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

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

I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle chips

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

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

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

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

Runner 1: [jh]

Runner 2: [7h]

Scott doubled to around 20,000 leaving Bartley short.

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

Darren Taylor: raspberry blower

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

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

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

Lee Atherton sporting some facial furniture

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

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

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

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

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

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, ANTE 25

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

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

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

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

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

Tim Bettingen

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

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

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

Good papping by May.

Out last night? Maybe I was

Of course, I feel fine

Okay, maybe I don’t feel so great

But it was worth it

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

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

UKIPT Brighton final tablist Sinem Melin, out

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

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

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dermot Blain

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mike Hill looking for his fourth UKIPT final table

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

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

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 50-100

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fifteen minutes of the first level remain. — RD

Julian Thew

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

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

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

Femi Fakinle

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

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

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

Loading up the starting stacks

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

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

In an epic heads-up battle that lasted 154 hands Russian forhayley overcame a ten to one deficit to defeat Luke ‘LFmagic’ Fields, who once again had to settle for second place in a SCOOP event.

Four-max might be a relatively new poker format but the players, 2205 of them, turned out in their droves to create a prize pool of $441,000 that more than doubled the guarantee of $200,000. Amongst the 280 who shared the prize pool were Team Pro Marcin “Goral” Horecki (271st), Team Online’s Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger (259th) and current overall SCOOP leaderboard leader Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb (268th).

At the start action was, as expected, fast. It took just five hours for 2205 to become 200, but another five hours to reach the final five. A quirk of this format is that the final table is the only juncture at which the table is not four-max as it starts with five players to avoid an imbalance of three on one table and two on another during hand for hand play.

So hand for hand play began with half a dozen left and would last 27 minutes. The unfortunate six place finisher was Hattenaf from Denmark. He five-bet all-in with [Ks][Qs] but ran into swordfish007′s pocket kings. This pot meant that swordfish007 – who finished fourth in SCOOP-08-H $1,050 NL Hold’em – would go to the final table as chip leader.

The final four five

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: forhayley, 2,228,010
Seat 2: LFmagic 1,534,775
Seat 3: pkrbt 894,617
Seat 4: wywrotX 1,871,262
Seat 5: swordfish007 4,496,336

Oo Oo Oo it’s magic

It was a deepstacked final table as blinds were just 8,000 – 16,000 ante 2,000 when the final table got underway, but it took just five hands for the first significant action to take place as LFmagic doubled through swordfish007, queens against tens all-in pre-flop.

Although this double up didn’t give LFmagic the chip lead from this point on he was very much the pilot, dictating the action and seemingly involved in all the significant pots.

Luke Fields, pictured at UKIPT Nottingham Feb 2011

Five become four
The shortest stack coming to the final table was Sweden’s pkrbt and he was the first to exit. With blinds at 10,000 – 20,000 ante 2,500 he three-bet all-in for 629,563 with [Ah][4c], forhayley made a brave call with pocket fives and the pair held up on the board of [Jc][4s][Kh][3s][2h], pkrbt collected $9,371.25 for his deep run.

Down to four and with stacks close:

Seat 1: forhayley 2,938,993
Seat 2: LFmagic 2,975,050
Seat 4: wywrotX 2,013,316
Seat 5: swordfish007 3,097,641

Talks of striking a deal began:

swordfish007: u guys wanna look at numbers or not?
wywrotX: would not mind taking a look
LFmagic: happy to have a peep
forhayley: sorry guys, dont wanna make any deal
LFmagic: np
swordfish007: alright good luck
wywrotX: cool
wywrotX: more fun this way

With a deal shot down play continued.

Magic action
As previously mentioned, the UK’s LFmagic was involved in most pots and the major battles were taking place against Canada’s wywrotX.

The opening salvo was a mere four million chip pot in which both players held king-jack on a board of [Kc][5d][Js][6d][6c]. Amazingly they would chop another 1,750,000 pot soon after when both holding king-jack. But this was the appetiser for what was to come.

With blinds now 17,500 – 35,000 ante 4375 wywrotX found himself as the short stack with just under a milllion. He min-raised to 70,000, it folded to LFmagic in the big blind who set him all-in and he made the call.

wywrotx: [9c][9d]
LFmagic: [2c][2d]

The board came [Ac][Ah][4c][3d][9h] and the Canadian took a chunk from LFmagic, but just 10 minutes later the magic man would get his man.

Wrot can you do?
With all the history that wywrotx and LFmagic had created between them at this final table you might expect the former’s exit hand to involve some deep thinking levelling war, fact is it was just a cooler.

Premium versus Premium

Jacks into queens four-handed meant wywrotX was sent packing in fourth, winning $14,636.79.

Three is the magic number
As three handed play began the stacks looked like this

Seat 1: forhayley 3,871,610
Seat 2: LFmagic 5,287,655
Seat 5: swordfish007 1,865,735

For much of the final table swordfish007 had taken a back seat, letting the others duke it out, during three-handed play he would be in the thick of it though, perhaps sensing that it was now or never.

But it was mostly bad news as he took two big hits. First he 4-bet folded button versus small blind against forhayley, then on the river with the board reading [Jh][As][Jc][5c][5s] with 1,000,000 in the pot and 1,467,690 back he folded to LFmagic’s bet of 1,500,000.

Although he managed to double through LFmagic with pocket sevens against [As][Qs] on a board of [6h][7c][Kc][5c][Kd] the reprieve would not last long as LFmagic found himself on the right side of a cooler once again.

With blinds at 20,000 – 40,000 ante 5,000 swordfish007 made it 80,000 to go with [Ah][Qc], LFMagic three-bet to 200,000 with [Ad][Ks], swordifsh007 moved all-in and LFMagic called. The board ran [2s][5s][Th][6s][Td] and just like that we were heads-up.

Double-double
As heads-up began LFMagic had the advantage with 8,069,642 to forhayley’s 2,955,358, with blinds still at 20,000 – 40,000 ante 5,000 there was still plenty of room to play.

Although forhayley won his fair share of pots, heads-up was a one way tide chip wise as LFmagic won the significant pots. He had ground forhayley down to just 874,333 over 42 heads-up hands, when we had the first all-in showdown. It was all-in pre-flop and the players showed:

LFmagic: [Ac][2c]
forhayley: [4h][4d]

The pair held up as the board ran [2d][10c][10s][6h][Qh].

14 hands later forhayley did it again, he’d been knocked back down to just over a million when he found pocket fives and LFmagic had [Ac][8d], again the pair held up.

Tide turns
The momentum was now with forhayley he closed the gap to 4,750,000 plays 6,250,000 as momentum swung his way. He then took the chip lead after he picked off a LFmagic three-barrel bluff.

Not a magic river for LF

Another double double
Then came the key hand of the 164 heads up battle, as if LFmagic is to be believed he was this time on the wrong end of the cooler.

Holding [tc][9c] forhayley flopped a straight on a [Kc][Qh][Jc] flop there was betting on the flop the [Js] turn and the [4s] river, where LFmagic called and mucked.

Upon seeing forhayley’s hand he said: “ommfg, had AJ, is that real. Have you 10-1,some blow this.”

Indeed that pot meant that the chipstacks at the start of heads-up play were now reversed with forhayley holding a 8.7m to 2.3m chip lead.

But LFmagic was not done, it was his turn to double up twice as the short stack.

23 hands later down to just over 1,100,000 he was all-in and at risk for the first time during heads-up play. Forhayley set him in from the small blind with [qc][4s], LFmagic called all-in with [Kd][10s]. A board of [Ah][8h][7d][5c][7c] gave him the double up.

Another 23 hands passed before he would score another double up. During those hands forhayley had held the upper hand and LFmagic was down to just under 1,500,000. From the button forhayley min-raised to 120,000, LFmagic moved all-in for 1,467,692 and forhayley made the call.

LFmagic: [7h][7c]
forhayley: [Js][td]

The board ran [kd][kc][6d][kh][8c] and meant stacks were now close to 8,000,000 for forhayley and 3,000,000 for LFmagic.

Maxed out
This gargantuan heads-up battle continued for another 20 hands before yet another cooler sent the title to Russia.

River of dreams for the Russian

A rivered straight against two pair saw all the chips fly in on the river. The pot, the title and $68,125.68 were shipped to Russia as forhayley took down this 4-max event.

Final table payouts:

1st – forhayley, Russia, $68,125.68
2nd – LFmagic, United Kingdom, $41,511.33
3rd – swordfish007, Germany, $24,065.37
4th- wywrotX, Canada, $14,636.79
5th – Pkrbt, Sweden, $9,371.25

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Tags: eureka poker tour | france poker series | news | portugal | SCOOP | TOC | twitter | wbcoop

If Kevin Iacofano was a character in a horror film it would be hard to determine whether he’d end up as one of the survivors at the end, one shirt arm torn off and used as a tourniquet on a largely superficial wound sustained by the leading lady at the wrong end of a sickle/axe/rabid hound, or if he’d be an early faller, the handsome jock who’d made a somewhat immoral decision which had taken him down a path that would lead to a brutal death, the kind which involves a lot of those exploding fake blood packs.

In terms of his live tournament performances he keeping coming close, perhaps surviving for the first fifteen scenes before capitulating in the finale, a knife in the back as the real killer is revealed, probably the brunette cheerleader. Never trust someone who shakes pom poms for a living.

Kevin Iacofano at EPT Berlin, today

Iacofano, originally hailing from Cleveland, USA, first popped up on our radar at EPT Copenhagen last year as he moved convincingly through a tough Scandi field to claim a deserved place at the final table. He finished in Denmark fourth for DKK1,000,000 ($183,580) behind John Eames, Per Linde and eventual winner Michael Tureniec, a bitterly tough final four. Since then five cashes at the World Series, a 6th place finish at EPT London and a deep 23rd place finish at last week’s UKIPT Nottingham event have seen him score an additional $246,293 in live winning.

Iacofano, a respected online player who has won big in tournaments and $25/$50 mixed games, is yet to score a live victory so how tough does he find it to balance the confidence of consistently going deep versus the frustration of falling near the final hurdle?

The American let out a long breath and said: “It’s tough because I’ve had a lot of dreams about being at the final table and some different result happening. I get haunted by it occasionally. In London I just really felt like it wasn’t my day but I did the best I could. Copenhagen is the one that haunts the most because I made a call there that was bad. You don’t want to make a mistake. When we were down to four in Copenhagen I felt like any one of us could win. Everyone was a very good player.”

Iacofano at EPT Copenhagen, last season

“It’s been quite a ride being able to make final tables in Europe because I’ve only been able to make one in the US which is a few World Series’ ago. I was close to a couple of others such as the six-max where I finished 12th. This was the most haunting one because I lost kings versus ace-king for three times the chips of second place with eleven left. That was the one that was the bad beat story rather than me making a mistake,” he said honestly.

Iacofano moved to London in October, not the first the American to move to foreign climes, but it was made easier thanks to the fact that his girlfriend managed to get a job there so they could relocate.

“I live in Martylebone (Central London) and I really like it. It’s the perfect spot. I run to the park before I play online. I’ve been trying to win my way cheap into these things and try to make something happen.”

And he came incredibly close just last week finishing 23rd in the record breaking £700 UKIPT Nottingham main event which picked up an incredible 1,625 players. Iacofano collected £4,450 but that must have felt like a far cry from the £210,000 first place, particularly when the opposition could be considered somewhat softer than your average EPT. Despite that, Iacofano is surprisingly upbeat, refreshingly not disparaging.

“I really liked the Nottingham poker room. It was a really big tournament which I’m pretty happy about. It seemed like a lot of people satellite in as there didn’t seem to be that many players from the EPT there so a lot of the people that got to the final table probably hadn’t been to many big tournaments before,” said Iacofano, proving to make a very astute observation.

The winner, Robert Baguley, had satellited in for £100 in a live tournament, which was some five times the amount of buy-in which he’d normally play.

“Good for him. That’s really awesome, £210,000,” said Iaconfano genuinely.

“I made a big call at the end which I’m not sure about. I had two pair with A7 on a KJ3A7 board. I thought it through for a while so I wasn’t terribly unhappy about it because a lot of the hands that beat me I didn’t think he had. The one I wasn’t sure about was QT, which is what he (Scott van der Vliet, a $1 PokerStars qualifier) had. I keep knocking on the door and feel like I’m going to win one soon.”

It’s hard to doubt Iacofano’s confidence, he’s got the results and consistency to back it up. Berlin’s been good to the North Americans with Kevin MacPhee (USA) and Ben Wilinofsky (Canada) the sole winners. Could Berlin be the movie where Iacofano finally survives until the end? It’s too early to say but four scenes levels in, the American is still going strong.

Tournament snapshot
Level 4: blinds 100-200, ante 25
Players: 455 of 495
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Tags: Battle of the Planets | entertainment | france | italian poker tour | Music | news | pca

In terms of recent German history one feature dominates; a 97 mile long, 12 feet high feature that split East Berlin from West Berlin, East Germany from West Germany, and the East and West in general.

It’s more than 22 years since the Berlin Wall was at first opened, then pecked at by Ossies and Wessis with pick axes, then torn down with bulldozers, freeing millions who had spent decades living behind it.

East Germans in their Zeha sports shoes were able to swap two-cylinder Trabants* for fuel-injected Mercedes, or at least watch their Besser-Wessi cousins, wearing Levi jeans and smoking dollar bills, speed past in them, listening to Nena** on the stereo.
It was a turning point for Germany, and the world, with German unification taking place less than a year later on 3 October 1990.

The Berlin Wall passed passed in front of here, the Brandenberg Gate…

At best guess half the field at EPT Berlin weren’t born then and of those that were most were mere boys, kicking balls around and probably cleaning out Grandma in the family penny ante game on Friday night.

… and here, Potsdamer Platz

German poker though has evolved as well as the political climate in Europe over that period. Months before the guards lowered their rifles when East German citizens approached the border, young pretender Phil Hellmuth was denying Johnny Chan a third World Series main event title in a row.

Meanwhile across the Atlantic in soon to be unified Germany, the game was 7 Card Stud, a game brought into the country by American GIs. In the past decade though poker’s popularity boom swept across Germany with dramatic effect, turning the country of moustaches, mullets and other baseless stereotypes, into a nation of hold’em loving poker players, producing some of the best players in the game today, all while keeping their Zippo lighters for the next Scorpions gig***.

Thang Duc Nguyen**** was the first German to win an EPT event, taking down EPT3 Baden, followed over the years by the likes of Michael Schulze, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranich, Sandra Naujoks, Michael Eiler, Martin Schleich and Benny Spindler.

The country got its own EPT event in Season 3 when Dortmund appeared. Sure, it took a while to get to Hohensyburg, and you had to find it first, but Germany was on the poker map, more so when the event moved to the Capital, Berlin, just 100 yards from Potsdamer Platz, where all those years ago the Berlin wall used to dissect the heart of the city.

Now Germans are all over the poker scene. Two of the first three events of the year were won by Germans (Schleich and Spindler), while Philipp Gruissem won the EPT London High Roller. Martin Finger added his name to the roll call, winning in Prague. The surge of German players within poker continues to grow. Let’s not forget the current WSOP main event winner Pius Heinz.

These are the players we’ll look back on in 20 years from now, a period that will likely see a continuation of German dominance in the major casinos and card rooms of the poker world.

* For those not yet 30-years-old you may need to Google this.
** And this.
*** And this.
****And this.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | australia | facebook | family | german | harrah's | SCOOP | season 8 | sunday-million | wbcoop

Sometimes in poker, the best thing you can do is screw up your copy of the script, unread.

Robert Baguley, a 60-year-old retired landlord from Leicestershire, has just beaten a field of 1,625 of the continent’s best players to win the Nottingham stop of the PokerStars United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). It was an upset worth £210,400, and has proved once again that tournament poker is anyone’s – and everyone’s – game.

Few commentators would have picked Baguley for the title when he came up against the dominant chip stack of Iqbal Ahmed when the two went heads up at Dusk Till Dawn tonight. Fewer still would have chosen him at the beginning of final table play today.

When he lined up with that monstrous field on day one – a face in a crowd of champions, online phenoms and established pros – he wouldn’t have been given a prayer. But Baguley simply played his own game, feared no one, and is now champion, having graduated from the £20 tournaments at Dusk Till Dawn to the winner’s enclosure on the UKIPT.

“I can’t think at the moment, I’m fuzzy headed,” he said, when asked if there was anything he’d be spending the cash on. “I’ve been concentrating so hard on the poker.”

Robert Baguley, champion

He had previously suggested he would treat his wife to a holiday in the West Country with his winnings. “I might consider going to Tenerife rather than Cornwall now,” he said. Baguely won his ticket to the main event in a live satellite last week, costing £100. That was about five times his normal tournament buy in.

Robert Baguley in action

The final today was played in high spirits and was over in little more than five hours. Ahmed had brought the biggest stack of chips to the final table, having led from the early stages of day two. But things didn’t go his way in the early stages and after a series of huge confrontations only succeeded in improving his opponents’ chances – including a very early double up of Baguley – Ahmed even seemed as though he could be the first player out.

But he dug in and weathered the storm, clinging on as Ian Senior became the first to fall. Senior had brought a huge, bespoke-attired railing section from his pub game, but he had to content himself with £22,750 for eighth place.

Ian Senior: eighth place

The Senior Citizens

James Cummings fell soon after. He had not managed to build his small-ish stack and ended up running into Nick Woodward’s monster pocket kings, finishing in seventh.

James Cummings: c’est la vie

Woodward, however, wasn’t able to press on very far from there. Although he played his part as action slowed for a couple of hours, he would be the next player eliminated. The damage to Woodward was done by Ahmed, who, reunited with the big stack, soon showed all how to wield it.

Nick Woodward: never recovered from tangling with Ahmed

He pulled off a spectacular coup when he managed to send both Hasmukh Khodiyara and Barry McMahon out in the same hand, in fifth and fourth respectively. And then Ahmed also accounted for Grant Pirie in third.

Iqbal Ahmed and Barry McMahon: the former would knock out the latter

Hasmukh Khodiyara: another victim of Ahmed

The Aberdonian had been the only player anywhere close to Ahmed at the end of day two and had also managed to cling onto his chips all the way to the final. But his tournament would end against a familiar foe. Pirie took £96,700 for third.

Grant Pirie: back to the Granite City with nearly £100,000

That left two, and at this stage all the momentum was with Ahmed. He had about a two-to-one chip lead at the start of heads up play, and was keen to go one better on his runner up finish at the Estrellas Poker Tour event in Alicante last year.

Heads up in Nottingham

But Baguely had different ideas. He won almost all significant pots in the heads up passage of play, standing firm against anything and everything Ahmed threw at him. “They were all brilliant lads, especially Iqbal,” said Baguley. “The final table was played in a wonderful atmosphere. No one had a wrong word to say all day.”

The atmosphere around the final table in Nottingham

That was the end of that. What started with the gruelling three-pronged opening flight, then flew through the carnage of days two and three, ended with a popular champion, a popular runner up, and the satisfaction of a terrific week’s poker.

The full list of prizewinners is on the prizewinners page. You can follow all the action from the ongoing EPT Berlin by heading to the EPT Berlin page. Thanks, as ever, to the photography of Mickey May.

The next UKIPT stop is in Dublin next month. Join everyone then.

Congratulations again to Robert Baguley and goodnight from Nottingham.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | Baltic Poker Festival | berlin | entertainment | festival | gambling | lapt | planets | russian poker series

There are hundreds of players at every European Poker Tour destination of which only a modest amount can be focussed upon in the live coverage. Priority is thus given to big names, big stacks, those with previous successes and those that have consistently proved themselves to make for interesting copy (Nasr El Nasr, for instance).

Domestic players often fly under our radar until the later stages when the hopes for a local winner come to the fore but here in Berlin we’re trying to jumpstart that process. Tapping into the knowledge of the PokerStars Blog’s German correspondent, Robin Scherr, we were given a shortlist of some of those local (well, German) players.

Our pick of the bunch is Ole Schemion, a young German who won last year’s PokerStars Yearly TLB with 55,172 points under the screen name of ‘wizowizo’ – he finished just ahead of ‘APD0290′ (54,021) and ‘uaredead lol’ (50,335). Schemion is sat wearing a clean white Quicksilver t-shirt, nursing his starting stack just a few seats around from Team PokerStars Pro and EPT Copenhagen runner-up Pierre Neuville. He looks young but it’s hard to put an age to him, physically fit perhaps by virtue of age alone rather than effort, the late 20′s/early 30′s descent into paunch and pudginess likely still some time away.

Ole ‘wizowizo’ Schemion

Schemion’s online credentials are solid. He won the first Super Tuesday of the month for $73,027 and that’s not a tournament that pays out easily. Schemion, who is a friend of 6th place EPT Campione finisher Mario Nagel, has scored just shy of $100,000 in live tournaments winnings since his first cash, a €54,200 first place victory in a €1,000 EPT Berlin side event last year. Bar a few minor cashes, Schemioin scored a $9,000 win at this year’s PCA Battleship Event.

Having watched him for a couple of orbits the German seems to be patient rather than relentless, entering just one pot and barrelling into twice on a [jd][7h][2c][as] board to win the hand. That puts Schmeion up to 35,000, a modest return on his starting stack. Perhaps he’s been card dead, perhaps he’s a slow starter, but it’s hard to imagine that he’s simply a wait for aces nit. Even if not here in Berlin, we expect to Schemion make a deep run sooner rather than later.

Tournament snapshot
Level 7: blinds 250-500, ante 50
Players: 184 of 243
Click here for live coverage and more features.

Tags: entertainment | ept | eureka poker tour | european | European Poker Tour | knowledge | micromillions | nottingham | pca | Super Tuesday | wbcoop

With today’s start of EPT Berlin, the European Poker Tour is just two champions away from finishing its eighth trip around Europe. With the end of the season comes the annual EPT Awards. Most of those awards revolve around the points players earn for their individual performances. The Players Choice Award, however, is open for voting.

Anyone who has competed at an EPT this season (including those who have only played side events) are eligible to vote. If you’re among those people you can pick from a list of 15 nominees put together by a panel of judges from the EPT Awards. That panel includes Filip Novak, editor in chief of Pokerman.cz; Jonas Huttel, Poker Editor at Ekstrabladet.dk; Bruno Benveniste, Head of Publishing of Poker52 Europa; Fabio Bianchi, Gazetta dello Sport; Ilya Gorodetskiy, Co-owner of GipsyTeam.ru; Claus Bek Nielsen, Founder of Pokernyhederne; Roberto Colombo, Tuttosport; Erik Rosenberg, Editor in Chief at Poker.se and Barry Carter, News Editor at PokerStrategy.com.

Here is the shortlist for this season’s Players’ Choice Award (pictured below, left to right, rows 1-3):

Ondrej Vinklarek
Roberto Romanello
Martin Finger
Steve O’Dwyer
Luca Pagano

Mickey Petersen
Jonathan Duhamel
Eugene Katchalov
Nicolas Levi
Benny Spindler

Andrey Pateychuk
Mike McDonald
Olivier Busquet
Vadim Kursevich
Pierre Neuville

Click to enlarge

If you’re eligible to vote, visit the EPT Awards voting site to submit your ballot. Voting is open until 6am April 23, the first day of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final Festival
of Poker.

This year’s EPT Awards Players Choice winner will get a full package for the first event of EPT Season 9.

Finally, if you’re part of the EPT media, you can vote now for the EPT Season 8 Achievement of the Year Award. Visit this link for the shortlist.

Happy voting!

Tags: Battle of the Planets | estrellas poker tour | gambling | napt | pokerstars | pokerstars macau | publishing | russian poker series | SCOOP | season | season 8 | world cup of poker

7.20pm: Robert Baguley wins UKIPT Nottingham for £210,400
Iqbal Ahmed out in second, winning £125,000
It’s over. Robert Baguley is the champion of UKIPT Nottingham, defeating Iqbal Ahmed heads up. Baguley opened to 450,000 and Ahmed shoved all in. Baguley called.

Baguley: [ah][10d]
Ahmed: [jh][7s]

The board helped only Baguley. It came [10h][4s][6d]. When the [6s] turned, Ahmed was dead to a jack, and the [kc] rivered giving the title to Baguley.

Full wrap, quotes, etc. to follow. Our local man, a Dusk Till Dawn regular, has taken down the biggest tournament ever hosted in the club. — HS

UKIPT champion Robert Baguley

7.15pm: One-way traffic
Robert Baguley has bossed this heads up duel and has now reduced Iqbal Ahmed to about 4.5 million. Most recently, in an unraised pot, both players checked a [3d][8d][8c] flop. Baguley then bet 600,000 on the [4c] turn, which Ahmed raised to 1.2 million. Baguley simply moved all in over the top and forced Ahmed to fold. — HS

UKIPT winner Robert Baguley

7.05pm: Attrition continues
There’s been very little action of note the past 10 minutes, stacks remain static, Robert Baguley still with a 17 million to 7 million advantage over Iqbal Ahmed. — NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 100,000-200,000

6.55pm: Baguley stretches lead
It’s been small pot poker for the last 15 minutes with no significant pots or showdowns. Robert Baguley is continuing his tactics of calling lots of raises from the big blind and then leading out on flops. It’s working for him right now. He has increased his lead and now has 17,000,000 to Iqbal Ahmed’s 7,000,000. — NW

6.40pm: Baguley assumes lead
Robert Baguley has absolutely no intention of allowing Iqbal Ahmed to win this at a canter. Indeed, he has now assumed the chip lead again, taking down two big pots.

On the first, Ahmed limped from the small blind and Baguley checked his option. They saw a [2d][ac][3d] flop and Baguley bet 600,000. Ahmed raised to 2 million, which Baguley called. The [7c] turned and Baguley moved all in. Ahmed folded, but took one on the chin.

At the end of the hand above, Ahmed had about 14 million, with Baguley on 10 million. And then this:

Ahmed raised to 380,000 and Baguley called. The flop came [qc][4s][7h] and Baguley bet 750,000. Ahmed called. The [7d] turned, and Baguley again fired 850,000. Ahmed called again. The river was the [kc] and Baguley bet 3.2 million.

Ahmed called this time, but mucked when Baguley showed him the [9s][7c].

Baguley now has 15 million to Ahmed’s 9 million. — HS

Baguley has the chip lead

6.30pm: First blood Baguley
Robert Baguley has won the first significant pot of heads up play, with a big bet on the turn. Iqbal Ahmed had opened to 350,000 and Baguley defended his big blind, taking them to a [7d][4s][6s] flop. Baguley bet 450,000 and Ahmed called. The [7h] turned and that’s when Baguley slid out 2 million chips. Ahmed folded. — HS

6.20pm: Heads up counts
They are about to commence heads up play. The counts:

Iqbal Ahmed: 16,425,000
Chris Baguley: 7,685,000 — HS

Heads-up at UKIPT Nottingham

6.10pm: Grant Pirie out in third, winning £96,700
And Iqbal Ahmed’s remarkable resurgence continues. He has knocked out Grant Pirie in third. After opening to 350,000, Ahmed then called Pirie’s shove – about 3.8m. Ahmed had [ad][jh] and was ahead of Pirie’s [as][7c]. The board changed nothing, running [kh][9s][qc][2h][ac].

All of a sudden we are heads up, Ahmed having knocked out three players, and mortally wounded another, in less than about 10 hands. Heads up counts to follow momentarily. — HS

Pirie – out in third

6pm: Double elimination – Iqbal Ahmed is back
Barry McMahon out in fourth winning £79,600
Hasmukh Khodiyara out in fifth winning £62,500
This is the storm after the calm of the last level. Iqbal Ahmed put his newly-acquired wealth to good use immediately and has knocked out Barry McMahon and Hasmukh Khodiyara in the same hand. We cover a lot of poker tournaments on PokerStars Blog but a simultaneous final table elimination is something we don’t see very often. Lovely stuff.

Here’s how it happened. McMahon open shoved from under the gun for what was about 1.4 million. Khodiyara then also got his chips in from the button, for what was marginally less that McMahon.

Ahmed, in the big blind, asked for a count of both stacks and then said that he called – I think he did some kind of odds calculation and reasoned he couldn’t fold.

So the cards went on their backs:

Ahmed: [qc][7h]
Khodiyara: [kc][9c]
McMahon: [as][6s]

Ahmed was behind, but the flop soon sorted that out. It came [7s][2d][6h][7c][qd] and that was a mighty full house for Ahmed, sending two to the rail and him into a commanding chip lead again, with about 12 million.

Hasmukh Khodiyara and Barry McMahon shake hands. Both are out

McMahon, with slightly more chips than Khodiyara at the start of the hand, took fourth place money. — HS

Iqbal Ahmed with an enormous stack again

5.50pm: Ahmed doubles, Woodward down to dust then out
Good riddance level 31, hello level 32! After a lull of an hour it took barely five minutes of level 32 for an all-in and call.

Nick Woodward raised to 375,000 from under-the-gun+1 and it passed to Iqbal Ahmed in the small blind who announced all-in.

“You got a big pair over there?’ asked Woodward, no answer from Ahmed, but soon after Woodward said: “I call,” and showed [jh][jd] which was ahead, but racing against Ahmed’s [Ac][Qh]. The flop of [8c][8d][6h] was all low, but the [Qs] came on the river to mute Woodward’s vociferous support. The [2h] completed the board, the two players stacks were very close and after they were counted down Woodward was left with 375,000 whilst Ahmed doubled to 6,400,000.

Two hands later Woodward was out, Grant Pirie raised to 350,000 under-the-gun with pocket kings and Woodward – who had half his stack already in as he was big blind – stuck the rest in with [10s][5s]. The board ran [8h][2c][9d][Ad][Qd] so Woodward out in sixth for a £45,500 payday. — NW

Woodward – out in sixth

5.40pm: New level
We’re taking it into a new level, with six players remaining and Robert Baguley way out front. He now has more than double his closest challenger, who is Grant Pirie. Nick Woodward’s big double up with kings has allowed him to sit back and wait for another monster, while Iqbal Ahmed has now crawled back to fourth place. He still has a long way to go to retain his lead though.

Here are the counts are we go into the 80,000-160,000 (20,000 ante) level. For the first time, the ante is now bigger than a player’s day one starting stack.

Hasmukh Khodiyara – 1,720,000
Robert Baguley – 9,435,000
Iqbal Ahmed – 3,205,000
Barry McMahon – 2,160,000
Nick Woodward – 3,580,000
Grant Pirie – 4,010,000

Final table cauldron at Nottingham

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | ept | events | iqbal-ahmed | italian poker tour | news | sunday-million | Super Tuesday | TOC | tournaments | World Series of Poker

Two weeks ago Kevin Vandersmissen was a Belgian pro progressing through the ranks of live tournament poker, his second place in EPT Snowfest being the highlight. One week ago, however, Vandersmissen was the headline of the poker press having won the Irish Poker Open, collecting €375,000 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. That may go some way to explaining while he laughs a lot.

“I’m very happy of course, you’re always happy when you win the oldest tournament in Europe, definitely a big honour.”

For Vandersmissen it has been a period of two years that has turned him from a solid online player into a formidable live force. However, the progression wasn’t easy. His first two live cashes may have been wins but they came after 14 live events without a single score. Then Vandersmissen found his niche.

“It started in Barcelona with my €150,000 win (December 2010),” he said. “That gave me a bankroll. I learned a lot between that tournament and now. It kind of got me to a level where I’m really happy with my play.”

Kevin Vandersmissen

After a second place in a PCA side event, worth $75,000, Vandersmissen found himself in Hinterglemm, in the Austria Alps, where the high altitude, and his share of a €600 bottle of Dom Perignon, invigorated the Belgian, only slightly less than eventual winner Vladimir Geshkenbein, who sniffed at the air, choosing instead to gulp down the booze. In the shadow of Geshkenbein it may have been, but Vandersmissen result was a breakthrough.

“With 200k in winnings you still have to watch a little bit your bankroll, since Snowfest I’ve had a bankroll to play what I want, so that’s probably the biggest thing so far,” he said. “I just learned more and more and worked on my game.”

The result of that effort is an increased bankroll for Vandersmissen and the freedom to use to to good effect. It’s also given him one extra dimension to his game.

“There’s one thing that will change; I’ll have more confidence,” he said. “So when I think a play is right I’ll do it faster, even when it looks marginal I’ll probably do it much faster because my confidence is way higher than a month ago.

“I think it’s (the same) for every player,” he added. “You see that a lot with players who win a big tournament, they get pretty good results the next month. I think that’s the confidence boost. My confidence has never been low but I’ve always believed in my game but after a win it’s always a level higher.”

A confidence Vandersmissen could be ready to use in Berlin.

Tags: Baltic Poker Festival | belgian poker series | delicious | ept | facebook | german | nottingham | pokerstars | season 8