When a player enters the final table with a dominating chip lead, others can be intimidated. When that player holds the lead throughout most of the action, the feeling is that he or she cannot lose. But Pollopopeye paid no mind to caecilius’ chip counts, only to the intention of winning. And after a stellar and long heads-up match, Pollopopeye came through and claimed that title for an extraordinary two-day effort.

*****

It didn’t take a genius to know this tournament would be big. The $1,050 buy-in attracted the higher stakes players, and the $600K guarantee attracted anyone who could win a satellite to get into the action. So, Event 8 was scheduled as a two-day tournament, knowing this would be one of the bigger events in the 2012 SCOOP series thus far.

And it was. The first day of Event 8-High offered three hours of late registration, and the final numbers that resulted were incredible:

Players: 1,328
Guarantee: $600,000.00
Prize pool: $1,328,000.00
Paid players: 153

After the first eight hours of play on Day 1, the field was reduced to fewer than 200 players. To that point, some of the recent bustouts of Team Pros included Jonathan Duhamel in 268th place, Lex Veldhuis in 229th, and Leo Fernandez in 221st. The money bubble was in sight, and it burst at the very end of the night as kabutze finished in 154th place and SFisch4 took home $1,992.00 for 153rd place. With the 149th place elimination of Bear4rms, play was stopped.

As for the Team PokerStars Pros, there were several remaining in the Event 8-H field, including Ana Marquez, Martin Staszko, Maxim Lykov, and Matthias de Meulder. Eugene Katchalov was ranked 19th on the leaderboard and led the pack of Team Pros at the end of the night.

Day 2

As the second day of play began, action was in Level 17 with 400/800 blinds and a 100 ante. The top ten chip counts out of 148 remaining players were as follows:

a$$ou – 133,407
treezer – 131,749
DYBYDX – 128,933
modogrinder – 120,393
Flying Smile – 117,103
kleath – 110,897
SKWINNER – 106,389
Adrian900123 – 102,142
cobrastyle15 – 100,982
caballou – 99,901

It took little more than an hour to reduce the field to less than 100 players, and Team Pros Maxim Lykov and Ana Marquez were among those eliminations. The next 50 players to exit included names like THAY3R and USCphildo, and Team Pro Matthias de Meulder was eliminated in 53rd place.

Team Pro Eugene Katchalov was doing quite well until about four or five hours into Day 2, at which point he exited in 32nd place for $4,913.60. That left Team Pro Martin Staszko (pictured below), still working a relatively short stack but holding enough blinds to hang on. He did just that and stuck with it as play continued toward the final table.

Hand-for-hand play didn’t begin until 9.5 hours after play restarted on Day 2. With the 11th place elimination of sammycon23, action intensified until 1Il|1Il|1il| got involved with caecilius to see a raised [2s][Kd][Ts] flop. A series of raisers led to 1Il|1Il|1il| moving all-in with [Ks][9c], and caecilius called with [Ah][Kh] for two pair with the better kicker. The [4c] and [2h] ended the hand and eliminated 1Il|1Il|1il| in tenth place with $11,819.20.

Caecilius dominates in chip lead

After much anticipation, the final table began in Level 34, with blinds of 4,500/9,000 and a 1,125 ante. The players’ starting stacks were as follows:

Seat 1: Pollopopeye (615,082 in chips)
Seat 2: caecilius (3,135,074 in chips)
Seat 3: swordfish007 (451,046 in chips)
Seat 4: Ruxandescu (522,107 in chips)
Seat 5: B4d3m3!st3r (489,232 in chips)
Seat 6: M. Staszko (358,735 in chips)
Seat 7: Flying Smile (418,797 in chips)
Seat 8: compris (188,075 in chips)
Seat 9: onesixty8 (461,852 in chips)

In a change of pace, the second hand of the final table produced action. Flying Smile started with a raise from middle position, and swordfish007 called from the big blind. The flop came [Kh][4s][Qs], and Flying Smile led out with a bet. Swordfish007 check-raised, and Flying Smile raised again. When swordfish007 pushed all-in, Flying Smile called all-in with [Qc][Qh] for the set of queens, and swordfish007 showed [As][Jc] for the straight draw. The [Js] on the turn brought flush possibilities as well, and the [9s] made that spade flush. Flying Smile exited in ninth place with $14,608.00.

Compris was the next of the short stacks at risk, pushing all-in from the small blind for 211,700 chips with [Ah][Jc]. Swordfish007 called with [8h][8d], and that pocket pair held up to the [6h][Ts][Kd][9d][3s] board. Compris never improved and had to leave in eighth place with $25,896.00.

Team Pro Staszko hangs on

Onesixty8 had a rough time at the table and was reduced to little more than 100K chips. Those went all-in UTG with [Kh][Jc], and Team PokerStars Pro Martin Staszko called from the big blind with [Ah][9h]. The flop of [Jd][7d][9c] gave onesixty8 top pair, but the [Ac] hit on the turn to give M. Staszko two pair. The [Qh] on the river changed nothing and sent onesixty8 out in seventh place with $39,176.00.

B4d3m3!st3r shoved preflop from the big blind with [As][9d], but original raiser caecilius called with a dominating [Ac][Qs]. The board blanked with [Kd][5c][8d][3h][2s], and the queen kicker played to eliminate B4d3m3!st3r, winner of a 2011 SCOOP title in sixth place with $52,456.00.

M. Staszko doubled through caecilius, though the latter remained the undisputed chip leader with nearly 3 million chips:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Pollopopeye’s turn to climb

Ruxandescu was the next player at risk, doing it with [Ac][4s] aginst the [Qc][Qh] of Pollopopeye. The board of [7s][6s][6d][4h][2s] only increased Pollopopeye’s hand to the best two pair, and Ruxandescu was ousted in fifth place with $65,736.00.

Swordfish007 and Pollopopeye got into a serious preflop raising war that ended when swordfish007 pushed all-in with [5c][5h] and Pollopopeye called with [Js][Jh]. Nothing about the [3h][7c][Ac][As][Th] board changed anything, and swordfish007 had to swim off in fourth place with $92,428.80.

Rebounding caecilius

In danger of losing the chip lead to Pollopopeye, caecilius got aggressive during three-handed play and too some big pots from both competitors. Shorter-stacked M. Staszko was hurt most by the 1.4 million-chip pot loss, but the Team Pro had been nothing but a model of patience throughout the entire tournament, so picking spots so close to the end was not a problem.

Team Pro over and out

M. Staszko was left with a very short stack and chose to push his 233,944 all-in with [7h][6h]. Pollopopeye called, and original raiser caecilius folded. Pollopopeye showed [Ah][Ts] and improved to top pair on the [9c][Tc][2h] flop. M. Staszko was live with the inside straight draw, but neither the [Qd] nor the [9s] made it. Team PokerStars Pro Martin Staszko finished the tournament in third place with $126,160.00.

Quiet, calculated heads-up match

The last two players began their battle with these stacks:

Seat 1: Pollopopeye (2,204,670 in chips)
Seat 2: caecilius (4,435,330 in chips)

A few rounds in, caecilius took a pot worth more than 1.2 million chips, and Pollopopeye was reduced to a further deficit. The two battled in silence, without a single comment between them, nor a request for deal talks or even so much as an “lol.” It was all quiet on the heads-up front.

But just as caecilius moved ahead, Pollopopeye had a double-up waiting in the wings. It came in handy here and nearly evened the stacks:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After one hour of heads-up play and stacks remaining nearly even, Pollopopeye asked if there was an interest in seeing some chop numbers, but caecilius was clear that the intention was to play. “I’m all set, thanks though,” was the response in the chat box. And so, they played on.

Eventually, Pollopopeye took some big pots to jump into the lead. Exactly 13 hours after the day started and nearly 1.5 hours into the heads-up match, a big hand developed. Caecilius raised, and Pollopopeye called to see a [Js][2s][8d] flop. Caecilius bet, and Pollopopeye check-raised. Caecilius called and the [5d] was delivered on the turn. Another bet from caecilius was followed by a check-call from Pollopopeye, and the [Ts] came on the river. Caecilius bet again, and Pollopopeye raised all-in. Caecilius thought for more than a few minutes before finally calling with [Jd][5s] for two pair. But Pollopopeye turned over [Qs][8s] for the spade flush, and caecilius had to settle for second place and $166,000.00.

Pollopopeye of the UK won the SCOOP 8-H title, a Movado watch, and $229,212.80 in cash. Congrats!

2012 SCOOP Event #8-H ($1,015 NLHE) Results:

1st place: Pollopopeye ($229,212.80)
2nd place: caucilius ($166,000.00)
3rd place: Team PokerStars Pro Martin “M. Staszko” Staszko ($126,160.00)
4th place: swordfish007 ($92,428.00)
5th place: Ruxandescu ($65,736.00)
6th place: B4d3m3!st3r ($52,456.00)
7th place: onesixty8 ($39,176.00)
8th place: compris ($25,896.00)
9th place: Flying Smile ($14,608.00)

The Spring Championship of Online Poker home page contains all of the tournament results, schedule of upcoming events and their satellites, and a leaderboard for the 2012 Series.

Tags: action | Baltic Poker Festival | delicious | events | facebook | france | portugal | portugal poker series | twitter | wcoop

Some would say that heads-up is the purest form of poker. Mano-a-mano in a true test of poker skill, aggression and the ultimate in psychology. There’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Heads-up poker is also fascinating as anything can, and probably will, happen. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. It could be a drawn out marathon where the blinds eventually take hold, or it can all be over on the first hand of the match.

Today we saw just about all of that, and a little more, with an exciting and dramatic end to the SCOOP Event #7-H $700 Heads-Up No Limit Holdem event.

It started out with 793 players coming together to compete for a massive $531,310 prize pool which smashed the guarantee four times over.

Team PokerStars was well represented with pros Lex Veldhuis, Victor “Isildur1″ Blom, Daniel Negreanu, Anders Berg, Bertrand Grospellier, Angel Guillen, George Danzer, Shane Schleger, Randy Lew and Eugene Katchalov amongst the starters.

The top 128 would finish in the money with the likes of Jonathan Duhamel (120th – $1,381.40), Paul Hockin (93rd – $1,381.40), Bryn Kenney (65th $1,381.40), James Obst (50th – $2,433.39) and Matt Wakeman (38th – $2,433.39) just a few of the notable players to reach the money.

The highest-placed Team PokerStars Pro was Victor Ramdin. He ran into Justin Bonomo in a tough Round of 16 match that had the attention of most of the railbirds. Ramdin got off to a slow start after being disconnected, but Bonomo waited patiently and gave Ramdin every opportunity to return without much damage. That good karma paid off when Bonomo grabbed the win when the two went to war on a flop of [2s][9c][7c]. Bonomo held [7h][5s] for just middle pair but it was in front of Ramdin’s [6h][8s] straight draw. The [3d] turn and [kc] completed the board to see Bonomo progress and Ramdin out in 14th place for $7,661.49 in prize money.

Victor Ramdin representing the red spade with a deep SCOOP run

Chris Moorman was another popular pro to be bundled out in the Round of 16. His last stand came with [9c][9d] after Pappe_Ruk shoved with [ac][9h]. An ace found its way onto the flop to eliminate Moorman in 10th place for $7,661.49.

Justin Bonomo would make it no further than the quarter finals in an interesting elimination hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

It was an interesting line by shurgar, and was enough to confuse Bonomo who went deep into the tank on the river before calling for his tournament life, but trips for shurgar sent Bonomo packing in 8th place for $14,239.10 in prize money.

Shurgar went on to face JRADF79 in one semi final as Scott ‘gunning4you’ Seiver took on TRiggA_miK3 in the other.

Seiver was first to progress through to the final, and it was a bit of a cooler that ended the match. The chips were in preflop with Seiver showing [as][qd] as TRiggA_miK3 held a monster [ks][kh]. An ace fell on the flop and TRiggA_miK3 was outed in 4th place for $25,561.32.

The other semi-final was also over rather quickly. The blinds were only 40/80 when shurgar had already gained the ascendency to leave JRADF79 with around fifteen big blinds. JRADF79 moved all in preflop with [ks][6c] but shurgar made the call with [6h][6s]. The board ran out [2c][qc][5h][qh][qd] to see JRADF79 eliminated in 3rd place for $25,561.32 as our final match was set.

Final: gunning4you vs shurgar

The final saw Seiver race out of the blocks, before shurgar took the lead with a rivered flush holding [2d][4d] that Seiver paid off with a river call.

It was only moments later that the tournament was thrown into a spin when Seiver disconnected. His entire timebank of around six or seven minutes drained before the moderator added an extra four minutes on top. Again there was no movement from Seiver as his time bank expired. Was this really how the SCOOP title was going to be decided?

Thankfully, no…

gunning4you is connected
gunning4you said, “what happened”
gunning4you said, “internet seems to have gone down in places throughout city”
shurgar said, “u didn’t lose Any chips”

With Seiver back it would be game on, but incredibly the tournament would last exactly one more hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Seiver turned the flush and got his chips in good, but shurgar spiked a queen on the river to improve to a full house for the win. What a way to end it!

Seiver pockets $51,127.96 for his runner-up finish while shurgar wins the SCOOP title and $80,350.76.

Final Four Results
1st shurgar (United Kingdom) – $80,350.76
2nd Scott “gunning4you” Seiver (Canada) – $51,127.96
3rd JRADF79 (Belgium) – $25,561.32
4th TRiggA_miK3 (Canada) – $25,561.32

The 2012 SCOOP is 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: 2011 | angel | Baltic Poker Festival | daniel-negreanu | festival | france | gambling | lapt | napt | SCOOP | season 8 | twitter

We knew the first “High” buy-in event of this year’s SCOOP series would be attracting a lot of familiar names, including many of the poker world’s elite. As it happened the one emerging from the tough-as-nails field as the victor would be an especially familiar one, with Alex “Allingomes” Gomes adding yet another triumph to his ever-growing list of poker achievements.

But let us not get ahead of ourselves. This, like the other events kicking off SCOOP, was a two-day affair, meaning lots of action would necessarily take place before a winner would be found.

By the time late registration had closed a whopping field of 784 had signed up for the $2,100 buy-in, six-handed no-limit hold’em event. That big group created a gigantic $1,568,000 prize pool to more than double the event’s $750K guarantee. The top 90 finishers would divide up the loot, with a nifty $282,240 payday awaiting the winner barring any final-table deals.

Day 1

“Good table in SCOOP 01-H with James Mackey and @PhilGalfond on my left. #SCOOP2012,” tweeted Team Online member Shane Schleger early Sunday afternoon, not long after play began. “Was thinking the same thing,” replied Galfond, a.k.a. “MrSweets28.”

Unfortunately for all three — Mackey, Galfond, and Schleger — none would survive the afternoon, with both Galfond and Schleger falling victim to Redd Barronn to go out shy of the top 400.

By the seven-hour mark the field had shrunk to 150, with Andy “andy123460″ Ganapathy on top as the only player with more than 200,000. Among those having hit the rail by then was Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree who fell in 179th after running pocket nines into the queens of fellow Team Pro Lex Veldhuis.

As the night wore on and they neared the money bubble, Veldhuis continued to battle while Angel Guillen of Team PokerStars Mexico slipped to short-stacked status. Finally Guillen busted in 105th when his [Jh][Jc] failed to hold up versus römpsä’s [Qc][9h].

Once the money bubble burst, Veldhuis would continue to hang on before finding himself all in on a [3h][9c][Kh] flop with [Qh][10h] versus Mike “Pipedream17″ Dietrich’s [Ac][Ah]. Neither of Veldhuis’ draws filled, and the Dutchman was out in 78th for a $4,390.40 score.

Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis

Others hitting the rail before play was paused included Tobias “PokerNoob999″ Reinkenmeier (71st, $4,547.20), Mayu “marroca5″ Roca (66th, $4,860.80), McLean “PureProfitFo” Karr (63rd, $4,860.80), Sorel “zangbezan24″ Mizzi (54th, $5,488), Torsten “jetkiss” Brinkmann (45th, $5,958.40), and Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet (43rd, $5,958.40).

With just 41 players left, oncommand was in command with more than 500,000, with Alex “Allingomes” Gomes his nearest competitor in 2nd, Johan “busto_soon” van Til next in third, and Nick “FU_15″ Maimone and Luke “LukeFromB13″ Staudenmaier also in the top ten.

Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looked overnight:

1. oncommand — 507,554
2. Allingomes — 436,374
3. busto_soon — 414,864
4. Fiskin1 — 329,491
5. AJacejackAJ — 302,342
6. StingsHUH — 298,793
7. FU_15 — 261,608
8. E1ephant — 260,108
9. LukeFromB13 — 252,977
10. Tagult — 246,852.

Also among those still with chips and set to return on Monday were Andy “andy123460″ Ganapathy (17th), Liviu “0Human0″ Ignat (18th), Joseph “subiime” Cheong (23rd), Mike “Pipedream17″ Dietrich (32nd), Carter “cswidler” Swidler (38th), and Chris “Genius28″ Lee (39th).

Day 2

Play resumed on Monday with the short stacks falling in short order, including Carter “cswidler” Swidler (40th, $6,742.40), Mike “Pipedream17″ Dietrich (29th, $6,742.40), and Chris “Genius28″ Lee (36th, $7,840).

Monday didn’t start so well for AJacejackAJ, who swiftly fell from the top 10 to go out in 35th ($7,840). Not long after that Str8$$$Homey surged into the chip lead after a huge double up versus Alex “AllinGomes” Gomes in which Str8$$$Homey’s [Qh][Qd] held versus Gomes’ [Ah][Kh] to give Str8$$$Homey a 563,610-chip pot.

As the afternoon wore on, the field kept shrinking with Liviu “0Human0″ Ignat (31st, $7,840), Andy “andy123460″ Ganapathy (29th, $9,094.40), Luke “LukeFromB13″ Staudenmaier (28th, $9,094.40), oncommand (17th, $14,112), roi kin23 (16th, $14,112), and Joseph “subiime” Cheong (15th, $14,112) among those cashing out shy of the finish line.

Play continued, and when Johan “busto_soon” van Til went out in ninth ($31,987.20) and Fiskin1 was eliminated in eighth (both earning $31,987.20), they’d reached the final table bubble.

It appeared that the super short stack yasunori66 was destined to come up one spot shy of the last table after running pocket queens into raidalot’s aces to lose almost all of his chips. But he managed a double-up through Nick “FU_15″ Maimone to leave the latter with only about 80,000, and soon Maimone was all in with [J][T] against Artur “arturitooo” Alabart’s [A][Q]. The better hand held, and they were down to six.

Seat 1: Allingomes — 1,756,720
Seat 2: dirty.brasil — 788,432
Seat 3: raidalot — 685,609
Seat 4: arturitooo — 2,817,875
Seat 5: yasunori66 — 237,300
Seat 6: Str8$$$Homey — 1,554,064

It was an international final table, with two Canadians (dirty.brasil and Str8$$$Homey), raidalot of the U.K., Artur “arturitooo” Alabart of Spain, the familiar Alex “Allingomes” Gomes from Brazil, and what may well be the first SCOOP final tablist from Japan, the short stack yasunori66.

It wouldn’t take long for yasunori66 to commit his chips in an effort to double-up. With the blinds at 10,000/20,000, yasunori66 open-shoved from under the gun for 139,800 and got one caller in arturitooo from the big blind.

yasunori66 had [6h][6c] and was hoping his pair would hold versus arturitooo’s [Ad][Jh]. But the board ran out [9c][7s][8h][4d][Tc] — giving both players straights, but arturitooo the better one, and yasurnori66 was out in sixth.

Meanwhile dirty.brasil would become short-stacked, and just a few minutes after yasunori66′s elimination would be at risk as well when Gomes made a 3x opening raise from the small blind to 60,000, and dirty.brasil reraised all in for 71,829.

Gomes quickly called, showing [As][6s] to dirty.brasil’s [Jc][9c], and after the board rolled out [Kc][Qd][2c][Kd][Kh] they were quickly down to four.

At that point deal talk arose, but with only three of the four willing — raidalot was the exception — play continued. Then, just before the six-hour break of Day 2, a huge hand unfolded between arturitooo and raidalot.

The blinds were still 10,000/20,000, and after Gomes opened for 40,000 from UTG, raidalot made it 100,000 to go from the button. Then Artur “arturitooo” Alabart four-bet to 222,222 from the small blind, forcing folds from Str8$$$Homey and Gomes. raidalot responded by making it 445,000, Alabart shoved all in over the top, and raidalot called with the 926,953 he had left.

artiritooo: [Qc][Qd]
raidalot: [Kh][Kc]

A bad spot for artiritooo, made worse when the flop came [6d][Kd][8s] to give raidalot a set. Two cards later, it was raidalot scooping a better than 2.8 million-chip pot. Take a look:

RSS readers click through to see replay

They’d reached the break, at which point raidalot was in front with that stack of more than 2.8 million, Alex “Allingomes” Gomes was next with just over 1.86 million, Str8$$$Homey third with almost exactly 1.73 million, and Artur “arturitooo” Alabart last with a little over 1.43 million.

Deal discussion arose once more as play resumed, but raidalot again declined the invitation to consider it and the final four marched on.

About 10 minutes later the blinds were at 12,500/25,000 when Str8$$$Homey opened for 50,000 from UTG, then Allingomes reraised to 112,780 from the button to chase out the blinds. Str8$$$Homey then made it 260,000 to go, and Gomes called.

The flop came [9d][Kh][Qd] and Str8$$$Homey led for 225,000, getting a call from Gomes. The turn was the [8c], and this time Str8$$$Homey bet 350,000. Gomes called once more.

The river brought the [2s] and an all-in shove for 1,111,312 from Str8$$$Homey. Gomes snap-called, turning over [Jd][Th] for the flopped straight. Str8$$$Homey had [Ad][Kc] for kings, and was out in fourth.

RSS readers click through to see replay

About 10 minutes after that raidalot opened with a min-raise to 50,000 from the button, Artur “arturitooo” Alabart made it 127,777 from the small blind, and Gomes folded. The action back on raidalot, he pushed all in for 714,247 total and Alabart quickly called.

raidalot had [As][Jh] but had run into arturitooo’s [Ah][Ks]. The five community cards came [8h][Qh][3d][7h][Kc], and they were down to two.

Heads-up play began with Gomes leading with 4,674,619 to Alabart’s 3,165,381. After just a hand they paused proceedings to talk about a deal, and after arturitooo started with a proposal Gomes responded with a clear statement of his position.

Allingomes: srry bro, I need 250k minimum
Allingomes: and play for 15k
Allingomes: otherwise we can play
arturitooo: sorry
Allingomes: ok gl
arturitooo: gl
Allingomes: lets play please

Having lasted through 20 half-hour levels on Sunday and another six-and-a-half hours plus on Day 2 — and seen 782 of their opponents felted before them — the final two combatants would play it out with that full $282,240 first prize awaiting the winner.

The pair would ultimately battle for more than an hour before a winner was decided. The first half-hour saw Gomes gradually chipping away at arturitooo’s stack, pushing him back to the 2 million-mark and below while Gomes crept up over 5.5 million.

They’d hold steady with those stacks for another 30 minutes, with no pots exceeding 1 million. Then came a hand in which Gomes shoved all in on a [As][9c][4c][8d][Kc] board and Alabart contemplated for nearly two minutes before letting it go, conceding the more than 1.6 million-chip pot.

That left arturitooo down to about 1.3 million, and Gomes continued the chipping away, pushing up close to 7 million while his opponent slipped below 900,000. Then came the final hand.

With the blinds 17,500/35,000, Gomes opened for 70,000 from the button and arturitooo shoved for 882,624 total. Gomes called, showing [Ks][Qs], and arturitooo was in need of help with [Kc][9c]. But the board came [3s][6c][Jd][5s][Ac], and Gomes had won.

RSS readers click through to see replay

Congratulations to Alex “Allingomes” Gomes for taking down the first “High” event of this year’s SCOOP and a nifty $282,240 score! Now that’s a familiar smile…

Alex “Allingomes” Gomes, 2012 SCOOP 1-H Champion

2012 SCOOP Event 1-High, $2,100 NLHE (6-max) results:
1st: Allingomes ($282,240)
2nd: arturitooo ($211,680)
3rd: raidalot ($156,800)
4th: Str8$$$Homey ($109,760)
5th: dirty.brasil ($78,400)
6th: yasunori66 ($47,040)

Things are just getting started around here, SCOOP-wise. Check the SCOOP page for early results and the full 120-tournament schedule.

Tags: Baltic Poker Festival | entertainment | ept | eureka poker tour | italian | pokerstars macau | season 8 | tournaments | twitter | UKIPT

The PokerStars European Poker Tour headed back to Monaco this year for the Season 8 Grand Final. Plenty of members of Team PokerStars Pros made their way to the principality for nine days of poker — after all, the Super High Roller, Main Event, and High Roller had to be

The trip didn’t start off so well for Daniel Negreanu. On April 21 he tweeted, “British Airways ahhhh! No bags again wtf! That’s the 4th time that’s happened with BA. My own fault I guess for trying them again. #steaming” Losing you bags is never fun, but Kid Poker headed back to the airport to rescue them after having “an awesome meal in Menton” at The Loving Hut.

Negreanu, along with 37 other players plopped down €100,000 to take part in the Super High Roller, which began on April 23. On Day 2 of the Super High Roller, Negreanu took it upon himself to order food for several people, including fellow pros David Williams (who was on his way into Monaco and is OK with “anything except cucumbers and olives), and Vanessa Selbst (who likes her spring rolls not fried).

There are a few ways of getting to Monaco — train, car, or helicopter. And when given the option, it’s always best to ride in style, which is what David Williams did. Chris Moneymaker did the same, tweeting, “Just landed in Nice. About to jump in a helicopter for quick ride to Monaco.”

David Williams’ helicopter

Of the eight players who made it to the final table of the Super High Roller, Team PokerStars Pro represented half the field — Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. “Made the final table of SHR. Gonna be a sick fight with @realkidpoker @eugenekatchalov @jonathanduhamel @justinbonomo +masa patrik tobias,” ElkY tweeted. Negreanu and ElkY cashed in sixth and third respectively, and Justin Bonomo walked away with the title and €1.6 million first-place prize.

If you’ve got a view from your hotel room like most of the Pros did, it’s a given that there will be plenty of obligatory “awesome view” tweets, like this one from Lex Veldhuis, “Obgligatory Monte Carlo balcony view pic: one of my favorite hotels on EPTour. #eptgrandfinal”

Lex Veldhuis’ view

And some of the pros use the “my balcony has a nice view” as a way to lure Achtung players over. “Are we getting an #Achtung game going. My balcony has a nice view… Where u guys at? @VanessaSelbst @ssigsbee @ah_22,” tweeted Jason Mercier.

By the time that the Super High Roller was over, the Main Event was well under way. There were a number of pros in the field on Day 1a, but on Day 1b, one Pro was ready to make some history. “And day1b of #EPTGrandFinal is starting now. About time I become the first double champion. Joke has ran on for long enough! #itstime,” tweeted ElkY.

Liv Boeree got ready for Day 1b in an interesting way. “Ate a whole one of these last night for a dare, the accidentally rubbed my eye. Hell does exist.” We would never recommend that.

Liv Boeree’s hot stuff

ElkY’s Day 1 didn’t go as well as he’d like, but he didn’t give up hope. “6k going into last level of the night. Everything been going wrong so far, Time to turn it into 200k soon. #whywoulditend #EPTGrandFinal.” But it eventually came to an end, “And my dream of becoming the first Double EPT Champion will have to wait till Barcelona. Busted 55 vs @BigCheese_Poker AJhh next to the end.” Even though, he still didn’t give up hope, “Good night sleep and hardcore workout are the best remedies for bustout. Will be ready to take on the world again ! #thingsiwishiknewbefore”

As we all know, patience is a virtue and it’s definitely something that’s needed in poker tournaments. “Being so overwhelmingly patient I deserve a medal for patience for being patient in patient times #EPTPatience,” tweeted Boeree, followed by, “Russian kid keeps coughing on me #EPTPatience.”

Barry Greenstein took the saying “when in Rome” literally while in Monaco, tweeting quite a bit of his updates in French — and since we didn’t take French in school, we didn’t understand any of it.

Even though the Pros were in Monaco for the Grand Final, the upcoming SCOOP was on the minds of some. “Thinking about going to Mexico to play SCOOPs now. Is internet stable and what’s the best spot there for you guys? Any links? Thanks,” tweeted ElkY. Angel Guillen was quick to answer, “@elkypoker Mexico city is close to perfect internet wise, if u wanna go to the beach u could have a 2nd connection just in case”

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When Lex Veldhuis became one of the first players knocked out of today’s €25,000 High Roller event in Monaco, Alexandre Gomes was moved to his seat at table 48. When Jonathan Duhamel busted from the same table a couple of hours later, Patrik Antonius was rotated in.

Liv Boeree spent a good portion of the day sat next to Phil Ivey. When the table broke, she found herself beside Faraz Jaka. Daniel Negreanu bounced around the room, past Viktor Blom, Isaac Haxton, Max Lykov, ElkY et al.

This was one of those poker tournaments, where the only soft spot was on the shoulders of the participants, who have the kind of bankroll sufficient to have their bodies massaged into steak tartare.

There were stars of the game at every single table, making it one of the most fiercely contested tournaments of the week. And it wasn’t exactly a small field. This has become the biggest High Roller event we have ever seen on the EPT. There were 133 entries at €25,000 a pop. It means that the winner, crowned on Tuesday, will get €1,080,000. And they will have earned every penny.

The opening flight today lasted 10 one-hour levels, at the end of which 46 players remained. The man with the most was the American Andrew Badecker, who signed for 350,000.

Andrew Badecker, High Roller leader

His closest challenger is Vincent van den Fluit, with 341,800 and then a whole raft of talent not so far behind. Sami Kelopuro is there, with 310,000. Antonius is there, with 307,500 and Ivey has 271,500.

Vincent van den Fluit

Sami Kelopuro

This field also still contains Justin Bonomo (204,200) hot from a Super High Roller success, and a smattering of Team PokerStars Pro: Daniel Negreanu (102,700), David Williams (90,000), Viktor Blom (67,500) and Boeree (112,600).

Liv Boeree and Daniel Negreanu

We return to the Salle des Etoiles at noon tomorrow to play down to our final table. No matter how big the reputations there are only eight spots there.

Take a look back at all of today’s coverage:

Balancing act begins
Before you win two, win one
A round with the high rollers
Rolling ever higher
It’s not cricket

Thanks to the photos of Lina Olofsson today. More of the same Swedish stylings tomorrow. Goodnight.

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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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With a room full of superstars, a deep stack and a good structure, this High Roller tournament is tailor made for some intriguing action.

And when the stars align like that, our thoughts turn to “A Round With…”, the (increasingly) occasional series in which we follow every tiniest piece of action for an entire orbit.

The table under today’s microscope is the one featuring Lex Veldhuis. It also features Sorel Mizzi. And Mike Watson. Oh, and Jonathan Duhamel and Ivan Demidov too.

Two of those guys have been heads up for the World Series Main Event – Duhamel in 2010, which he won, and Demidov in 2008, when he finished runner up to Peter Eastgate – another (Watson) has a WPT title and Mizzi has 11 six-figure cashes to his name. Lex is just Lex, which might be even better than all the above.

We join the table for the last 30 minutes of level four, at the end of which the chance to re-enter is no more. Not that any of these guys were under serious threat. Their approximate stacks are as follows:

Seat 1 – Lex Veldhuis – 29,000
Seat 2 – Ognjen Sekularac – 65,000
Seat 3 – Sorel Mizzi – 64,000
Seat 4 – Ivan Kudriavtckv – 93,000
Seat 5 – Mike Watson – 24,000
Seat 6 – Unknown Player – 49,000
Seat 7 – Jonathan Duhamel – 30,000
Seat 8 – Ivan Demidov – 66,000

Blinds were at 150-300 (25 ante)

Table 48

Hand one – Sorel Mizzi on the button
Folded to Lex Veldhuis in the hijack, he raised to 700. Ognjen Sekularac called in the cut off and Ivan Kudriavtckv called too from the small blind. All of a sudden, this hand had become a reporter’s nightmare. Look at all those consonant clusters.

Anyhow, the three of them saw a flop of [8h][kc][5c] and (Apple+C, Apple+V) Kudriavtckv checked. Veldhuis bet 1,500 and Sekularac called. Kudriavtckv, however, check-raised, making it 3,400. Veldhuis let the two difficult names go at it alone.

The [jh] turned, Kudriavtckv bet 7,000 and that was good enough to win it.

Hand two – Kudriavtckv on the button
After taking down the last pot, Kudriavtckv was now on the button. But he wasn’t allowed to make any of his positional advantage pay as Sorel Mizzi and Ognjen Sekularac opted to go for it.

Sorel Mizzi, right, and Ognjen Sekularac

Sekularac opened to 600 from the hijack and Mizzi bumped it to 1,500 from the cut off. Sekularac four bet to 4,400 and Mizzi called, all the others having got out the way after the three bet.

The two of them took a flop of [6s][2h][8d] and a bet of 6,025 took it down for Sekularac.

Hand three – Mike Watson on the button
Jonathan Duhamel opened from under the gun and no one wanted to tangle with the Team PokerStars Pro. They all folded.

Hand four – Unknown Player on the button
Ognjen Sekularac was in this one again, opening to 800 from early position. Kudriavtckv called in the cut off and Ivan Demidov now decided to join the party from the big blind. That meant that three of them saw a flop of [4d][3c][9s], which Demidov checked. Sekularac bet 1,125 and both Kudriavtckv and Demidov called.

The [3d] turned and they checked it through, bringing a [3d] river.

Demidov threw out one blue chip, worth 5,000. He announced something in the region of a 3,000 bet. Sekularac asked for a count of Demidov’s remaining stack, but before he even got an answer, raised to 8,025. Kudriavtckv folded.

Demidov, though, wasn’t going away quickly. He went into the tank for a good long while, and eventually emerged with a call. Sekularac turned over [ac][2c] for the turned straight. Demidov flipped [ah][2h] for the same hand.

Hand five – Jonathan Duhamel on the button
It was folded round to Duhamel on the button, and he opened to 600. Ivan Demidov, in the small blind, bumped it to 1,400 and Duhamel called. This has the scent of a hand in which neither player had anything at all.

Anyway, the flop came [ks][jh][kc], which they both checked. That brought the [10s] turn. Demidov fired what looked like 2,700 and Duhamel folded. — HS

Hand six – Ivan Demidov on the button
Mike Watson, with the shortest stack at the table, opted to get this one started, raising to 750. It made it way round to Sekularac in the big blind, and he asked for a count of Watson’s stack. It was about 22,000. Sekularac called from the button, but folded after Watson bet 1,050 on a [5c][js][7d] flop.

Hand seven – Lex Veldhuis on the button
Unknown Player opened to 800 and after everyone else folded, Sorel Mizzi called from the big blind. They both checked a [7c][6c][9h] flop, and they also checked a [ah] turn. Mizzi bet 800 at the [4s] river and Player called, focing Mizzi to table [6s][3h]. Player’s pocket jacks started best and finished the same.

Hand eight – Ognjen Sekularac on the button
Jonathan Duhamel opened from mid position and that won him the blinds.

That was the last hand of the “A Round With…” during which Ivan Demidov made a good call to chop a pot, Ognjen Sekularac was by some measure the most active and Lex Veldhuis was barely involved.

Word reached soon after the hand that Jonathan Duhamel had busted early into level five, narrowly missing the chance to rebuy. That means he is gone from that table and won’t be back for this event.

Lex Veldhuis also perished soon after. Alex Gomes and Patrik Antonius took their seats. It doesn’t get much easier.

We should have some payouts information soon-ish.

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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 7.40am Sunday morning flight from Gatwick to Nice is not, it is fair to say, one of the busiest. There were nine of us on it today – at least on the cheap side of the privacy curtain – which meant five or six rows each.

Actually, that’s not true. Despite the approximate attendance of a voluntary after-school hymn practice, the aeronautical boffins were apparently required to pull off quite a balancing trick in order to get this 85 tonnes of metal off the ground.

We were all bunched up on three rows and it was evidently so delicate that one young woman, with the approximate body-weight of a sparrow, could not even escape her fate as row-mate to a PokerStars Blogger. She tried to sneak a couple of rows forward, out of the immediate fug, but was ordered back.

“It will mess with the balance,” said the flight attendant, not even really convincing herself.

The hurry to Nice, and then on to Monte Carlo, was in honour of today’s High Roller tournament, which began at 1pm in the Salle des Etoiles. It will be another big balancing trick around the poker tables, where a hefty $25,000 has been plonked down in exchange for 50,000 chips.

Beside the sea, Monte Carlo

Taken individually, those chips are about as relevant to the tournament as the waif-like airline passenger is to a jumbo jet. But once they start acting in union, like all nine passengers running to one side of a plane, the turbulence can kick in.

The field, of course, is stacked and turbulence is most certainly expected. Indeed, within the first couple of hands, the Dutch High Roller regular Govert Metaal managed to get all his chips in with ace-eight, on an eight-eight-six board. Big problem: he was facing pocket sixes. Metaal nose-dived into the ocean and was out of the tournament before many had even arrived.

At last glance there were 55 players signed up to play, but with registration open for the first four levels – and not all pros keen to get out of bed before about 4pm – the number will rise.

Lex Veldhuis, in today’s field

It is going to take three days to get down to a winner, and we will attempt to follow the shaky course all the way. We have Messrs Grospellier, Negreanu, Veldhuis, Ivey, Mizzi, Moorman, MacPhee, Haxton, Bonomo and Seidel already at the table, as well as Ms Selbst.

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Yesterday as players filtered into the Salle des Etoiles they were ushered into a darkened room, a cavernous cocoon of poker lit primarily by the blazing neon of the new EPT set. It felt epic, it looked splendid but did it look like Monte Carlo? Not quite. This morning it does.

Entering into the room the ceiling high windows opens up to a stunning sea view vista but unfortunately it’s still deemed too windy to roll the ceiling back. Fingers crossed the players will get treated to that before the start of play at least one day while we’re here. Unfortunately for those players in the middle of the room (and fortunately for those right next to the windows) the curtains were to be closed well before play began.

The Ballroom of Stars

In a few moments Edgar Stuchley, president of the EPT will address the players being ‘excited and proud’ to welcome them home to the Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. He’s right, it is a fitting end to a spectacular season which has had more than 2,000 qualifiers across the season. In the meantime his tournament directors, Toby Stone, Teresa Nousiainen and Thomas Lamatsch, stand talking with floor man Luca Vivaladi about rule number 57 in the ‘STARS’ magazine. Marked under ‘Penalties and player etiquette’ the point being discussed was: ‘Disclosure – Players are obligated to protect the other players in the tournament at all times. Therefore, whether in a hand or not, players may not…’ and then listed six points of ‘do not’s’. There was general agreement about the policies laid out and how they altered when the action was heads up.

Elsewhere Davidi Kitai, the winner of EPT Berlin just a few days ago, stands tall, looking refreshed and revitalised after a gruelling tournament that crowned its first Belgian and filled Kitai’s pockets with €712,000. Kitai is just one face in the crowd. Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker, Barry Greenstein, Andre Akkari, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Lex Veldhuis, Pius Heinz, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel are among those playing. Fellow Team Pro Victoria Coren is also in happy in the knowledge that her week will be a winning one: last night she won the €5,000 heads-up beating Melanie Weisner in tight 3-2 victory.

Weisner (left) and Coren, last night

Play has begun. The blinds start at 50-100 with 30,000 starting stacks. We’ll play eight one-hour levels, no dinner break.

Tournament snapshot
Level 1: blinds 50-100
Players: tbc
(Day 1A: 165 of 271)
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