eaten today): Rick Dacey (too much) and Nick Wright (not enough, still going). Photos by Mickey May (she supplied the stuff).

Tags: boys | dealer | festival | france poker series | lapt | micromillions | news | pokerstars | SCOOP | wcoop

Andrew Badecker knows a little something about shootouts. Not only did he survive one last summer, it ended up saving his career. After making a living as an online pro for four years, Badecker was left with an uncertain future when Black Friday struck. With only a few thousand dollars to his name, Badecker drove from his native Connecticut to Las Vegas last summer and promptly won his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 NLHE shootout along with $369,000. Now relocated to Mexico, Badecker’s WSOP experience no doubt prepared him for today’s online encore performance, where the man known as “southrnctowl” topped a stacked final table and won his first SCOOP title in event #17-H ($2,100 NLHE 10-Max Shootout).

Capped at 100 players, this event sold out days ago, the prize pool topping out at $200,000. Those hundred players were seated at ten tables, the winner of each sit-n-go not only making the money, but advancing to the final table. Among them were eleven Red Spades. Nacho Barbero, Anders “Donald” Berg, George “Jorj95″ Lind III, Jason Mercier, George Danzer, Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen, Martin Staszko, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, and Humberto Brenes all missed the money, but Team Pros Eugene Katchalov and Jude Ainsworth advanced to the final table.

Round One (100 to 10)

Jonathan “MONSTER_DONG” Karamalikis was the first player to win his table, followed by Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, who defeated Altrum Altus heads-up to advance to his fourth final table of the 2012 SCOOP. Jude Ainsworth crushed joacowalter’s plans for a third SCOOP final table when his [Ad][Qh] held against [As][Td] to punch his ticket through. High-stakes cash game player 0Human0 had his work cut out for him against three-time SCOOP champion cal42688, but saw his open-ended straight draw come in against two pair to send him through. The most dramatic first-round win, however, had to be Eugene Katchalov’s. Get your “online poker is rigged” jokes ready, because Katchalov rivered a roval flush to crack Face333X’s pocket aces:

Those weren’t the only distinguished folks to land at the final table. Germany’s wizowizo topped the PokerStars Yearly TLB in 2011 and MrKlout wasn’t too far behind him in 12th place. Jason “jdtjpoker” Wheeler won a WCOOP bracelet last fall and Russia’s as1025 made four 2011 SCOOP final tables– in NLHE, Mixed Hold’em, Omaha Hi/Lo and Ante Up NLHE.

MrKlout was the last player to win his first-round table, hitting a lucky river card against oliva86d. The two got their money in on a [9c][8h][2h] flop, oliva86d holding pocket jacks against MrKlout’s [Kh][6h]. Altough MrKlout blanked the turn, he hit the [3h] on the river to make his flush and move on to the final table while oliva86d bubbled in 11th place.

Ainsworth, Karamalikis early casualties

Stacks were reset to 5,000 apiece and the blinds dropped back to 25/50. An hour and forty-five minutes of small pots later, MrKlout opened for a min-raise to 200 frim UTG. Jude Ainsworth three-bet to 498 from third position and the action folded around to southrnctowl, who cold four-bet to 967 from the cutoff. Everyone folded to Ainsworth, who made it 2,200 to go. Southrnctowl shoved for 5,767 and Ainsworth called, his [As][Kd] up against [Qh][Qs]. The board came nine-high and the queens held, leaving Ainsworth on a mere 686 in chips. They went in the middle on the next deal, but Ainsworth’s [Ac][9s] was no match for MrKlout’s [As][Kc] and he departed in tenth place, earning $5,500.

Ten minutes passed before Jonathan “MONSTER_DONG” Karamalikis decided to make a move, four-bet shoving for 2,813. MrKlout called with pocket tens, MONSTER_DONG’s [Ac][Kh] failing to improve on the [Qh][9c][6d][Jc][5c] board. The Aussie exited in ninth place with a $6,400 consolation prize.

Katchalov and Deeb’s luck runs out

Eugene Katchalov’s stack dipped as low as 1,800 before he won a coinflip to double through wizowizo, his pocket eights hitting a set against [Ah][Kh]. Back up to 3,157, Katchalov picked up [Ks][Th] in the big blind and called southrnctowl’s 250-chip opening raise. The flop fell [Qd][Jd][4c] and Katchalov check-called 300 with his open-ended straight draw. He filled it on the turn with the [9s] and slyly checked again. Southrnctowl checked behind. The river was the [8d] and Katchalov checked a third time. Southrnctowl bet 3,000 into the 1,100-chip pot, effectively setting Katchalov all-in. Katchalov looked him up and put in his remaining 2,592 only to have southrnctowl turn over [Ad][3d], having made the nut flush on the river. Katchalov was out in eighth place, earning $7,500 for his finish.

Down to 1,776 with the blinds up to 80/160, shaundeeb three-bet shoved from the small blind with [Ad][Jh] and original raiser wizowizo called with [Ac][7d]. Wizowizo paired his kicker on the [Td][8d][7h] flop, then turned aces up when the [Ah] landed. Deeb needed a river jack or nine to survive but the [5c] fell instead, sending him to the rail in seventh place for $8,800.

Deeb also picked up 35 SCOOP leaderboard points for his finish. Last night, his fifth-place finish in event #16-L tied him for first place with two-time SCOOP champ Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom; tonight Deeb has sole possession of the top spot, leading second-place joaocowalter by 40 points.

southrnctowl preys on the short stacks

Three hands passed before southrnctowl put MrKlout to the test, setting him all-in preflop with a five-bet shove. MrKlout called off his remaining 5,878, his [Ad][Kd] racing with [Jc][Jd]. Southrnctowl got his second KO of the night, the board running out [Qc][Tc][7d][8s][4s] to eliminate MrKlout in sixth place. Southrnctowl moved out to a dominant chip lead with 26,914, more than twice as much as second-in-chips wizowizo’s 11,438.

At this point, 0Human0 was hanging on with eight big blinds. Although he doubled to 2,778 when his [Kc][Jh] topped wizowizo’s [Jd][7d], he couldn’t fade the hot-running southrnctowl. Dealt [8c][8s] , 0Human0 opened for a min-raise to 320. Southrnctowl shoved for more than 25,000 and 0Human0 called all-in, revealing [As][7s]. The [6c][3d][4c] flop kept the pocket eights in the lead, but southrnctowl still loomed with an overcard and a straight draw. 0Human0′s run came to an end when southrnctowl spiked the [5h] on the turn to make a seven-high straight, his fifth-place finish earning him $14,000.

As1025 could have easily been out in fourth place after running his [5s][5c] into wizowizo’s [Ac][Ah], but it was another heaven-sent five on the turn that turned the hand around for him. As1025 doubled to 9,200, leaving jdtjpoker as the short stack with 2,349. Four hands later, jdtjpoker shoved with [4d][4c] and wizowizo somehow woke up with another pair or aces. This time they flopped a set to avoid any surprises, the board running out [Ad][Qc][2s][Jd][Kd] to send jdtpoker home in fourth place with $19,800.

With three players remaining, southrnctowl held more than a 3 to 1 chip lead over both his remaining opponents. He won nine of the next 15 pots before as1025 four-bet shoved with [Kh][Qd] and southrnctowl called with pocket tens. The flop came seven-high and a ten hit the turn, southrnctowl’s set taking out as1025 in third place for $27,000.

Heads-up chip counts:

Seat 2: southrnctowl (40,478 in chips)
Seat 3: wizowizo (9,522 in chips)

These two spent less than ten minutes heads-up before getting their chips in the middle on a cooler of a hand. Both players flopped top pair, but southrnctowl had another one to go with it:

Kudos to southrnctowl on his first SCOOP title and a $60,000 score. For his runner-up finish, wizowizo earned $40,000.

2012 SCOOP Event #17-H ($2,100 NLHE 10-Max Shootout) results:

1. Andrew “southrnctowl” Badecker (Mexico) $60,000
2. wizowizo (Germany) $40,000
3. as1025 (Russia) $27,000
4. Jason “jdtjpoker” Wheeler (Mexico) $19,800
5. 0Human0 (Romania) $14,000
6. MrKlout (Spain) $11,000
7. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb (Mexico) $8,800
8. Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) $7,500
9. Jonathan “MONSTER_DONG” Karamalikis (Australia) $6,400
10. Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth (Ireland) $5,500

Shaun Deeb might be atop the SCOOP Player of the Series race right now, but he has the likes of ElkY, Anders “Donald” Berg, cal42688 and Isildur1 hot on his heels. Visit the SCOOP page to track your favorite players and browse all the stats you can handle.

Tags: 2011 | australia | Battle of the Planets | delicious | jude ainsworth | napt | russian | russian poker series | Super Tuesday | wcoop | World Series of Poker | world-series

Four months ago, PetjeXL missed out on a TCOOP title by one spot, his runner-up finish in Event #17 ($109 NLHE 1R1A) earning him nearly $75,000. It was his largest-ever tournament score on PokerStars, outdoing the $70k he won for third place in the Sunday Warm-Up, but was still a bittersweet finish he was no doubt looking to improve upon. As PetjeXL hit the final table of Event #16-L, he had already bobbed and weaved his way through 12,572 players– a miracle in and of itself– but still faced one extremely powerful adversary.

Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero’s accomplishments on the live circuit have been well-documented here on the PokerStars Blog and often served with a heaping dose of puns on his name. He won back-to-back titles during Season 3 of the Latin American Poker Tour and picked up a high roller title at the EPT London only a few months later. What you might not know is that Barbero is also an accomplished online MTT player as well. Case in point– he’s already a SCOOP titleholder, having won the $2,100 limit hold’em event in 2010. Barbero was poised to take down his second SCOOP title tonight, but it was PetjeXL’s turn to shine as he came from behind during heads-up play to take the top spot and the $62,255.69 first-place prize.

Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero

Event #16-L had a double-chance format. Should a player lose all their chips, they were permitted to buy back in one more time. The 12,572 entrants ended up making 5,669 rebuys, pushing the prize pool up to $456,025. Nearly two dozen members of Team Pro and Team Online were in the field and eight of them cashed including Anders “Donald” Berg (1,526th), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (1,264th), George Danzer (783rd), Jude Ainsworth (723rd), Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen (532nd), Matthias De Muelder (368th), and Martin Staszko (54th).

Barbero was the dominant chip leader with two tables remaining, but lost it to emoe119 when the field was down to 11. Emoe119 widened his lead when mick davy three-bet shoved [Ad][4d] right into his pocket kings on the final table bubble, the cowboys holding up on a ten-high board.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: emoe119 (24,338,704 in chips)
Seat 2: nachobarbero (13,446,249 in chips)
Seat 3: PetjeXL (12,019,886 in chips)
Seat 4: R0BtheT0P (4,422,404 in chips)
Seat 5: shaundeeb (6,761,016 in chips)
Seat 6: Darryn83 (4,426,848 in chips)
Seat 7: -Homer_Jay-t (12,837,500 in chips)
Seat 8: vandir4rek (3,308,176 in chips)
Seat 9: Highmach (9,644,217 in chips)

Short-stack shenanigans

With the blinds up to 400,000/800,000, even the chip leaders were playing 20 big blind poker and the short stacks were eaten away with every ante posted. Vandir4rek had two-thirds of his remaining 1.2 million committed in the big blind when he put the rest of his chips in the middle, Nacho Barbero having opened for a min-raise. Barbero’s [Ah][Js] flopped a jack against vandir4rek’s [Kd][7s], sending him home with $2,850.15 for ninth place.

Down to only three big blinds, Darryn83 could have quite easily gone out next, but managed instead to double up twice; his [Kd][Tc] held against PetjeXL’s [Kc][4c] and his [Ac][Jd] flopped an ace to snap off emoe119′s [Qs][Qc]. Rather, it was R0BtheT0P who landed in trouble when he shoved from the small blind with [Qc][3h] and ran into shaundeeb’s [Kd][Jh]. Left with little more than half of the 1M big blind, R0BtheT0P called all-in against emoe119, his [9s][3c] falling to [Ad][Tc] when an ace hit the flop. R0BtheT0P departed in eighth place, banking $4,560.25 for his troubles.

Nacho KOs five in a row

Although Barbero had regained the chip lead by this point, emoe119 was still in third position with 15.7 million to Nacho’s 20.1 million. Dealt [As][9s] under-the-gun with two smaller stacks in the blinds, emoe119 open-shoved, only to have Barbero snap-reshove behind him and reveal [Js][Jh]. Emoe119 did not improve and found himself suddenly on the rail in seventh place.

In addition to Barbero, there was one more famous face among the final six– Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, who less than 48 hours ago won his second SCOOP title in Event #10-H ($2,100 Stud). Deeb took the time to affirm his support for Barbero in this chat box exchange:

shaundeeb: rooting for you nacho
nachobarbero: me too
shaundeeb: lol
nachobarbero: ty bro
nachobarbero: i am rooting for u after me
shaundeeb: i can beat that
nachobarbero: stick it in good
nachobarbero: lol
shaundeeb: Im so tight

Amidst this conversation, Deeb doubled through Barbero, his pocket jacks easily trouncing [Jd][7s] when they flopped a set. However, despite the double-up and picking up [As][Ah], he wasn’t long for this final table. In a double elimination hand, Barbero snapped off Deeb’s aces and -Homer_Jay-t’s [Ac][9d] when his [8c][Td] turned a queen-high straight. -Homer_Jay-t started the hand with fewer chips and took sixth place ($13,680.75) while Deeb finished fifth ($18,241.00).

Once again, Barbero held a dominant chip lead, his 59.7 million three times as much as second-place PetjeXL’s 19.7 million. Darryn83 was back down to 2.6 million, and although his [2s][4c] flushed away Barbero’s [3h][3d] when four spades hit the board, he couldn’t hang on for much longer. Darryn83 shoved his remaining 4.86 million with [Ks][Jh] and Barbero called from the big bilnd with [2d][5d]. Although the [Ac][Qs][4h] flop was good for Darryn83, Barbero hit running fives to make trips and sent him to the rail in fourth place.

The next deal of the cards saw PetjeXL call Barbero’s shove and double up to 34.5 million, his [Ad][7d] holding against [3c][7c]. With only 6.6 million and the blinds up to 700,000/1,400,000 Highmach was caught between two giants and went out a few hands later after shoving with [Kc][3h] from the small blind, only to have Barbero wake up with pocket queens in the big. Highmach’s third-place finish earned him $31,921.75, by far his largest-ever tournament score on PokerStars.

Heads-up chip counts:

Seat 2: nachobarbero (56,782,358 in chips)
Seat 3: PetjeXL (34,422,642 in chips)

Heads-up could have been over in all of three hands, Barbero calling PetjeXL’s shove with [Kd][6c] on a [Ks][Tc][7s] flop. PetjeXL turned over [Kh][3s], but they split the pot when the turn and river came the [5h] and the [Qs]. PetjeXL gained traction on Barbero, picking up a 21 million pot when he four-bet shoved a [Th][9s][2d] flop and got a fold. Barbero, however, pulled back out when his [6s][8s] turned a flush and got two streets of value.

PetjeXL had 22.4 million to Barbero’s 68.7 million when one hand turned it all around for the Dutchman. He limped in from the small blind and Barbero made it 4.8 million to go. PetjeXL shoved for 22.2 million and Barbero called. PetjeXL’s [7h][8h] was in dismal shape against Barbero’s [Js][Jh], but they were instantly snapped off when the flop fell [Tc][8s][7s]. Barbero couldn’t hit a nine or a jack and PetjeXL raked in the 45 million pot to pull their chip counts even.

From there, PetjeXL steadily chipped away at Barbero, moving up to 57 million when he flopped top pair against Barbero’s middle pair. It finally came down to two ace-high hands getting it in pre-flop, PetjeXL’s [Ac][9d] dominating Barbero’s [Ad][4d]. Both turned top pair, but PetjeXL’s kicker played when the board paired eights on the river:

Congratulations to PetjeXL on his first SCOOP title. He took home $62,255.69 for the win while runner-up Nacho Barbero earned $44,006.41.

2012 SCOOP Event #16-L ($27 NLHE (2x Chance Turbo) results:

1. PetjeXL (Netherlands) $62,255.69
2. Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero (Argentina) $44,006.41
3. Highmach (Unted Kingdom) $31,921.75
4. Darryn83 (Canada) $22,801.25
5. shaundeeb (Mexico) $18,241.00
6. -Homer_Jay-t (Brazil) $13,680.75
7. emoe119 (Russia) $9,120.50
8. R0BtheT0P (Switzerland) $4,560.25
9. vandir4rek (Russia) $2,850.15

Shaun Deeb’s fifth-place finish tonight moved him up to tie Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom for the top spot on the SCOOP leaderboard. Check it out on the SCOOP page, where you can also find a complete schedule of events and satellites.

Tags: australia | eureka poker tour | European Poker Tour | italian poker tour | micromillions | pokerstars | SCOOP | tcoop | team pokerstars pro | wcoop

Polish SuperNova lurko8 today claimed his second SCOOP title, adding Event 11-H $700 PL Omaha 6-max to the Event #33-H No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo title he won in 2011. Clearly he likes four card games.

With 321 players taking to the virtual felt, this event didn’t just smash the guarantee it pulvarised, devoured and, ahem, chopped it up. The final prize pool of $215,070 was three-times the advertised guarantee and the winner would take home $47,315.48. Some of those who contributed to the prize pool but took nothing from it were: Anders ‘Donald Berg, George Lind III, Henrique.Pinho, Martin Staszko, George Danzer, Jude Ainsworth, and ElkY whilst Eugene Katchalov was eliminated in 36th – the first money paying spot.

But one Team Online pro was still going strong, Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger was alive and well and truly kicking as hand for hand play started with seven players left. ’18 hours on the grind, and I’m on the FT bubble of event 11-H, $700 PL08 6-max. 7/7 in chips,’ he tweeted.

Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger pictured at the PCA

The experienced pro was on the three-handed table at this point but despite being the short stack he did not acquiesce to the bigger stacks and in fact put his chips to good use. ‘Chipped up nicely on the FT bubble. Now 3/6 in chips. $47K up top.,” he tweeted shortly after Chipaccrual had been eliminated by lukro8 in seventh place.

As the final table started the stacks and line-up looked like this:

Seat 1: Aquasces1, Canada, 165,316
Seat 2: Milana Jones, Russia, 510,077
Seat 3: lukro8, Poland, 498,998
Seat 4: Lyndon360, New Zealand, 178,121
Seat 5: HornyAnimal 62,596
Seat 6: shaniac 189,892

The final table

Double trouble

It would take nearly an hour of cagey play for the first exits of the final table. Yes that’s right exits – because it was a double elimination. HornyAnimal was the shortstack and the start of the final table and had been unable to make any progress. Playing a stack of 58,322 he opened for the pot (21,000) from under-the-gun, next to act Team Online Pro shaniac (playing 151,052) committed almost half his stack by re-potting and raising to 72,000. It passed to lukro8 who smooth called from the small blind and HornyAnimal then called all-in.

The flop fell [3d][ks][7s] lukro8 set shaniac all-in and he made the call. You can see the results of the hand below.

RSS readers click through to see replay

When the hand was over four players remained, HornyAnimal winning $8,602.80 in sixth, shaniac $12,904.20 for fifth. “Sigh, maybe blew it on my bust hand, not sure what else to do though. Took 5th for ~13K,” tweeted shaniac shortly aftwerwards.

Twos Up
At this stage Milina Jones and lukro8 were forging ahead leaving Lyndon360 and Aquasces1 far behind, the latter two seemingly having a battle for third and fourth between them. The two chipleaders were winning most pots and very much playing small pot poker and any big pots that were played ended up being chopped and it was as you were.

But then along came a big pot as Aquasces1 doubled through Milana Jones.

RSS readers click through to see replay

A short time late Aquasces1 gained the chip lead and it was now he and lukro8 clear of Milana Jones and Lyndon360. Soon though two groups of two would become one group of three as the two shortstacks clashed in a pot that would send one of them to the rail in fourth.

In a four-bet pre-flop pot Lyndon360 was effectively all-in against Milina Jones and on the flop of [Qs][Jh][4c] Jones set him all-in and he called.

RSS readers click through to see replay

A rivered two-pair for the Russian saw him suddenly zoom back into contention.

Let’s sleep

The stacks of the three players left were now very close:

Seat 1: Aquasces1 570,248
Seat 2: Milana Jones 549,252
Seat 3: lukro8 485,500

So deal discussions started with Aquasces1 the prompter:

Aquasces1: 3 way chop and sleep?
Milana Jones: we can see numbers
Aquasces1: ok lukro?
lukro8: lets play

With deal discussions nipped in the bud by the player chasing a second SCOOP title they played on for:

1st: $47,315.48
2nd: $33,013,24
3rd: $24,733.05

In the first 30 minutes of three-handed play Aquasces1 had opened up a significant chip lead but then came a tournament defining million chip pot that swung the pendulum of power towards the Pole.

RSS readers click through to see replay

Aquasces1 had flopped top set, but lurko8 had a draw to the nut flush and a better draw to a low hand, he duly hit both draws on the [5c] turn, Aquasces1 needed the board to pair to take the high portion of the pot but the [8s] completed the board.

Pole position

The Pole now had almost two-thirds of the chips in play but long time chip leader Milana Jones was not going to sit back and get picked off. Indeed it was he who would eliminate Aquasces1 in third to ensure that the two big stacks coming to the final table would face-off heads-up for the title.

Jones raised to 32,000 pre-flop, Aquasces1 re-raised to 102,000 (leaving just 995 back) and Jones made the call. The flop fell [7d][10c][Ac] and the very few remaining chips went in.

Milana Jones: [10d][9d][5c][3c]
Aquasces1: [Jc][Js][8h][2h]

Turn: [Kd]
River: [8d]

With a king high flush and a 8,7,5,3,A low Jones took the whole pot and heads-up play started with the following chip stacks:

Milana Jones: 564,334
lukro8 1,040,666

lurko8 had a near two to one chip lead and over the first 23 hands of heads-up play he extended that lead still further. The 24th hand would be the last.

With blinds at 6,000 – 12,000 Milana Jones raised to 24,000 on the button, lurko8 three-bet to 72,000 and Jones called. On the flop of [Ad][Ah][6c] lurko8 led out for 144,000, Jones moved all-in for 292,364 and lurko8 snap called.

Milana Jones: [5s][4s][2s][2d]
lurko8: [As][6h][5h][3c]

lurko8 had flopped a full-house to all but lock up the high half of the pot, Jones though had a better draw to the low. But, the turn was the [Qh] and the [9d] completed the board to give lurko8 a second SCOOP title and $47,315.48.

RSS readers click through to see replay

Final table payouts:

1st: lukro8, Poland, $47,315.48
2nd: Milana Jones, Russia, $33,013.24
3rd: Aquasces1, Canada, $24,733.05
4th: Lyndon360, New Zealand, $17,205.60
5th: shaniac, Mexico, $12,904.20
6th: HornyAnimal, United Kingdom, $8,602.80

Click here to read more SCOOP reports.
Click here to see the SCOOP schedule.
Click here to go to the SCOOP website.

Tags: 2011 | Baltic Poker Festival | eureka poker tour | gambling | lapt | portugal | russian poker series | wbcoop | World Series of Poker

It feels quite appropriate that today’s SCOOP offerings should include a variety of the game where the objective literally is to “scoop”. The thought of hi-lo games makes some players run for the hills, so PokerStars added a little spice to the split variant. Let’s play Pot Limit Omaha. And make it six-handed. That’ll get them to come. Genius!

The game of PLO H/L 6-Max is a lot like bungy jumping. There are some thrills, a bit of risk but there’s a safety rope if things go pear-shaped. Since bungy jumping is pretty cool, it was no surprise to see a healthy field of 1,591 players taking part in today’s SCOOP Event #11-M $82 PLO H/L 6-Max event. They produced a prize pool of $119,325 which was more than double the guarantee, as the Omaha variants continue to prove to be an emerging trend in world poker.

Shane Schleger, Bertrand Grospellier, Chad Brown, Jude Ainsworth, Dale Philip, George Lind III, Adrienne Rowsome, Anders Berg, Henrique Pinho, Marcin Horecki and reigning World Champion Pius Heinz were representing the red spade of Team PokerStars today but unfortunately fell short of the cash.

The top 204 players finished in the money, with denmon27 from Canada unlucky to miss the $137.22 min-cash after bubbling the event in 205th place.

Martin Staszko (192nd – $143.19) and George Danzer (168th – $155.12) made the money with Oceania’s newest recruit to PokerStars Team Online, and renowned PLO god, Roy Bhasin winning the Team PokerStars last longer bet with 39th place worth $387.80.

When themanparris was eliminated in 7th place, our final table lineup was set:

Final Table Lineup
Seat 1: outlaw (914600 in chips)
Seat 2: imgoodiknow (371745 in chips)
Seat 3: OrsaGoldhill (3072473 in chips)
Seat 4: eityby55 (824872 in chips)
Seat 5: RichGRich (733882 in chips)
Seat 6: Rennwurm (2037428 in chips)

It had been slow going to progress from last 18 players to the final table of six, due to the nature of the split pot game, but it didn’t take long to lose imgoodiknow in 6th place. With the blinds at 15k/30k, imgoodiknow raised it to 90k and found a call from OrsaGoldhill. The chips went flying on a [4c][2c][Tc] flop with imgoodiknow showing [5d][9h][Jh][Ad] for a wheel draw as OrsaGoldhill had half in the bag with [6c][3h][7c][5h] for a flopped flush. The turn [Ts] and river [4h] didn’t change anything to leave imgoodiknow to collect $2,983.12.

After twelve hours of play, RichGRich was quick to toss up the idea of a deal, which seemed to spark the interest of most players. However eityby55 remained silent and play continued.

OrsaGoldhill moved out to a substantial chip lead, and extended that when eliminating RichGRich from the tournament. OrsaGoldhill opened with a raise holding [Tc][8d][Qd][5c], before RichGRich moved all in holding [8c][5d][Jc][9s]. Neither had a great hi-lo hand, but OrsaGoldhill made the call and his queen-high played on the board of [Kh][Jd][Kc][Kd][3s] as both players made trip kings with no low hand. RichGRich pocketed $4,773 for 5th place.

Rennwurm landed a double up, but it was still OrsaGoldhill who was the ultimate aggressor, collecting the majority of pots four-handed. At one stage we counted OrsaGoldhill scooping or at least winning part of the pot in 29 out of 33 consecutive hands. That’s domination right there.

Outlaw could only sit back and watch for the most part, and eventually his short stack was forced to make a stand. Outlaw raised preflop, bet the flop and was all in for pocket change on the turn on a board of [6h][Qd][Qc][Td]. Outlaw showed [3d][4h][4s][Ac] which looked pretty for a potential low, but on that board, it didn’t amount to much, as OrsaGoldhill held [Kd][8h][6d][8c] for a better pair. The river was the [Tc] which didn’t change anything, leaving outlaw to depart in 4th place for $7159.50 in prize money.

OrsaGoldhill was out in front but Rennwurm scooped a couple of healthy pots to even things back up three-handed. Of course hi-lo is not just about scooping, but often it’s a game of quarters (or preferably three-quarters). OrsaGoldhill found that out when he took a big dent in the following hand against eityby55:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Both players had the same low but eityby55 collected the high to take the chip lead and halt the dominance of OrsaGoldhill.

OrsaGoldhill didn’t survive too much longer. The end came when the OrsaGoldhill’s last chips went in on a flop of [9h][8d][Ts]. Rennwurm showed [7s][Jh][Jc][Tc] for a flopped straight as OrsaGoldhill called it off with [5d][Th][Ac][9c] for top two pair with a backdoor low draw. The [Ks] turn and [8s] river changed nothing to see OrsaGoldhill’s run come to an end in 3rd place for $10,739.25.

Rennwurm held a narrow chip advantage heads up, but eityby55 chipped away at the lead with a series of small pots. That is, until Rennwurm scooped the biggest pot of the tournament when he made a better high and low in the following hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Rennwurm looked in control, holding a 12-to-1 advantage at one point, but eityby55 doubled and then doubled again, before the key hand saw eityby55 make a straight and a low to scoop against Rennwurm’s two pair to reclaim the lead.

Eventually the battle was over in a hand where eityby55 called a preflop raise, before leading the betting on each street on a board that read [4s][2d][9d][Ks][9s]. Rennwurm responded by moving all in, with eityby55 making the call with [Qc][3c][Qs][2s] for a king-queen-high flush, narrowly pipping the [3s][Kd][Js][8d] king-jack-high flush for Rennwurm.

With that, Rennwurm won $14,736.63 for 2nd place as Russia’s eityby55 is our newest SCOOP champion, winning the title and $19,689.44.

Final Table Results
1st eityby55 (Russia) – $19,689.44
2nd Rennwurm (Germany) – $14,736.63
3rd OrsaGoldhill (Sweden) – $10,739.25
4th outlaw (Canada) – $7,159.50
5th RichGRich (Germany) – $4,773
6th imgoodiknow (Israel) – $2,983.12

The 2012 SCOOP is only just getting started with an amazing schedule of events still to come. For more details head to the official SCOOP website for the schedule, satellites, leaderboard, statistics and more.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | ept | estrellas poker tour | european | gambling | italian | lapt | micromillions | news | pca | tcoop

The EPT Season 8 awards are due to be given out at the closing party on Tuesday rewarding a select elite for their grind over the last nine months. They’ll all have earned their plaudits but plenty of other unsung heroes will have to remain in the shadows. Don’t ask why but we at the PokerStars Blog didn’t actually get consulted on the Achievement of the Year or Player of the Year awards.* It’s not like we’ve been at every event.

*It’s a sponsorship impartiality thing. Bah humbug, say we.

So thumbing our nose at that decision we’ve decided to put forward a few of the players that haven’t been short listed that we think deserve their own fleeting moment in the spotlight. In no particular order:

Ilan Boujenah

Ilan Boujenah has been one of this season’s revelations. Three main event cashes, one final table and lungful’s of histrionics, Boujenah has proved himself to be a precocious talent and one that will act as a catalyst for action at the table. Not the player that you want on your left. Another terror at the table is Melanie Weisner who ripped through the EPT Copenhagen main event but ran ace-queen into ace-king then the same hand into aces shortly after to go from chip lead to bust in around half an hour. She finished 28th there and in the same position at EPT Madrid just a couple of weeks later marking her third main event cash of the season. Weisner bust just before the money here but considering she finished runner-up to Victoria Coren in a tight 3-2 final in the €5,000 Heads-Up here in Monaco for €39,250. Weisner a wise-cracking, in-your-face kind of player who is not only happy taking on the worst kind of testosterone-fuelled macho players but seems to relish not only kicking them to the kerb but stamping her stiletto heels into the them for good measure. More deep runs to be expected.

Melanie Weisner

For underestimated talent we can look at one of the quietest winners from the tour, Zimnan Ziyard. The Brit won EPT Loutraki for €347,000, an event that was not streamed, so perhaps did not receive the kudos that he should have. Ziyard followed every play through if he thought it was the correct one, manipulating the final table stacks to an extent that’s not frequently seen in live poker. At one point he re-shoved with [6h][2c] forcing runner-up Hauke Heseding out of the pot allowing him to knock out or treble up third-place finisher John Taramas. The move kind of made sense but few would be able to pull it with that amount of money at stake.

EPT Loutraki winner Zimnan Ziyard

Irishman Mick ‘BIGMICKG’ Graydon may not deserve an award this year but the onlint tournament specialist is certainly one to watch for next. A good friend of Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth, Graydon made a good run at the Player of the Year leader board scoring three main event cashes, one final table, as well as eight side events cashes. Graydon bust out in 24th with kings getting cracked by Ronny Kaiser’s ace-king for the chip lead of EPT Tallinn. Kaiser hit, swiped a dominating stack and went on to win the event. Other players that fall into the ‘They-nearly-got-it-but-no-doubt-will-be-back’ award include auto big stack builder Martins Adeniya and fan’s favourite Xuan Liu. Both made final tables neither quite got the rub of the green.

Mick Graydon (red jumper) with Jude Ainsworth

Xuan Liu

Martins Adeniya (left) with JP Kelly

However, perhaps more than anyone else the player that must be given a nod/thumbs-up/pat on the back is Phillip ‘philbort’ Gruissem. The German destroyed the High Roller scene earlier in the season scoring the following results:

Barcelona, €10,000 buy-in: 1st, €234,000
London, £20,000: 1st, £450,000
San Remo, €10,000: 4th, €68,600

Gruissem, who has won more than $2,000,000 in online tournaments online, is also the chip leader of in the €25,000 High Roller which is down to it’s final 16 players; 14 places pay. It’s looking like it could be yet another giant score for the German. You can follow his final push by clicking through this link.
Can Gruissem win yet another High Roller? This one’s worth €1,080,000…

Philipp Gruissem has had an incredible season to look back on

Tournament snapshot
Level 33: blinds 100,000-200,000, ante 30,000
Players: 3 of 665
Average stack: 6,650,000
Click here for live coverage and more features from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Tags: 2011 | Asia Pacific Poker Tour | australia | german | london | madrid | micromillions | monte-carlo | SCOOP | Super Tuesday | tcoop | twitter

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.

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The opening day of any European Poker Tour event tends to be without real plot. It’s mainly a matter of surviving through the day’s eight levels to return on Day 2 when it becomes interesting. Invariably there are some weighty movers on Day 1A, players who can at least be plucked from the rest as having done some good that could serve them well as the week progresses.

Today those players were John Eames and Martin Kabrhel.

The pair shared the same table from the start, between them just a dealer and Freddy Deeb, each amassing the two big stacks that were out front when all were bagged up. For Kabrhel 167,800, for Eames 157,200. David “Doc” Sands finished in between that on 160,300.

The Salle des Etoiles tournament room

The two players cut differing figures at the table. English Eames is a solid player, unlikely to fluster easily. He was massaged to the finish, the soothing effects of a big stack doing as much good as the back rub; a triple up with a flopped straight giving him the opportunity to proceed with caution.

John Eames

martin Kabrhel

Kabrhel is an altogether different figure who needs only a pair of sunglasses and a lift to the tournament room to excel, as those who saw him dominate side events last season will know. “I just play funny,” he said, trying to account for his success. He’s right, funny strange and funny ha-ha in equal measure.

The Twitter Wall

The rest of the field of 271 followed in their shadow in the Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Deeb, Scott Seiver, JP Kelly and Nicolas Chouity will all return, as will current Player of the Year leader Ondrej Vinklarek. Joining them will be Mickey Petersen, Phil Ivey, Joe Cada, Luca Pagano, Ville Wahlbeck, Richard Toth, Mike McDonald, Vanessa Selbst and Jude Ainsworth.

Not returning, at least not for the main event will be Arnaud Mattern, Jake Cody, Xuan Liu, Andrew Chen, Isaac Haxton, Elio Fox, Antony Lellouche, James Akenhead and Roberto Romanello, who will probably be found in every side event until next week, trying to top Vinklarek to the PoY title.

The Grand Hotel hairpin, part of the Grand Prix circuit

Find all the scores from Day 1 on the Official Chip Count page, with colour features, including news from the head-up event, the Super High Roller and of the new EPT Season 9, can be found below.

Main event about to begin as new season announced

The glitz and glamour

Healthy, wealthy and wise

The Twitter wall above Moorman’s head

The men in white suits

Justin Bonomo looking ahead to main event after Super High Roller win

Coren and Weisner heads up for the title

Play continues tomorrow when the bulk fo the day one field will take their seats in the Salle des Etoiles. They start at 12 noon tomorrow.

What looks to be the God of hats, in Monaco today

Until then it’s goodnight from Monaco.

All photography &copy Neil Stoddart

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In celebration of national stalking awareness day we’re going to give you the Twitter addresses of a whole bunch of Team PokerStars Pros. Go figure. As we mentioned yesterday, Twitter is a great way to keep a close eye on your favourite players when they’re on tour and at home (but in a safe sanctioned manner).

Some may be more prolific than others but you’ll certainly get some insight into the lives of the sponsored grinders, their tournament lives if not their day to day grind.

Theo Jorgensen: ‘What do you mean you don’t follow me?’

Just copy and paste the addresses of the pros that you’d like to follow into your Twitter search box to get started.

Alexander Kravchenko @kravchenko71
Ana Marquez @AnaMarquez86
André Akkari @aakkari
Angel Guillen @Boloban1
Arnaud Mattern @ArnaudMattern
Barry Greenstein @barrygreenstein
Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier @elkypoker
Bryan Huang @BryanHuang_
Celina Lin @Celina_Lin
Chad Brown @downtownchad
Charlotte Van Brabander @sjlot
Chris Moneymaker @CMONEYMAKER
Christian de Leon @Grillo24
Christophe de Meulder @crispokers
Dag Palovic @dagpalovic
Daniel Negreanu @realkidpoker + @Dnchips (for tournament updates)
Dario Minieri @DarioMinieri
David Williams @dwpoker
Eugene Katchalov @EugeneKatchalov
Fatima Moreiro de Melo @FatimaMdM
George Danzer @trickyscarfy
Henrique Pinho @Henrique_Policy
Humberto Brenes @humbertoshark
Ivan Demidov @IvanDemidovPs
Jan Heitmann @JanHeitmann
Jason Mercier @JasonMercier
Joao Nunes @jomanepokerpt
Joe Cada @Cada99
Johnny Lodden @johnnylodden
Jonathan Duhamel @JonathanDuhamel
Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero @nacho_barbero
Juan Manuel Pastor @pastorpoker
Jude Ainsworth @jainsworthpoker
Lex Veldhuis @RaSZi
Liv Boeree @liv_boeree
Luca Pagano @LucaPagano
Marcel Luske @MarcelLuske
Marcin Horecki @MarcinHorecki
Martin Hruby @AABenjaminAA
Martin Staszko @MStaszko
Matthias de Meulder @mattionfire
Maxim Lykov @superdecay
Michael Keiner @DocPoker
Nuno Coelho @zumytime
Pier Paolo Fabretti @P_Fabretti
Pius Heinz @MastaP89
Raymond Wu @RaymondSWu
Richard Toth @TothRichard
Rino Mathis @RinoMathis
Sandra Najouks @SandraNaujoks
Theo Jorgensen @Theo_Jorgensen
Toni Judet @toni_judet
Vanessa Rousso @VanessaRousso
Vanessa Selbst @vanessaselbst
Vicky Coren @VictoriaCoren
Victor Ramdin @victorramdin
Viktor Blom @realisildur1

Tournament snapshot
Level 15: blinds 1,500-3,000
Players: 132 of 745
Average stack: 169,500
Click here for live coverage and more features.

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