The Pokeriety
Sometimes reading the PokerStars Blog can put you in a place you'd never expect yourself to be. For PokerStars' $ickFLop, that place will be this weekend's $700 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Mega Satellite. We told you about this event on Monday, bu...
WORLD NEWS
November, 2015
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4 November
2015 WSOP Main Event final table – it’s all in the prep
Nine players are currently preparing for the final table of a lifetime and they’d be well advised to learn from last year’s winner, Martin Jacobson
The post 2015 WSOP Main Event final table – it’s all in the prep appeared first on PokerPlayer365.com.
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4 November
The Gamer of Life
Albert Einstein once said that 'Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in School', while Mahatma Gandhi has been quoted as saying we should 'Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever'.
Learning is something that every single one of us does intuitively from the moment of birth onwards. Some seem better at it than others, grasping concepts at an incredibly fast rate while others take a bit longer to soak in and retain new information. That, however, is one of the reasons the world is such an interesting place. If we were all the same it would indeed be quite dull.
Competition wouldn't be quite the same either. Imagine if all the players in an event you were taking part in had equal knowledge of both the game and how their opponents play? The fact that some players are adept at learning new information, and gaining tells while the game is in progress, gives them an edge.
So, we agree learning is good!
The story of Twitch streamer gorgeous_gameris the story of a Parisien discovering a new passion for the game, with a big dream for the future.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Having started streaming as a gamer over a year ago, playing games such as League of Legends (her Brother is ranked among the top players of League of Legends) and Heartstone, a game also played by PokerStars Pro Bertrand 'ElKy' Grospellier, she stumbled across poker and quickly became intrigued.
Her approach is quite simple, to learn the rules and skills needed to succeed while playing live on her Twitch channel. By learning 'live on air' she feels that this has helped her improve and master the game's techniques.
"Usually people find it funny that I play while looking at my Poker chart and taking notes on Poker vocabulary," she says. "Nevertheless, viewers realise that I really would like to learn and are happy to help and share their knowledge."
Gorgeous_gamer also stumbled across PokerSchoolOnline, the official PokerStars poker school, and reached out to them.
"I heard about PokerSchoolOnline from some of my viewers who recommended it as a great place to learn about the game and improve my skills. It's both educational and fun and an ideal place to learn for any level starting from Beginners to Intermediate."
This Friday evening on the PokerSchoolOnline Twitch channel you can tune in to see gorgeous_gamer getting coached live on air by PokerStars Team Online's André Coimbra at 15:00 EST (8pm UK time).
It promises to be an entertaining stream and an opportunity for us all to hangout and learn more about this wonderful game that we love.
Who knows where gorgeous_gamer's journey will end? She could become one of the World's most famous poker players, who can tell? All we do know is that she is certainly on the right path, and the passion and dedication that she has shown so far will serve her well, not only in the game of poker, but the game of life.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
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4 November
Dwyte Pilgrim Shocks Poker World Amid Accusations of Hustling Players
Poker pro Aaron Massey has publicly accused Dwyte Pilgrim of defaulting on a loan and vehemently refusing to repay. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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4 November
Ronaldo on his way to Asia Championship of Poker
There are people you expect to see on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. The regs, if you will. Then there are people who you're not surprised to see, like ElkY, Randy Lew, or Steve O'Dwyer. And then there are those people who make you say, "Wait, really?" ...
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4 November
New CEO at PokerStars
Rational Group, the company behind PokerStars and Full Tilt, name Rafi Ashkenazi as the new CEO.
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4 November
78-55 | Ryan Riess, basketball star?
The 2015 edition of the WSOP November Nine is right around the corner – we countdown to this year’s N9 with stats and facts surrounding the festivities: A year after winning the World Series of Poker Main Event, Ryan Riess made his way from the green felt to the hardcourt playing in ‘The Hunger Games’ star Josh Hutcherson’s Celebrity Baskeball Game as part of the Nike 3ON3 at L.A. Live festivities in August of 2014....
The post 78-55 | Ryan Riess, basketball star? appeared first on pokerstats.
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3 November
How to win a $700 PCA Mega Satellite ticket
It's PCA Week here on the PokerStars Blog, and as we pointed out yesterday, there may be no better time to try to win your seat to the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. One of those ways is this weekend's $700 25-package guaranteed PCA Mega Satell...
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3 November
Helping Hands and Right to Play staying together
Helping Hands, the corporate giving programme at PokerStars and Full Tilt, Amaya Inc. brands have announced they will be extending their partnership with Right To Play for a second consecutive year.
Right To Play is a global organisation that uses the educational power of sports, games and play to provide disadvantaged children and young people in over 20 countries around the world with learning, health and social skills to overcome the effects of poverty, disease and war.
Extending this partnership for a further 12 months will provide an additional donation of £300,000 (US $46,443) which will go towards training another 2,500 volunteer coaches throughout the world, allowing the charity to help transform the lives on another 400,000 children and young people. In 2014, PokerStars staff and playersboosted the Amaya donation by a further £100,000 (US $153,42), showing the compassion and charitable mindset that exists within the poker playing community.
Europe's richest and most popular poker tour, the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT), will officially support Right To Play for the current and coming season, with special charity tournaments already planned for stops in Prague, Dublin, and Monte Carlo. Team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody, Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo will remain as partnership ambassadors. The three recently witnessed how much of a difference Right To Play makes in childrens' lives during a trip to Uganda. Check out the video.
"After visiting the schools I felt really inspired by the work Right To Play coaches do there, their motivation and mental and physical energy is just amazing, they are a key element in the Right To Play program" explained Leo Margets, member of Team PokerStars Pro and Right To Play partnership ambassador. She went on to support Right To Plays methodology saying, "By playing and doing sports, kids have fun and it becomes a lot more natural for them to engage in the activities and absorb the key lessons."
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3 November
Follow the WSOP Circuit Rozvadov and High Roller Cash Kings Live on PokerNews
The King's Casino in Rozvadov is going to offer some amazing action this week, and you can follow it LIVE on PokerNews! Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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3 November
The winners of our Instagram promotion
Find out if your picture has won up to $100 in our Instagram promotion.
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3 November
11th | Daniel Negreanu misses out on November Nine
The 2015 edition of the WSOP November Nine is right around the corner – we countdown to this year’s N9 with stats and facts surrounding the festivities: The poker world was a buzz on July 14th as Daniel Negreanu was weeding his way through the massive 6,420-player field and had his sights set on the final table in what could have been a November Nine for the ages with record television ratings on ESPN. Sadly,...
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3 November
Viktor Blom up $1.8 million in October
Isildur1 is the biggest online winner last month, meanwhile Phil Ivey once again is the biggest recorded loser.
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3 November
Level Up and watch our Gold videos!
As an addition to our Level Up promotion we have made six of our most popular midstakes videos Gold status until the end of December.
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2 November
2015 WSOP Main Event: Can anyone stop Joe McKeehen?
The leader of the 2015 WSOP Main Event, Joe McKeehen, has a third of the chips in play but is he nailed on to win? We look back at Main Event history to get the answer...
The post 2015 WSOP Main Event: Can anyone stop Joe McKeehen? appeared first on PokerPlayer365.com.
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2 November
Win your seat to PCA this week!
If you live in many parts the Northern Hemisphere, you might have noticed things aren't quite what they were a few weeks ago. The sun is setting earlier. The rain is falling colder. Winter is, in fact, coming. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere.....
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2 November
Ben Cade Wins World Poker Tour Emperors Palace Poker Classic
Ben Cade wins 2015 World Poker Tour Emperors Palace Poker Classic for $100,000. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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2 November
2015 ACOP: Kania and Zhao win opening weekend Spadies
The 2015 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) is in full swing after launching the 17-day poker festival this past Friday at the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room.
The opening weekend had five cash tournaments which totalled 548 players and HK$3,228,335 in prize money.
"The first few days have been a solid start and in line with last year. We expect big numbers this upcoming week as we approach the 2m GTD Spadie event on Wednesday which is going to be massive." said Patrick Pun, APPT Senior Events Manager.
Highlighting the weekend were the three ACOP Title Events: Rebuy Championship, Deepstack Championship, and PLO Championship.
The Rebuy Championship was won by Poland's Piotr Kania while the Deepstack Championship was won by China's Wei Zhao. The ACOP Title Event winners received the series' signature 'Spadies' trophy.
The PLO Championship concludes on Monday.
Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin, Chen An Lin, Bryan Huang, Randy 'nanonoko' Lew, Naoya Kihara, and Kosei Ichinose were amongst the opening weekend's tournament fields.
Event 1: REBUY CHAMPIONSHIP
Date: October 30-31, 2015
Buy-in: HK$2,500
Players: 117
Rebuys: 173
Prize Pool: HK$632,925Piotr Kania became Poland's first ever ACOP Title Event winner as he bested the 117-player field in the Rebuy Championship earning the poker pro HK$167,700.
In total, 12 players cashed for a share of the HK$632,925 prize pool.
The final table consisted of several top ranked players on the Asia Player of the Year leaderboard including Alan Lau, Yang Zhang, Wayne Zhang, and Yunye Lu -- who went heads up against Kania for the title.
The final hand saw both players get their chips in the middle on the turn after a series of raises.Kania: [ad][7s]
Lu: [th][7d]The board read [4s][7h][as][2c] as Lu was already drawing dead to Kania's 2-pair. The river was a meaningless [kh] giving the Polish pro his first career live tournament title.
Lu's runner-up finish improved his APOY ranking one spot to No. 6.
Alan Lau leapfrogged KC Wong for the No. 1 rank after his 3rd place finish.
Piotr Kania
FINAL TABLE RESULTS
1. Piotr Kania (Poland) -- HK$167,700
2. Yunye Lu (China) -- HK$113,900
3. Alan Lau (Hong Kong) -- HK$75,925
4. Yang Zhang (China) -- HK$60,100
5. Wayne Zhang (China) -- HK$47,500
6. Alex Ward (UK) -- HK$41,100
7. Ricky Kroesen (Australia) -- HK$34,800
8. Ryan Pignatelli (Canada) -- HK$28,500
9. Adrian Ng (Hong Kong) -- HK$22,200
10. Wen Hong Loh (Singapore) -- HK$15,800
Event 2: DEEPSTACK CHAMPIONSHIP
Date: October 31-November 1, 2015
Buy-in: HK$11,000
Players: 176
Prize Pool: HK$1,690,128China's Wei Zhao considers himself an online poker pro but may very well be on his way to a successful career on the live poker circuit.
The 24-year old from Hangzhou won the Deepstack Championship for his first Spadie just months after claiming the EPT Barcelona € 5,000 8 Game in August.
Zhao defeated a field of 176 runners earning him the HK$422,400 top prize. In total, 21 players shared a piece of the HK$1,690,128 prize pool.
Team PokerStars Pro Online Randy 'nanonoko' Lew cashed in the event but ultimately fell in 20th place.
Event 1 winner Piotr Kania made it back-to-back final tables in as many days but finished in 7th place.
At the end it was American Jordan Kaplan would play Zhao for the title.
Jordan had an early 2-to-1 chip advantage after doubling up in the first hand of heads up play. That lead wouldn't last as Zhao would battle back over the next 30 minutes where he took back the lead -- albeit a very small one (1.8m to 1.76m) -- heading into the final hand.
With blinds at 30k-60k (5k ante), Zhao raised to 180k and was called.
Jordan was called after leading out for 220k on a flop of [3d][js][qc].
The turn brought an [8d] and Jordan once again bet (400k) only to see Zhao move all-in.
Jordan made the call and showed pocket kings ([kh][kd]) but was well behind as Zhao held [qh][jc] for 2-pair.
The river [tc] sealed the victory for Zhao as he becomes the first China player to win a Spadie since 2013.
Wei Zhou
FINAL TABLE RESULTS
1. Wei Zhao (China) -- HK$422,400
2. Jordan Kaplan (USA) -- HK$278,800
3. Hong Guan Tan (Malaysia) -- HK$177,400
4. Jumma Tomiyama (Japan) -- HK$143,628
5. Yuichi Akanuma (Japan) -- HK$114,100
6. Chihiro Suzuki (Japan) -- HK$93,000
7. Piotr Kania (Poland) -- HK$76,100
8. Hisashi Yamanouchi (Japan) -- HK$59,200
9. Haifeng Xue (Hong Kong) -- HK$42,300For complete Side Event Results please CLICK HERE.
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2 November
Weekend Review: Farrell wins in Malta while nerd2121 does same online
After a busy weekend, we look back at all the results both live and online.
Weekend highlights
--Niall Farrell wins the EPT Malta Main Event and €534,330.
--Byron Kaverman wins the EPT Malta High Roller event €480,300.
--Nerd2121 wins the Sunday Million after a six-way deal $97,087.10
Round up of latest results
The big news from the weekend focused on events in Malta. In what proved to be a speedy final table, Niall Farrell won a first prize of €534,330 in the main event, after a heads-up deal with second placed Alen Bilic.
It proved something of a thriller, and not just for the tempo, with the likes of Daniel Dvoress and Sam Greenwood, regular high rollers, reaching the last six. Read the full report on the PokerStars Blog.
That left the High Roller event to conclude the EPT Malta festival, won by Byron Kaverman. As Marc Convey reported for the Blog, Kaverman is a player who never accepts he's beaten, coming back from the brink to defeat Mukul Pahuka heads-up.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.It's not easy to get a room full of people to agree on anything, but the last six of the Sunday Million proved it was possible. There was another huge turnout in the Sunday Million, won by nerd2121 after a six-way deal. Read the full report by Martin Harris.
Last but not least the Sunday Warm up was won by Belgium's donalddrik for a first prize of $79,790. Check out David Aydt's report here.
Here are the results in full.EPT12 Malta Main Event
Players: 651
Prize pool: €3,157,350
Places paid: 951. Niall Farrell (United Kingdom) €534,330*
2. Alen Bilic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) €440,000*
3. Jaroslaw Sikora (Poland) €265,840
4. Giulio Spaminato (Italy) €203,640
5. Rainer Kempe (Germany) €161,340
6. Sam Greenwood (Canada) €125,660
* denotes heads-up deal
EPT Malta High Roller
Entries: 210
Prize pool: €2,037,000
Places paid: 311. Byron Kaverman (United States) €480,300
2. Mukul Pahuja (United States) €290,100
3. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (Belarus) €204,500
4. Ihar Soika (Belarus) €165,800
5. Vladimir Dobrovolskiy (Russia) €131,180
6. Roberto Romanello (United Kingdom) €96,620
7. Bryn Kenney (United States) €72,730
8. Kevin MacPhee (United States) €53,150
PokerStars Sunday Million (November 1, 2021)
Entrants: 5,573
Prize pool: $1,114,600.00
Places paid: 8101. nerd2121 (Germany) $97,087.10*
2. prusakowski (Poland) $72,134.15*
3. Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (Mexico) $103,755.48*
4. bigbluffzinc (Canada) $103,236.80*
5. Wivil (Canada) $100,061.63*
6. arsendark10 (Russia) $66,259.09*
7. 1HL7 (United Kingdom) $25,078.50
8. PKRisMYstar (Romania) $13,932.50
9. bah23 (Bulgaria) $8,916.80
* denotes a six-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up (November 1, 2021)
Entrants: 2,525
Places paid: 360
Prize pool: $505,000.001. donalddrik (Belgium) $79,790.00
2. Ashley Jones (Belgium) $59,928.35
3. john4kos8 (Cyprus) $42,925.00
4. medmar (Argentina) $29,542.50
5. Herzblatt250 (Germany) $22,472.50
6. bRe3za (Germany) $17,422.50
7. beigale777 (Japan) $12,372.50
8. A.Tricarico (Belgium) $7,322.50
9. João Mathias "joaoMathias" Baumgarten (Brazil) $4,292.50The weekend's top winners
$215 Sunday Million: nerd2121 (Germany) $97,087.10
$215 Sunday Warm-Up: donalddrik (Belgium) $79,790.00
$530 Sunday 500: pokerjoe485 (Austria) $53,547.72
$215 Sunday Supersonic [6-Max]: vindog03 (United Kingdom) $45,196.38
$109+R Sunday Rebuy: mjw006 (Australia) $42,751.20
$109 Sunday Kickoff: eze88888 (Argentina) $29,456.65
$11 Sunday Storm: xxstimpyxx (Belgium) $26,983.73
$215 Sunday 2nd Chance: ADZ124 (Canada) $26,724.30
$162 Sunday 6-Max: 1Don'tStop1 (United Kingdom) $19,674.95
$320 Saturday Super-Knockout: Makitra (Russia) $19,667.03
Click here for all the weekend's major results on PokerStars for the weekend October 31 to November 1, 2015.Image of the weekend
EPT Malta main event winner Niall Farrell
You don't already have a PokerStars account? Now is the perfect opportunity to get one. You can open your account here.Congratulations if you were a winner this weekend on PokerStars, and if not the next weekend is never that far away. Either way send your thoughts and comments to us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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2 November
10,000,000 | Martin Jacobson wins ultra-competitive November Nine
The 2015 edition of the WSOP November Nine is right around the corner – we countdown to this year’s N9 with stats and facts surrounding the festivities: It was a November Nine for the ages last year as Swedish superstar Martin Jacobson was able to survive an epic final three matchup against Norway’s Felix Stephensen and the Netherlands’ Jorryt van Hoof. Jacobson would go on to earn a whopping $10,000,000 for his efforts. Fab Five | 2014...
The post 10,000,000 | Martin Jacobson wins ultra-competitive November Nine appeared first on pokerstats.
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2 November
Major changes to the PokerStars gaming experience
SuperNova Elite is most affected in a series of new changes at PokerStars, with big changes also coming for third party software.
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1 November
6 | Spinning for a million
Last week, six people playing a “Spin & Go” on online site PokerStars.com were the lucky recipients of million dollar paydays – 6 in 7 days! Spin & Go is a tournament where a randomly generated prize pool is awarded for each three-player match. Three of the six winners entered a $5 tournament – not a bad return on their investment, that’s for sure! *Photo credit: PokerStars
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1 November
Comprehensive Plan for Enhanced PokerStars Experience
PokerStars today unveiled a comprehensive plan to enhance the playing experience and to re-emphasize the fun and social aspects of online poker while attracting and retaining more players to the game. Poker is a fun game that we love and our responsibility is to make sure that every player at PokerStars -- advanced, recreational or new - can enjoy this game as much as we do.
We believe that the combination of a new VIP club program, the release of innovative new games and broad-based consumer marketing campaigns - including new campaigns featuring Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr - will put the poker ecosystem on the right tracks to deliver growth for the years to come.
Investments in research and development will bring new innovations to the game beginning in the first half of 2016 and continuing throughout the year to increase play from existing customers and attract new players.
PokerStars also plans to roll out new policies that will reinforce the fundamental elements of human competition by limiting certain software programs that may provide an unfair advantage to some players.
For more than 95% of our players, the most obvious change will be the introduction of the VIP Steps program and changing our variable FPP currency into a constant value which will be called StarsCoin. This will simplify the reward system and enhance its visibility during play, so that players can follow their progress in real time. VIP status players from BronzeStar to GoldStar will continue to be able to receive up to a similar level of rewards to what they receive now. In some cases, players will receive less; in some cases, players will receive more, but it's very much in the same ballpark.
PokerStars will also revamp the loyalty program to effectively incentivize and reward more players and to encourage competitive play over high volume play. The changes will result in improved rewards for the vast majority of players. Approximately two percent of players - including our highest volume and high stakes players - will have significantly reduced rewards. The reason we are focused on the highest status levels is because these rewards have become so enticing that we have inadvertently altered why some people play and how they play. We are introducing these changes to move towards a more balanced long-term poker economy and to return the game back to one that rewards skill via winning at the tables rather than playing primarily for volume.
A Summary of 2016 Changes
Introduction of VIP Steps
• Simplified rewards mechanism replaces FPPs, Stellar Rebates, and Milestone Rewards with StarsCoin.
• StarsCoin value will be one cent each for all statuses.Reducing Rewards for High-Volume and High-Stakes Players
• VIP Club rewards will be capped at 30%, impacting mainly high-volume Supernova and SupernovaElite status players.
• PlatinumStar status will have up to a 10% reduction in their overall rewards.
• In recognition of the players who have already-earned SupernovaElite status or will by the end of the year, the benefits cap for players who earn Supernova Elite in 2015 will be 45% in 2016.
• No VPPs for pot-limit and no-limit games with blinds of $5-$10+, 8-game $10-$20+, and other limit games with blinds of $10-$15+. This change is implemented due to high transaction costs and operation costs of monitoring these games.We will soon have a dedicated web site for details and will post that as soon as ready.
Third-Party Software Restrictions
Technology liberated poker from the constraints of bricks and mortar and allowed poker fans to discover the game at their own pace in their own home on the internet. While the tactics of the game may have evolved, poker has stayed true to its core - it's fundamentally about human competition, which is something that needs to be protected. The game should be about combining logic and an ability to steel your nerves to make that big call or bluff; it shouldn't be about clicking a button because harvested stats tell you to. For this reason, we are on a path to eliminate many of these technological advantages that are used by a minority of players.People have differing views on where the line around third-party software in poker should be drawn; it's certainly something that we constantly debate and review. Technology can aid, but it shouldn't take over.
Today, we want to make clear that the line will be drawn to preserve poker as a battle of wits and a test of heart. This will only have a direct effect on a small proportion of players and builds upon our responsibility to provide a level playing field for all players.
The new restrictions on third-party software will extend recent changes to our third-party software policy. Last month, we reduced data mining in Zoom!, restricted the use of heads-up displays, and limited the use of Spin & Go seating scripts.
Our intention is to expand these restrictions through major changes within our own software that we will communicate in more detail through 2016. PokerStars wants to offer fun, fair and competitive games of poker globally. These changes aim to help us achieve that goal.
Product Innovation & Marketing Investments
We are also continuing to invest heavily in marketing that reaches new audiences and re-ignites the interest of lapsed players. Earlier this year we announced the signing of two of the most popular athletes in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr. They've already been involved in some of our most successful promotions ever. Soon, they will be part of the biggest global consumer marketing campaign in PokerStars history.Our investment includes the most significant research and development initiatives in years, some of which will come to market in early 2016, including a standalone PokerStars branded app that we believe will bring a brand new twist to poker. Later in the year we're planning an even more bold take on poker that we believe will be very exciting.
The changes to the PokerStars VIP Club will come into effect from January 1, 2016, and new policies on third-party software will come into effect throughout 2016.
We are confident that these changes will improve the playing experience for all PokerStars players and will drive increased play and more players to the ecosystem.
Eric Hollreiser is Vice President of Corporate Communications for Amaya Inc. and PokerStars.
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1 November
Niall Farrell Wins EPT Malta Main Event
Congratulations to former APAT main event winner Niall Farrell, who has just won the main event of the Malta leg of the European Poker Tour. The Scot went one better than APAT Pro League winner Steve Warburton, who finished runner up at the previous leg of the EPT in Barcelona last month. Niall; who took […]
The post Niall Farrell Wins EPT Malta Main Event appeared first on APAT.
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1 November
The bigger the goal, the better the reward
Our Bankroll Challengers have achieved some huge goals this week. How? By making them public in our forums!
October, 2015
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Kaverman defeats Kahuja to win High Roller
Byron Kaverman - champion
Byron Kaverman is a man who just doesn't know when he's beaten.
On the final day of the €10,000 High Roller event at EPT Malta, Kaverman came back from the brink of defeat heads-up against Mukul Pahuja to win the titleand €430,800, capping a great festival and continue a remarkable year at the felt.
About 15 minutes into level 28 of the tournament, Kaverman moved all in after Pahuja limped from the button. Pahuja called for his final 1,525,000 chips -- and was in trouble. Pahuja needed help with his ace-four but it failed to come as Kaverman's pocket fives held true all the way to the river.
Pahuja was obviously disappointed after leading for much of the day, including taking a near four-to-one lead into heads-up. But he had to settle for €290,100 for second place.
Pahuja - runner up
Kaverman doubled up early in the heads up battle, when his ace-king stayed ahead of Pahuja's ace-five, but it was a big hand later in the battle in which he took the lead for the first time. In doing so, he seemed to break his opponent's fortitude.
There was nothing to chose between the players in terms of skill
Pahuja raised to 175,000 and Kaverman called to see a [5h][6c][3d] flop. Pahuja continued for 175,000 and called when check-raised to 550,00. The turn was the [8h] and Kaverman led for 450,000. Call. The board completed with the [jh] and Kaverman moved all in for his last 2,700,000. Pahuja didn't look comfortable but called anyway with pocket aces. Kaverman opened [9c][7d] for a straight and a three-to-one chip lead. Pahuja never recovered.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
EPT Malta High Roller
Entries: 210
Prizepool: €2,037,000
Places paid: 311. Byron Kaverman (United States) €480,300
2. Mukul Pahuja (United States) €290,100
3. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (Belarus) €204,500
4. Ihar Soika (Belarus) €165,800
5. Vladimir Dobrovolskiy (Russia) €131,180
6. Roberto Romanello (United Kingdom) €96,620
7. Bryn Kenney (United States) €72,730
8. Kevin MacPhee (United States) €53,150
The final table
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Pahuja and Kaverman remain in quest to become High Roller champ
Pahuja & Kaverman the last two standing
Mukul Pahuja and Byron Kaverman, two of the most talented players from North America are the last two men standing in their quest to win the last big, prestigious title of the EPT12 Malta festival. Below is the story of how they got to heads up.
Kenney & MacPhee were the first to go
Kevin MacPhee entered the final as the shortest stack with fewer that 15 big blinds and bust on the very first hand. He found pocket fives, moved all in but ran into Mukul Pahuja and his pocket tens that found a friend in the door. Bryn Kenney had just over an ante more than MacPhee and he was eliminated three hands later. He found king-jack on the button and made his move but Ihar Soika found ace-king in the next seat and survived the board.
Successful EPT return for Romanello
Roberto Romanello, who took a whole year off poker before the WSOP this summer, showed that class never leaves you by making a deep run in the High Roller. His fun ride came to an end in sixth though after he lost a race to Pahuja. The Welshman three-bet all in for fewer than 21 big blinds with pocket sixes after his opponent had opened with ace-ten. A ten appeared on the flop and that was all she wrote.
A northern European battle broke out between Mikalai Vaskaboinikau and Vladimir Dobrovolskiy soon after and it ended in defeat for latter. The two of them got their chips in on an [ac][8c][7d] flop with Vaskaboinikau at risk with ace-queen to Dobrovolskiy's ace-eight. Vaskaboinikau screamed and banged the table in delight after the river queen saved him and he came from behind to finish him off a while later. Dobrovolskiy three-bet all in with ace-jack and was called by Vaskaboinikau who went on to make two pair with ace-ten.
Ihar Soika (right) after busting
The final four came down to a battle between two Americans and two Belarusians, a country emerging as a force in European poker. Pahuja extended his lead considerably and scored one for the (United) States by taking care of Ihar Soika in fourth place. The latter completed from the small blind and Pahuja checked his option from the big blind. Soika check-raised Pahuja who was going nowhere and the turn was the [qh]. Soika led and Pahuja called to the [4s] river where Soika shoved after thinking for several minutes. Pahuja called quickly with [qd][7d] for a turned two pair which was enough to beat Soika who had flopped a lower two pair with [7s][3s].
Mikalai Vaskaboinikau eliminated in third
Vaskaboinikau spent much of the next period asking Pahuja to discuss a deal but he wasn't interested and actually started to get annoyed at the constant requests, to the point where he started to get angry and made a specific request that he stop asking. Soon, he didn't have to worry about Vaskaboinikau as he coolered him and sent him home in third place. Pahuja raised to 125,000 from the button and snap called when Vaskaboinikau three-bet shoved for 2.1 million from the small blind with ace-queen. Pahuja opened a dominating ace-king and the board ran ten high.
Pahuja took a near four-to-one chip lead heading into the heads up battle. A wrap of the day and the story of the heads up battle will appear in a new post.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
Byron Kaverman Wins EPT Malta €10K High Roller
Byron Kaverman is a powerhouse in the High Roller community and finally captures an EPT High Roller title. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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31 October
The hardest part of the job
As I write this, the EPT Malta event is winding down. Niall Farrell has just won the main event (and about €530k), the confetti gun has covered him, runner-up Alen Bilic (€440k), and a handful of others with metallic chaff, and the camera crew are packing up and tearing down.
The EPT roadies are getting ready to load it all into the "lorries" (as they call them) and move the whole circus to Prague in a few weeks.
The bloggers and media folks are furiously getting their last reports out, and the tournament staff and dealers are still seeing to the needs of the last couple of side events.
EPT staffers in the "office" are keeping the logistical details humming, even as the IT people begin to pull up cables, and talk about how they're going to do it all over again in the Czech Republic.
Weirdly, in the webcast suite, it's still Daylight Savings Time. Because the webcast is on a one-hour delay, inside those doors, it's as if the tournament hasn't ended yet. Hartigan, Stapleton, Broughton, and a host of guests are still watching and breathlessly commentating on events that transpired an hour in the past - it can be a little disorienting walking through that door.
In short, a lot of people are working very hard, as they do day in and day out. But I'll tell you what, we're being reminded of what is truly the hardest part of the jobs that we do.
In the aforementioned EPT office, Victoria "Tid" Sinclair is wrapping up a five-year run at PokerStars. She's been an events coordinator and the hub of EPT organization for longer than many people can remember - if you've ever enjoyed an EPT, Tid was responsible in one way or another.
Victoria "Tid" SinclairShe's headed off in a new direction after this, for a different career in a different industry. I mean, we all get it. Companies have arcs and individual lives and careers have arcs - sometimes those arcs diverge, and nobody expects (or really wants) somebody to stay on the company's arc when his or her personal arc needs to bend differently.
But man, it's hard to say good-bye to somebody with whom you've worked, shared meals, and even the occasional jog, from the Bahamas to Barcelona for a bunch of years. And it's not just Tid, of course. It's literally an occupational hazard of the working world that you end up having to say "so long" to people you've come to admire, respect, and appreciate. The longer you to work, the more names you add to your list. Quoting the eminently quotable Lyle Lovett, "And there are more I remember, and more I could mention, than words I could write in a song".
I guess the only thing sadder in the professional world would be imagining what it would be like without those people you've come to know and love. So we have our good-bye dinners, share hugs and a few tears, and wish each other well, hoping that maybe your paths will cross further down the road. Tid, she said, "We haven't done our last run together."
Man, I hope she's right, 'cause saying good-bye to awesome colleagues is definitely the hardest part of the job.
"But I feel them watching
And I see them laughing
And I hear them singing along..."
Lee Jones is the Director of Poker Communications at PokerStars and has been part of the professional poker world for over 25 years. You can read his occasional Twitter-bites at @leehjones.
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Niall Farrell unstoppable on way to Main Event title
It was said this week that of all players Niall Farrell is the hardest to read. Charlie Carrel said it while playing him on Day 3 (which we wrote about here), and Mickey Petersen pointed it out on Twitter yesterday. The fact that Farrell can find comfort from defeat in the bonhomie of a glass of beer with friends has become something of a legend.
There was of course exaggeration to this. It's more about Farrell being a gifted player who was able to show the extent of his talents today, winning €534,300 to become the latest EPT Main Event champion.
EPT Malta champion Niall FarrellHe did it all in the space of four and a half hours today, making short work of the six-handed final.
He hadn't returned as the leader. That was Alen Bilic, whose elimination of Alexander Ivarsson last night thrust him into the spotlight. But Farrell bided his time, struck early (sending Sam Greenwood and Rainer Kempe to the rail) and kept at it, watched by a British rail featuring Ludovic Geilich and Charlie Carrel, who were confident their man could go all the way.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.So when it finally came to playing heads up against Bilic, Farrell already seemed unstoppable. The cynic might say that he hit good cards, and to a certain extent that was true (notably finding aces when fifth-placed Kempe found queens). But on other occasions he made the right lay downs, and equally sound decisions - and not just at the final. Put simply, he showed every attribute required of an EPT champion.
"It feels incredible," said Farrell, who put his success down to running good for the past few days. "Bilic is a really good player. I've played a lot online with him. He played really tough."
The relief of winning was obvious as friend on the rail passed him a beer."I promised I wouldn't have any till it was done," he said, before joking: "I'm never playing poker again!"
To say things got off to a quick start would be an understatement. Here's how they lined up at the beginning of the day:
1. Niall Farrell (United Kingdom) 5,115,000 (85 big blinds)
2. Rainer Kempe (Germany) 1,515,000 (25)
3. Sam Greenwood (Canada) 1,605,000 (26)
4. Giulio Spampinato (Italy) 1,180,000 (19)
5. Alen Bilic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) 7,635,000 (127)
6. Jaroslaw Sikora (Poland) 2,455,000 (40)First Greenwood hit the rail, falling short on another deep run. His king-jack was called by Farrell's ace-seven to see him off. Soon after Kempe followed; that was the queens-against-aces hand. It was an honourable departure for the German, who reached the same position at EPT Barcelona in the first event of the season.
Sam Greenwood was out first
Followed by Rainer KempeGiulio Spaminato began the final six as the short stack. His stack of 19 big blinds looked locked on to be whittled away first. And yet by watching the other two leave before him, he inflated his own payday to €203,000. His fourth place was ample reason to raise his arms as he did on his way to the payout desk.
Giulio Spampinato leaves the stage in fourth placeA word about Jaraslaw Sikora.
The Pole was among the leaders at almost every stage this week, playing an almost faultless game for six whole days. His third place capped off a career-best performance, and one he can be proud of once the disappointment wears off.
Jaroslaw SikoraWith such a quick passage to heads up play the finale was expected to be lengthy. Even with a deal Bilic and Farrell sparred for several hours before it was brought to a close by Farrell as the sun set over Malta.
Bilic, making his first appearance at a live final table, gambled on a busted flush draw with eight-deuce of hearts. Farrell's five-six had made two pair and was enough.
Farrell, known to friends as "Firaldo", is a well known and well liked player on the tour, and celebrated with friends as Bilic stepped from the stage. He now has an EPT trophy to get his hands on, although first that victory beer.
EPT12 Malta Main Event
Players: 651
Prize pool: €3,157,350
Places paid: 95
1. Niall Farrell (United Kingdom) €534,330*
2. Alen Bilic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) €440,000*
3. Jaroslaw Sikora (Poland) €265,840
4. Giulio Spaminato (Italy) €203,640
5. Rainer Kempe (Germany) €161,340
6. Sam Greenwood (Canada) €125,660
* denotes heads-up deal
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: The end is near
Davidi Kitai leading the €5K
And now, the end is near;
We have fixed our final prize pool.With the Main Event now wrapped and the EPT High Roller down to its final three, EPT Malta is very close to its end. Registration for the final tournament is now closed, so you have missed your chance for any more fun.
That event, the €100 hyper-turbo, attracted 113 players, of whom 17 will be paid. The winner will get €2,760 while a min-cash is worth €170.
In the grand scheme of things, that is comparative small fry and there's still an awful lot of real money to be doled out. The final stages of tournaments have all been played out at the far end of the main tournament room and it's there where we now find three players left in the €10,000 High Roller and four in the €5,000 Turbo.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.And there's an awful lot of pedigree among them. Marc Convey, who is covering the €10,000 High Roller noticed that three of the GPI's current top five are sitting back-to-back in two tournaments.
Davidi Kitai is leading the turbo, with Anthony Zinno just behind him. And Byron Kaverman may well be going back to the top of the rankings as he is already into the top three in the other event.
While conversation in the High Roller is not massively pleasant--Mikalai Vaskaboinikau is getting under Mukul Pahuja's skin with his repeated entreaties that they do a deal--it is much more friendly in the €5,000.
Craig Varnell is telling everybody of his new strategy to deal with the starers--"If anybody stares at me, I just smile back at them," he said. "There's this guy in the €10K who stared at me, and I smiled. He was like, 'What the f-- is this guy doing?'"--while Jason Wheeler is happily running through the details of his passage to this event.
Wheeler was a little the worse for wear this morning and was planning to stay in bed for most of the day before coming to the casino in time to play the €2,000 turbo. But Bryn Kenney texted him and told him to play the €5K, based on the premise that it would be cool to win two tournaments in one day.
Wheeler was persuaded along for the earlier tournament and is now in the final four. But, disappointingly, registration for the €2K is now closed, so that dream is over.
"We tried to get them to pause this for a few hours so we could play that," he said. But no dice.
So, yes, the €2,000 is now in full swing. It's in Level 8 actually, with blinds at 800/1,600. There were 103 players at the start; 75 remain and the winner will get €53,050. A min-cash, awarded to the player out in 13th, is worth €3,995.
We will have all the final results later in the evening (or tomorrow morning, if it drags on).
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
10/31 | Halloween victory for Charlambos Xanthos
It was all treat and no trick for Charalambos Xanthos on Halloween night in 2009. Xanthos would defeat UK veteran James Mitchell to win the World Heads-Up Championships held in London. Happy Halloween everyone! Fab Four | 2009 World Heads-Up Championships 1. Charalambos Xanthos (CYP), £65,000 2. James Mitchell (UK), £30,000 3. Victor Ilyukhin (UK), £15,500 4. Laurence Houghton (UK), £15,500 *Photo credit: The Hendon Mob
The post 10/31 | Halloween victory for Charlambos Xanthos appeared first on pokerstats.
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31 October
Kate: “When is a read good enough?”
Kate has hit a pair of queens on the flop. Her opponent spiderpig44 is betting every street, but only half pot on the river. Kate decides to call this last bet as well. A good move?
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Invisible Woman finishes fourth; all the rest of the Halloween fun
Heads up in the Frankenstack
PokerStars Blog's Stephen Bartley has solved the riddle of the missing chip leader. "It's a very good Halloween costume," he said. "She's come as the Invisible Man."
Florence Allera never did show up to take control of her stack in the €200 no limit hold 'em tournament that began last night. But she is out now, finishing in fourth, and cashing for €3,060. That's pretty good given that she did indeed apply the very minimum of effort on the final day.
They're now heads up in that tournament, with Oanh Bu (1.6 million) trailing Bart Michiel von Meijenfeldt (2.9 million) in the 25,000-50,000 level. That has been a long old tournament and shows no sign of ending soon.
If you've looked at the EPT Malta schedule for today, the tournaments have been "hilariously" nicknamed with a Halloween-themed title. There's a "Terrifying Transylvanian Turbo", costing €2,000 to play, and a "SpookyStack Turbo", which is €5,000.
Oanh Bu heads up after Florence Allera busts
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.It's the first time a different name for these events has found its way to the official schedule, but these two last-day tournaments have long been regarded by the pros as the "Get Yourself Out Of It" turbos. That is, a last chance to rescue a losing week.
They always attract strong fields as a result and offer a decent first prize. The €5,000 six-max is now approaching its bubble with ten of the 47 starters still involved. They include some players who have actually had a brilliant week: Ant Zinno, Ike Haxton and Juha Helppi, for example, while Davidi Kitai and Yann Dion are also looking for their first major cashes in Malta.
However, the two men with the biggest stacks at the moment are Craig Varnell (320,000) and Tobia Levenberger (305,000). They're in level 15, with blinds of 4,000-8,000.
Meanwhile the €2,000 has only recently got under way and if I tell you that one table has Ole Schemion, Shyam Srinivasan, David Peters and Vojtech Ruzicka as four of its six players, you'll have an idea of the strength of the rest of the field too.
The call has also just gone out for the start of Event #76, the €100 Haunted Hyper Turbo. It's the very last on the entire schedule so roll up, roll up! You won't get another chance...
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Does a good start really matter?
Would you flip for your tournament life on the first hand of a tournament? It's a question that's been posed in many forms, with many caveats. The most common version is that it's the first hand of the WSOP Main Event and the small blind moves in with ...
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Pahuja maintains lead as High Roller final table set
The official final table There were periods of play on Day 2 where not a lot happened. That meant a bigger number of players returned for the final day than was expected. The structure of a poker tournament is generally king in these situations thoug...
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Delgado completes the job; Astapau beats bounty
Vicente Delgado: Champion
When we last looked in, there were two soaraway leaders in two of the side events that played late into last night. One of them, Vicente Delgado, duly found himself beaming down the lens of Thomas Stacha's camera--the honour afforded event winners--while Jesper Feddersen, who was out front in the bounty tournament, ended up being eliminated in seventh.
They were the two most notable tournaments that played to a conclusion yesterday and resultantly lead the last overnight side-event round-up of EPT Malta Season 12. Will you miss it? Just a little bit? I know I will.
But back to the results: Delgado, the Spanish online whizz who presently lives in London, had such an enormous chip lead late yesterday in the €1,500 NL Six-Max that his triumph was as close to a foregone conclusion as poker gets.
He duly wrapped up the victory, beating Giacomo Fundara into second, and adding €49,420 to his €260,000 live tournament winnings to date. (He has more than a million online.) There were 135 players in this event, which created a prize pool of €196,425. Fundaro is best remembered as the runner up to Victoria Coren-Mitchell's historic second EPT victory in Sanremo, and was once again the bridesmaid.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.As for Feddersen, his tremendous run in the €2,000 bounty tournament ended in seventh, at which point he found himself surrounded by high rollers. Steve O'Dwyer, for instance, went out in sixth, Anatoly Filatov was second and Anton Astapau, from Belarus, came out on top.
Anton Astapau
For "only" a side event, it was an exceptionally tough field, with Connor Drinan, Andrew Chen, Kevin Killeen, Paul Berende, Yann Dion and Jonathan Roy also cashing.
The sextuple Omaha event also played to its winner last night and Tobias Hausen, a regular side-event crusher, earned the third title of his career.
Hausen reached the heads up stage of an EPT side event for the second time during this festival, but this time went one place better than in the 10-game mix, when he lost to Sampo Ryynanen. He forced Lloyd Muir into the bridesmaid's gown and picked up €6,260 and the trophy himself.
Tobias Hausen
Kenneth Po, who won the €500 splitsville tournament on Thursday, was among the six players to get a share of the €18,430 prize pool.
Lauri Varonen has also had a near miss this week, finishing fourth in the €5,000 PLO. But he emerged triumphant last night in the latest (and last) late-night €2,000 hyper-turbo, winning €38,950.
Lauri Varonen
Mohsin Charania, the former Grand Final champion, finished third in the event, while Danut Chisu, who was second, was at his third side-event final of the week. He has come third in two turbo events, with buy-ins of €1,000 and €2,000, but picked up a career-best €27,690 for second in this one.
All the results from all the side events are on the side events page.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
YOLO calls and more…
High stakes player bencb has delivered a true masterpiece with his first English video and you shouldn't hesitate a second to dive into it!
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Child’s play for Giulio Spampinato. Literally.
There's one obvious beneficiary of the departures of Sam Greenwood in sixth and Rainer Kempe in fifth, and that's Giulio Spampinato.
The Italian was the short stack at the start of play with 19 big blinds. And guess what, he's still the short stack. But is somehow he's looking at a minimum pay out today of €203,640, and not the €125,660 he might have expected at 1pm today.
Giulio Spampinato (taken yesterday)But actually there are others who benefit from Spampinato's ascendancy, not least his descendants.
In the player profiles we mentioned how the Italian hopes to spend his winning, setting up home and starting a family with his wife Daniela.
But wait. Is fourth place money really enough?According to, well let's be honest, the internet, it costs the average middle income family $245,000 to raise a child from birth to the age of 18 (although that depends on where you live). As any parent knows the cost of this can be enormous: Halloween costumes bought last minute on eBay alone can set you back hundreds over the course of a single childhood.
In Europe this amounts to €222,545. That means should he finish fourth Spampinato is still 19 grand short.
So he's not quite there yet. But then Saturday's child works hard for a living. Perhaps Spampinato Junior could start work at 16?
Either way it's a great result for the Italian (and his wife) who now lives in Malta. For the record third place money will cover all the bills.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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31 October
Highlights from the PokerStars EPT12 Stop in Malta!
This was the perfect time of year to be in Malta and we took advantage of every minute of it! Check out some of the highlights from our time in this gorgeous island. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: The route to the final
Over two start days a total of 651 players showed up to play the EPT Malta Main Event and now, after six days of poker, just six remain. The all started equal but over the hundreds of hands they've played their stacks and relative routes to this point ...
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: The case of the vanishing chip-leader
Florence Allera's empty chair It is Halloween in Malta, as it is across the world, and we can kick right off today with some dastardly intrigue.
Florence Allera, the 2014 Female Player of the Year, enjoyed a sensational run last night in the €200 no limit hold 'em event, which concluded for the day at 1.30am with Allera sitting on an enormous chip-lead.
The lead was so large--she had 1.103 million chips while her closest challenger had 334,000--that we originally thought it may have been a typo. But it wasn't: Allera simply smashed all comers and built her stack beyond all possible expectations. (For context, they re-started today in Level 16, with blinds of 5,000-10,000. Allera therefore had a 110 big blind stack.)
However although Allera's stack made it back to the tables to begin Day 2 today, there was no sign of its shepherd. Allera herself had vanished, leaving the tournament absent of its dominant force.
Want to get involved? Or not, like Allera? Click here to get a PokerStars account.Tournament organisers have made repeated calls to Allera's phone in an attempt to track her down, with the first concern, of course, for her safety. But it also now appears, according to conversation on the tournament floor, that she did indeed return to the casino today, alive and well, but then disappeared back to the hotel.
The strong rumour is that Allera celebrated the arrival of Halloween, and her mighty stack, by partaking of something approaching a cauldron's fill of witches brew at the tables last night. She may be feeling something wicked in the head this morning.
She has seemingly made a pretty accurate calculation that her stack is so big that it may be better off without her in control. So far, it has navigated through the bubble all right and now into the final eight and she is still in the top two in the counts.
She has only lost 200,000 in blinds so far, even as 12 players have departed. Tournament officials estimate that she could have an average stack five or six handed, depending on how the other players play it out.
I must add that this is simply what is being said on the tournament floor. We haven't heard from Allera herself and naturally hope and assume she is OK. A couple of people are even speculating that she might have had a flight home and is now winging her way back to France allowing her chips to do the work.
Ronny Vik has moved his stack beyond the 1 million mark now and has assumed the overall chip lead. The winner gets €8,080.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
The Last Ghoulish Day of EPT Malta
Sarah gets the scoop on the Main Event and High Roller that will be complete just in time to celebrate Halloween! Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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31 October
Five Thoughts: Hall of Fame Talk, WSOP Clears Coca, and Busquet vs. Alvarado in MMA
In this edition of Five Thoughts, author Mo Nuwwarah talks the Poker Hall of Fame, the WSOP clearing Valeriu Coca, and the fight between Olivier Busquet and JC Alvarado. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: 19 return for Horrifying High Roller final day
Karverman in chase of Pahuja today After nine levels of play on Day 2 of the High Roller, including a long bubble period, the field was reduced to 19 players. The bubble burst with 31 getting in the money and by the end of the day, Mukul Pahuja from the United States ended the day as chip leader on 1,488,000. He came 17th in the €10,200 One Day High Roller six days ago but is very well positioned to better that result today.
That's not to say it will be easy for him as there are some "horrifyingly" good players aiming to chase him down. Byron Kaverman is having a great year and motivated by the fact a deep run will really help his quest to become the GPI Player of the Year. Martin Finger has an EPT title, a £50k Super High Roller title along with a €25k High Roller title and just needs a €10k version to complete the set. Kevin MacPhee has an EPT title to his name and has won two bracelets already this year, so has the form to close out a tournament. Then there's sharks such as Bryn Kenney, Roberto Romanello, Sean Winter, David Yan, Dominik Nitsche and defending champion, David Peters to worry about.
Play has gotten underway and the PokerStars Blog will bring you all the day's major talking points. Here's how the players line up at the start of play:
Name Country Status Entry info Chips Table Seat Mukul Pahuja USA Live satellite winner 1488000 1 2 Martin Finger Germany 506000 1 4 Dominik Nitsche Germany 258000 1 5 Ezequiel Kleinman Argentina 530000 1 6 Igor Yaroshevskyy Ukraine Re-Entered on Day 2 278000 1 7 Mikita Badziakouski Belarus 698000 1 8 Bryn Kenney USA 690000 2 1 Ihar Soika Belarus Live satellite winner 324000 2 2 Kevin MacPhee USA Re-Entered on Day 1 332000 2 3 Senh Ung UK 393000 2 4 Roberto Romanello UK 316000 2 5 David Peters USA 216000 2 7 Leslie Packer UK 280000 2 8 Vladimir Dobrovolskiy Russia 1389000 3 1 Patrick Uzan France 775000 3 3 Sean Winter USA 343000 3 4 David Yan New Zealand 265000 3 5 Mikalai Vaskaboinikau Belarus Live satellite winner 262000 3 6 Byron Kaverman USA Re-Entered on Day 1 1147000 3 7 
Pahuja leading the way You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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31 October
EPT12 Malta Main Event Day 5: Alen Bilic Leads Final Six; Greenwood & Farrell Lurk
Day 5 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event saw the field reduced from 16 down to the the final six. Alen Bilic leads. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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31 October
Would Phil Hellmuth make a good coach?
He may have pulled out of mentoring a November Niner, but would he have been that good a teacher anyway?
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31 October
EPT12 Malta: Mukal Pahuja leads High Rollers heading into final day
Mukal PahujaIt was a long day for the High Roller players today. Ten levels were scheduled and only nine were played but, due to a long protracted bubble period, the day still lasted 12.5 hours.
The remaining 19 players will return at 12:30pm CET and play this thing out, led by Mukul Pahuja who bagged up 1,488,000 after winning a big pot at the end of the night. He three-bet Mikita Badziakouski with pocket aces and managed to get an extra two streets of value out him (before he mucked on the river) on a board containing two jacks. Vladimir Dobrovolskiy closed the day a close second with 1,389,000. A lot of his chips came in the last level of the night when he flopped two pair versus David Yan and then won a half-million chip pot when eliminating Przemyslaw Piotrowski, his pocket kings surviving against the Pole's ace-king.
The bubble period dominated the period before and after the dinner break. Overnight chip leader Adrian Mateos fell two short of the money when his pocket jacks couldn't stay ahead of Bryn Kenney's king-queen in a 80 big blind pot, then followed a hand for hand play lasted more than two hours.
Bubble boy Roberts
Tension and tiredness built as there were no all-in showdowns until Brian Roberts bubbled. He was down to less than a big blind when he called all in under-the-gun with ace-ten. He had to get past Sean Winter and Roberto Romanello but couldn't beat the latter's pocket fives and departed.
Mercier had the bubble fear today
Two Team PokerStars Pros made the money but failed to make Day 3. Jason Mercier was the second shortest stack on the bubble and was at risk of bubbling a third event of the festival but he just crept into the money (30th for €17,930) and was joined by Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier who was one of the last to bust today (21st for €22,000).
The full overnight chip counts are:
Name Country Chips Mukul Pahuja USA 1488000 Vladimir Dobrovolskiy Russia 1389000 Byron Kaverman USA 1147000 Patrick Uzan France 775000 Mikita Badziakouski Belarus 698000 Bryn Kenney USA 690000 Ezequiel Kleinman Argentina 530000 Martin Finger Germany 506000 Senh Ung UK 393000 Sean Winter USA 343000 Kevin MacPhee USA 332000 Ihar Soika Belarus 324000 Roberto Romanello UK 316000 Leslie Packer UK 280000 Igor Yaroshevskyy Ukraine 278000 David Yan New Zealand 265000 Mikalai Vaskaboinikau Belarus 262000 Dominik Nitsche Germany 258000 David Peters USA 216000 You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Roberts leaves empty handed after long High Roller bubble
Roberts was down to fumes when he busted
A frustrating bubble period has finally come to an end in the EPT Malta High Roller event. The unfortunate player to bust was Brian Roberts, out after his lost his final few chips to former EPT Champion Roberto Romanello.
In total, the bubble lasted just over two hours with a 75-minute dinner break thrown in the middle for good measure. As ever, hand for hand play started one away from the money after start of day chip leader Adrian Mateos busted in 32nd. The last ten minutes of the level played out with one all in showdown. After the dinner break, the whole of Level 17 passed with out a single all in and call. Then the Tournament Directors decided it was unfair to raise the blinds twice on the bubble, so they paused the clock. Another hour passed without an all in and call before the bubble burst to relief of the visibly drained players.
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One reason for the lack of big pots resulting in all ins was the fact that four players were super-short, Roberts and Jason Mercier being two of them. The Team PokerStars Pro had already stone-bubbled three events this festival and was edgy as he must've feared a fourth was a real possibility.
Mateos just missed out
Let's take it all the way back to before dinner and the soft bubble of Adrian Mateos. The Spaniard entered the day as clear chip leader, the only player who had turned his 50,000-starting stack into one worth more than 300,000. He played with confidence today but, once at a tricky table sandwiched Mercier and Felix Stephesen, slid back somewhat. He still had 40 big blinds when he busted though but was in no mood to fold when battling with Kenney, both having big hands on the button and in the small blind respectively.
Kenney raised to 13,000 from the button with [kc][qc] before Mateos three-bet to 40,000 from the small blind with [jc][jh]. Kenney wasted little time in setting his opponent all in for his last 240,000 and Mateos quickly called off but couldn't hold as the board ran [qs][th][5d][tc][ad].
Nick Petrangelo & Iacopo Brandi battle on the bubble
Before the players headed off for dinner, Nick Petrangelo tried to burst the bubble when he had Iacopo Brandi all in but the Italian dominated and doubled. Petrangelo limped in with [ks][qs] and called when Brandi shoved with [ah][kc]. The board ran a blank [3c][jd][jc][8d][4c].
Fast-forward around three hours and Roberts committed his last 6,000 chips (bb 8,000) from under the gun and had customers in Sean Winter and Romanello in the blinds. The flop spread [kc][6h][4d] and Winters check-folded to Romanello's 20,000-bet.
"Wow, great protection!" said a player from another table after the hands were revealed.
Romanello: [5d][5h]
Roberts: [ad][tc]The [jh] turn opened up more outs for Roberts but he commented, "It's not coming, just give him the chips!" He wasn't wrong as the [2s] river confirmed his exit.
Tough, slow death for RobertsAfter the hand the players were given a short break to recharge and when they returned to action the TD's told them that, due to the extended nature of the bubble, play would end one level earlier than scheduled. Therefore they would play two more levels, for nine total in the day, bag up and come back to play to a winner tomorrow.
You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Feddersen from Flensburg collecting fines aplenty
Send your bounty chips, and a copy of your driving licence, to Fedderson
The list of upcoming events has grown mighty small here in Malta. This is the penultimate day of competition and only tonight's €2,000 hyper-turbo and tomorrow's four one-day events are yet to begin.
Since our last side-events update, two champions have been crowned and three new tournaments have begun, while another event has reached its final table. Here's the last run-down for the night before we pick it all up again tomorrow.
In the completed events, Italy's Luca Beretta emerged triumphant from the crazy pineapple tournament, winning €2,240 for his troubles. That was a really successful event, with 67 players paying the €200 entry fee and players from six different countries earning a payout.
The full results are on the side-event page, but here's a sneak preview:
1. Luca Beretta (Italy) €2,240
2. Olivier Decamps (France) €1,550
3. Martin Noya (Switzerland) €986
4. Aleksandrs Margolis (Latvia) €760
5. Eshed Esh Hadaya (Israel) €600
6. Neil Bergin (Malta) €460Laszlo Bujtas won the €1,000 PLO, which spilled over into a second day. He takes €18,160 back to Hungary after beating the UK's Peter Charalambous into second place.
They finished:
1. Laszlo Bujtas (Hungary) €18,160
2. Peter Charalambous (United Kingdom) €13,040
3. Lauri Pesonen (Finland) €8,480
4. Adam Milewski (Poland) €6,400
5. Allan Horne (Denmark) €4,960
6. Darie Vlad (Romania) €3,850
7. Peter Eichhardt (Sweden) €3,040
8. Samuli Sipila (Finland) €2,350
9. Olli Kokko (Finland) €1,800So, to recap what else is going on in the tournament rooms tonight:
The stand-out event is #70: the €1,000+€1,000 turbo bounty, which attracted 176 players. Thirty-seven of them are still alive, including Andrew Chen (135,000), Maria Ho (140,000), Steve O'Dwyer (170,000), Connor Drinan (165,000) and Mike McDonald (60,000).
But they are all being crushed at the moment by Jesper Feddersen, who comes from Flensburg in Germany. According to Robin Scherr, who knows about these things (because he's German), Flensburg is a tiny town but famous across the country as the administrative centre of the German driving authorities, the DMV or DVLA.
If you get yourself a speeding fine in Germany--and that's not that easy on their limit-free autobahns--you have to send your money to Flensburg. True to form of his townspeople, Feddersen is collecting all the fines in Malta tonight and is up to about 480,000 in chips, accumulating seven bounties along the way.
Nine players are left in the sextuple Omaha tournament, where Lloyd Muir is out front with 165,000. Only six players are paid so they're approaching their bubble. There's €6,260 for the winner of this €500-entry tournament.
Vincente Delgado is absolutely destroying the field in the no limit hold 'em six-max, with 540,000 going into the 3,000-6,000 level. There are ten left, so everybody is guaranteed a payout, with €49,420 available for the winner.
With a massive lead and only four other players at his table, Delgado is playing almost every pot. And why not.
There are six players left from 325 in the €300 turbo, which had three starting flights. We'll have the winner details from that one in the morning. Similarly, 188 players showed up for the deepstack hyper-turbo of whom 126 remain.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Alen Bilic leads Farrell and Greenwood in final six
As the theory goes, it's better to tear the band aid clean off, than pull it off gently. None of which will make Daniel Dvoress feel any better tonight. He busted in seventh place tonight, bringing the day to an end. Short stacked after a long day, h...
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Main Event final table player profiles
Seat 1: Niall "firaldo87" Farrell, 28, Glasgow, UK, 3,320,000
Affable Scotsman Niall Farrell already has more than $1.3m in live tournament winnings, with his biggest result being runner-up in the 2013 WSOP $3k NLH event for $366,815. He has twice fallen shy of EPT Main Event finals: he was tenth at EPT9 London and 15th at EPT Barcelona in Season 10.
He's no slouch online either, with more than $2.4 million in cashes. Those results include becoming the FTOPS Main Event champion in 2014 for $266,232. He's been an online pro since graduating in law from Dumfries University. You can follow Farrell on twitter - @Firaldo87poker
Seat 2: Rainer Kempe, 26, Berlin, Germany, now UK - PokerStars qualifier, 2,255,000
Rainer Kempe must be getting pretty used to the limelight at EPTs. He's now made back-to-back Main Event finals, after finishing fifth in Barcelona for €320,400. Not only did he qualify online for Malta (again in a €320 Deep Hyper-Turbo), he has also had time to nip up to Nottingham where he recorded a small cash in a £300 NL Deepstack.
His most recent cash came only a few days ago when he finished 16th in the one-day EPT Malta €10k High Roller for €20.405. Kempe, from Berlin, and who studied at the University of Potsdam, is one of numerous German players who have moved to the UK to play online. He has live tournament winnings of $636,731, which include his seventh place finish in the $1,111 Little One for One Drop in Vegas for $90,189.
Seat 3: Sam "Str8$$$Homey" Greenwood, 27, Toronto, Canada, 2,095,000
Greenwood, who turned 27 three weeks ago, is one of Canada's best-known live players and - along with brothers Max and Lucas - a regular competitor on the European Poker Tour.
Greenwood has more than $1.7m in live tournament winnings, $1.25m of that gained this year alone, with €110,590 earned this past week when he finished sixth in the €25k High Roller.
His year began in style with sixth place in the PCA $100k SHR for nearly $400,000. He then enjoyed a spectacular visit to Vegas for the World Series, gaining his first bracelet in the $1k NL event for $318,977, and finishing fifth in the $10k NL Six-Handed Championship for a further $126,745.
Greenwood also has stunning online credentials; with five €100k+ career cashes, all during 2015, meaning a profit of more than $1m on PokerStars. Other accolades include winning the SCOOP $2k NL-H for $377,280 two years ago, and finishing runner-up in the WCOOP Super Tuesday for $221,760 last year. He also took down the SCOOP $2k PLO 6-max Turbo Zoom for $141,960 this year.
He came in to Day 5 as one of the shorter stacks but has made the final eight, partly thanks to winning a 805,000 pot when he shoved on a four-betting Alexander Ivarsson, forcing him to fold. You can follow Greenwood via twitter - @samgreenwood14
Seat 4: Giulio Spampinato 34, Catania, Italy - live satellite winner, 860,000
Spampinato is originally from Italy but now lives with his wife Daniela in Malta. He works full-time as a sports trader and plays poker for fun, winning his seat for the Main Event in a €500 live satellite at Portomaso Casino.
Online, he plays MTTs and has had some good results, including winning the Big $55 two years ago for $17k. The payout he's now guaranteed for making the final table is nearly ten times his total live tournament winnings to date. If he wins, he says he and Daniela will use the money to buy a home and start planning a family.
Seat 5: Alen Bilic, 26, Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 5,395,000
With $91,704 in total live tournament winnings, 26-year-old Bilic is already ranked #4 in the Bosnia & Herzegovina all-time money list. But his live achievements pale in comparison to his online results. PocketFives has Bilic ranked as his country's #1 online tournament player with a string of amazing results on PokerStars and more than $2 million in lifetime cashes. His results include winning the Sunday 500 last year for nearly $80k, back-to-back wins in the Big $162, and winning the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $71,000 in March last year.
Now guaranteed at least €49,560 for making the final nine, Bilic has already exceeded his previous best live cash of €18,320 when he finished 69th at EPT Barcelona in August. Bilic's other big live cashes have all come during WSOP events, including a deep run in the 2014 $3k NL event, finishing 15th for $19,547.
Bilic has been a poker pro since graduating in Business Management and Economics in 2010. He first start playing in online free-rolls but, after defeating a 7,000-strong field, started playing for real money (mainly heads-up Sit & Goes) while honing his knowledge via poker training sites and forums. He switched to MTTs in 2012.
Seat 6: Nabil Cardoso, 25, Spain (now living in UK), 315,000
Like many Spanish poker pros, Cardoso has relocated to the UK and is currently living in Manchester. He mainly plays online cash games, plus MTTs on Sundays. He's been a poker pro since the beginning of 2013, and his biggest tournament win online to date is around €30k. He has only a handful of small live cashes.
Seat 7: Jaroslav "husajn54" Sikora, 27, Krakow, Poland, 3,285,000
It's been another memorable trip to Malta for Jaroslaw Sikora. His first EPT Malta festival in March wasn't planned at all, as he was supposed to be on holiday in Thailand. However, unable to get a visa in time he decided to check out the debut EPT Malta stop instead. It proved a good decision. He came second in the IPT Main Event for €97,975 - just a day after celebrating his 27th birthday.
Since his return here for the EPT12 festival Sikora has recorded some big online scores. Playing as "husajn54" on PokerStars, he notched up another second place finish, this time in the SCOOP €2k NLH event for $256k. His first EPT Main Event cash came in Barcelona and now he's now reached the final nine with 2,500,000 in chips.
Seat 8: Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress, 27, Toronto, Canada, 1,980,000
Like fellow finalist Sam Greenwood, Dvoress hails from Toronto. He's ranked slightly lower then his fellow Canadian in the country's all-time money list: in 96th place to Greenwood's 42nd.
Dvoress's live tournament winnings total more than $650k, a sum largely acquired during the EPT's debut stop in Malta in March where he cashed five times for a combined €330k, including a monster €263,000 for third place in the €25k High Roller.
His best Main Event result before now was 17th place at EPT11 Barcelona for €54,700. Dvoress is also a poker coach and has sizeable online results to his name, including winning the SCOOP $2k NLH event last year for $317,911.
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30 October
APPT announces Season 10 schedule
The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) today announced its schedule for a momentous tenth season. Throughout 2016, the APPT will make multiple visits to each of the leading four poker cities of the Asia-Pacific region: Macau, Melbourne, Seoul and Manila. This will encompass all the major PokerStars festivals in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time, including the Asia Championship of Poker, Aussie Millions, Macau Millions, Macau Poker Cup, and the Manila Megastack.
APPT President Danny McDonagh said, "We're thrilled to be entering our tenth season. The APPT has played a key role in growing poker in the region since it launched in 2007, with more than USD$61 million being awarded in APPT Main Event prizes during that time."
Season 10 kicks off on January 8, 2022 with the 2016 Macau Millions held at the 'PokerStars LIVE Macau' poker room. For this upcoming season the Macau Millions will feature a HKD$3,000 Main Event which comes with a huge HKD$3,000,000 prize pool guarantee.
The tour then heads to Melbourne, Australia for Asia-Pacific's most prestigious poker series, the 2016 Aussie Millions Poker Championship, hosted by Crown Melbourne, one of the world's leading integrated entertainment resorts. The Aussie Millions has a reputation that ranks it alongside the most popular poker series and festivals in the world since its inception in 1998.
The Aussie Millions poker festival reaches its pinnacle with the Asia-Pacific's longest-running poker tournament, the coveted $10,600 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Aussie Millions 'Main Event' championship, part of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), which is slated to run over eight consecutive days from Sunday, January 24 - Sunday, January 31, 2016.
"In our 18th year at Crown Melbourne, we are hard at work to make the 2016 Aussie Millions Poker Championship the biggest and best yet," said Crown Melbourne's General Manager - Table Games, Matthew Christie.
Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin said, "I've been playing the APPT since Season 1 and it's amazing to see how far it has come. I love the tournaments in Asia, which are so much bigger today than I ever imagined, but I'm also thrilled to be part of the Aussie Millions; I grew up in Melbourne and watched this tournament turn into one of the most recognizable poker events in the world."
Aussie Millions became part of the APPT in 2014 and that partnership has proved successful, consolidating Main Event numbers and having a dramatic effect on the high stakes challenges. The $100,000 High Roller, which had 22 entrants in 2013, has more than tripled in size with 76 and 70 entrants in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
The 12-month season concludes with Manila Megastack 6 held at the 'PokerStars LIVE Manila' poker room from November 29 to December 4. Each of the nine stops in Asia will count towards the Asia Player of the Year race.
Event Location Date Macau Millions* Macau January 8-18 Aussie Millions Poker Festival Melbourne January 13 - February 1 Macau Poker Cup 24* Macau February 19 - March 6 APPT Seoul Seoul April 4 - 11 Manila Megastack 5 Manila May 3 - 8 APPT Macau* Macau May 18 - 29 APPT Manila Manila July 28 - August 8 Macau Poker Cup 25* Macau August 26 - September 11 APPT Melbourne Melbourne October 6 - 18 Asia Championship of Poker* Macau October 28 - November 13 Manila Megastack 6* Manila November 29 - December 4
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30 October
2015 ACOP: The Ultimate Guide
For the past seven weeks leading up the 2015 Asia Championship of Poker (Oct. 30 - Nov. 15) I've been writing about all thing related to the ACOP. Here's your handy all-in-one guide for what's in store: TOURNAMENT STRUCTURES Everything you need to kn...
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: The crazy pineapple gets its crazy, aka ‘Living on the Esh’
Esh Hadaya: Putting the crazy in the crazy pineapple
Rhetorical questions are not meant to be answered, but it turns out I got a response to the query of how crazy can a crazy pineapple tournament be.
In the hours since that question featured on the Blog, the €200 Crazy Pineapple event at EPT Malta has reached its final table. And although he has only the second-biggest stack, Esh Hadaya is attracting by far the most attention.
Hadaya is pretty well known around the poker rooms of Europe, where he has amassed tournament winnings of close to $200,000. But he's also often seen in the halls and lobbies, putting on impromptu musical sets with his guitar.
Ever the showman, he is leading conversation at the table too, a massage therapist working his shoulders and his lungs engaged in non-stop chitter-chatter. In the brief period I was watching, Hadaya knocked out Arvin Golrang in eighth place and then turned his attention to his other neighbour, Aleksandrs Margolis.
The hand that proved to be Golrang's last played out as follows. Action was folded to him in the small blind and he moved all in. "Oh no," Hadaya said, before opening the box of cliches and finding, "Show if I fold?"
Golrang stayed quiet, but Hadaya said, "Oh, I've got to go with it." He called.
The unique quirk of crazy pineapple--ie, that one of three hole cards is discarded after the flop--means that cards are not immediately shown down when a player's all-in move is called. They had to wait until a flop of [jc][jd][7c] appeared and they each threw one card away.
Esh Hadaya spends his break at the table
The [5c] turned ("I folded a five," Hadaya said.) and the [jh] came on the river. Hadaya's [as][ts] was enough to take it against Golrang's ace-nine.
On the next hand, Hadaya was in the small blind and action was folded to him. He announced a raise and then said, "Good call, sir," when Margolis defended his big blind.
"Let's bet in the dark here," Hadaya continued and put some chips out in front of him before the [qs][ks][9c] flop even appeared. Margolis wasn't going to hang around and folded just as quickly.
This tournament attracted 34 players and the winner will get €2,240. "Just give me the trophy," Hadaya said.
Stop press: Rene Velli, our photographer, went down to get some photos of Hadaya in the crazy pineapple, and actually ended up watching him eliminated. The five remaining players when Velli got there went on a break but Hadaya stayed behind to talk to the dealer. After the break was over, the other players returned and Hadaya was knocked out almost immediately. He took fifth for €600, and the Crazy Pineapple lost its crazy.
The end of Esh Hadaya
The €330 NL Turbo, which played over three flights, is now also entering its final stages. Well, it's down to its last 38 players from a field of 325. Quentin Laught has the biggest stack, of about 240,000 (they're in level 13, with blinds of 1,200-2,400) with Giorgio Bellanca closest behind, with 166,000.
Natalie Hof is nursing a short stack of about 50,000, but they are into the money now with €18,400 up top. And you have to be in it to win it.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Two very different Finns, one table
What makes Finnish people so good at poker? They only have a population of 5.5 million but can boast some of the best high stakes cash games players in the world. They have a few useful tournament players knocking around as well.
Patrik Antonius, Juha Helppi, Jani Sointula, Kimmo Kurko, Joni Jouhkimainen, Ilari Sahamies, Ville Wahlbeck, Jen Kyllonen, Mika Paasonen and Thoams Wahlroos make up the top-ten (in that order) on Finland's all-time money list. They've all been around for years and all (except Wahlroos, who prefers jumping out of planes to calling the clocks on opponents these days) remain relevant today.
For many years, the same has been said about Finnish motor racing drivers. They have more Formula One and World Rally Champions per capita than any other country and that fact spawns the discussion. An anonymous person on the internet wrote, "Some have said that the Finnish male character suits rally driving well: cool head, willingness to take calculated risks and a genetic disposition towards careering through country roads at 200 km/h."
Replace the last part of this sentence with, 'and a genetic disposition to play really big pots worth lots of money' and you could be writing about Finnish poker players.
Sahmaies standing for his bustout hand
Jouhkimainen, Sahamies and Helppi were all in the High Roller Day 2 field and the latter two found themselves at the same table for a while. Sahamies made his name tearing up nose bleed cash games online, whereas Helppi has always been known as a live tournament player. Both have reputations as very different characters as well: Sahamies comes with a reputation for being unpredictable, with Helppi calm and considered.
Day 2 of the High Roller has seen them act a little out of character, or so it seemed from the rail. Sahamies calm and smiling, whereas Helppi went about needling a dangerous opponent in the shape of Martin Finger.
Even when Sahamies busted, everything felt serene. A Finnish colleague of ours told us that he is expecting a Christmas-time baby with his fiancé and is trying to calm his life down from his renowned partying, and accepted a "no drinking" prop bet that he's two months into. "For Ilari not to have a drink for two months is something remarkable!" he added.
His final hand came when he moved all in for around 33 big blinds with [qc][qs] after an under-the-gun raise and call. The action folded to Mikita Badziakouski in the big blind who paused to assess the situation. By that point, Sahamies was out of his seat and the intermittent smile across his face suggested he was enjoying the moment as if he really was living. Badziakouski shoved for a few extra big blinds and was soon heads-up and at showdown with the Finn. His [kh][ks] survived the [3s][7s][7c][2h][td] board and Sahamies left without saying a word and with a smile still fixed in place.
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Either side of his exit, Helppi tangled with Martin Finger in two pots and verbally needled him after each of them.
Finger (left) & Helppi tangle
Finger was on the button and called a raise from the cutoff as did Helppi in the big blind. The flop came down [2s][kc][ah] and Finger called a c-bet from the aggressor before Helppi check-raised. Finger was the only caller but he tank-folded after Helppi led the [2d] turn. Helppi slid his sunglasses on to the top of his head, peered around the dealer to Finger and said, "Maybe one day you'll win a pot!"
A short while after, Finger raised from mid position and was called by Helppi on the button and the big blind. Finger continued on a [ah][kc][9c] flop and was called by both players before the [tc][2c] turn and river were checked down. Finder opened [ac][9d] for the nut flush and the dealer started pushing the pot Finger's way.
"Wait!" said Helppi, "I have clubs."
Both the dealer and Finger paused but Helppi admitted he was joking and showed [as][jh], then added with a sarcastic tone, "Now, you won that time. Big pot!"
The battle continues
Finger looked as if he was trying not to rise to his opponent's antics when he responded with, "Now the turnaround."
He stepped away from the table after this and we quietly asked him who was winning the mental battle. "Him! But I don't want to admit it. I'm results oriented," he answered.
Finger should take Helppi's tactics as a compliment. Have you ever heard football fans inside a stadium go after an opposition's journeyman right back? No, because they know he's never going to be a threat to their team winning.
Both players are still in with the money bubble fast approaching, details of which will be coming up on the blog.
You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Farrell leads final ten in the Main Event
The plan today in the Main Event is to play down to the final six players or five full levels, whichever comes first. There are currently 10 players remaining, when the next player is eliminated they'll combine to one table of nine and the official fin...
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Antonio Chemi alive and kicking
Three things make Antonio Chemi stand out. Firstly, he's been wearing the same Simple Minds sweater since day one. Secondly, he has his name stencilled on it. And third, he stands up and walks around a lot. Actually there's a fourth thing. He's the s...
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30 October
The Live Stare Down with Daniel Dvoress
Daniel Dvoress is exploding on the live tournament scene and bringing some great table presence along with him. Sarah talks to him about how he maintains his posture and and his stare down that rivals Timex. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ ...
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: PLO ploughs on; Is ‘Crazy’ Pineapple really that crazy?
The €1K PLO (l-r) Adam Milewski, Lauri Pesonen, Laszlo Bujtas and Peter Charalambous (standing)
The €1,000 Pot Limit Omaha event was due to finish last night. But after 64 players showed up the tournament went long and there were still six remaining when they decided to call it a day and reconvene this afternoon.
When they came back, Lauri Pesonen was a micro-stack: his 13,800 was a mere tenth of the chip leader Laszlo Bujtas's 318,000. But at time of writing--with four players left and now in Level 15, where blinds are 2,000-4,000--Pesonen is still alive.
Adam Milewski has taken over the chip lead, with about 360,000, while Bujtas is in second, with 280,000. Peter Charalambous is third and Pesonen fourth, but still being involved is a triumph for the Finn.
The next man out will get €6,400 and there's €18,160 on offer to the winner.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.The final stages of that event are playing out towards the back of the main tournament room, a few steps from the mammoth six-max hold'em. It's remarkable how many players claim that six-max is their best format, and they are probably all involved in this one. Registration just closed on the €1,500 buy-in tournament and 135 players are entered. The winner will get €49,420, with 18 places paid.
The tournament includes some big names: Dimitar Danchev, Shyam Srinivasan, Yann Dion, Jeff Rossiter, Mattias de Meulder, Ari Engel, Ishmael Bojang, Vicente Delgado, Tom Hall, Anton Wigg and Thomas Muehloecker are all playing (and plenty more).
Anthony Zinno was one of the last registrants for this event, but only after he took a tour of the downstairs tournament room and opted against playing the Dealer's Choice HORSE event, which was 20 minutes away from starting.
It wouldn't really be fair to say that Zinno had decided it was too tough a field. Indeed, only one player was registered for this event with the start time rapidly approaching. "You'd be number two," a tournament official told Zinno, who said he didn't fancy it, leaving the tournament's entrant sitting in a peculiar solitary confinement.
He shouldn't be too downcast. He's in line for a trophy.
The downstairs tournament room, containing all manner of delights
Today's bonkers tournament is the €500 sextuple Omaha event, which had attracted 17 players by its first level, with registration open for a couple of hours. The starting stack is 20,000 and the game is a rotation of Omaha variants: four, five and six-card Omaha, played straight or hi/lo. Benny Glaser, the WSOP-bracelet winner from this summer, is in the field.
The sextuple Omaha is probably a lot more crazy than the crazy pineapple, which is taking place a few tables along. Crazy pineapple may soon be investigated by authorities under the Trade Descriptions Act because in light of the countless new tournament variations it is not all that "crazy" at all.
This is the variation of hold 'em in which players receive three hole cards (Three! That's crazy!) and then discard one after the flop. Charles Chattha, who won the first side event of the festival at EPT Malta, is in this one, as is Paul Berende.
They were into level six at time of writing, with 30 players remaining from the original 34.
Of course, there's also a NLHE turbo under way too. This is the third and final flight of the €300 event that began yesterday. There were 42 players left from the starting 89 and they were into level 9, where blinds were 500-1,000.
Familiar names include Dara O'Kearney, Daragh Davey, Marcin Horecki and Antoine Saout, but the big stacks are with Domenico Fazio (63,000) and Mark Vella (50,000).
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
Whiskey Tasting with the Pros
Sarah heads to the famous whiskey bar, Str-Eats in Valetta for a totally unique whiskey experience. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Fast and Escobar complete late-night casino heist
Dietrich Fast's heater shows no signs of blowing cold
We have known about Dietrich Fast for quite a while. He has been an EPT regular for some time, and often distinguishes himself as acting like another pair of eyes for reporters, pointing us in the direction of significant hands happening either on his or other tables. We also met him when he bagged up the chip lead at the end of one of the starting flights at the PCA in January.
Further to that, Fast has more recently found himself the centre of attention for a series of breakout performances at the tables. Fast won the second event at the World Series of Poker Europe earlier this month, prompting a flurry of short articles as he finished 10th in the €25,000 High Roller.
In between those two scores, he also picked up his maiden major online victory, in the Thursday Thrill on PokerStars, and continued his hot streak. And then last night he picked up another outright victory, prevailing in the two-day €1,000 no limit hold 'em event. He beat a field of 205 (plus 29 re-entries) and won €48,000.
Walter Treccarichi, a former winner in the IPT, was second. Kiryl Radzivonau, who made the final table at EPT Barcelona a couple of seasons ago, finished seventh and Daragh Davey, the UKIPT Player of the Year, was tenth.
Full results will be on the side events results page.
The other major story from yesterday's wide array of side events centred on Gianluca Escobar, who has done very well to stick to poker given a name that seems tailor-made for a life in organised crime.
At about 11pm last night, Escobar had packed away a bag of chips in the €5,000 EPT Main Event, knowing he would be returning tomorrow (today) to play down to a final table. But he still had the itch and so played the €1,000 Hyper Turbo--and won it.
Gianluca Escobar
Escobar originally comes from Napoli, but has recently moved to Sliema in Malta and lives only a stone's throw from the casino. He won the People's Poker Tour main event here last month, which was worth €41,000 and added another €23,700 for his late-night triumph.
At times of writing, Escobar remains alive in the Main Event, where he is one of 11 players still involved. He is now guaranteed at least another €40,410, and will have got some good practice in closing out last night. He beat IPT7 Malta winner Georgios Zisimopoulos (fourth for €8,520) and EPT Copenhagen champion Anton Wigg at the final table.
The inaugural "Splitsville" event left us in a tangle yesterday, and eventually they did a three-handed deal to decide its winner.
Kenneth Po, who spent a lot of the tournament making notes in an exercise book made his study pay off--stay in school kids!--as he was declared the winner and earned €3,284. Britain's Benny Glaser, who won a World Series bracelet in Triple Stud in Las Vegas this summer, was runner up.
Kenneth Po
That's not all. Mirko De Biasio won the €100 deuces wild event last night, surviving the chaos of an unlimited rebuys event to win €3,980. The Italian seized his first ever EPT trophy only a few days after cashing in the IPT Malta Main Event, finishing 72nd for €2,210. There were 99 entries in last night's event, creating a €14,986 prize pool with 13 places paid.
Mirko de Biasio
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.
The side event details are on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: The remarkable rise of Darrell Goh
Goh has had a great week in Malta Whatever happens today it's been some week for Darrell Goh. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland won the IPT High Roller on Sunday night and is still in the Main Event with just 16 players left. Not bad for someone w...
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Niall Farrell picking up where he left off
By any measure Niall Farrell had a good day yesterday, ending it with 1.9 million chips, or nearly 100 big blinds. One hand seemed to set up the day, a bluff that marked the start of his ascent towards the top of the chip count page. "Yeah pretty m...
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30 October
EPT12 Malta: Mateos leads the way on Day 2 of the High Roller
Can Mateos fly through Day 2?
Day 2 of the €10,300 High Roller event got underway today inside the Portomaso Casino with some familiar faces at the top of the counts and some equally familiar faces entering for the first or second time.
Adrian Mateos only turned 21 at the beginning of the summer. He went to Las Vegas for the first time to play the series, not as a rookie, but as someone who had already won a Estrelles Poker Tour event, the World Series of Poker - Europe, and the European Poker Tour Grand Final, no less. The Spaniard doesn't need to prove himself but this trophy wouldn't look out of place on his mantelpiece and would edge him ever closer to Carlos Mortensen, the only player who sits above him on Spain's all-time money list.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
New faces (I imagine) you ask?
Ilari Sahamies
Ilari Sahamies, Dietrich Fast, Dzmitry Urbanovich and Kuljinder Sidhu are entering for the first time. "Day 2, that's how we do it! Exactly how I did it in Barcelona." Said Sidhu who came second in this record-breaking event in Barcelona for, by far, the biggest score of his career (€640,000).
Kuljinder Sidhu
They're the new guys, what about those entering for the second time after busting on Day 1?
Welcome back: Simon Appleby, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Christopher Frank, John Andress and Kevin Killeen. The latter, who played his first ever High Roller in this event back here in March, was all full of smiles and said, "Let's do this!" as he passed us looking for his seat.
That means the final number of entries stands at 210. The prizepool is being worked out and shall be published on the blog later. The top five at the start of the day are:
Name Country Status Entry info Chips Adrian Mateos Spain One entry 330400 Jason Mercier USA Team PokerStars Pro One entry 257300 Ihar Soika Belarus Live satellite winner One entry 252000 Dominik Nitsche Germany One entry 231900 Ezequiel Kleinman Argentina One entry 206000 The plan for today is down to a final table of eight or ten one-hour levels, whichever comes first.
You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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30 October
EPT12 Malta Main Event Day 4: Alexander Ivarsson Leads Final 16; Timex & Jaka Fall
Day 4 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event saw the field reduced from 40 down to the final two tables. Alexander Ivarsson leads. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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30 October
Investigation Into Alleged Cheating Incident at 2015 WSOP Comes To a Close
The investigation into the alleged cheating incident in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship at 2015 WSOP comes to a close. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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30 October
Master the mental game with Jared Tendler
LemOn36 has a special Community Show tonight as he meets mental coach and author Jared Tendler.
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30 October
#301 | Vanessa Selbst is the first
There is no doubting Vanessa Selbst’s amazing track record on the live tournament poker circuit. Multiple bracelets, WPT close calls, numerous EPT spade trophies on the mantle and some performance stats that even the most accomplished pros could only dream about. Yet the former #1 ranked poker player in the world set a mark that no one ever ranked atop the GPI World Poker Rankings wanted to set … she became the very first World...
The post #301 | Vanessa Selbst is the first appeared first on pokerstats.
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30 October
Remko Report Episode #26: November Niner Neil Blumenfeld
2015 November Niner Neil Blumenfield joins Remko to discuss the upcoming final table, somehow being the second-oldest player in the final nine, and much more.
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Jason Mercier among big stacks as High Roller nears end of Day 1
Jason Mercier: Started brightly in High Roller
The life of a tournament player is beset by variance. One minute you can be on top of the world, the next moment: out. To put it another way, you can begin a day tweeting that you've stone bubbled your third event in seven played and end it close to the top of the leader board in one of the biggest events of the week.
Such is the case for Jason Mercier, the Team PokerStars Pro from Florida. Mercier hasn't had an awful EPT Malta, having made the last ten in the €10,000 Single Day High Roller, but it's those near misses that have been blighting his play of late. Of course, he has been back in action today and as the €10,000 Multi-Day High Roller entered the final two levels tonight, Mercier was at the top of the counts.
The problem for Mercier--and, indeed, for anyone trying to figure out the real state of play--is that this event has not really even begun. Not only are there still two hours to play tonight, but registration remains open until tomorrow at noon, with players allowed a second entry if they have already been eliminated.
The clock shows that 124 players still remain from the 186 total entries to date, but many may yet join or re-join the action. Mike McDonald, for instance, who was knocked out late tonight and, according to Mukul Pahuja, actually fell asleep at the table before that is going to come back tomorrow with a second bullet.
Meanwhile David Yan, Adrian Mateos, Bryn Kenney, Pahuja, Nick Petrangelo, Dominik Nitsche, Ivan Demidov and the defending champion David Peters are among those still with plenty of chips.
The hand-by-hand coverage of the event continues on the main High Roller page. We'll return in the morning to wrap up the side-event action and to follow the main event down to its final and the High Roller until they get down to a manageable number.
In the meantime, sleep well knowing that nobody can stone-bubbly these ones tonight.
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: A small side-event round up
The casino marina They are down to 12 players in the €1,000 no limit hold'em two-day event, and edging nearer the €48,000 first prize. Dietrich Fast, the freshly-minted bracelet winner, continues to roll ever onward and sits with the chip lead of 360,000.
Daragh Davey is on Fast's table too, holding his own with about 150,000. They are in Level 17, with blinds of 3,000-6,000, so it's getting a little shallow for most.
That said, Davey is faring better than Frederik Jensen, his neighbour, who is also the overnight chip-leader. Jensen is down to about 80,000. Lukasz Mroczek is closest behind Fast, with 340,000.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.The baffling and brilliant "Splitsville" tournament has nine players left and has also just entered Level 9. Benny Glasser has emerged in the lead in that one, with about 85,000 chips.
There's €4,820 available for the winner, with the top four paid.
The €1,000 PLO event is under way. That's a two-day affair, which attracted 64 players. Twenty-five of them are left and it seems to me that Laszlo Bujtas is leading with 65,000 chips as they enter the 300-600 level.
It's all rather sedate over there in side-event land, but it's about to get wild - deuces wild, in fact, which starts at 9pm.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Chadha leads the High Roller at dinner break
The plan for Day 1 of today's High Roller is to play ten one-hours levels. Four more levels will take place after the 75-minute that has just commenced. The total number of entries has risen to 169 (15 re-entries) and players can register up until the start of play on Day 2.
Mid-day update
The High Roller took a while to gather speed this afternoon but soon a stream of players rolled up to take their seats, some for the first time and some for the second time.
Carlos Chadha As the end of Level 6, the chatty Carlos Chadda leads the way with 255,000 after he took down a huge pot for the hand of the day. He, Anatoly Filatov and Corey Hochman all saw a [kd][8d][7h] flop where Hochman got his chips in the middle and was called by both players. Filatov was the next to commit his stack on the [2h] turn and all players' hands were revealed after Chadha called:
Chadha: [7c][7d] for a set.
Filatov: [kh][8h] for two pair and turned flush draw.
Hochman: [5d][2d] for the other flush draw on offer.Chadha was ahead but both his opponents had the chance to suck out. The [5c] river secured the pot for the Canadian and he jumped up to a quarter of a million chips. Filatov was back below starting stack and Hochman was sent to find another €10,000 for re-entry.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
The top three counts at dinner break:
Carlos Chadha (Canada), 255,000
Andrian Mateos (Spain), 190,000
Armen Khachatryan (Russia), 170,000
Spanish super kid Mateos Lily Kiletto was the first player to bust once, and the first player to bust twice as well. Her stack of 50,000 chips went the way of Sergey Sergeev after she turned trips to his flopped flush. That happened in Level 1. By the end if Level 3 she was down to her last 8,000 on her second bullet after her top pair faired badly against Yorane Kerignard over pair. There would be no spin up.
Kiletto was the first to re-enter & bust again Other players in for two bullets but still in the tournament are: Team PokerStars Theo Jorgensen and Liv Boeree; Anton Astapau, Dan Smith, Emil Patel, Charlie Carrel, Chris Hunichen, Joao Vieira, Kevin MacPhee, Lucas Greenwood, Corey Hochman, Patrick Leonard, Dominik Panka and Tobias Leuenberger.
They call her two bullets Boeree You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Ivarsson goes deep again; leads final 16 in Main Event
Ivarsson leads the final 16 Seven months is a long time in poker, a long time to think about bluffing off a stack deep in an EPT Main Event. Back in March at this very stage of the EPT11 Malta Main Event Alexander Ivarsson made a bold move, a big bluff on the last hand of Day 4 of the Main Event. It didn't end well. Tonight he's made it one hand and (at least) eight places further. What's more he has the chip lead.
The Swede bagged up 2,418,000 to lead the last 16. It's a position he's becoming familiar with having led at the end of Day 2. He began today second in chips but it wasn't a smooth ascent to the top of the chip counts, to go up he first had to go down. He was never in serious trouble - his low point of 815,000 equated to 68 big blinds - but it was over half a million less than he started the day with.
Under the glare of the #EPTLive cameras he bounced back winning two big pots against Niall Farrell, one where he got tricky when he flopped top set, to climb back to the top. He then took a chunk out of Faraz Jaka, forcing the latter to fold jacks on a ten high board when he set him all-in on the river. It certainly wasn't the path of least resistance.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.When play starts tomorrow it'll be the same players as today who occupy the top two spots, just with the roles reversed as Ivarsson has a narrow lead from Jaroslaw Sikora. This is how the final 16 will stack up with 41 minutes and 46 seconds left at the 10,000/20,000 ante 3,000 level:
Name Country Chips Alexander Ivarsson Sweden 2,418,000 Jaroslaw Sikora Poland 2,300,000 Niall Farrell United Kingdom 1,902,000 Rainer Kempe Germany 1,726,000 Giulio Spampinato Italy 1,725,000 Gianluca Escobar Italy 1,537,000 Nabil Cardoso Spain 1,175,000 Bjorn Geissert Germany 1,103,000 Alen Bilic Bosnia & Herzegovina 1,000,000 Daniel Dvoress Canada 986,000 Sam Greenwood Canada 970,000 Antonio Chemi Italy 804,000 Darrell Goh Ireland 793,000 Kitty Kuo Taiwan 510,000 Apostolos Bechrakis Greece 290,000 Akim Aouine France 250,000 
Farrell's flying high There are some talented players among the final two tables. Sam Greenwood is aiming to reach his second big final table of the festival - he finished sixth in the €25,000 High Roller, whilst Niall Farrell will be hoping to reach his first EPT Main Event final table having come oh so close in London in Season 9 (10th) and Barcelona in Season 10 (15th). Throw in the likes of Daniel Dvoress, Kitty Kuo and Darrell Goh - won won the IPT High Roller earlier this week - and it's shaping up nicely.
Let's go Kuo But today was ultimately the day of the big name bust out, and they don't come much bigger than Johnny Lodden. The Team PokerStars Pro recorded a record 21st EPT Main Event cash with his 29th place finish here but you sense he'll be disappointed not to go further. His exit hand was caught live at the feature table and he was involved in a three-way all-in that looked like this:
Lodden: [Tc][8c]
Mikko Turtiainen: [Qh][Qd]
Jaroslaw Sikora: [Ac][Ah]The [9s][Jd][Jh] flop actually gave Lodden a few outs, although queens would be no good. The [Kh] turn and [4h] river though meant Lodden and Turtiainen were both eliminated.
Still how's this for an EPT résumé:
-Cashed in 10 straight seasons (3-12)
-Cashed in 12 different countries (Malta now the 12th)
-Total number of cashes: 21
-Total amount cashed for: €1,283,182
-Best cash/result: 3rd at EPT9 Grand Final for €467,000
-Final tables: 3
-Top 20 finishes: 10
Another deep run from the Main Event master As alluded to above, Lodden was one of many high profile players who busted out today (many of whom have entered the €10,000 High Roller). We said goodbye to: Paul Berende (40th), Bryn Keneny (34th), Ivan Luca (33rd), Thomas Muehloecker (32nd), Mike McDonald (27th), Anton Bertilsson (23rd), Shannon Shorr (22nd) and Faraz Jaka (19th) to name a few. You can see the entire list of payouts so far here and read more about some of their bustouts here.
Day 5 starts at noon CET tomorrow and will play down at least to the final table of eight and maybe even six should time allow. Join us then, but for now good night.
You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Main Event field cut in half in double quick time
The plan for today in the Main Event is to play five 90 minute levels or down to 16 players, whichever comes first. Right now it looks like being the latter as the field of 40 has been reduced to just 20 in a little over two levels of play...
Mid-day update
Sometimes the latter stages of the Main Event go slow and sometimes they go fast. Today the speedometer has been stuck at light speed. In just over three hours of play 20 players have been eliminated.
Leading the way right now is Swedish pro Alexander Ivarsson. He led at end of Day 2, was second at the end of play yesterday and has, on Day 4, increased his stack of 1,306,000 to 2,208,000. But that's not really the full story, he was down to 825,000 at the end of the opening level and was ninth of the 28 remaining players.
Ivarsson has bounced back to lead
The second level of the day went far better for the Swede, who finished 24th here in Season 11 back in March. Flopping top set with aces against Niall Farrell helped and by the time level 21 came to an end his was behind only Faraz Jaka and had built his stack back up to 1,886,000. Since then Ivarsson has taken another chunky pot from Farrell whilst Jaka has dropped to 1,421,000.
Other notables left in the Main Event include: Sam Greenwood, Darell Goh (who won the IPT High Roller earlier this week), Daniel Dvoress and Kitty Kuo.
Greenwood is enjoying another deep run in Malta
Full Chip counts
Below are the counts of all 20 remaining players, they're about 25% of the way through Level 22 in which the blinds are 8,000/16,000 ante 2,000. Due to the rapid elimination of players the average stack is 976,500 which equates to a little over 61 big blinds.
Name Country Status Chips Alexander Ivarsson Sweden PokerStars player 2,208,000 Giulio Spampinato Italy 1,840,000 Sam Greenwood Canada PokerStars player 1,738,000 Faraz Jaka USA PokerStars qualifier 1,421,000 Jaroslaw Sikora Poland PokerStars player 1,404,000 Niall Farrell UK PokerStars player 1,385,000 Darrell Goh Ireland 1,360,000 Alen Bilic Bosnia and Herzegovina PokerStars player 1,060,000 Nabil Cardoso Spain 1,058,000 Gianluca Escobar Italy 1,037,000 Daniel Dvoress Canada PokerStars qualifier 886,000 Michael Ho Canada 831,000 Ferdinand Le Pichon France 592,000 Antonio Chemi Italy 519,000 Rainer Kempe Germany PokerStars qualifier 487,000 Apostolos Bechrakis Greece PokerStars qualifier 462,000 Bjorn Geissert Germany PokerStrars player 436,000 Kitty Kuo Taiwan PokerStars qualifier 348,000 Akim Aouine France 238,000 Natasha Barbour USA 168,000
Darrell Goh (left) and Daniel Dvoress (right)
Notable eliminations
Only one place to start in this section sadly. As we reported yesterday Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden scored a record breaking 21st Main Event cash when the bubble burst on Day 3. He was in the middle of the pack when play started today but busted out in 29th place. He was actually one of two players knocked out in the same hand when he was involved in a three-way all-in on the feature table that looked like this:
Lodden: [Tc][8c]
Mikko Turtiainen: [Qh][Qd]
Jaroslaw Sikora: [Ac][Ah]The [9s][Jd][Jh] flop actually gave Lodden a few outs, although queens would be no good. The [Kh] turn and [4h] river though meant Lodden and Turtiainen were both eliminated.
Lodden - entertained and enthralledHe's not the only big name to hit the rail today and many of those that have are now playing the €10,000 High Roller.
First man out today was Paul Berende his pocket sevens well and truly trounced by Nabil Cardoso's [Ac][Qh] when the flop came [Ts][Jd][Kd]. Bryn Kenney had his kings cracked by Erik Scheidt's ace-king (ace on the flop) to finish 34th, Ivan Luca lost a race with ace-queen against Shannon Shorr's pocket tens to crash out in 33rd and Thomas Muehloecker followed shortly afterwards in 32nd.
There will be no double EPT winner here in Malta, Mike McDonald was the last remaining Main Event champion remaining and, as we reported, he busted in 27th place with most of the damage done in a pot against Ferdinand Le Pichon. The big name bust outs didn't stop there as Anton Bertilsson, who finished runner-up at EPT11 Prague, went in 23rd and Shannon Shorr exited in 22nd.
Kings cracked means no King Kenney
You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Dvoress staring day five in the face
With the departure of Mike McDonald earlier today a vacancy opened up for a player prepared to stare down their opponents relentlessly, and to great effect. Applications were received with the position being offered to Daniel Dvoress, who has taken to ...
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: P.B.W.A.N.G.O.T.S.A.T.T.F.O.W.T.F.I.G.O.
Gregor Abmayr: You don't have to wear a spangly hat to play this event...but it helps
Welcome to the mid-afternoon side event update from EPT Malta, the latest in a series of posts that may as well be called "PokerStars Blog Watches a New Game on the Schedule and Tries to Figure Out What on Earth is Going On"--or P.B.W.A.N.G.O.T.S.A.T.T.F.O.W.T.F.I.G.O. (and that's not a typo).
Today's edition focuses on the so-called "Splitsville" format, presently being played in the lower tournament room. There are 20 players involved playing a rotation of ten poker variants, all of which share in common the fact that they offer split pots by routine.
That's not split pots in the "let's sing a song on EPT Live" manner, but split pots as in the high hand wins half the pot and the low hand wins the other half, provided it qualifies. That also brings into play the glorious possibility of pots being chopped into quarters and further increments, depending on how many players are still involved.
The ten games, since you're asking, are Texas hold em hi/lo, pineapple hi/lo, crazy pineapple hi/lo, 4-, 5- or 6-card Omaha hi/lo, five-card stud hi/lo (no qualifier), seven-card stud hi/lo, super stud hi/lo, Badacey, Badeucey and Razzdugi. And they might even have advertised this as 12 games, given that there's actually three types of Omaha on offer there.
Another quirk is that it's dealer's choice, meaning the choice of which game will be played is also on rotation. There's a keyring on the table, on to which are clipped ten cards displaying the name of each of the games, and this moves one spot around the table after every six hands. The player with the keyring in front of them chooses the game.
Game choice in the Splitsville
This was a shame for Viatcheslav Ortynskiy, who joined his table late, and discovered that the keyring had just passed him by. It meant he would have to wait for its full orbit before he could choose what games they were going to play--and it completes its orbit six times more slowly than the regular button, like pluto to the button's earth.
Ortynskiy also asked for a bit of a run-through on some of the rules, which was a fine idea given how complicated all of this was. He wasn't immediately aware that the betting was limit-style, rather than no limit, which ruled out the possibility of just shoving all the chips in and getting out of there to save a mind from being mangled.
Actually, they were playing four-card Omaha hi/lo for the few hands I watched, which is comparatively simple to follow. A pretty big hand played out between Evangelos Bechrakis, Christoph Koenen and Gregor Abmayr, which ended in the latter scooping.
By the end, he was able to declare "Full house!" looking at a board of [7d][kd][4d][4s][jh] and tabling [2h][4h][ks][6c]. Koenen had folded on the turn but Bechrakis was there at the end and mucked what he said was a flush. There was no low hand.
Kenneth Po is also at that table, and he has been playing a few events this week with an exercise book on his lap. I'm not certain if the notes he is jotting relate to poker or not--it may just as easily be study for an exam--but if so, it's going to make for confusing re-reading.
As has been the case all week with some of the new variants, the bonhomie among the players is excellent. They are all exceptionally tolerant of mistakes in posting blinds or antes or mis-sized bets or incorrectly read hands. It's as though they are all hostage to the same captors and have grown close.
According to the tournament officials, razzdugi has been the most commonly chosen game. This is the game that plays out like razz but with half the pot at the end going to the best razz hand and half to the best badugi hand. I think the players are only choosing it to make sure absolutely no blogger is going to attempt to cover it.
Over the other side of that room, the first flight of the €300 no limit hold em is under way, which is a far more sedate affair. Natalie Hof is in the field there.
Upstairs in the main tournament room, they recently burst the bubble in the €1,000 two-day hold 'em event. Dietrich Fast has taken over the chip lead in that one and is sitting with about 280,000, but he is being tailed by Frederik Jensen (200,000) and Daragh Davey (190,000) with Ari Engel and Neil Ryder with decent stacks too.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
Straight Outta Baltics: Alen Bilic
The fans ask, and of course we answer. Alen Bilic! Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
Players unhappy with the Poker Hall of Fame
We round-up some of the stories you may have missed, including a win for a November Niner and a new poker comedy sketch.
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29 October
2015 ACOP: The Epic 2015 APOY race and the heroes
The word 'epic' is an abused and overused term in the world of poker commentary. However, as we approach the 2015 Asia Championship of Poker (Oct. 30 - Nov. 15) it's clearly the most appropriate description for APPT Season 9's furious battle for the Asia Player of the Year (APOY) title.
Sure, records are made to be broken. But what we've witnessed this year in the APOY race would be the equivalent of beating the 100-meter dash world record by two seconds - basically obliterating all previous standards of excellence.
The single-season record for Final Tables was 10 which was set back in 2011. There are already 4 players who have eclipsed that mark with 11 or more FTs. Additionally, another 4 players have 8-9 FTs and so that four-year record could potentially get broken a half dozen times in this season alone!
The APOY Main Leaderboard displays the Top 20 ranked players. From 2009 to 2012, you could get your name on that list with 1,747 points on average. Over the last two years -- with the expansion of qualifying events -- that average has risen to 2,368. As it currently stands, you need at least 2,623 points to make the Top 20 and, again, there's still more events to come!
Entering this season, only three players had ever surpassed the 5,000-point barrier and we already have four players (with Pete Chen sitting at 4,927) who have crossed the 5k mark. The standard of yesteryears simply doesn't apply as the current Top 5 have already been successful enough to have won the APOY title in almost any other year. It's really a perfect storm where these titans have all found remarkable success in the exact same time span.
I know what you're thinking.
Yes, there are more events.
Yes, that means more opportunities for final tables and points.
But there's also a lot more players and the APOY Scoring System is intentionally brutal for accumulating points in large quantities. Trust me, these are a series of outliers all bottled up into a 12-month war of improbable outcomes. It's like finding not one, not two, but a dozen curly fries in your order of normal fries.
One thing has remained the same though. The eventual winner of the annual award has always gone to the person with the best combination of determination, skill, volume of tournaments, and a bit of luck. This season is no different. It's just unfortunate that there are so many deserving victors.
And that leads us into...
MOST LIKELY HEROES TO WIN THE 2015 ASIA PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Here are my picks for the most likely to win the APOY.TWO-HEADED MONSTER: PETE CHEN & KC WONG
Pete Chen and KC Wong finished last year's APOY race in first and second place respectively. Nobody has ever finished in the Top 5 in back-to-back seasons but these two are primed to do exactly that.
Pete Chen
When Chen won the APOY crown last season, he had the second largest points total ever at 5,691 and is the closest thing to a repeat performance as the reigning Asia Player of the Year is currently ranked No. 5 with 4,927 points. The PokerStars sponsored Taiwanese pro has shattered the previous single-season record for final tables with 14 and he brings the experience of knowing how to close the deal on the biggest stage.
Chen's FT count is amazing and worth a blog on its own if not for...
...KC Wong who has accumulated an otherworldly 17 - yes, SEVENTEEN - final tables! The former-accountant-turned-poker-pro from Hong Kong is the very definition of a Silent Killer who may be sitting right next to you without you knowing. Wong is currently ranked No. 1 but he's held that top spot on two separate occasions (including last season) so we'll see if it holds this time around.
Some players would be crushed after a runner-up finish but Wong's hunger for the APOY title has only grown. He has shown a relentless level of determination in his pursuit for greatness and an unshakable quiet confidence in attaining his goal.
I've always been curious of what makes this guy tick and so I made a dive into the archives for KC Wong's Greatest Hits and came up with these three looks of his. Use this information wisely.
Here is Wong in his pleasant, yet unassuming, where the Hong Kong guy is dressed like a Hong Kong guy. All the while, he is studying his opponents and remaining quiet as to not be noticed.
KC Wong looking unassuming
I've managed to find the photographs that correctly correlate Wong with monster hands and this is what he looks like when he's trying to find a way to get all your chips into the middle.
KC Wong with a monsterAnd of course, no top player takes on the world of poker without knowing the art of the bluff. This is what Wong looks like when he's got nothing but also smells weakness from his opponent. Be sure to know when he's trying to steal a hand from you!
KC Wong bluffingHonourable mention goes to Leon Hsu who is No. 8 right now and finished last year with that exact same ranking. If not for the ridiculousness of the 2015 competition his story of becoming only the second person to finish in the Top 10 in back-to-back seasons would be more impactful.
HEART OF A CHAMPION: AARON LIM & YUGUANG LI
When you do something that's never been done before people should be scared of you and that's how I've arrived at these picks.
It took nine seasons on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour to find a 2-time champion but Aaron Lim became that person after winning APPT Manila this past August. His other APPT title was in Seoul, Korea and the Aussie could very well take the field for surprise despite his current No. 11 rank. Lim's limitation is volume and surely not skill as he has historically restricted his tournament action to Main Event and High Roller events. With that being said, those are also the events that award the most points.
Aaron Lim
Mainland China has dominated the tournament fields in Macau but for the most part, those players haven't performed particularly well against the international pros that come to the ACOP. The Chinese may have found their hero in Red Bull fueled Yuguang Li who did this.
Yuguang Li
TEAM POKERSTARS PROS: CELINA LIN & BRYAN HUANG
There are three players bearing the red spade in the Top 50 - but outside the Top 20 - and while these look like long shots it bears to mention that ACOP Title Events are worth heap loads of APOY points.
Celina Lin is the highest ranked of that group at No. 28 and it certainly wouldn't be strange to see the 2-time Red Dragon winner move up the leaderboard given her success in the ACOP in previous years. Lin already has an ACOP Spadie title on her resume and made a deep run in the Main Event last year where she finished in 22nd place.
Celina Lin
Chen An Lin and Bryan Huang are sitting at No. 48 and No. 50 respectively. Huang has the advantage of knowing exactly what it takes to mount a comeback after doing so for the 2010 title. In fact, I did a little digging for Huang's blog about his 66-point win (which is still the smallest margin of victory) to remind you all he knows how it's done.
Bryan Huang
There are just 13 Official Asia Player of the Year events remaining for this season and the epic season concludes at the 2015 ACOP beginning October 30.
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Does success breed success?
It's hard to quantify the actual affect that success has on future endeavours but it's thought by many that success can breed success.
"We often see people experience strings of success, one after the other, while we see other, seemingly similar individuals fail to experience even a single success," says sociologist Arnout van de Rijt of SUNY Stony Brook, NY.
After three levels of the High Roller had passed, 130 entries had taken their seats. When one looks around at the faces on show, success is definitely a word that comes to mind. Can you imagine an unsuccessful person digging into their pockets to find €10k or €20k if they re-enter? They might be a success at the poker tables, in business or just benefiting from the successes of previous generations of family.
Defending champ, David Peters
Focusing just on poker, it got us wondering who of the High Roller field had a moment (or moments) of success within the last year that could've triggered even more success in the following months?
What better player to start with than the reigning champion David Peters?
As we wrote in our opening piece, Peters scored the biggest pay out of his career back here in March when he won €597,000 in this very tournament. It wouldn't be his biggest score for a long time. Since that victory, he's gone on to cash another 15 times so far in 2015 for a total of $1,824017. The majority of that is made up by the $1,505,00 he won in the $500,000 buy in Super High Roller bowl, but even if you take out that cash, his year would still be seen as successful. Peters spoke to the PokerStars Blog on a break.
"I felt great after winning the High Roller here in Malta, on top of the world. I was on a pretty big downswing coming into that so it was really good for confidence and bankroll.
"The win maybe had a little affect on my confidence but I'm generally confident in my play anyway and don't let results affect my game. I'm always just going to play my game but maybe, deep down, it had some sort of affect that helped continue to have a great year.
Peters, for a long time, was considered one of those players whose talent way out-weighed the amount he had won at the tables. He was due and he got paid. Does he feel that's a fair reflection of his career up until his victory?
"Yeah, that's fair. I definitely got close a bunch of times probably more than anyone. I've had a lot of heartbreakers when there's been 10 or 12 left in a tournament, so it was nice to get that win after so many close calls.
"The win definitely helped me to play the Super High Roller Bowl but I would've still tried to play it, sold enough action and all that. It would've been difficult to sell more action but I probably would've still played."
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We also managed to catch up with Nick Petrangelo in the break, another player who has had a remarkable year, winning nearly $2.4 million already so far, after a career that had been steady, if unspectacular, up to that point. The American came third in the €25k High Roller less than a week ago here in Malta, but it was back at the PCA where things started to go really well for him.
"I chopped heads up in the $5k turbo for my first score of this year and then after that I final tabled the $25k, finishing sixth, so that was a pretty big trip for me. After that I had another final table at Falls View, which was kind of a smaller WPT stop.
Petrangelo is having the year of his life
"Going deep and making a bunch of final tables gives you confidence and you see a lot of situations, getting to make a lot of decisions you normally wouldn't get to make if you don't go deep. Busting on day ones can be really devastating to your confidence and you can start to try and force things because you see people, who are other good players, getting stacks and going deep. It can make you wonder what are they doing that I'm not?
"When you're doing well consistently from stop-to-stop, you don't try and force things and you're not wondering any of these things. It's nice not to be second-guessing yourself and you feel comfortable with what you're doing and your strategy which helps build momentum and confidence.
"I had two final tables here back in March and they were both high rollers too. Like I said, if you're up against good players and you're building stacks and gong deep, that's obviously great for your confidence too. It breeds the same thing where you don't force things; you trust your decisions. The more success you're having the more willing you are to maybe pull the trigger on a play you wouldn't normally make but you know is right.
"It's really tough to not be winning and know that there's 12 people left in a tournament when you see a play that you know is right - it's the biggest spot you've had in a long time - but you don't want to bluff it off. Whereas when thing are going well you're more likely to be like, all right this is the right play, I'm going to go for it. So, that's a huge thing. Things are going well and you're more likely to trust your read and go with the play, rather than let the prizepool distract you and make you play tighter.
"I got to the summer and had a really food one in Vegas, with the two final tables (including one bracelet win) and then I went to (EPT) Barcelona and had another big score."
These two players are not the only ones in today's High Roller field that have great years, potentially sparked into life by a result or two. Charlie Carrel, Kevin MacPhee, Anthony Zinno and Byron Kaverman for example have all had major success after major success in 2015. Some of these players might always be confident in themselves like Peters, whereas others might think more along the lines of Petrangelo and really harness the confidence and momentum that initial success brings.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
BlogNews Weekly: Strategic Stalling, Poker Tips & WPT500 UK
Learn about strategic stalling, tips for beginning poker players, and five great reasons why you should play the WPT500 UK in this week's BlogNews Weekly. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
Natasha Barbour is Every Poker Player’s Dream Girl
Sarah talks to Natasha Barbour deep in the EPT Malta Main Event. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: The Big Game goes Italian
The Big Game returns at EPT Malta
Anybody really new to poker might not have encountered The Big Game, a made-for-television poker show that first aired in 2010. It was attractive for its format, which was appealing to recreational amateurs and professionals alike, and is still remembered fondly by its co-host, Joe Stapleton, who has since gone on to be a fixture on coverage of the European Poker Tour.
The Big Game was essentially a high-stakes cash game, as popularised by High Stakes Poker, but with one amateur player thrown in among the sharks. The so-called "Loose Cannon" was given a bankroll by PokerStars, the show's sponsor, with which to gamble, but any profit made was his or hers to keep.
The Loose Cannon element livened things up, with the pros trying to figure out the best approach to relieve the less-experienced player of his or her (sponsor's) money. Most players bent over backwards to make the newcomer welcome, which worked both as good entertainment but also to butter up the visitor. In some memorable cases the Loose Cannon fought back.
It's been a while since the Big Game was on English-speaking TV (every episode is still available on PokerStars.tv) but here in Malta we were treated to a blast from the past when our Italian hosts recorded two episodes.
The producers invited some of the game's biggest international names to play, which explains the presence of Jake Cody and Kevin MacPhee in the two heats, while the well-known Italian players Dario Sammartino and Umberto Vitaglioni also participated.
Kevin MacPhee: A non-Italian
An edited version of the show will likely appear on Italian TV in the coming months, with commentary from Luca Pagano, but they streamed live as they were being recorded, which gave everybody across the world a chance to see the warts-and-all version.
Rene Velli, our photographer, was handed an Access All Areas pass to the recordings, and a gallery of photos is below. If you want to know who won what, then you can also scroll to the very bottom of this post for the final standings. Players began with €10,000 stacks and could re-load if required.
Gianluca Irpino: Heat 1's Loose Cannon
Jake Cody joins the Italian sharks
Dario Sammartino: Italian poker's poster boy
Francesco Cipolleschi and Kevin MacPhee: A Loose Cannon and a WSOP winner
Eros Nastasi, Umberto Vitagliono and Clavio Anzalone
Big Game Italy results
Heat 1
Seat Player Reload Final stack Profit/loss 1 Dario Sammartino € 12,320 € 2,320 2 Cristian Favale € 5,000 € 11,675 -€ 3,325 3 Jake Cody € 9,835 -€ 165 4 Pasquale Braco € 9,475 -€ 525 5 Davide Suriano € 10,000 € 16,845 -€ 3,155 6 Gianluca Irpino Loose Cannon € 14,850 € 4,850 Heat 2
Seat Player Reload Final stack Profit/loss 1 Francesco Cipolleschi Loose Cannon € 0 -€ 10,000 2 Kevin MacPhee € 8,000 € 23,660 € 5,660 3 Yohan Viral € 10,000 € 17,375 -€ 2,625 4 Eros Nastasi € 23,375 € 13,375 5 Umberto Vitagliono € 12,000 € 14,265 € 7,735 6 Clavio Anzalone € 11,325 € 1,325 -
29 October
Theo Jorgensen on Why the WSOP-E Sucked
Sarah talks to Theo Jorgensen about his bad experience at the WSOP-E in Berlin and his unexpected win at EPT Malta. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: I can’t speak now, I’m in the Main Event
It's hard to imagine what sort of phone call you could receive while playing the main event that meant you had to apologise. But Jens Lakemeier just got it. "I'm sorry, but I'm still in the Main Event," said Lakemeier. Everyone listened, maybe even ...
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29 October
37 | Joe Kuether’s unbelievable year
In case you hadn’t noticed, Wisconsin star Joe Kuether is putting together a season for the ages in 2015 – earning results in an amazing 37 events so far … 37! Kuether’s most recent score was a second place finish in the WSOP Circuit Hammond (Chicago) Main Event. Kuether’s season includes a pair of victories and 13 Top 10 finishes so far – keep it up, Joe! Fab Five | Number of Results for 2015...
The post 37 | Joe Kuether’s unbelievable year appeared first on pokerstats.
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: A Mexican stare off
I've just witnessed something that in all my years of reporting for the PokerStars Blog I'd never seen before. Never before had I seen the clock called on the flop because the pre-flop caller (not the aggressor) had taken too long to act. More specifically when that player was first to act so therefore facing no previous action on that street.
The player in question was Ferdinand Le Pichon and he'd got involved in a Mexican stare off with Mike McDonald - not for the faint hearted - but we need to rewind to the start of the hand to understand how they reached this point.
It was, in all honesty, quite a standard hand. Le Pichon raised to 26,000 from middle position, McDonald three-bet to 65,000 on the button, from a stack of about 410,000, and when it folded back to Le Pichon he got a count of the bet and then called. The Frenchman started the hand with around 380,000 total.
The flop fell [Ah][6c][4h] and this is where the fun and games started. The Frenchman was in seat five and McDonald seat eight. Le Pichon's eyes were hidden behind mirrored sunglasses so whilst we can't say with 100% certainty that he was starring at McDonald his body position suggested this was the case. To anyone who's ever watched the EPT coverage it should come as no surprise that McDonald's eyes were fixed on Le Pichon, trademark stare in full effect.
The famous McDonald stare...
...and the Le Pichon version
Neither had looked at the board and it seemed it was now a case of who would blink first. The starred, they starred some more and they kept starring, this was deadlock. Something had to give, or rather someone, as the clock was called. We didn't see which player performed this action, but the floor was called and she informed Le Pichon he had a minute to act.
This seemed to stir Le Pichon into action as he checked and reasonably swiftly McDonald bet 45,000 and after about 10 seconds Le Pichon made the call. The [5s] hit the turn and this time Le Pichon was far quicker to act and again he checked the action over to McDonald who again bet, this time 90,000. It didn't take very long for Le Pichon to check-raise all in and the decision was now on McDonald.
"That was a very fast all-in," he said. Before adding, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to call this though." A few more seconds passed and then the Canadian announced call.
McDonald: [As][Kh]
Le Pichon: [5c][4c]The Frenchman had hit two pair on the turn to take the lead over McDonald who had top pair, top kicker. The [8d] river card gave Le Pichon the pot and left McDonald with just 32,000.
At this point there were 29 players left and the next pay jump was at 27th spot, an increase from €15,620 to €17,840. Having just been the button McDonald was in no great danger of having his stack swallowed by the blinds and folded two hands before taking a stand. Given the ante was 2,000 he was now left with 26,000 and elected not to move all-in, instead raising to 25,000. Nabil Abdien was sitting in the one seat so perhaps can be forgiven for not knowing exactly how many chips McDonald had. He peered round the dealer and asked McDonald how much he was playing. "Quite a bit," quipped McDonald who's solitary remaining 1K chip was being utilised as a card protector.
After taking this in Abdien raised to 60,000 and everyone else folded to leave the pot heads-up. First to show was McDonald, he opened [Jh][8h] and was behind to Abdien's [8c][8d]. His live card would prove crucial though as the [7d][9d][Kd][Kc][9h] board meant Abdien's pair was counterfeited.
Abdien's pair was counterfeited
That got McDonald up to 84,000 - seven big blinds - and he wouldn't play another hand until he was in the big blind. Again Abdien was the opponent, raising to 26,000 from under-the-gun, it folded to McDonald and curiously he just called. On the [4d][8c][7s] flop McDonald thought for a short time and then moved all-in and Abdien snap called.
McDonald: [Ks][5c]
Abdien: [Kh][Ts]The EPT Malta €25,000 High Roller champion was in need of help but none was forthcoming on the [Kc] turn or [As] river. So the bad news for the last remaining EPT champion in this event was that he wouldn't win a second Main Event title here in Malta, the good news though was that he'd made that pay jump as Johnny Lodden (29th) and Mikko Turtiainen (28th) had busted during his stay of execution.
McDonald - laddered up
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
2 days left to share your PokerStrategy.com experience
Upload a picture of yourself and the community logo on your Instagram account before the end of the month for the chance to win a prize!
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29 October
Bonomo Comments on Negreanu Feud
Sarah sits down to get some insights on a recent feud involving Vanessa Selbst and Daniele Negreanu. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: Niko Soininen makes a name for himself
Niko Soininen: Has been bubbling under for a while
When we last dipped into the side events at EPT Malta, Justin Bonomo and Anthony Zinno were celebrating victories while players in the €5,000 Hyper Turbo and the €500 Limit Stud Hi/Lo & Omaha Hi/Lo were edging into the late stages.
While we were all asleep, here's how the rest of the day panned out:
The late-starting hyper-turbo has proved to be a hit among the top pros and, after Theo Jorgensen won a version of it a couple of days ago, the €5K renewal was even more popular. Jason Mercier stone-bubbled but Ole Schemion, Adrian Mateos, Scott Seiver, Liv Boeree and Piotr Franczak, all of whom have made at least one major EPT final table, found themselves in the final seven.
However, they also all found themselves looking up at Niko Soininen, from Finland, who is earning himself a reputation as one to watch in Malta.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.According to sources in the Finnish media, Soininen's success here is no surprise. "He is one of those guys who has been bubbling under," Jussi Tyriseva, a Finnish reporter, said. "There are some guys who say he is almost as good as Jens Kyllonen in PLO."
Tyriseva repeated that PLO is Soininen's favoured game, even if his breakout successes in Malta have been in hold 'em. He finished fifth in the one-day €10,000 High Roller for a career-best live cash of €95,925 and then picked up another €84,030 for victory in the €5K. "I'm not sure if he wants to play €100Ks, but he could play any tournament he likes," Tyriseva said, indicating that Soininen has been playing and winning for quite a while.
Full results are on the side events results page.
There were two Italians in the winner's circle last night as well with Pasquale Gregorio beating 43 players to win the €500 Limit Stud Hi/Lo & Omaha Hi/Lo and Gianluca Grasso triumphing from a field of 196 in the €200 Win The Button. They picked up €7,090 and €8,420, respectively.
Marcin Horecki secured a min-cash in the Stud/Omaha event--€1,460 for sixth--adding that small chunk of change to the €1,055 he won in one of the first "Flipout" tournaments last Friday.
Today in Casino Portomaso, the Main Event plays down to its last two tables while the €10,000 High Roller gets under way and plays ten levels. The focus of most coverage will be on them.
But also on the schedule are another €5,000 Hyper Turbo, the first two flights of a €300 no limit hold 'em event (one entry per flight, 1c tomorrow) and day 1 of a €1,000 of a PLO tournament. There's also another €1,000 Hyper Turbo starting at 11pm.
In the novelty new games category, we also have the first ever €500 Limit Splitsville Dealer's Choice event, which lumps together all the Split Pot games. In case you can't name those off the top of your head, they are hold 'em hi/lo, pineapple hi/lo, crazy pineapple hi/lo, 4/5/6 card Omaha hi-lo, seven card stud hi/lo, super stud hi/lo, badacey, badeucey and razzdugi, with the dealer allowed to choose.
It promises to be largely unplayable, which will be right up plenty of players' streets and will make the €100 Deuces Wild turbo (with unlimited rebuys), which is also starting, seem positively tame.
Meanwhile, the €1,000 two-day hold 'em event will play to its winner. Frederik Jensen was leading the last 46 players (from a starting 205) chasing a €48,000 first prize. They are fairly close to the money now with 31 players getting paid. Also still in contention are Kenny Hallaert, Bart Lybaert, Remi Wyrzykiewicz, best friends Charlie Carrel and Ben Heath, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Jose Quintas, Erwann Pecheux and EPT7 Player of the Year Ondrej Vinklarek.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
EPT12 Malta: David Peters back to defend his High Roller title
A happy champion
One of the most popular events in recent times on EPT has been the €10k NL Single Re-Entry event. Less than 50 names are registered so far but that number, with new and re-entries, will grow considerably as the day progresses. Registration stays open until the beginning of Day 2.
One of the latest names to buy in is David Peters, the defending champion from the EPT11 Malta equivalent. He topped the 304-entries on the way to his (then) biggest score of €597,000 and was understandably delighted about it:
I won with no chop for my biggest score ever! Thanks everyone for the support!
— David Peters (@dpeterspoker17) March 29, 2022The season ending Grand Final aside, 10k buy-in events had a stuttering start on the EPT. There was a thirst for something bigger as far as EPT4 Copenhagen. Dario Minieri instigated a 10k sit and go tournament amongst the high rollers of the day but it was deemed as unofficial. There was an odd high roller scheduled, like the £20,000 Million Pound Showdown at EPT5 London, but it took until the beginning of Season 8 before they were officially introduced as part of the schedule.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Benny Spindler took down the first one for €49,350 in Tallin. The winning prize wasn't that good due to the fact that only 11 players took part. Igor Kurganov min-cashed in third, so even back then familiar faces to us now were starting appear at the top of the high roller pay outs. It was safe to say the events took a while to gain traction but when they did, they really took off.
Fast-forward to the beginning of Season 11 in Barcelona and the event attracted a whopping 401 entries and enabled Mustapha Kanit to take home €738,759 after he was victorious.
Andre Akkari in the €25k High Roller earlier this week
Team PokerStars Pros Andre Akkari and Theo Jorgensen are sat in their seats after a delayed start and are joined by Ben Wilinofsky, Anton Wigg, Charlie Carrel, Fabrice Soulier and EPT12 Grand Final champion Adrian Mateos.
Ten one-levels, with a 75-minute dinner break after Level 6, are scheduled so play should finish around 1am.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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29 October
Does Lowering a Tournament Buy-In Lower Prestige
With the recent lowering of some Main Event buy-ins, Sarah talks to players and staff to find out if they think it lowers the prestige of the event. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
EPT12 Malta Main Event Day 3: Sikora Leads Final 40; Timex, Shorr & Jaka Still Alive
Day 3 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event, which saw the money bubble burst, saw field reduced from 131 to final 40. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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29 October
How to crush low stakes cash on 888poker
Join w34z3l for a video and webinar which shows you how to crush the low stakes cash games on 888poker.
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29 October
PokerNews Podcast Episode #341: WSOP Europe Recap and Hall of Fame Talk
Rich is back, and he and Donnie place a bow on top of Run it Up Reno, recap the conclusion of the World Series of Poker Europe, and discuss the 2015 Poker Hall of Fame class.
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Anthony Zinno wins €5,000 pot-limit Omaha title; Bonomo claims €2K NLHE win
A super happy Anthony ZinnoWhilst it might not be a Triple Crown, tonight Anthony Zinno added an EPT side event title (and trophy) to go with his three WPT titles and WSOP bracelet.
His bracelet, won this past summer, was in the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha High Roller event. He's obviously got a knack for the four-card format as he's just emerged victorious in the €5,000 pot-limit Omaha Eight-handed event here at EPT Malta. "I'm super happy," he said of his win, "Tournament PLO is my favourite game."
This event, which is effectively the pot-limit Omaha High Roller, attracted 41 runners and he had to overcome a tough field to end up in the winner's circle. The likes of Scott Seiver, Jason Mercier, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Theo Jorgensen, Davidi Kitai, Ole Schemion and Ilari Sahamies were vanquished before the payouts began. Only the top six would get some return on their investment and after Lucaas Van den Belt (6th, €13,920), Jerzy Slaby (5th, €17,895), Lauri Varonen (4th, €22,870) and Corey Hochman (2nd, €29,825) departed Zinno faced off heads-up against Tom-Aksel Bedell.
The Norwegian was after his third EPT trophy having previously won side events at EPT8 Madrid (€2,000 NLHE 8-max turbo) and EPT11 Barcelona (€1,000 NLHE) and began with a slight chip lead of 440,000 to Zinno's 380,000. The two battled for around a hour and a quarter and Zinno told us about the big pot that swung the match his way.
Tom-Aksel Bedell
"Pre-flop I potted it out of position with [As][4s][7][10] and he called. I bet 90,000 on a 7-5-2 two spade flop and Tom called. The turn was the [9c] I bet, he moved in and I called. The turn had put a club flush draw out there and he had [Ac][Kc][5][X]. So we both had a nut flush draw and a pair but thankfully the river bricked."
The American was full of praise for the runner-up saying. "He's a complete gentleman, a very polite man." Prior to this victory Zinno has finished second on two occasions and third once on the EPT but finally has his trophy and €67,610 other reasons to be happy. For his runner-up finish Bedell collected €46,730.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.As we reported earlier plenty of big names had made Day 2 of Event#47 a €2,000 no-limit Hold'em event. Leading the way overnight was Fedor Holz whilst Justin Bonomo was well placed. Now, they're heads-up for the title, with Bonomo with a roughly 2,000,000 to 900,000 advantage, although with blinds at 12,000/24,000 ante 3,000 this one could go a while, or there could be a cooler and it be done in 10 minutes. You just never know in heads-up.
Edit: And just like that it's over! The final hand was all-in pre-flop with Holz holding [Kc][Qc] and Bonomo [9c][9s], the [9h][As][Ks][7h][Ah] board giving Bonomo the win and €96,410, whilst Fedor Holz collected €64,920 for finishing runner-up. This win made it a hat-trick of EPT titles for Bonomo as he can put this trophy next to those won in the EPT8 Grand Final Super High Roller and a PLO title won at the PCA earlier this year.
Other to cash in this event include: ElkY (27th), Georgios Zisimopoulos (25th), Shola Akindele Deadman (21st) and Dominik Panka (14th).
Bonomo's claimed his third EPT event winMany of those who crashed out of the big pot-limit Omaha event decided to enter the second €5,000 that was on today's schedule. That being a €5,000 Hyper-Turbo that started at 11pm local time. Whilst this event attracted a lot of the players you'll see in the high rollers it was played in a noticeably relaxed atmosphere with plenty of chat, friendly needles and late night drinks.
Among the 55 runners were some who still retain an interest in the EPT Main Event as Mike McDonald, Bryn Kenney and Ivan Luca all decided to play this one too. As did: Theo Jorgensen, Byron Kaverman, Dominik Nitsche, Adrian Mateos, Connor Drinan, Andrew Chen, David Peters, Igor Kurganov, Sylvain Loosli, Nick Petrangelo, Ilari Sahamies, Chris Hunichen, Juha Helppi, Martin Finger, Liv Boeree, Steve O'Dwyer, Ole Schemion, Stephen Chidwick, Scott Seiver and Benjamin Pollak.
No rest for Ivan Luca
The top seven will make the money, with prizes ranging from €14,000 to €84,090, 14 players currently retain an interest in challenging the scoreboard and they include: Liv Boeree, Ole Schemion, Scott Seiver, Steve O'Dwyer, Stephen Chidwick, Adrian Mateos and Jason Mericer.
It's not all hold'em and Omaha here in Malta as with 76 events in total there's something for everyone. For the mixed game players today's offering was a €500 Limit Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo event. Simon Trumper and Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki were among those still in when they reached the final table of nine a short time ago. Only 6 get paid though so no one's in the money yet. The winner will take home €7,090 when this one is done.
Two other events are currently playing out as the time ticks towards 01:30 local time. The €200 Turbo Win the Button event attracted 196 runners and 35 of those who entered still have chips, including PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador Jen Shahade. The top 27 will make at least €380 whilst the winner will get €8,420.
That event definitely will finish tonight whereas Event #55 a €1,000 re-entry NLHE affair was never scheduled to. Day 1 is winding down now with Day 2 starting at noon tomorrow. There were 234 entrants in total with around 45 players still in. It won't take too long to make the money tomorrow as the top 31 will cash with a min-cash worth €2,000 and first taking home €48,000. Among those hoping to claim top spot are: Ben Heath, Charlie Carrel, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Patrick Leonard and Giuliano Bendinelli.
Shahade is looking for side event success
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Jaroslaw Sikora leads. Jaka and Greenwood in pursuit
We're into the interesting bit. Sure, those early stages can produce some important moments, flagging up the early signs of a player in form. But Day 3 is where things are turned up a notch, for there is money involved now, and that's ball game.
But not everyone was entitled to a share when play began today. Some 131 players returned, but only 95 would have something to show for their efforts by the end of the day. But it felt like a long day, except perhaps for Jaroslaw Sikora, who leads with a stack of 1.65 million tonight.
Chip leader Jaroslaw SikoraSikora has been among the leaders since Day 1, and spent today in the same way, with his arms either side of an ever expanding stack. Behind him is Alexander Ivarsson who can claim an almost identical story.
Then things get familiar. Faraz Jaka is in third place, while Sam Greenwood is in fourth place. Both, along with Niall Farrell in fifth place, are within sight of the lead, and will be the principal challengers tomorrow.
Faraz JakaElsewhere there was a new record for cashes on the EPT, set by Team Pro Johnny Lodden, who bags up 399,000 and is a guaranteed his 21st cash finish tonight.
Johnny LoddenHere are the full chip counts at the end of Day 3:
Name Country Status Chips Jaroslaw Sikora Poland PokerStars player 1,457,000 Alexander Ivarsson Sweden PokerStars player 1,306,000 Faraz Jaka USA PokerStars qualifier 1,200,000 Niall Farrell UK PokerStars player 1,160,000 Sam Greenwood Canada PokerStars player 1,160,000 Giulio Spampinato Italy 785,000 Alen Bilic Bosnia and Herzegovina PokerStars player 745,000 Apostolos Bechrakis Greece PokerStars qualifier 720,000 Mike McDonald Canada PokerStars qualifier 689,000 Michael Ho Canada 680,000 Darrell Goh Ireland 633,000 Mikael Jean Lebanon 598,000 Kitty Kuo China PokerStars qualifier 574,000 Bjorn Geissert Germany PokerStrars player 526,000 Rainer Kempe Germany PokerStars qualifier 490,000 Andreas Chalkiadakis Greece 482,000 Gianluca Escobar Italy 447,000 Shannon Shorr USA PokerStars player 407,000 Johnny Lodden Norway Team PokerStars Pro 399,000 Ferdinand Le Pichon France 364,000 Ivan Luca Argentina PokerStars qualifier 349,000 Hani Bahna Canada 344,000 Jens Lakemeier Germany PokerStars qualifier 336,000 Akim Aouine France 308,000 Ezequiel Kleinman Argentina PokerStars qualifier 301,000 Erik Scheidt Germany PokerStars player 283,000 Mikko Turtiainen Finland PokerStars qualifier 282,000 Natasha Barbour USA 280,000 Daniel Dvoress Canada PokerStars qualifier 278,000 Marcin Wydrowski Poland PokerStars qualifier 257,000 Nabil Mohamed Abdien Cardoso Spain 255,000 Pierre Chevalier France 240,000 Anton Bertilsson Sweden PokerStars qualifier 216,000 Kevin Lee Sharp Canada PokerStars qualifier 176,000 Bryn Kenney USA PokerStars qualifier 172,000 Antonio Chemi Italy 164,000 Enrico Camosci Italy PokerStars player 162,000 Thomas Muehloecker Austria PokerStars qualifier 135,000 Paul Berende Netherlands PokerStars qualifier 108,000 Antonio Mitrotta Italy 103,000 But the day was dominated by the bubble, one which lasted longer than expected and included some short stack heroics.
As Nick Wright put it earlier, the bubble brings with it various degrees of relief:
"They're delighted to now have locked up a cash because... they've essentially achieved their goal. The mid-stacks are happy because now they can actually start playing some poker... and the big stacks are happy because well, they're a big stack."
While Christopher Adler is the unhappiest man in Malta tonight, going out on the bubble, the happiest is surely Andrew Atkinson, out in 95th place after having survived the bubble with less than a small blind.
Christopher Adler would go out on the bubbleThe relief on his face will be one of the lasting images of the event, the scene of those at his table congratulating him, will prove the lasting meme. It was hard not to feel he'd earned every cent of his €9,320 min cash (shattering his previous best cash by nearly €9,000). Not bad given he qualified on PokerStars for €32.40.
It was a nail biter for Andrew AtkinsonThen the not so cheerful fallers made their way to the payout desk, among them Matthias de Meulder, Joni Jouhkimainen, Jeff Rossiter, Isaac Haxton, Govert Metaal, Christoph Vogelsang, Steve O'Dwyer and Dan Smith.
Isaac Haxton among the fallers todayWhile you can fill the rest of your evening with side event action, it leaves 40 players to return tomorrow for Day 4, when they'll play down to 16 and move a step closer to the final table on Saturday. Coverage will continue here on the PokerStars Blog, where you'll find live updates and live coverage every step of the way from 12pm.
Join us then.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: New cash record for Johnny Lodden
Johhny Lodden happy with his 21st cash today
We love breaking records and reaching milestones on the EPT, whether they are our own or someone else's. Today, Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden broke a long-standing record and reached a new milestone when he reached the money in the Main Event for his 21st EPT cash. His teammate Luca Pagano cashed for the 20th time at the Deauville leg in Season 8 and Lodden drew level after his 111th place finish at this season's opener in Barcelona.
The Norwegian is already an all-time great when referring to EPT history and is only a Main Event victory away from becoming a true legend of the game. These stats prove the point:
-Cashed in 10 straight seasons (3-12)
-Cashed in 11 different countries (Malta now the 12th)
-Total number of cashes: 21
-Total amount cashed for: €1,267,562 (minus what he wins here)
-Best cash/result: 3rd at EPT9 Grand Final for €467,000
-Final tables: 3
-Top 20 finishes: 10Lodden sat down with the PokerStars Blog and looked back at his time on the EPT. He talked about how he got started on the EPT, his style versus others and a couple of memorable hands.
"A company came on board and asked me to play for them, travel around to do commercials and play big events. For me it sounded really fun and I was planning to do it anyway but they offered to pay for it all! I don't regret it at all as I much prefer playing live to online and I'm sticking to that now.
"I didn't struggle to the pace of live poker at all. When I started playing live tournaments it was a different game. It was like playing online poker 15 years ago because everybody was so tight and playing straightforward. The thing I remember best was that everybody was 3x the big blind and that was when you started with 10,000 in an EPT Main Event compared to 30,000 these days. The levels went faster too and it seemed as if everybody was playing all-in poker all the time. I was the only one raising less as I realised the value of the chips where others didn't.
A younger Johnny Lodden
"I did fairly well at the beginning and crushed day ones from the off. I remember one season with 10k starting stacks where I finished the first day of every EPT with over 100k and second was around 50k. I was just crushing through it and I don't know why!
"On day ones I like to play a lot, a lot, a lot of hands. I feel I have my advantage on day ones because I love to play deep and I love to play post flop. So on day ones you get to play as many hands as you want and I do very little three-betting or four-betting. Then I ramp it up a little on Day 2 and calm down again on Day 3. I use that strategy now.
"For me, poker is post flop. When the internet kids came around - a bunch of them - five years ago, you couldn't see a flop. Everyone was so aggressive: raise, reraise, reraise, reraise, all in, fold. You could never see a flop. I tried to change that up a little and the thing I love with playing those kinds of people is that you open, they three-bet and you just call. Then they're like, 'No. Based on what we do online, you are not allowed to call there, you either four-bet or fold.' So when they see a flop, they say, 'Okay, what is this? It's supposed to come five cards or no cards.' For me though, it was right to play like that as I was strongest post flop.
"I remember my first EPT as it was so much fun. A couple of other Norwegians went really deep too and I enjoyed the feeling of playing my first big live tournament after playing so much online. I remember it especially well as (Phil) Ivey came second and a close friend was sat next to, and chatting, to him. We were, and still are, Ivey fan boys.
"It can't only be bad beats that cost me getting to final tables in the earlier days; it had to be something I was doing as well. I normally had a lot of chips even when I busted 12th or 15th or 20th and was playing so aggressively, more aggressively than I do now. I was thinking that if I picked up ace-king I have to get it in preflop but now I don't feel like I have to get it in against queens for a battle of all the chips. With the experience I now have, it's much better to keep things smaller. I try to play small pots preflop and test it out more after.
"I remember a hand at an EPT in Prague that didn't hurt but it I played it so bad. I'd just won a massive pot and had a very big chip lead with three tables left. The very next hand I wasted it in a one-raise pot. I raised it up with aces and the big blind defends before I go nuts on a ten-six-four flop losing to aces. I was thinking to myself, 'What the f%$k am I doing here? Wow!' In that moment it felt like I had never played before.
Lodden at the EPT10 Grand Final in Monaco
"A really good one was in Monte Carlo a couple of seasons ago when I was on the final table bubble and all in with ace-queen against nines and ace-five. There was a nine in the door and I made a backdoor straight to make the final table. That's, by far, the best feeling I've ever had playing live. Jason Mericer was on the table and walked up to the feature table after the flop came out, saying that the final table had been set. I was sat there, at that moment, thinking I was going to bubble another final table? I looked around at the players left and thought it would be so fun to play a final table with these guys, the sickest of all time. I was lucky but that's the hand I remember.
Pagano here in Malta this week
"Breaking Luca's (Pagano) makes me feel very old! Nah, it feels good and makes you feel like you're doing something right. It's been very steady now for a couple of years, I can't remember the last EPT I didn't cash in the Main Event. I like the structure and always have the motivation to do well these days. When there were 15 a year, my head was always somewhere else and I was playing to get an early double or get out of there. So my motivation for poker is much better than it used to be years ago.
"I would love to win an EPT a lot. A fucking lot! I've been trying to win one of these for a long time now and I've been close. Maybe I'll just win this one as I have a decent stack and feel like I've been playing really good."
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: The happiest players in the room
Atkinson literally had a chip and chair when the bubble burst
When the bubble bursts everyone left in the tournament is happy, but the collective happiness isn't distributed equally. The majority of the happiness quotient goes to those shortest on chips, those who've been 'hugging' the bubble so to speak.
They're delighted to now have locked up a cash because with their short stack securing a min-cash means they've essentially achieved their goal. The mid-stacks are happy because now they can actually start playing some poker without the stress of the bubble to affect them and the big stacks are happy because well, they're a big stack and they'll now get more hands in per hour with which to wield that stack to good effect.
Poker tournament bubbles come in all shapes and sizes, as noted here, the hand for hand period of this one in Malta lasted for 90 minutes - an entire level of play - and it meant that those who started the bubble short and survived were really short by the time they'd locked up that precious min-cash.
The PokerStars Blog decided to track a number of the short stacks both pre and post bubble to see how they fared. Hand for hand play started with approximately 45 minutes left in level 16, during which blinds were 2,000/4,000 ante 500. These players were most in trouble when the clock was paused with 97 players left and 95 spots paying:
Name Country Status Chips Christopher Andler Sweden 13,000 Andrew Atkinson UK PokerStars Qualifier 21,000 Antoine Saout France 29,000 Giacomo Fundaro Italy 36,500 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia PokerStars qualifier 38,000 Adrian Tivadar Romania PokerStars Qualifer 39,000 Andrey Kotelnikov Russia PokerStars player 39,500 Mamouni Smain Canada 41,000 Mati De Meulder Belgium Team PokerStars Pro 45,500 Ludovic Geilich UK 47,500 Antonio D'Alessandro Italy 48,000 Kevin Sharp Canada PokerStars qualifier 55,500
Kevin Sharp - one of the shorstacks who survived the bubble
You can read a detailed report of what transpired up to an including the bubble here. The knock on effect of the protracted bubble, and the fact that Andler and Atkinson were so short during the bubble phase, meant that most of those who started short were running on fumes by the time they'd safely made it into the money.
None more so than Andrew Atkinson. The Englishman had qualified on PokerStars for just €32.40 and he had just a single 500 chip left when the bubble burst. To see his relief at making the money made you realise just how much it meant to him. His biggest cash prior to this event was £425, earned when he won a £25 tournament so you can see why.
His one ante went in before a card was dealt but despite having no chips left he wore the widest smile in the room. But then so would you be if you'd just locked up a minimum of €9,320 and scored your biggest poker result to date.Now all that remained to be seen was if the Poker Gods had been kind to him or not. Everyone folded meaning he was just up against Andreas Chalkiadakis, who was in the big blind. First to show was Atkinson, his [5h][2h] bad but not in terrible shape against Chalkiadakis's [6s][4h]. The [7c][7h][9d] flop was decent for Atkinson. "Everyone loves a chopped pot," said Chalkiadakis. However, the dealer had different ideas for this one as the [6d] turn gave Chalkiadakis the lead and Atkinson didn't hit his gutshot on the river.
This was though the happiest bustout ever, Atkinson went over to the rail and embraced a female companion who'd been railing him throughout his bubble torment. He'd have floated to the payout desk if he could've, it's unlikely he'll forget this 90 minutes of his life.
Andrew Atkinson during his bubble torment
As it happened Atkinson wasn't first out in the money, that honour went to Younas Yousaf but there was, predictably a rush to the exits. Anyone finishing between 95th and 72nd would pick up the same amount and Brian Yoon was another who exited in the minutes after the bubble burst.
Some talented players were now very short on chips and you suspected they weren't going to be playing Teaxs Fold'em now they'd locked up a cash. Blinds were up to 2,500/5,000 ante 500 and Mati De Meulder (24,500), Antoine Saout (14,500) and Jeff Rossiter (17,500) were all well and truly in the danger zone.
For De Meulder's part he'd have been even further in the mire had he not taken a big risk on the bubble. "I shoved 4.5 big blinds from under-the-gun with kings and everyone folded," he told the PokerStars Blog during hand for hand play. "I should be shoving aces only there but I had kings," he grinned before adding. "I definitely fold queens there."
This crazy LAG shoved with kings! Kings!
First to chance his arm of the trio post-bubble was Rossiter. The Australian shoved with [Jd][5c] and needed some help against Joni Jouhkimainen's [Ah][Th]. Help duly arrived as the [5d][2d][3s][Jc][Jh] board saw him boat up to survive.
This left Jouhkimainen short on chips and he would send one of our featured short stacks to the rail shortly afterwards. Down to just 18,000 Mamouni Smain moved all-in with [Kh][9h] and received calls from Christoph Vogelsang and Jouhkimainen. On the [Qh][Qc][2s] flop Jouhkimainen moved in for his last 26,500 with [Ac][8h] and Vogelsang released his hand. The [Th] turn and [Ad] river meant Jouhkimainen held.
Rossiter survived
Meanwhile Saout's stack was still dwindling downwards. Eventually he had no choice but to make a move. He committed his last 12,000 from under-the-gun+1 and picked up two callers. On the [4c][4h][Ks] flop Ludovic Riehl bet 15,500 which was enough to make the pot heads-up.
Saout: [2s][2d]
Riehl: [As][5s]Saout was in good shape but he'd have to dodge a number of counterfeit outs as well as the pure outs that Riehl had. The [6c] turn was a brick but the [2h] river meant Saout survived.
He was soon involved again though, shoving for 38,500 over the top of a 10,000 chip open from Michael Gathy. The Belgian got a count of Saout's shove and after a bit of tank time decided calling was the best option. He opened [9d][8d] and was in bad shape against Saout's [Ad][Td]. The [As][Qh][4d][Js][Ac] board meant Saout had turned a stack of just over two big blinds into one of over 15 big blinds in just three hands.
He wasn't the only short stack success story though. Andrey Kotelnikov had spun his shrapnel up to 70,000 and Kevin Sharp had prospered during the bubble period as he had over 60,000.
By this point 15 players had been eliminated in the money and De Meulder found himself at the same table as Niall Farrell and Sharp. He'd yet to play a hand since the bubble burst and was down to just 21,000. Eventually though he did find a hand in mid-position and moved his chips over the line.
The player to his immediate left - Patrick Jann - asked for a count and De Meulder cheekily said, "It's 201,000," before laughing. Once Jann had the correct count he called, only for Sharp to shove behind for 68,000. Again Jann requested a count and once more he called and we had a three-way all-in.De Meulder: [Ad][Js]
Jann: [Jd][Jc]
Sharp: [Qs][Qh]De Meulder and Farrell were laughing and joking as the dealer spread a [Kc][6c][5h][9d][4d] board on the felt. After the river card hit De Meulder said to Farrell: "That means it's over. Now I've got to find something else to do!"
Still that's two Main Event cashes from two in Season 12 for De Meulder who finished 28th in Barcelona. So that's what happened in the 30 minutes after the bubble burst, during that time the field was reduced from 95 to 77 and whilst most of the short stacks who survived the bubble perished during this period others, such as Saout, are still in their fighting and could well produce a remarkable comeback story by the end of the tournament.
Could this be Saout's comeback story of a lifetime?
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
Is ‘Texas’ Norwegian for Crazy?
Sarah talks to Johnny Lodden about a recent article in The Washington Post. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Andler and Gelich just miss the money
Christopher Andler
If Day 2 of an EPT is moving day then Day 3 is bubble day, and today was no different. Normally hand for hand play begins when on the direct bubble but the tournament director's hand was forced to bring that forward one hand due to the amount of stalling going on at several tables.
"Stalling is the new black," joked PokerStars Blog photographer Rene Velli.
The extra hand of hand for hand play had a huge effect on the length of time it took to get in the money. It took the last 45 minutes of level 16 and another 45 minutes of level 17 to finally get there, and the unfortunate player to leave in 96th place was Christopher Andler from Sweden.
Before the actual bubble hand took place three players put their tournament at risk, but with good reason. Paul Berende, Dara O'Kearney and Ludovic Geilich were all below average but could've folded to the money if they hadn't found the nut pre flop hand.
Berende and O'Kearney were both up on the feature table and had stacks of 73,000 and 95,500 respectively. Dan Smith and his pocket kings couldn't come from behind to defeat Berende and Alen Bilic's queens were second best after a [6h][kh][4s][th][8d] board came down. O'Kearney breathed a sigh of relief after his opponent missed the flush draw he picked up on the turn.
Aa v qq. Manage to fade the q and the flush draw he turned to double #Phew #EPT12Malta
— Dara O'Kearney (@daraokearney) October 28, 2021Geilich was not so fortunate. He was down to around 35,000 when he three-bet all in from the small blind with [ad][ac]. Pierre Chevalier had opened from mid position and made the call with [tc][9c]. TD Luca Vivaldi announced the action to the room and there were some giggles when they heard what Geilich was up against and their reaction was even louder when the flop fanned [8c][7s][2c]. Chevalier had flopped the world and had his Scottish opponent drawing dead when the [jh] turn made him a straight.
Good game LudoGelich nodded and said, "Good game everyone." He may have just missed out on the money but at least he has a dry bum. Oh wait ....
Run worse go upstairs for a cigarette sit down on a chair that's soaking wet and now have a soaking wet arse lol #EptMalta
— ludovic geilich (@Gr4vyBo4t) October 28, 2021Once Geilch was out of the way the tension was ramped up to 11. As the bubble period was so long, word spread around the room that two players were seriously short and both would be forced all in the next time they were in the big blind. Christopher Andler thought he had the advantage over Andrew Atkinson but after wandering over to check, he realised that it was he who be at risk first.
Andler, being Swedish, seemed very chilled out about the predicament he found himself in, whereas Atkinson was anything but. His shoulders were tense and he was heard muttering, "Oh jeez!" to himself. A min cash is worth €9,320 and the Brit qualified for just €32.40 so you can understand his tension now.
Christopher Andler bubbling EPT MaltaThe bubble hand duly came around when Andler was in the big blind. He paid the 500 ante and was all in for his last 1,500. Daniel Dvoress raised to 10,000 and was called by Giulio Spampinato in the small blind. The flop came [3c][ad][4h] and Spampinato check-called 6,500 before leading for 13,000 on the [tc] turn. Dvoress looked confused but flicked in the call and quickly checked behind on the [kc] river.
Andre Atkinson going to work on his nailsThe three players had to wait for all other hands to be completed before their hands could be opened. The EPTLive cameras were already in position and Atkinson lingered behind one of them, shoulder ramped up with tension. The winner of the side pot had to be determined first and it went to Dvoress as his [ac][jd] beat out Spampinato's [5c][5h]. Andler hadn't looked at his cards this whole time and he decided to open one at time but he knew he was out after the first one was the [8s]. The other one was the [4s] and Andler received condolences from his tablemates and made a swift exit. The rest of the room cheered with delight and Atkinson soaked up the congratulations from his supportive tablemates and allowed the tension to release from his body.
And relaxBegin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: The Pain of Four
Count them: one, two, three, four blinds
On the face of it, there is nothing massively complicated about the four blind tournament. It's simply that instead of one player posting a small blind and one player posting a big blind, two people post each of them. Clockwise around the table it goes: button, SB1, SB2, BB1, BB2.
However, if you think a little more deeply and imagine actually running one of these tournaments, you'll quickly realise that there are a few things that need to be figured out. For instance, when taking a player from a table to balance the field, do you take the player in BB1 or BB2? And what about when the tournament goes three handed? What on earth happens then?
At time of starting this post, we were very close to the moment in the tournament when the latter situation was no longer only hypothetical. They were four-handed, with Makram Saber, Jerome Corcia, Blazej Przygorzewski and Jiri Horak still involved.
It's not even straightforward what should happen at this stage. Intuitively, I thought this would be the stage at the tournament where everybody is posting a blind and BB2 is also the dealer. That would also mean that the player in SB1 acts first both before and after the flop, probably the only game in poker's gamut where this is the case.
In the attempt to clarify if this was indeed true, something of a discussion ensued among the tournament staff both supervising the specific tournament and overseeing the festival. Should that actually be the case, or should the player on the button actually be one of the SBs, as he would be heads up?
What about when they get to three?
As it turned out, the game was played as described above. The dealer was BB2 and acted last both before and after the flop (ie, before the flop he got the chance to check his option). However, when they went three handed, which happened during all the time spent researching all this, that other issue came up.
Should it be one small blind and two bigs? Two smalls and one big? Or something else entirely?
In this case, they went for option C. The original plan, according to tournament staff, was to revert back to regular hold 'em and have one small blind, one big blind and one player not posting anything. But the players, who had already grown rather fond of the format (Stockholm syndrome?) immediately noticed that this would mean half as much money in the middle to play for pre-flop, so asked if they could introduce an ante.
The tournament officials agreed to that, so the played with one small blind, one big blind and everybody posting an ante.
This is the first time this particular format has been spread on the EPT, but it seemed to go down really well. They're heads up at the moment, I believe, and we'll have winner news when we know it.
In the other side events still going on, Anthony Zinno has emerged as chip leader in the €5,000 PLO. He won a bracelet in this format, in a $25,000 buy in tournament, in the summer, so clearly has some chops. He had about 155,000 (blinds 600-1,200) at the last time of looking, with Stephen Chidwick, Ole Schemion, Christopher Frank and Sylvain Loosli among the short-stacks of the 12 remaining. The prize-pool information is not yet confirmed.
Anthony Zinno: Leading the PLO
Over at the €2,000 NLHE event, Yingui Li has taken the lead. He has 280,000 just into the 2,000-4,000 level. Olov Janssen has something very similar, while Justin Bonomo is close behind, with 270,000.
Yingui Li: Li-der, more like
Dominik Panka is sitting next to Fedor Holz, but there's a gulf between their stacks. Panka has 90,000 and Holz 240,000. Andras Nemeth has 230,000 and is another of the big stacks.
Fedor "Crusher" Holz and Dominik Panka
They are in the money now, with ElkY having sneaked through the bubble with five big blinds. But he's out now.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Comfort, nuts and nails. Three players on the bubble
You'll have noticed that it was a long bubble, somehow made longer by the almost ninja like dexterity of at least one player who managed to nurse a stack of less than a blind, and steer it into the money. Not everyone approaches the bubble in the sam...
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28 October
Six millionaires in a week? What are the odds?
One week. That's all it took for PokerStars to make six brand new millionaires. That's six changed lives. Six million dollars entering the poker economy. Six million in first prizes in the span of seven days.
We'll be frank: there isn't anyone around here who expected it to happen like this. I'm not kidding. The rate at which people are hitting the anniversary Spin & Go Anniversary jackpots has been more than a little surprising. It's almost as if something in the cogs of the PokerStars machine broke. At least, that's what I was thinking when the sixth person won overnight.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Early this morning, Australia's "ifipushud325" beat Germany's "ModusPonen7" and Russia's "FlyEko" to take the sixth $1 million first prize of the Spin & Go anniversary celebration. It cost him five bucks to enter, and it made him a millionaire.
What does that do to a man? Well, we only need to ask one of the other millionaires, Pete Dolloway, who also cashed for $1 million on a $5 buy-in. He told us all about it yesterday here: Millionaire electrician wires his own spotlight.
So, we know it's happening. We know how it affects people. Question is...what are the odds of this kind of thing happening.
Well, fortunately, PokerStars laid out the odds in advance.
You can see them all below.
In short, if you're playing a $100 event, your odds of hitting a $1.2 million Spin & Go are 3 in 1,000,000. Seems like a lot, we know...but here's the thing. Two of those have already hit. And guess what...the odds on $5 Spin & Gos are longer...something like 3 in 10,000,000. And yet, we've already seen four of those winners.
So, you do the math on your own, but we're fully prepared to be writing about another Spin & Go millionaire tomorrow, if not before the end of the day!
For more information on the odds, visit, the PokerStars Spin & Go Anniversary homepage.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Four tournaments, four blinds, plenty of action
There's a mouse clinging on to life in the €2K
The shrinking of the EPT Malta Main Event means more space available in the tournament room. And when EPT tournament directors see empty tables, they endeavour to fill them as soon as possible.
Today in Malta, there are opportunities to suit all players with all bank-rolls and the chance too to try out a brand-new format. The €5,000 PLO is under way alongside Day 2 of the €2,000 hold'em, abutting the Stud Hi/Lo & Omaha Hi/Lo event. A few paces further is the debut of the "four-blind" hold 'em which, as the name suggests, is the familiar game with the addition of two more blinds.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.Let's take a walk around the room.
To start with that €5,000 PLO: this is the favoured format of plenty of top players and they have duly flocked to give it a crack. Ilari Sahamies, Andrew Chen, Ole Schemion, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Christopher Frank, Jooryt van Hoof, Anthony Zinno, Juha Helppi, Scott Seiver, Stephen Chidwick, Connor Drinan and Jason Mercier are in the field.
Actually, Troyanovskiy is now out. Having lost a decent-sized pot to Schemion, during which the two of them stared at each other so intently from the seat next to one another that it felt a bit indecent, Troyanovskiy was seen scuttling out the door soon after.
In the "staring" pot, the two of them stare-checked the river looking (when staring permitted) at a board of [5c][8s][2c][8h][jc]. Schemion turned over [ah][as][6s][3h] for aces up and Troyanovsky mucked. Schemion chuckled, but as he was still stacking chips, a tournament floor-man came over and told him that he had to move to another table.
"Hit and run, as usual," Mercier said.
Schemion found his new seat, and Troyanovskiy departed soon after.
The €2,000 event is getting incredibly close to its bubble. They pay 31 and, at time of writing, there are 33 still involved. Olov Jansson has taken over at the top of the counts, with about 220,000, but Fedor Holz, the overnight leader, is going strong still. He has about 200,000.
Justin Bonomo (145,000) and Dominik Panka (138,000) remain well stacked, while ElkY is clinging on with his 29,000, and has his mouse for company. There was no sign of Kevin MacPhee or Simon Deadman, who appear to have been eliminated short of the money.
The Stud Hi/Lo & Omaha Hi/Lo event is just getting started, with Simon Trumper, Joao Vieira and Adam Owen among those settling down for a day of chopped pots.
So, back to the four blinds event: it really is as simple as that. There are now two players posting small blinds and two players posting big blinds, which means the player under-the-gun would actually be the fifth to act post flop.
It also, of course, puts more money into the middle pre-flop, which has slightly adjusted how much a standard opening raise should be calculated. Jeff Madsen is in this tournament and I watched him open to 1,700 pre-flop, with blinds at 300-600.
The player in the second small blind had actually put out the size of a big blind -- old habits dying hard, and it's just so normal to be posting a big blind in that seat -- but he took back half of it before folding. However, the player in the second big blind, Antonio Leotta, moved all in over Madsen's raise.
Leotta had [as][jc] and Madsen [ad][5h]. But a five appeared on the flop proving that no matter how many blinds you have, the prospect of a bad beat remains.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Kenney makes a better start today
Bryn Kenney started Day 2 with 91,100 and ended it with 95,000. Not ideal, but a profit is a profit, right? On paper it looks like he had a pretty boring day but those 4,900 chips can tell a story. The PokerStars Blog featured Kenney and his table du...
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: At last! An EPT title for a wine-fuelled Jorgensen
Theo Jorgensen, winner. (Wine bottle not pictured)
Poor old Theo Jorgensen. He's been coming to EPT events since the very first season, sitting himself down in main events and side events for week after week after week but never once emerging with a trophy.
He's done all right on the WPT and the WSOP of course, winning on both, and rumour has it that he can hold his own in a cash game. But the spade-shaped hole on Jorgensen's trophy shelf has never been filled...until now.
According to our sources inside the Nordic poker community, Jorgensen went out for dinner last night with his friend and fellow Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, among others. Wine was taken, according to sources, and imbued with Dutch courage, Jorgensen thought he could take a stab at the late-night hyper-turbo bounty.
Jorgensen found himself the €1,100 required--€500 was the normal buy-in, €500 the bounty and €100 fee--and sat among the 155-strong field. Within a few hours (levels were ten minutes long), Jorgensen was the last man standing. He picked up €16,940, plus bounties, and finally had his hands on an EPT trophy.
He told his Facebook fans: "Only problem now is that I have to sleep with 2 covers on, since I still have goosebumps over how great I played this tourney."
Finally, Jorgensen has found his calling, and an effective strategy for success. Two bottles of wine, a dinner with Lodden and an 11pm start. What could possibly go wrong?
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.There was further success for the Nordics in side events last night, when Anton Wigg won the €500 PLO turbo. There were 85 players in this one, with Wigg taking €11,340 for first, marking his ninth success in EPT side events.
Title No 9 for Anton Wigg
Wigg, of course, is also a former Main Event champion and remains one of the most successful online players in the world. He is the man behind the "antesvante" account on PokerStars, pushing $6 million in recorded winnings. This PLO success is not necessarily going to change Wigg's life, but a win is a win. And he has eight more than Jorgensen.
Martin Stazsko, a former World Series of Poker runner up, also picked up a title last night. He prevailed in the Quintuple Draw and won €3.97 million. Sorry, that's an error. He won €3.97 million less than he got for the WSOP runner-up place. His title here was for €3,670.
Martin Staszko: Champion
In the three other events to conclude yesterday, Niccolo Ceccarelli took down the €1,000 NL Turbo for €23,690, a prize that narrowly eclipses the €22,900 he won in March when he finished 25th in the EPT Main Event. It takes him over the $200,000 in live tournament winnings. His best result remains the €69,500 he won for for second place in the IPT Nova Gorica event last season. He beat Portugal's Jose Quintas heads-up - and defeated a 92-strong field overall. Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody was among the 13 players who cashed. The prize pool was €89,240.
Niccolo Ceccarelli: Pushed live winnings past $200,000
There may have been only nine players in yesterday's first ever EPT €5k 10-Game Mix event, but somebody had to win it. That man was Sampo Ryynanen, who picked up the €21,825 first prize. He saw off the likes of Tobias Hausen and Adam Owen (who cashed) and the aforementioned Jorgensen, Jussi Nevanlinna, Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Benjamin Pollak (who didn't) on his way to victory.
Sampo Ryynanen: First 10-Game champ
Quentin Laugt picked up the first title of his short career when he won the €300 NL Turbo. Laugt, from France, had only a min-cash in an FPS event to his name before this tournament in Malta, but ended up beating a field of 173 and winning €11,705 for victory here. Adam Owen, Paul Berende, Ondrej Vinklarek and Natalie Hof were among those finishing in the money, while there was also another final table appearance for Jackie Cachia, who is having quite the festival.
Quentin Laugt: Second live cash a win
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
EPT12 Malta: Holz leads at restart of €2k side
Fedor Holz: WCOOP champion leading the way
The €2,000 hold'em side event--event #47 in the schedule--is going to play to a winner today. And to glance at the names of the 61 players remaining from the starting 235 suggests that this will be a star-studded affair to its bitter end.
Fedor Holz is at the very summit of the overnight leader board, the brilliant young German whizz demonstrating his abilities extend beyond High Rollers, Super High Rollers, Main Events and WCOOPs. Holz has 178,900 chips with Olov Jansson tailing him, on 162,700. They will restart in Level 10, with blinds at 600-1,200.
First prize in this one, by the way, is €96,410 with a min-cash worth €4,010.
Want to get involved? Click here to get a PokerStars account.Justin Bonomo (124,200) is third at this stage, with Kevin MacPhee (69,800), newly installed as the WSOPE champion, also in the top ten. Then there's Jason Wheeler (48,800), Dominik Panka (41,500), Kevin Killeen (29,200), ElkY (26,600), Thiago Nishijima (24,800), Dermot Blain (22,300) and Maria Ho (15,100) among those still involved.
Kevin MacPhee: WSOPE champ in the €2K
There's still a chance that the two Deadmans will end up on the same table too. Both Shola Akindele Deadman (50,100) and Simon Deadman (22,000) are involved.
The tournament pays down to 31 places, which means half the remaining players will depart without cashing. That will ensure some fierce competition down in the same tournament room as the Main Event, which is also approaching its bubble today.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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28 October
2015 Poker Hall of Fame: ‘It’s like a map without Europe on it’
The Poker Hall of Fame should be a cause for celebration but there's a rift brewing between America and the rest of the world
The post 2015 Poker Hall of Fame: ‘It’s like a map without Europe on it’ appeared first on PokerPlayer365.com.
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28 October
EPT12 Malta Main Event Day 2: Sweden’s Ivarsson Leads with Jaka 5th and McDonald 10th
Check out the recap from Day 2 of the 2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 12 Malta Main Event. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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28 October
Jen Harman and John Juanda Selected as Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2015
Jen Harman and John Juanda have been selected as inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame, Class of 2015. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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28 October
49/50 | Harman, Juanda called to the Hall
Congratulations go out to Jennifer Harman and John Juanda who were both elected to enter the Poker Hall of Fame. While the duo had to wait a few years before getting the call, each are very deserving of their nominations. Harman still plays the biggest game in Las Vegas while Juanda’s recent performances, including a big win at EPT Barcelona, certainly went a long way to help him enter the HoF. Harman and Juanda will...
The post 49/50 | Harman, Juanda called to the Hall appeared first on pokerstats.
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28 October
Five Spin & Go Millionaires in a week
PokerStars are almost making a millionaire every day with their latest Spin & Go promotion.
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28 October
Six Spin & Go Millionaires in a week
PokerStars are almost making a millionaire every day with their latest Spin & Go promotion. -
27 October
EPT12 Malta: Alexander Ivarsson seals end of Day 2 lead
Alexander Ivarsson leads the way
Sometimes the best things come in small packages. Take Day 2 of an EPT Main Event for example. It may only be 75 percent of the length of its Day 1 brethren (six levels rather than eight) but it sure does pack a punch.
After six last-minute entrants joined the party before play started, 393 remaining players took their seats at midday for Day 2 of the EPT Malta Main Event.
At the end of the six 75-minute levels (levels go to 90 minutes apiece from tomorrow onwards) that number had been whittled all the way down to around 135 (tbc). That's short of the 95 that get paid, a milestone that will be reached before the third level of Day 3.
Alexander Ivarsson, a 27-year old professional from Sundsvall, Sweden, had a dream-like day at the tables and ended it with 529,200 chips. At the end of play he spoke to the Blog:
"Well, I got it in with aces a couple of times and that obviously helps and I've been drawing really good as well," Ivarsson said. "First I got in aces to ace-ten on a ten-eight-deuce flop and that was for a 180k pot. I've got to be honest, I didn't lose too many pots - I kept winning pots and had a solid cruise through the day."
He added: "I obviously got myself in some really good spots and got aces against two people again. One of the guys was already all in for 40,000 so I was getting some easy chips and had to win some as well."
He leads a big stack/notable list heading to Day 3 that looks like:
Name Country Status Chips Alexander Ivarsson Sweden PokerStars player 529,200 Samuli Sipila Finland 466,500 Erik Scheidt Germany PokerStars player 447,700 Giulio Spampinato Italy 406,500 Faraz Jaka USA PokerStars qualifier 375,200 Pawel Brzeski Poland PokerStars qualifier 372,100 Andreas Chalkiadakis Greece 358,600 Farid Jattin USA 334,700 Daniel Dvoress Canada PokerStars qualifier 321,100 Mike McDonald Canada PokerStars qualifier 314,200 Enrico Camosci Italy PokerStars player 314,000 Alfie Adam UK 283,700 Niall Farrell UK PokerStars player 280,000 Kitty Kuo China PokerStars qualifier 264,900 Chistoph Vogelsang Germany 240,300 Ivan Luca Argentina PokerStars qualifier 214,800 Dan Smith USA PokerStars qualifier 214,200 Thomas Muehloecker Austria PokerStars qualifier 209,200 Govert Metaal Netherlands PokerStars player 207,100 Dominik Nitsche Germany 167,700 Sam Greenwood Canada PokerStars player 163,400 Antoine Saout France 149,600 Shannon Shorr USA PokerStars player 149,000 Brian Roberts USA PokerStars player 146,000 Ludovic Geilich UK 143,300 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia PokerStars qualifier 116,900 Chris Hunichen USA 113,900 Marcin Wydrowski Poland PokerStars qualifier 113,400 Isaac Haxton USA Team PokerStars Pro Online 106,500 Johnny Lodden Norway Team PokerStars Pro 102,400 Mohsin Charania USA PokerStars qualifier 98,400 Steve O'Dwyer Ireland PokerStars player 98,100 Bryn Kenney USA PokerStars qualifier 95,000 Max Silver UK 85,300 Joni Jouhkimainen Finland PokerStars qualifier 76,800 Davidi Kitai Belgium 70,700 Paul Berende Netherlands PokerStars qualifier 53,000 Matthias De Meulder Belgium Team PokerStars Pro 45,600 Adrian Mateos Spain PokerStars qualifier 45,000
Mike McDonald starred on the live stream today
As stated, registration closed at the beginning of play today and €3,157,350 was collected from the 651 players. A min cash will get you €9,320 but, if all the players are honest, it doesn't take long for their eyes to pan upwards to see what they can get from making the final and maybe, just maybe, following in Jean Montury's footsteps. A cool €602,400 awaits the winner and the final table payouts are as follows:
POS NAME COUNTRY STATUS PRIZE 1 € 602,400 2 € 371,930 3 € 265,840 4 € 203,640 5 € 161,340 6 € 125,660 7 € 91,550 8 € 62,570 Five 90-minute levels are scheduled for tomorrow with a 20-minute break after every level. The rest of the evening will be dominated by the media tournament, where we'll be trialling the four-colour deck (pictured below). The prize pool for it may be small, but the bragging rights are priceless. PokerStars Blog hopes to return tomorrow with news of a victory.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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27 October
Millionaire electrician wires his own spotlight
Pete Dolloway was supposed to get up at 4:30 Monday morning. He had a job to go on. He's an electrician by trade, something that has paid the bills for the working class guy from Sheldon, Birmingham.
It had been a tough year. Thieves had broken into his van twice. And now he faced the idea of getting up before the sun and trudging into another day of turning on the lights for other people. It might have been enough to remind him of one of his favorite comedian's axioms.
"It's all about money, not freedom, y'all, okay? Nothing to do with (expletive) freedom. If you think you're free, try going somewhere without (expletive) money, okay?"
Bill Hicks, the late American comic, once said that on stage. It's the type of thing that would resonate with a man who was shackled by fuses, wiring, and the ever-present necessity of setting his damned alarm clock for 4:30am.
At 36 years old, married with kids, Dolloway was sitting and watching the London-based NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars. He decided to play a $5 PokerStars Spin & Go. That was when something weird happened.
"I freaked out," he admitted later. "I got the wife to look at it to see if it was real."
Pete and Katrina Dolloway
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.It was, by all means, real. Dolloway had just lucked his way into a $1.2 million Spin & Go Jackpot. Just a few days earlier, PokerStars had announced it was going to celebrate the anniversary of Spin & Gos by opening up the jackpot floodgates.
Let's just say it: Dolloway was never a big poker player, and he wasn't one of the lucky ones. He's never played for much money, and he's never cashed for more than £1,000. Poker was a low-stakes hobby he used to distract himself from the days he spent hoping somebody wasn't breaking into his van again.
With his wife and kids standing beside him, Dolloway realized he could bust first and still fill his boots with money. A min-cash was 20,000 times the amount he'd invested.
"It helped knowing that there was $100,000 for second and third," he said.
For most people, it's simply impossible to imagine that feeling. At one moment you're sitting there wondering what bad decision the Buffalo Bills' Rex Ryan will make next, and the next moment it's up to your electrician fingers somehow manage a campaign for a $1 million payday.
"By and large, I was in a state of pure panic," Dolloway said.
How else could a man feel? A million dollars was falling out of the ethereal sky, and it was Dolloway's job to hold his arms just the right way.
"I kept saying to myself 'This is your chance, your time. Take it seriously and play properly,'" he said.
For a man about to play the most serious game of his life, he and his avatar were ready with a proper sense of fatalism. He'd been playing poker for nine years, and when he signed up for PokerStars, he chose the name "prophethicks," an homage to the comedy's Bill Hicks, a stand-up philosopher who once said, "Non-smokers die everyday. Sleep tight!"
"Hicks, the man is a god to me," Dolloway said. "Along with Kurt Cobain and Homer Simpson, I took his teachings way too seriously over the years."
By now, you know what happened. The million dollars landed squarely in Dolloway's lap. When it was over, he thought he won with ace-seven vs king-jack. He was close but wrong, and nevertheless the biggest winner of the day.
Today, Dolloway is still trying to wrap his head around the outcome. Sunday morning, he had nowhere close to a million bucks. Today, he has all of it and then some.
And that 4:30am wake-up call?
"I rang up and told them I was not available," Dolloway admitted.
And, that PokerStars players, is how one Spin & Go millionaire has spent the last 48 hours. Today, as he signed his last email, Pete Dolloway is heretofore known as "retired electrician, aspiring comedian."
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Benjamin Lebor, living the dream after winning the biggest gamble of his life
Benjamin 'Benji' Labor For most people in this poker tournament hitting a 1% shot means they've got incredibly lucky and have a few more chips. For Benjamin Lebor winning his 1% shot meant he could speak. The 48-year-old Brit was born with a severe n...
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: A full constellation for the €2K
The €2,000 NLHE field
The €2,000 no limit hold'em event is approaching level four and 196 players are registered. Although field sizes are slightly down across the festival, the quality of players ensures everywhere one turns, in any event, there are familiar faces and intriguing battles.
Ole Schemion is in the 2K, two seats down from David Peters, who won the High Roller here last season. Yury Gulyy, who has a runner up finish from this trip already, is also there.
Jason Wheeler is playing, having hung around to the deep stages of the €10,000 Single-Day High Roller last night, then jumped into the Main Event today, and then busting. Paul Newey and Dermot Blain are on the same table.
Anton Wigg, Anatoly Filatov, Sergio Aido, Jonathan Little, Jeff Madsen, Martin Finger, Ben Pollak, Christopher Frank and David Yan are playing. And there's a return to action for Shola Akindele Deadman and her husband, Simon. They're on opposite sides of the room, so haven't had to play any pots against one another yet.
Who's that? Anton Wigg
That is a two-day event and they'll play eight one-hour levels today. Registration closes at around 9pm local time.
There are four players left in the 10-Game, with Theo Jorgensen and, as you could guess from the list above, Ben Pollak now out. Adam Owen is the chip leader as they play through their bubble.
In the neighbouring area of the tournament room, Marcin Horecki and Martin Staszko headline the €500 Quintuple Draw event. There are 13 players from 18 starters and these events are being played out in a thoroughly positive spirit.
Dealers and floor staff alike are relishing the chance to get involved in these unfamiliar games (quintuple draw is a rotation between A-5 Triple Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, Badacey and Badeucey) and everybody seems to be working out the subtleties as they go along.
Upstairs in the main tournament room, the €1,000 Turbo is in its death throes. There were five left at time of writing, but I'm almost certain it will be all over by now. It took a while to confirm it (I was doubting my own sketchy counting skills) but the five-handed chip leader only had a little more than ten big blinds and somebody was all in literally every hand. Love these turbos.
We'll have the result soon.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Niall Farrell’s trick for being impossible to read
If you worry that you give too much information away at the poker table, then take a leaf from Niall Farrell's book. The Scot seems to have this part of his game cracked. To watch Farrell play a hand, even a hand in which his tournament life is at st...
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27 October
Top 10: How to run the perfect home game
There’s nothing more fun than a perfectly executed home game – make sure yours is the one everyone wants to come back to
The post Top 10: How to run the perfect home game appeared first on PokerPlayer365.com.
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27 October
Is It Unfair That Woman Get Sponsored More Easily?
After a ton of controversy erupted during the WSOP about the sponsoring of some woman poker players. Sarah talks to Sam Greenwood about some of his thoughts now that the storm has calmed. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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27 October
What is GPI’s “The Cube”?
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Trialling the four-colour deck
Four colour decks have been around for a few years now. The two-colour version is still used almost exclusively in the live arena but one can choose to have the four-colour version in the table display options on PokerStars.com.
Neil Johnson (Head of Live Poker Operations Europe) sent out this tweet earlier:
Thank you @Copag_Oficial for our beautiful 4 colour decks! @PokerStarsEPT Try them out Event 44 & 57! #EPT12Malta pic.twitter.com/NJwUU9C3Za
— Neil Johnson (@NeilJPoker) October 27, 2021The PokerStars Blog sat down with Johnson to find out more about the decision to trial the new deck in a couple of events here at EPT Malta.
"It's been an option on PokerStars for a number of years now. There was someone who tweeted to myself, the World Series (of Poker) and the WPT asking if we could get a four-colour deck to use live. I asked a few people around, got some good feedback and one of the things I like, in the silly tournaments like Irish, Deuces Wild and all those games, is having a bit of fun, as poker is a game.
"We were able to get Copag, our official card sponsor, to make a 1,000 decks - 500 to us and 500 to Danny (McDonagh) at PokerStars Live Macau, so he can try them out there as well. We're going to try them in a few events here and a few in Prague. Luca Pagano is also going to take some back to the Pagano Events Live Room in Saint Vincent, so they can try them out there as well.
"There's going to be some positive and some negative feedback but I'm not suggesting we put them in the Main Event or something like that. There's been no final decision on their long-term use, we've got 500 decks and I'll imagine we'll keep using them until they're gone. By that point we'll have plenty of feedback and when we come to order our decks for Season 13 we'll know whether or not to order 500-1,000 decks for further use."
So that's the organisers point of view but what about the players and dealers, they're the people who actually have to use cards all day long.
Kenny Hallaert is a tour regular who played and busted the €1,000 NL Holdem Turbo, one of the events that the deck is being trialled in today.
"We started with the green light on the table and that especially wasn't good. The green and the black cards looked the same. Then we switched to the white light and it was better but still tricky with the cards on the board due to reflection. Basically, there's no need for a four-colour deck when one-tabling a live tournament."
Hallaet's not a fan then but what about Dutchman Henry Broens, who was railing the Main Event.
"I don't play with a four-colour deck online but I understand it's easier for some people to use it as they can see the suits straight away, especially when they're multi-tabling. The only way I can see it working for live events is for it to benefit the players who are so used to only using that sort of deck online. For me, personally, I don't see the benefit to using it for live events."
Jake Cody in the €1k turbo
Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody is still in the Turbo event and has been playing with the cards for a few hours now.
"I play with a four-colour deck online as I think it suits it better. When you play a lot of tables, especially when the tables are tiled, it's easier to see when hands are suited or not. I'm more of a traditionalist live and I just love looking down at black aces, for example. Maybe if the colours were brighter than the ones we're using, the green and blue are quite light in colour and it can be quite difficult to tell them apart. Also, the light rim around the table makes it harder. I think it might work better for more complicated games though, like some mixed games."
Zoya Zipova has been dealing to Cody and others today and was happy to offer up her thoughts on using them from a dealer perspective.
"It's definitely something different and in the beginning you get a little bit confused with your eyes. The players' first reaction was of surprise but then we got used to it so it was like a normal deck. Personally, I prefer the other deck though would even prefer to keep that in games like PLO."
Not a lot of support so far from the very small sample size. Someone out there has to be a fan. Mike McDonald might just be that man. We spotted that he tweeted his support (see below) so we asked him to clarify his thoughts on a break from the Main Event.
Just played a pot not knowing the suit of one of my cards. #4Color4AllEvents https://t.co/CP2GaMMLlZ
— Mike McDonald (@MikeMcDonald89) October 27, 2021"Online I always use the four-colour deck and I always use that feature. If you're multi-tabling and playing on a screen with a low resolution it's really helpful and the same goes for the idea of this live four-colour deck. The light isn't necessarily consistent across different parts of the room; sometimes it's dim; sometimes people are wearing sunglasses at the table and it can be difficult to tell club from spade and if it's particularly dark even a spade and a heart can look similar. Having bright green and bright blue colours will really help that."
Mike McDonald (left) on the Main Event feature tableEverything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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27 October
Grand Final Goes From 10K to 5K!
Sarah gets thoughts on the recent Grand Final changes from players and PokerStars staff. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Hop, jump or a skip to the 10 Game
Jason Mercier: Hopping between events
For about a long as poker tournaments have existed, players have responded to elimination by "jumping in" something else: the sea (from the top of a cliff) was a popular choice, or a gallon of whiskey at least.
These days, thanks to the fact that EPT festivals boast numerous tournaments, starting at all times of the day, players can bust one event and jump straight into another. Let Jason Mercier's Twitter feed today be a case in point.
"Busted the #EPTMalta main event ... JJ
But even that eventually turned into a "skip". After discovering that the field was only nine players strong, Mercier opted to give it a miss. There were other options, including no poker at all.
Even without Mercier involved, the €5,000 10-Game is the main attraction (aside from the Main Event) this afternoon. Theo Jorgensen, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Benjamin Pollak, Jussi Nevalinna and Adam Owen were among the nine who started, but Troyanovskiy and Nevalinna were two of the first three out.
They went down to a final table of seven, which required a bit of rejigging in the tournament room. Eventually they settled, with Jorgensen in seat four, in the centre of the table, which was the perfect location for someone intent on leading conversation.
The 10-Game is a rotation between 2-7 triple draw, limit hold em, Omaha 8, limit badugi, razz, stud, stud 8, no limit hold 'em, pot-limit Omaha and 2-7 single draw and that in itself presents a few difficulties for all concerned. After they had drawn for seats, for instance (something that happens all the time) they had to figure out what game they were going to play, and had to "draw for the game".
The dealer riffled, shuffled, cut and dealt a six face up, which meant they would play the sixth game in the rotation, which happened to be stud.
Although it is creeping back on to festival schedules, stud is still relatively scarce in modern tournament rooms and not everyone was as familiar with it as Jorgensen. The Danish Team PokerStars Pro was fortunately on hand to tell everybody who needed to pay the bring in, and then to "compliment" Sampo Ryynanen on his decision to raise with the [ts] showing.
"A genius move," Jorgensen said. "I'm gonna have to re-raise." Jorgensen, with the [5d] up, did so and, after everyone else folded, Ryynanen called.
Ryynanen and Jorgensen continued to bet as they saw the [js][2d] (Jorgensen) and the [2s][as] (Ryynanen). But Jorgensen eventually folded when Ryynanen raised fourth street.
Theo Jorgensen (pictured in the Main Event)
It is difficult to know how long it will take for this one to play to a winner, but it will be done by the end of today for sure. The winner will earn €21,825, with the runner up getting €13,075 and third paying €8,730.
In the same tournament room, the latest €2,000 NLHE turbo is playing out, with Jake Cody and Andrew Chen among the 92 players. Thirteen of them will be paid.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the side events is on the side events page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Ivarsson leads as field shrinks
Day 2 of the Main Event is the shortest scheduled day of the tournament, lasting just six levels. That's because levels 1-14 last 75 minutes, but from level 15 onwards they increase to 90 minutes. The third level of the day has just finished and this is how things are shaping up
Mid-day update
Registration was open until the start of play today and six players took the opportunity to buy-in this morning including Jason Wheeler - who was busy yesterday finishing third in the €10,000 one day High Roller - and Dzmitry Urbanovich who loves to enter these things late on.
The Pole has already run his stack of 30,000 up to 90,000 but whilst that's impressive he'd need to treble that to catch the current chip leader. That honour is currently bestowed upon Alexander Ivarsson who is up to 280,000 after busting WSOP APAC champion Scott Davies in a big pot.
The pot was four-bet pre-flop with Ivarsson having the betting lead. Davies check-raised all-in on the [8h][Th][5c] flop with [Ad][Ts] and Ivarsson snap called with pocket aces which held on the [Qh] turn and [Js] river.
Ivarsson - primed for another deep EPT run
The Swede has had a number of deep runs in EPT Main Events, finishing 49th in Barcelona in August, 24th here in March and 48th at EPT11 Deauville. He leads a chasing pack that includes: Pasquale Gregorio (240,000), Jens Lakemeier (230,000), Berhard Haider (230,000) and Farid Jattin (206,000).
Selected chip counts
With level 12 underway the blinds are now 800/1,600 ante 200. At the start of the level there were 234 players remaining making the average stack 83,500. Below are selected chip counts of the players left in
Name Country Chips Alexander Ivarsson Sweden 280,000 Pasquale Gregorio Italy 240,000 Bernhard Haider Austria 230,000 Jens Lakemeier Germany 230,000 Farid Jattin USA 206,000 Artan Dedusha UK 190,000 Marcin Wydrowski Poland 180,000 Jesper Feddersen Germany 175,000 Joona Linna Finland 173,000 Ferdinand Le Pichon France 167,000 Kitty Kuo China 166,000 Bryn Kenney USA 160,000 Dan Smith USA 157,000 Giacomo Fundaro Italy 156,000 Sam Greenwood Canada 152,000 Darie Vlad Romania 150,000 Thomas Muehloecker Austria 145,000 Faraz Jaka USA 140,000 Przemyslaw Piotrowski Poland 140,000 Mike McDonald Canada 136,000 Ivan Luca Argentina 129,000 Chris Hunichen USA 121,000 Brian Roberts USA 118,000 Jeffrey Hakim Lebanon 105,000 Govert Metaal Netherlands 101,000 Johnny Lodden Norway 96,000 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia 95,000 Daniel Dvoress Canada 93,000 Remi Wyrzykiewicz Poland 92,000 Max Silver UK 87,000 Steve O'Dwyer Ireland 87,000 Dominik Nitsche Germany 80,000 Dominik Panka Poland 80,000 Carlos Chadha Canada 76,000 Georgios Zisimopoulos Greece 75,100 Igor Kurganov Russia 59,000 Giada Fang Italy 55,000 Adrian Mateos Spain 46,000 Chistoph Vogelsang Germany 45,000 Joni Jouhkimainen Finland 41,000 Natalie Hof Germany 40,000 Byron Kaverman USA 26,000 Matthias De Meulder Belgium 25,000
Bryn Kenney
Notable eliminations
Over the first three levels the field of 392 was reduced to 234 and there were plenty of notables among those eliminated. Andrew Chen was the first player out today, not surprising given he started with just 4,900.
Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody was another early casualty. He defended his big blind with [A][10] against a raise from Dan Smith. The Brit then check-called bets on the flop and turn of a [A][10][3][3] board and the rest of the chips went in on a [J] river where Cody discovered the bad news when Smith showed [K][Q] for broadway.
Other notable bust outs include:
Name Country Anton Wigg Sweden Antonio Buonanno Italy David Yan New Zealand Eoghan O'Dea Ireland Felix Stephensen Norway Ihar Soika Belarus Ismael Bojang Austria JC Alvarado Mexico Jennifer Shahade USA Jonathan Little USA Jorryt van Hoof Netherlands Juha Helppi Finland Kevin Killeen Ireland Kevin MacPhee USA Kuljinder Sidhu UK Lucas Greenwood Canada Manig Loeser Germany Matas Cimbolas Lithuania Patrick Leonard UK Russell Thomas USA Sebastian Pauli Germany Theo Jorgensen Denmark Thiago Nishijima Brazil Tobias Peters Netherlands Tom Hall UK Vicente Delgado Spain
Cody - gone
Shahade - also out
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Main Event field confirmed, with €602,400 for the winner
The numbers are in. A total of 651 players entered the EPT Malta Main Event (including one player who decided not to show up). That was split between a field of 184 on Day 1A, with a further 460 players on Day 1B.
The extra six? They bought in prior to play beginning today, skipping the eight levels of graft yesterday and leaping straight in to level 9. They were Semin Topalovic, Jussi Nevanlinna, Ambrose Ng, Jason Wheeler, Rufat Mahmudov and of course Dzmitry Urbanovich, who you can watch right now gracing the EPT Live feature table.
In terms of money that makes the prize pool €3,157,350, with the top 95 players finishing in the money.
What does that mean for the winner? Well a great Saturday night for one thing. First prize pays €602,400.
You can find the full payout list by clicking here, and we'll be filling that in as results start to come in at some point tomorrow evening.
Before you do that, here's the events' nationalities list.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Table of potential uncomfortable situations
The start of Day 2 is always an interesting time. If you read the seat draw before you sit down, all your opponents are there to see, unlike the unknown table element of a start of Day 1.
The table dynamics are also interesting. No history (unless they've played each other before) has been made so you have to monitor stack sizes and previous results to help you when trying to piece together all that imperfect information when involved in a hand.
We always look at the seat draw before Day 2 begins to see if any interesting tables stand out and if any of them can be classified as a "Table of Death." If there is one, and it won't break too early, then the folks over at ETPLive will probably nab it for the live stream that's started today over on PokerStars.tv.
Wojciech Lozowski, Kent Lundmark & Peter Eichhardt
Looking through today's seat draw, Table 11 stood out as interesting one, and not because it's a "Table of Death," more for the mixture of characters contained within. Seven different nationalities, six qualifiers, an EPT Main Event champion, an EPT High Roller champion, a WSOP bracelet winner and a Polish rap star could be found in one shape or another. Okay, maybe we (at least) need to define it as a "Table of potential uncomfortable situations." After watching for much of the opening level, it was certainly uncomfortable for a few, and not necessarily the ones you might expect.
Joao Ribeiro Portugal PokerStars qualifier 31500 11 1 Thomas Denis France 79000 11 2 Valerii Lubenets Ukraine 83100 11 3 Bryn Kenney USA PokerStars qualifier 91100 11 4 Wojciech Lozowski Poland Live satellite winner 22800 11 5 Kent Lundmark Sweden PokerStars qualifier 62300 11 6 Peter Eichhardt Sweden PokerStars qualifier 43500 11 7 Andrew Chen Canada PokerStars qualifier 4900 11 8
For starters, Andrew Chen busted before we arrived, less than 90 seconds into the day. That might be some sort of record. When a really good player like Chen (he was the EPT High Roller champion by the way) busts from a table as tricky as this, you hope no sharks swim into the gap. Not today. Not at this table. Giada Fang from Team PokerStars Pro Online approached, fin (media ID card) sticking out from in between her rack of chips, and took the empty seat. At least, for the sake of the recreational players at the table, she only arrived with around 25,000 chips.
Lumark and Eichhardt deep in hurdy-gurdy conversation
There were two Swedes at the table in the shape of Kent Ludmark and Peter Eichhardt. The latter made an EPT final table in Baden back in Season 3 but seemed to drift back into the shadows in recent years, before remerging with a bang at EPT Barcelona, just missing out on the Main Event final table with his 10th place finish. Lundmark has happy memories from Barcelona too, after he won the EPT there back in Season 7. Lundmark opened the first hand we witnessed but folded to a three-bet from his more senior countryman.
Bryn Kenney has a fierce reputation in the poker world, both live and online. Natural talent oozes from his pores but it was he who had the most uncomfortable level (bar Chen) and it started when Lundmark three-bet him off the first hand he played. The very next hand, Kenney won those chips back, but off Wojciech Lozowski, the Polish rap star we mentioned earlier. One might put money on him struggling in this company but he proved that theory wrong but being one of the biggest winners.
Bryn Kenney
The hand after he folded to Kenney's aggression, he won a decent pot back off the American. They were in the blinds and there was no raise before an [Ac][6d][5h] flop appeared. Kenney led for 1,300 there and 2,700 on the [ah] turn before he checked the [5s] river. Lozowski called both times and then bet 7,000 on the river. Kenney scratched his head and called but mucked upon seeing [ad][9d].
Lozowski was on a roll after he won the very next pot. Eichhardt raised to 2,000 from under the gun and Eichhardt was the only caller from the small blind. Both players checked the [9d][8c][qd] flop before Lozowski led for 3,600 and 4,800 on the [2d][kc] turn and river. Eichhardt called both times but Lozowski had turned a set of deduces and happily added more chips to his stack.
Two hands later, Lozowski made quicker work winning his third pot of the day. Diogo Cardoso opened from early position and was called by Joao Ribeiro along with Kenney before Lozowski squeezed to 7,200. All three opponents folded.
Lozowski rapping to his own tune
Kenney folded there but thing went really badly for him the next two hands as he doubled up Akim Aouine and Cardoso one hand after the other. He raised to 2,000 from mid position and Aouine defended his big blind to see a [2d][7s][8d] flop appear. Kenney continued for 1,800 and was check-raised to 4,000. He set Aouine all in for his remaining 12,000 and Frenchman snap called all in with [ad][7d] for the nut flush draw. Kenney was in bad shape with [qd][jd] for a smaller flush draw and he paid his opponent off after the board ran out [ah][6d].
Thomas Denis opened to 1,700 from under the gun the next hand before Kenney three-bet to 4,600 from a couple of seats along. The action folded around to Cardoso in the big blind and he immediately moved all in for 33,800 after looking at his cards. Denis folded but Kenney called after some thought.
Cardoso: [ad][kc]
Kenney: [as][qh]The board ran [6h][js][4h][6s][5s] to double up Cardoso.
That was when we left the table. Kenney had lost two-thirds of his starting stack so it'll be interesting if he manages to stop the slide during the second level of the day and will Lozowski continue to mix it well surrounded by pros?
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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27 October
How to Succeed at Satellite Tournaments
Playing poker tournaments is a lot of fun. From trying to build a big stack to triumphing heads-up, it’s a hoot. But if there’s one thing better than winning big, it’s doing so having paid a fraction of the price others have to enter that tournament. From online tournaments such as the #sundaymajors flagship $150,000 […]
The post How to Succeed at Satellite Tournaments appeared first on partypoker.com blog.
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Panka picking up where he left off
Panka survived a run in with a bunk triangle Dominik Panka is so good he can overcome the disadvantage of the 'bunk triangle'! The legend of the bunk triangle is a bit of an #EPTLive in joke (that's back by the way you can watch here). Essentially any...
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27 October
Watch EPT Live from Malta
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account. EPT Live coverage is below. While you're watching, be sure to keep up with all our hand-for-hand and feature action. MAIN EVENT LIVE COVERAGE HIGH ROLLER COVERAGE SIDE EVENT REPORTS SIDE...
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27 October
From one festival to another: Next up EPT Prague
As is becoming customary, we like to talk about the next EPT festival from the middle of the current one. It's our way of acknowledging the circle of life: while one festival is in its' prime we realise that it will one day fade into history. But then a new one is never too far away.
While we enjoy the last remnants of late summer on this Mediterranean island, over the horizon, a few hundred miles away, is, well, a much colder place. But frankly that's why we like it.
In this case EPT Prague.
The Czech capital is a favourite on the tour, the winter leg complete with snow, overcoats, mulled wine, and a dash of festive cheer. Failing that it has a ton of events to warm the feet of any poker player, be they professional or otherwise. Actually 97 of them.
It all starts on Sunday December 6, when the Eureka Poker Tour main event kicks off, a suitable appetiser ahead of a smorgasbord of tournaments, running through to December 16.
Including:
€300 Prague Poker Cup
€2K Eureka High Roller event
€5K Main Event
€10K High Roller
€25K Single Day High Roller
50K Super High RollerSounds familiar? Well why change a winning formula.
In between these highlights are a vast array of side events, with variations and buy-ins to suit every taste and bankroll. And while we suspect no one will listen when we say it, Prague is one of the best cities to bust from a poker tournament, a place that comes alive in winter with Christmas markets, castles, horse drawn carriages and decorations.
So for more details about EPT Prague and the entire festival, check out the EPT Homepage. Meanwhile the PokerStars lobby is your place to book your discounted trip, with satellites already running to get you to the Czech Republic for much less.
In the meantime pack an overcoat, scarf and gloves, or just flip flops and jeans if none of that touristy stuff appeals - it's still a great place for a poker festival.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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27 October
Watch Day 2 of EPT Malta live
We have all the action from the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event from 12:00 CET today.
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27 October
Watch Day 3 of EPT Malta live
We have all the action from the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event from 12:00 CET today.
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27 October
Watch Day 4 of EPT Malta live
We have all the action from the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event from 12:00 CET today.
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27 October
Watch Day 5 of EPT Malta live
We have all the action from the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event from 12:00 CET today.
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27 October
Watch the EPT Malta final table live
We have all the action from the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event final table from 14:00 CET today.
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27 October
Hellmuth no longer coaching a November Niner
The Poker Brat has backtracked on his role as a mentor, and we have the 2015 Poker Hall of Fame results.
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27 October
10 for 10 | A look inside WSOP Champ’s life
Ever wanted to get an inside look of what it’s like to be the WSOP Main Event Champion after winning $10,000,000? Seattle-based CINE/BLOC did just that following 2014 Champ Martin Jacobson and bringing unprecedented coverage into the life of the superstar Swede with a documentary title 10 for 10. While we wait impatiently for the playing of the 2015 November Nine, take 23:37 minutes and watch 10 for 10 – it’s well worth your time!...
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Another check on the achievements list for the irrepressible Steve O’Dwyer
Steve O'Dwyer: Champion again
In the idle moments between playing poker for tens of millions of dollars, there's a chance the top players draw two columns on a piece of paper and produce a check-list of achievements and remaining goals.
If this is so, then the card belonging to Steve O'Dwyer must be one of the most lop-sided in the world game. O'Dwyer, who already has EPT Grand Final and EPT Super High Roller titles to his name, has now ticked the box belonging to the EPT Single-Day High Roller. There have only been a handful of these played, but O'Dwyer already has his trophy.
At a little after 3.30am in Malta, O'Dwyer finished off Illari Sahamies heads up to claim the latest title on a frankly breathtaking CV. O'Dwyer turned in his now characteristic measured and lethal final table performance to pick up €327,030. It's the seventh time he has won a major title and it pushes his live tournament cashes past $11 million.
"I have 100% of the chips in play in the 1 day HR at #eptmalta," O'Dwyer tweeted beside an emoticon of a flexing arm muscle. It was as appropriate an emoticon as any man could find in the circumstances.
Want to do battle with O'Dwyer and company? Click here to get a PokerStars account.O'Dwyer took over the chip lead in the tournament when about seven players remained, and from there it was a simple case of making all the right moves at all the right times as the tournament got shallow in its final stages. Sahamies, the fearsome Finn who arguably best represents the kind of get-rich-quick nature of contemporary poker (at least at the nosebleed level) led briefly four handed.
But O'Dwyer did the damage when it counted most, including the final hand when his [8s][9s] hit an eight on the flop to better Sahamies' [qs][js].
Ilari Sahamies: Pushed into second
The best way to figure out how they got to that point is to look at the panel at the top of the main page covering this tournament. You can flick through all the blow-by-blow action, from the early registrations, through the early eliminations, re-entries, re-eliminations and stack-building.
Some big names fell by the wayside, including the likes of Dzmitry Urbanovich, John Juanda, Mike McDonald, Johnny Lodden, Ole Schemion, Mustapha Kanit, Scott Seiver, Shaun Deeb and Dominik Panka.
An idea of the strength of the field: John Juanda, Shaun Deeb, Davidi Kitai, Theo Jorgensen
Things slowed a little when they got close to the bubble, forcing an early switch to hand-for-hand play, but Juha Helppi and Dan Smith fell the wrong side of the payouts line, while Mukul Pahuja and Rainer Kempe fell just the right side.
As the tournament numbers thinned even further, Christopher Frank took over the lead. But true to the nature of this type of event, he was out before the final table was even set, handing the leader's mantle to Jean-Noel Thorel.
Jean-Noel Thorel played a full part in this one
Thorel was the oldest player at the final two tables, but he wasn't playing the normal veteran's game. His chips were always involved and not always winning; not even with aces against Jason Wheeler's queen-jack. Wheeler made a straight.
Jason Mercier narrowly missed out on the final. He perished in tenth. His Red Spade colleague Isaac Haxton, of Team Online, got himself into the final four, but was wiped out by the irresistible O'Dwyer. By that point, Thorel had gone in sixth.
Wheeler, who clung on and clung on to finish fourth in the €25,000 High Roller (for €179,000) went one better in this, finishing third. He added another €143,630 to the pot on what is turning into a very nice trip.
It left O'Dwyer to square off against Sahamies, with the American holding a three-to-one chip lead. Neither of them wanted to hang around and the duel lasted all of four hands.
O'Dwyer's last outright tournament victory came on Sahamies' home soil, in Finland, in October. And he was back to rub it in to the Finns one more time.
€10,000 Single Day High Roller
Players: 99
Re-entries: 35
Prize pool: €1,299,800
Places paid: 171. Steve O'Dwyer (Ireland) €327,030
2. Ilari Sahamies (Finland) €220,970
3. Jason Wheeler (United States) €143,630
4. Isaac Haxton (United States) Team PokerStars Online €118,930
5. Niko Soininen (Finland) €95,925
6. Jean-Noel Thorel (France) €75,650
7. Vlado Banicevic (Montenegro) €57,840
8. Julian Stuer (Germany) €43,540
9. Byron Kaverman (United States) €32,495
10. Jason Mercier (United States) (Team PokerStars Pro) €26,645
11. Jussi Nevanlinna (Finland) €26,645
12. Christopher Frank (Germany) €23,395
13. Dario Sammartino (Italy) €23,395
14. Ricardo Alvarado (United States) €21,450
15. Senh Ung (Great Britain) €21,450
16. Rainer Kempe (Germany) €20,405
17. Mukul Pahuja (United States) €20,405 -
27 October
EPT12 Malta: O’Dwyer leads at late night again proves success of one-day format
Steve O'Dwyer leads the final six
The one-day high roller is a recent addition to EPT festivals and it owes its appearance on the schedule to player power. In long discussions with many of the top players the one tournament they said they all wanted was a high buy-in event that gets done within the day. Hence the EPT accommodated their wishes.
Levels were set at 30 minutes each, and the buy in is usually equivalent to the "regular" high roller later in the week. We've been as high as €50,000 in Monaco for one of these things, but it's €10,000 here in Malta.
The players have duly responded to the organisers' plans and have made these events among the most popular of the week. The only problem is that they are so successful that the "one-day" element has frequently come into jeopardy. This post is being written at later than 2.30am, for instance, and still six players remain.
Want to play poker late into the night? Click here to get a PokerStars account.The plan is to play to the bitter end--or at least that's the plan right now. In Barcelona, the plan was the same, but they ended up opting for a postponement when they were three-handed, before coming back to crown Martin Finger as the champion.
It is really too difficult to say what's going to happen in this one, but there are still six players remaining at time of writing, with about 112 big blinds between them. The average stack is about 19 big blinds, so quick eliminations are inevitable.
It remains the unfortunate truth, however, that it could still run long into the early hours.
The state of play at the moment is as follows: The familiar figure of Steve O'Dwyer is at the top of the chip counts, followed by Isaac Haxton. Haxton is arguably the most active player at the table, at least over the last level, but Jean-Noel Thorel is also keen to get his chips moving. He is unafraid of any confrontation.
Jason Wheeler, Ilari Samanies and Niko Soininen, who make up the last six, are also looking for spots to get their full stacks in the middle.
Approximate stacks heading to 60,000-120,000 level:
Steve O'Dwyer, Ireland, 3,575,000
Ike Haxton, United States, 2,415,000
Niko Soininen, Finland, 2,415,000
Jean-Noel Thorel, France, 2,265,000
Ilari Sahamies, Finland, 1,815,000
Jason Wheeler, United States, 915,000Play-by-play of this is all on the main High Roller page.
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27 October
EPT12 Malta: Ludovic Riehl takes top spot at the end of Day 1B
Let's cut to the chase. All we can really say about Day 1B is that it is now over, and that the great crowd of players that played it still resemble a great crowd of players eight levels later. Day 1B chip leader: Ludovic Riehl There were stories w...
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: The stalling debate once again, high roller edition
Dan Smith: Reigniting the stalling debate
There's a really important addition to this--Dan Smith's comments--so please make sure you read the bit at the bottom too. This is reported as it was seen, and Smith added his side afterwards.
I think we may have reached a watershed moment in live poker tournaments, and I suspect many people will say they had seen it coming.
It now appears that it's pretty much accepted for players to stall (ie, slow the action deliberately) when approaching a major bubble. It may even now be considered a legitimate, optimal tactic.
Here in Malta, with 20 players remaining in the single-day €10,000 High Roller tournament, play on at least one table had slowed to a crawl. Seventeen were due to be paid, with a min-cash at slightly more than €20,000, and nobody was prepared to miss out.
There's no way to dodge the issue and keep this anonymous: the principal culprit was Dan Smith. (Or it appeared to be at the time. Again, see below for Smith's comments.) Nobody is ever going to claim Smith is some kind of angle-shooter, but nor is he a newbie. He has nearly $10 million in recorded live tournament winnings and he knows the rules, both those written the rule book and those that are unsaid.
Yet it's also fair to say that every time Smith was dealt cards and action moved to him, he would peek at them, glance at the tournament clock, fiddle with his chips for a loooong period, glance at the tournament clock, fiddle with his chips, and then slowly fold (unless an opponent called the clock on him first).
Want to play quick online poker? Click here to get a PokerStars account.It was beginning to get under the skin of Christopher Frank, among others, who had a big stack at that table. But Isaac Haxton, who was also there, was not alone in seeming to understand that what Smith was doing probably made a lot of sense.
(I must add here that there may have been others doing the same thing on other tables. I was only watching Smith's table.)
As you might expect, the mutterings of discontent grew gradually louder until the point that a couple of the players asked the floor-man whether they could play hand-for-hand. It's the only sure-fire way of levelling the playing field across three tables, but tournament staff don't often like to change a published schedule, so the floor-man had to refer the request up the chain of command.
The floor-man paused the tournament clock while a phone call was made that brought the TD duo of Nick O'Hara and Luca Vivaldi to the table. After hearing the gist of the complaints and requests from the floor-man, O'Hara and Vivaldi conferred.
"Meanwhile, can we get a clock over here please?" Frank said, noting that Smith still had his cards.
Smith folded, at which point Haxton observed, "Given you continued to tank even after the clock was paused, I'm guessing it was a real decision."
As O'Hara and Vivaldi discussed their strategy for dealing with this, Haxton and Smith were joined with another of the floor staff in running through the options for action in this kind of circumstance.
Isaac Haxton, mediator
Smith was prominent in the discussions and was the first person to bring up one oft-suggested solution: that the cards of a serial staller are put to one side for a tournament official to look at, who can then judge whether the "decision" being pondered was legitimate. If it was deemed to be frivolous, the staller is given a penalty.
But Haxton was among those to air a pretty legitimate problem with this solution. In short, who can really say whether someone was properly thinking about making a move, rather than cynically winding a clock down?
"How tilting would it be if you were in some real horrible spot that the table didn't understand?" Haxton said, to general agreement.
"I like the idea of it, but it's difficult," the floor-man said.
Frank interjected too. "You would have to treat pros and other players differently," he said.
"Unless you're closing the action and you've some horrible hand that you're never going to call with," Smith said, describing perhaps the only time when a judgment of this kind would be straightforward.
He then offered his services to the tournament staff. "If ever I'm not in a tournament and you need someone to judge these things..." Smith said.
O'Hara and Vivaldi had decided what they were going to do and it fell to O'Hara to spell things out to all three tables. He said that they had had a request to put the tournament hand-for-hand and wanted to know what the general opinion was among the players.
Jason Mercier was first to answer. "I think it's the most fair," Mercier said.
Jason Wheeler added, "There was already stalling starting."
Haxton then suggested they should ask if anybody had any objections, but Vivaldi observed that it would be pretty difficult for someone to pipe up if they knew the weight of opinion was against them.
Mercier responded: "If someone says that they didn't want to go hand-for-hand, it's because they are stalling."
Jason Mercier: €10K (in)action
But Vivaldi said it wasn't necessarily the case, and proposed that they could work some kind of anonymous vote if that was easier.
Smith suddenly piped up: "If we're voting, who wants a 20-way chop?" He raised his hand in the air.
It was quickly decided, given that nobody could either come up with a better solution, or raise any significant objection, that they would indeed go hand-for-hand.
The strategy worked because they were quickly down to the bubble proper, with Smith among those to perish. Juha Helppi, yesterday's runner up in the €25,000 High Roller, then became the stone bubble.
That was just about a standard way to get into the money, regardless of buy-in, structure or stalling. But I wonder whether the general sense of acceptance and the pervading tolerance of the stalling signals something more significant.
Is stalling now genuinely a legitimate part of the game? I've always watched the high roller events to determine new trends, which then gradually spread across the full gamut of tournament play. There's nothing new in stalling, of course, but I've never before seen it by so prominent a player, nor being so widely accepted.
Who knows. But maybe shot clocks and the like aren't exactly too far away after all.
Dan Smith's comments: Dan Smith approached PokerStars Blog after play wrapped in the Main Event, wanting to explain what was going on during the action reported above. I wasn't recording the conversation, but he made several key points that weren't clear at the time of writing.
First up, Smith was unequivocal: "I wasn't stalling," he said. He told me that he had a legitimate decision to make with a hand that was definitely borderline whether to shove. (The fact that Haxton noted this was mentioned in the original report. Smith told me the hand he had, but I will not publish it.)
Smith also said that his slow decision making was for only two hands, both of which were legitimate. He said that he was not even the slowest player at the table.
He agreed that there had indeed been a discussion, and that he was (at that time) at the centre of it, but wanted to make clear that he was not deliberately stalling.
The rest of the post stands as written. We're happy to make the addition and are grateful for Smith for clarifying.
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Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Ari Engel grinds his way to the dinner break chip lead
Ari Engel might be one of the most ultimate live grinders on the poker circuit today. The American pro made his name online during the early to mid part of the century but since Black Friday, his focus shifted to live tournaments. His nomadic lifestyle (he's spent the last three years on the road playing with no fixed abode) has obviously had a positive effect on his game. He's cashed for over $2.1 million lifetime and has already cashed 28 times in 2015 for $312,843.
Engel has clearly brought his "A" game to Malta as well as he's already cashed for €7,740 with a 20th place finish in the IPT High Roller event and he came back from dinner break in the EPT Main Event with 120,000, good for the chip lead at the time. Engel had a quick chat with the PokerStars Blog before he retook his seat for the last two levels of the night.
Ari Engel knows how to grind it out
"I've been running well today but haven't really had any huge hands. All the good situations are happening; I've had aces a bunch of times and they've held up - just a pretty standard day where thing have been going my way.
"My first table wasn't so easy to take advantage of but the play was fairly good and I got in a few situations where I was able to win some small-medium pots. It wasn't super-soft or anything and, I mean, I'm used to playing in the US and any time you're in Europe you can't say it's soft. Obviously things kind of did go my way!
"I tend to play every situation as it arises and will do for the rest of the day. I don't really have a game plan. I'm pretty new to this table so I'm still feeling out how everyone's playing. Hopefully I don't lose them all but it's No-Limit so you can never be too sure about what's going to happen."
We stuck around and watched Engel for a few hands and things didn't go his way. He played four hands and lost them all to drop to around 108,000. They played out like this:
Engel raised to 1,200 from the button and folded when Diogo Cardoso three-bet to 3,500 from the small blind.
Engel raised the next hand, to 1,200 and Cardoso called in position to see an [as][ad][3h] flop. Engel continued for 1,300 and Cardoso called. Engel gave up the initiative from there on in as he checked the [9h][th] turn and river, calling a 1,800 bet on the turn but folding to a 2,300 bet on the river.
Engel raised to 1,300 from mid position and was called by Cardosa and Anton Kraus in the big blind. All three checked the [8h][5s][6h] flop and [8c] turn before Cardoso took down another pot with a 2,600 bet on the [ac] river.
Engel (foreground) had trouble with Cardoso
Engel raised to 1,300 from under the gun and was only called by Laurent Cessy in the big blind. Engel continued for 1,300 on a [kh][jd][4s] flop and Cessy check-called to see the [jc] appear on the turn. He checked and Engel did likewise before the board completed with the [9s]. Cessy led for 2,700 and Engel folded.
Engel knows one thing for sure about his new table: he's not going to get his own way. At least all the posts he lost were small ones and were traded for information that will be useful as the last level of the night rolled around.
We obviously weren't doing his game any good by hanging around so left him to concentrate.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
It happened so quick! Spin & Go anniversary makes another millionaire
There's this wonderful scene in the film Casino in which a slot jackpot gets paid out three times in the matter of twenty minutes. Ace Rothstein, played to a tee by Robert De Niro, loses his mind when a cowboy slots manager doesn't call him to let him know.
"Well, it happened so quick!" the cowboy protests. "Three guys won. I didn't have a chance to call you!"
That's sort of how we feel here at the PokerStars Blog. Why? Because in the span of less than six days, we've been struggling to keep up with the million-dollar Spin & Go jackpots.
To wit: if blogs had ink, the ink wouldn't even be dry on the third million-dollar report we published. We just finished writing it about this morning...and another jackpot just happened...the fourth in six days.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Minutes ago, Estonia's barrakuuda4 won $1 million in a $100 Spin & Go after defeating Hungary's minargyuri and the Czech Republic's KvicKiller, both of whom got $100,000 consolation prizes.
The heads-up battle was a tense sweat. With more than 2,600 people watching and the stacks nearly even, barrakuuda4 pushed all-in with pocket fours and minargyuri called with [ah][th].
Imagine that...essentially flipping for $900,000.
This is what happened.
It took just one hand after that, and barrakuuda4 became a millionaire.
How did the rest of the million-dollar wins happen? Well, fortunately we've been able to (barely) keep up.
Samara Lúcio spends $5, wins a million
wrawras gets another $1 million for Brazil
prophethicks turns $5 into $1 million
Now, if you have seen Casino, you know Rothstein fired that cowboy on the spot for not reporting the craziness.
We will now hit publish, as content as we can be that we have reported the insanity as quickly as possible.
Congrats to PokerStars' newest millionaire, Estonia's barrakuuda4!
For more information, visit the PokerStars Spin & Go Anniversary page.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.
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26 October
PokerNews Podcast Episode #340: Run it Up Reno Recap
The gang wraps up Run It Up Reno by talking roulette strategy and manicures and pedicures, then Jason Somerville joins the program to close up shop.
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26 October
John Juanda on his Hall of Fame Induction
Sarah quickly grabs poker legend John Juanda to get his initial reaction to the announcement that he is officially in the Poker Hall of Fame. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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26 October
Pick Up the Pace Old Man!!
Sarah explores the need for speed on a four-wheel adventure around Malta. To book your Malta adventures Click Here: http://www.ept-travel.com Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Paddling and hitting rivers with Lucas Greenwood
Just looking at Lucas Greenwood makes you think you should maybe hike more, or climb a mountain from time to time. Or at the very least stop eating chocolate biscuits for lunch and get something made from fruit at the Juice stall downstairs. You sens...
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Show the bluff
I think it's fair to say that the general perception of poker, from those that don't play it, is that a) they think there's a lot more bluffing in poker than there actually is and b) bluffing is the most important skill/part of poker. Well, if they (t...
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26 October
Weekend Review: Timex wins again; more Spin & Go millionaires
As EPT Malta kicked off this weekend, we made a tiny, forgivable, and not-really-our fault mistake after reporting the results to the €25,000 High Roller.
Mike "Timex" McDonald had to correct us after we checked our records and reported that he'd won a fifth big event in the last four years.
@PokerStarsBlog only the 4th win. My win in a PCA side event was misreported and I lost HU but they considered me first for some reason
— Mike McDonald (@MikeMcDonald89) October 25, 2021Honestly, we can't be blamed. We see Mike McDonald winner photos in our sleep. We've wallpapered our children's bedrooms with smiling Timex photos in the mere hope that someday they may have McDonald's unsettling glare and uncanny ability to win things. And last year, some bean counter at the PCA mixed up and listed Timex's second place finish as a first place.
So, it's just four major wins. Just four. Just Timex being Timex. Just another day on the European Poker Tour.
Indeed, that was the big story as we barreled so hard into EPT coverage that our servers upchucked all over themselves and then rolled around in their own mess.
That is...it's been a big weekend. Right, Mike?
Wheeeeeeeee!
So, in an effort to clean things up around here, here are the stories you might have missed.
EPT12 Malta: Mike McDonald back at the top of the podium
Natan Chauskin wins IPT7 Malta2 Main Event from the front
EPT12 Malta side event results
Spin & Gos make third millionaire of the week
EPT Malta Main Event live reports
EPT Malta Single Day High Roller live updates
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Meanwhile, the online weekend majors continued unabated. Below you will find the final table finishes for the Sunday Million and Warm-Up. You can click the headlines on either to read our full reports.
PokerStars Sunday Million results for 10-25-2015
Players: 5,704
Prizepool: $1,140,800.00
Places paid: 8101. ARTtimeSHOW (Israel) $150,294.11*
2. Nopaleva (Russia) $127,759.28*
3. krasark (Australia) $127,218.24*
4. Wildace_hun (Hungary) $64,455.20
5. gilleschro (Canada) $48,484.00
6. GadMO (Israel) $37,076.00
7. Saitek00 (United Kingdom) $25,668.00
8. dennishtm (Austria) $14,260.00
9. Sly-Snitch (Australia) $9,126.40*= reflects the results of a three-way deal that left $20,000 in play for the winner
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (10-25-2015)
Entrants: 2,295
Places paid: 342
Prize pool: $459,000.001. MuckCallOK (Austria) $72,522.00
2. r0ckyd0nky (Germany) $54,469.53
3. v587nt (China) $39,015.00
4. flashdisastr (Luxembourg) $26,851.50
5. marko130754 (Switzerland) $20,425.50
6. eddymaksoud (Lebanon) $15,835.50
7. all in 2526 (Israel) $11,245.50
8. Bunkervogel8 (Germany) $6,655.50
9. minddani (Switzerland) $3,901.50Want a complete look at all of the weekend results? Here's how every weekend major final table finished at PokerStars on the weekend of October 24-25, 2015.
Now, with all of that sorted, we're going to go seek therapy. Or a shaman. Or maybe both.
Good luck to everyone in the coming week.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.
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26 October
Is it Okay to Like Something with Misogynist Undertones?
After a recent internet dialogue about Metal Gear Solid, Sarah talks to Mickey Petersen about some of the complex issues facing consumers in today's marketplace. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Chatty times in the High Roller
One of the many things to admire about Dzmitry Urbanovich is his near-perfect grasp of selective English. By that, I mean his ability to speak English when he fancies having a conversation, coupled with his blithe willingness to claim he doesn't speak the language when he doesn't want to be bothered. (He complements this, by the way, with his expert use of headphones. His Skull Crushers are often clamped on the side of his head, but not always over his ears.)
Urbanovich has hurried into the top five counts in the one-day €10,000 tournament and was recently moved to the chair immediately to John Juanda's right. Urbanovich sat down and Juanda greeted him with a respectful, "Oh, this guy." And Urbanovich found himself keen to chat with the recently-crowned EPT Barcelona champion, quizzing him about a hand the two of them played in Monaco when, according to Urbanovich, one of them had a straight flush.
Dzmitry Urbanovich: He's not always listening in those headphones
There are plenty of measures by which to gauge the precipitous rise to prominence of Urbanovich, not least by the figures in his "money earned" column. But for a 19-year-old kid from Warsaw, Poland, sitting down beside a man with $17 million in live career cashes -- and most recent Hall of Fame inductee -- and immediately launching into a conversation about straight flushes in Monte Carlo is convincingly indicative of his stature.
Juanda is on talkative form today. Rid of the face-mask he wore in Barcelona, and presumably free of the illness that forced him to wear it, the Indonesian-American is leading conversation on a table that also features Dan Smith and Huidong Gu, while also leaning over his shoulder to talk to other tables.
In between hands, he turned around and said to Igor Kurganov, "Hey Igor, are you playing the main today, or just this one?" But Kurganov had cards in front of him so didn't answer, forcing Juanda to ask the same question of Liv Boeree, one table along.
"We're playing the main too," Boeree said. Then she picked up a very small pile of chips, showed them to Juanda and said, "I'll be playing it very soon."
John Juanda: Chatty man
Juanda turned his attention back to his own table and was there in time to see Smith ask Gu how much he was playing after Gu opened a pot. "That's how much respect he has for you," Juanda said to Gu. "He didn't ask anybody else."
Smith responded: "He knocked me out of the twenty-five K", proving poker players never forget. But Gu didn't seem to notice that either of them were talking either to or about him. Gu was busy chatting to another friend who had come by for conversation. This is how these high buy-in events tend to be. Everybody is friends with everybody else.
Attention span back to Kurganov. He had now open-shoved all in after action folded to him on the button and Christoph Vogelsang, in the big blind, quickly looked at his cards and called. It was a bad spot for Kurganov, who had run [ks][7s] into [as][js].
The board was blank throughout. It ran [6h][4c][2c][8c][6c], and Kurganov ended up beating Boeree out of the door (although not before a goodbye hug from his girlfriend.)
So on they go in the High Roller, which is due to finish tonight. The official number of players was confirmed at 99, plus 35 re-entries, and that created a prize pool of €1,299,800. Seventeen places will pay and the winner will get €327,030.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
The Harrington Factor
One would guess it's safe to say that if a poker players' accomplishments include winning the World Series of Poker Main Event, having one World Poker Tour and two WSOP bracelets to his name, not to mention over six million dollars in lifetime tourname...
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26 October
EPT10 Malta: Staying level headed during a long poker festival
If you visited an EPT 'back in the day' (technical term for Seasons 1-5) there was the option of playing the Main Event and a handful of side events. We'd be in and out of a city within a week, including travel days. The EPT is a very different tour these days. Stops are now festivals and a handful of side events have grown to 75 here in Malta.
A lot of players get upset at busting poker tournaments and that's a completely understandable reaction. One invests finances and emotions when entering and those feelings have to be processed. Some players like Mickey Petersen and Rupert Elder find the nearest ice cream bar to use up half a day's recommended calorie allowance in one sitting; others (who will remain nameless) go out to other kinds of bars and leave their frustrations to melt along with the ice at the bottom of a tumbler. Side events weren't really of big importance to the players in times gone by so, if you busted a Main Event, why not go out on the town knowing the only thing to worry about in the near future was making the flight home?
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Bust a Main Event, or any event, nowadays and there are a ton of other options on the schedule, so going out on the town isn't always a wise option especially as it's probably +EV for a grinding pro to make the most of the tournaments on offer, something David Lappin alluded to when he spoke to the blog the other day.
So, how does one get over a cruel defeat in a tournament so their head is right for the rest of the festival? What about if the exit was particularly cruel, like a horrific beat or bubbling the money?
Matas Cimbolas - zen
Matas Cimbolas, who's been one of the players tearing up the European Poker scene for the past couple of years, suffered a blow at the beginning of this festival when he was the bubble boy of the IPT Main Event. That bubble lasted around 90 minutes before the Lithuanian, one of three players all in on Hand 13 of bubble play, became the sole player to leave with nothing after the other two players doubled.
There were still more than 65 events on offer for him to play so he had to put it behind him and get back to work. So far, so good on that front for Cimbolas. He's playing the EPT Main Event here on Day 1B - going steadily on 37,000 on second break - after winning a satellite last night in the €500 One Rebuy/One add-on tourney. A min cash in the IPT Main Event was worth €1,810 and, because he was down to fumes when he bubbled, his expected outcome was probably a min cash at best. Winning €5,300 seat was a great way to put the disappointment behind him.
During the break, Cimbolas was kind enough to talk to the blog about how he stays level headed during these long festivals:
"Every professional handles the up and downs differently. Personally, I do meditation and make sure I sleep a lot and eat a good breakfast before play starts. All that helps to not go down on tilt. You also have to realise the ups and owns are part of poker, it's just variance, and you have to try and always do your best.
Cimbolas (seat one) bubbling the IPT Main Event
"I was okay about bubbling the IPT Main Event. It wasn't the first time I've direct bubbled (a poker tournament) and it certainly won't be the last. It would've taken one hand to get in the money and then it goes bad and you bubble it. I don't know, it was ok.
"It was a great feeling to rebound in the Main Event satellite. I already won a seat in a qualifier so was just playing for the money but they are such great value. "
How different is poker to ten years ago?
2005: Get drunk the night before a tournament; make it back for the start of a hotel breakfast; get four hours sleep; win or bust out of said tournament; go and get drunk before catching a flight home.
2015: Ignore invitations to go out and get a good night's sleep; mentally prepare for any eventuality by meditating; eat a good, healthy breakfast; rinse and repeat whatever the outcome of the day's poker tournament.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Split the difference
As far as arguments over antes and blinds go the one that just took place between Steven van Zadelhoff and Patrick Leonard is hardly going to rival the infamous Friedman vs Lisandro incident from the 2006 World Series. In fact it wasn't even an argum...
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Live Spin & Go hits its first jackpot!
Roll up, roll up for the Spin and Go wheel
We've had some alerts through the years on the European Poker Tour: the occasional fire alarm, a tsunami warning in the Bahamas and that afternoon in Berlin. But an alarm just sounded around Casino Portomaso in Malta that was unlike anything we have heard before.
By rights, it should have been a siren howling and a red light flashing across the entire complex, the kind I imagined signalled an escape from Colditz. But as it was, it was actually Tid Sinclair, the EPT events manager extraordinaire, scampering into the press room and saying, "The €1,000 has hit!"
Sinclair was the early warning alarm system for the fact that the Spin & Go wheel installed here in Malta, in front of which a succession of players have been playing live-action versions of the popular online game, had landed on its jackpot segment for the first time in the week.
Want to Spin & Go for $1 million? Click here to get a PokerStars account.Three players were now sitting down to play a €50 tournament with a €1,000, winner-takes-all first prize. It wasn't quite the million dollar riches of the online equivalent, but was nothing to be sniffed at.
Our line-up in search of the top prize was Rick Bijkerk, from the Netherlands, Sergii Gondaruk, from Ukraine, and Kristiyan Trchyu, from Bulgaria, and they duly got on with the hyper-turbo (five minute levels) event that would decide the first Spin & Go jackpot winner of the week.
The line-up for the jackpot Spin & Go
It wasn't to be Bijkerk. He bluffed all in on a board of [9s][kc][5h] holding only [qc][8s]. Of course, he wasn't to know that Gondaruk had [ks][9c]. Bijkerk was out.
Gondaruk was the big chip leader heads up, but Trchyu doubled quickly when his [qd][8h] held up in an all-in, pre-flop coup against [jc][8c]. (Just remember, there's not a whole lot of skill to all this.)
That left Gondaruk short-stacked, and he too got his chips in moments later with [jc][9s]. Trchyu called with [ac][4s] and the board ran [8d][2c][3h][kh][Th], sending the grand back to Bulgaria with Trchyu.
The players waiting on the side-lines for their chance at the big time pointed towards the big wheel and suggested to the tournament officials that, "You don't need to spin it. It's OK."
But the administrator of the Spin and Go section said, "I hope it doesn't come up again. I'll be fired."
She then set the wheel of fortune back in motion and watched as it landed back on €100. One jackpot per hour is about enough.
Congratulations to Trchyu, the first live Spin-and-Go champion!
Kristiyan Trchyu: Spin & Go Pro
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Another title for Poker Mama
Jackie Cachia: Champion on home soil There's no denying it, the EPT Malta festival is now in full swing, with more than 30 tournaments completed and another 40 or so to come. The Main Event, of course, is hogging most of the attention today, alongside the one-day €10,000 High Roller, but here's a quick rundown on what else has been going on.
As noted earlier, Darrell Goh completed late night triumph in the €2,000 IPT High Roller and it was notable that it wasn't even the last tournament to finish last night.
The seniors' event, for players aged 50 and older, was still about six handed when the IPT wrapped, but they still finished it off in a single day. When all was said and done it was arguably Maltese poker's most recognisable figure, Jackie "Poker Mama" Cachia, who had the skill and stamina to close it out.
Cachia has a women's event title already on the EPT, won in London in October last year, but this was was sweeter still, coming on home soil. Cachia thought she had been eliminated shortly before the money when she was all in with pocket tens against ace-king and a king appeared on the flop.
But despite having wrapped her knuckles on the table and left her seat, Cachia was called back by a ten on the river. She never left it again until she was victorious and €5,300 richer.
As Mad Harper, the EPT Media Coordinator noted, that is precisely the buy in for the Main Event, and Cachia has duly reinvested. She is in the Day 1B field today.
Leo Pietila also hoisted a trophy aloft yesterday, triumphing in the €1,000 Big Ante event and winning €22,140. This is clearly Pietila's format. The 26-year-old from Finland also won a Big Ante event in Prague last season, and was last seen protesting with Neil Johnson that big antes should be brought in to all EPT Main Events and High Rollers. (Not true. But it could be.)
Leo Pietila: One for each title In the other late-finishing event last night/this morning, Greece's Stavros Karyofyllis won the €500 Dealer's Choice. As with the Brits who stayed to rail Goh at his final table, a hardy band of Greeks stuck it out to drape Karyofyllis in the nation's flag, even as the clock ticked past 3am.
Stavros Karyofylis: Greek, in case you didn't notice Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Too early to go crazy
The early levels of an EPT are, for the most part, sedate, calm and peaceful. It's not that nothing happens, it's just with 300 big blinds to start with and no antes in play big pots are as rare as a poker player telling the truth at the table.
The opening stanza is often about feeling your way into the tournament and getting to know the players at your table, both in terms of poker and who they are. As the first orbit played out one such conversation was taking place between Simon Deadman and Puk Nabuurs.
Nabuurs is down on the player list as being from Malta but when Deadman inquired at to where he was from he said Holland - and indeed a quick search shows this is indeed the case. Country of origin established the two began a friendly information exchange.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account."Do you play a lot of these?" asked Nabuurs to Deadman. He replied in the affirmative before adding, "I'm a tournament player" Nabuurs gave him a knowing look. "You can say it...fish" said Deadman.
"I play PLO cash," replied Nabuurs.
"So you're not going to fold any hands and you lover your blockers," quipped Deadman and they both had a good chuckle at that. Deadman will need to go very deep in this event to record the best result in his house at this festival as his wife, Shola, finished runner-up in the IPT High Roller yesterday.At least they had cards and hands to play. Plenty of players had shown up on time but fallen victim to the rule of three. That being that three players must be present at the table before any cards can be dealt. Shannon Shorr, Benjamin Lebor, Robert Obrtlik, Georges Sultanem and Alessio Casiraghi were among those patiently waiting to be dealt in.
A few minutes later Luca Pagano was probably wishing that he was too. The Team PokerStars Pro had reached the river of a [8s][6d][3d][Jc][5c] board in a hand against fellow Team Pro member Marcin Horecki. There was already a chunk of chips in the middle by this point and Horecki bet 7,500, which Pagano called. The Pole showed [8d][8c] and Pagano mucked. He dropped to 11,500 as a result. Before the level was out Horecki, who's already won a side event here in Malta, would finish the job and Pagano became the first exit on Day 1B. He wasn't out of action for long though as he hopped into the €10,000 High Roller.
Horecki's on a roll Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Moreira de Melo receives travel advice from poker players
Poker may be the American game in origin but it's truly the world's game these days. Think of it as the mental game version of football (soccer), kind of. Even though, here in Malta, we're at a European Poker Tour stop, players have come from all over ...
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Roll up, roll up for the one day 10k
Another day, another high roller. This time it's a €10,000 buy-in, with one optional re-entry and to make sure there's plenty of room at the table play will never be more than eight handed.
Unlike the other high roller events at this festival this one will be done and dusted in a single day or at least try to be, the equivalent event at EPT12 Barcelona had to be extended to two days due to its popularity. Whilst it's not exactly a a turbo event, to try and facilitate the event finishing within the one day allotted players start with just 100 big blinds and the levels last just 30 minutes.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.The roots of the big buy-in event on Day 1B of the Main Event can be traced back to this very stop of the tour. Back in March the organisers scheduled a €5K re-buy, won of course by Dzmitry Urbanovich, and it proved a hit. So at the Grand Final there was a 'one day 50K' and then in Barcelona a €25,000 event that Neymar Jr rocked up to and was, eventually, won by Martin Finger.
Martin Finger, pictured in the EPT Malta €25,000 High Roller The German is amongst the 41 players to have turned up for the opening level of the Malta edition and although it's got some way to go to reach the 118 entrants (and 34 re-entries) that we had in Barcelona, with late registration open until the start of level nine it could well run it close.
In an event of this magnitude it's often easier to tell you about the players who aren't well known, but there are some tasty tables already forming as you can see below:
Table 1: Daniel Dvoress, Martin Finger, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Senh Ung, Dominik Panka, Johnny Lodden
Table 2: Christoph Vogelsang, Roberto Romanello, Paul Newey, Steve O'Dwyer, Ole Schemion, Ike Haxton
Table 3: Stephen Chidwick, Juha Helppi, David Yan, Sam Greenwood, Scott Seiver, Jeff Rossiter, Dan Smith, Jason Mercier
Table 4: Christopher Frank, Ben Heath, Shaun Deeb, Charlie Carrel, David Peters, Vicente Delgado, Justin BonomoIf there's a lesson to be learned from this it's that if you're on the fence about which starting day to play in the Main Event then choose Day 1B, you'll avoid that lot!
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
Shyam Srinivasan’s Side of the Feature Table PCA Drama
Sarah talks to Shyam Srinivasan to get his thoughts about some bad blood that emerged when he and Maurice Hawkins were playing together on the PCA 2015 Feature Table. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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26 October
EPT12 Malta Main Event Day 1a: Carmelo Crucitti Leads 108 Advancing Players
Day 1a of the EPT12 Malta Main Event saw 108 players make it through the night with Italy's Carmelo Crucitti leading the pack. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Darrell Goh seals IPT high roller victory
Darrell Goh: Champion before the sun came up
We may have hit upon something significant in Malta late last night: a way to ensure poker tournaments that seem certain to run until at least breakfast get finished at a (relatively) decent hour.
After all the agonising over what to do with the final of the €2,000 IPT High Roller, and whether to reconvene on Tuesday or Wednesday should the clock tick past four o'clock, six of the remaining seven players at the time of the discussion were eliminated within about three hours. They crowned a champion at round about 3am.
That man was Darrell Goh, an Irish player who was railed to victory by a hardy band of friends also from the British Isles, who also managed (in time-honoured fashion) to keep the waiting staff busy as they watch Goh prevail. They were all still there at the end to give Goh to bumps as they crowded into his winner's photo.
In only July, Goh was tweeting, "Cashed my first live tournament". Three months later and he was able to say, "#IPT High Roller shipped #sundayfunday".
The bumps for Darrell Goh
It was actually an all British Isles affair at the end, with everybody friends with everyone else. Agshin Rasulov, a high-roller specialist from Azerbaijan, was the short stack when they went on what would be the last break of the day. He was quickly gobbled up leaving Goh to square off against Shola Akindele, from Leeds in the UK, who was last seen around a final table at the World Series of Poker this summer and was continuing a run of decent form.
Akindele had her supporters too, most prominently her husband Simon Deadman, and it was Deadman first with the news when the game was over. "Lost AK v QQ to finish 2nd #soproud," Deadman tweeted, explaining how come a deep-stacked heads up battle was concluded so soon.
Yes, queens against ace-king is always going to get things done.
So it was that both Goh and Akindele secured the highest tournament scores of their careers: €151,670 for Goh and €96,160 for Deadman. They crowded into the same winner's photo at the end to celebrate a combined €250,000 payday.
Friends and supporters of Darrell Goh and Shola Akindele crowd the joint-winners photo
And best of all: some of the bars were still open too when it all ended, allowing them all to head off and continue the party.
The full results will be posted on the side events results page in due course.
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26 October
Timex wins EPT Malta High Roller
The WSOPE has only just concluded and now EPT Malta is firmly underway, with another big high roller result for Mike McDonald.
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Irish diplomacy brings early resolution to €2K issues
Nick O'Hara, left, holds court among the tournament staff
Nick "Big Nick" O'Hara has carved himself a reputation on the European Poker Tour as the very definition of safe pair of hands. In case you don't know who Nick "Big Nick" O'Hara is, he's the softly spoken Irishman in the suit who is usually found tournament directing during the late stages of the bigger events.
He is firm but fair in his decision making; sympathetic and confident in what he does. It's why he often finds himself approaching the poker tables when things might be getting volatile. He can calm things down and make everybody see sense.
There was nothing quite over-spilling when O'Hara approached the €2,000 IPT High Roller tonight, but the news he was there to impart was not certain to be to everyone's liking. With seven players still left and no real end in sight, O'Hara was there to suggest the players agree on a time to end it for the evening, then to broker negotiations as to when they might want to come back and play it out.
"We don't like to do these things but we can't stay here til 10am either," O'Hara explained to the table. The proposal was to play to around 4am tonight and then to bag up, regardless of the number of players still left. Whoever was still involved would then come back at about 9pm on Day 3 of the Main Event (that is Wednesday in real terms) to play to a winner.
At least one interpreter was also in attendance, adding the requisite sharp edges and gesticulations to translate soft Irish brogue into Italian. But most of them around the table spoke English and could do their own arguing, with two loose factions gradually appearing.
Some wanted to play for only a short time tonight and go long on Wednesday. Others wanted to play long tonight and maybe not play at all later in the week. The most vocal supporter of the former suggestion (although far from being too aggravated either way) was Shola Akindele. The most vocal supporter of the latter suggestion (although far from being too aggravated either way) was Ondrej Vinklarek.
O'Hara, of course, listened to both sides and eventually the seven players decided to play on for a bit--until 4am--then reconvene on Tuesday or Wednesday, a detail that would be decided among those who were left.
"If we make this arrangement, you cannot change it," O'Hara said, but nobody was aggrieved. They had reached a fairly contented quorum.
Michael Tureniec, who remained silent throughout all the chat, then got the last of his chips in on the first hand after the break. He had [ks][5s] and was knocked out by Daryll Goh's [ad][kc]. No wonder Tureniec didn't mind what was decided: he had no intention of hanging around anyway.
Goh added Tureniec's chips to what amounts to a considerable chip lead. The Irishman has about 4.4 million, which is well clear of Agshin Rasulov's 2.5 million. Akindele is third, with 1.7 million.
There are six left heading into the late evening shift.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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26 October
EPT12 Malta: Newcomer Carmelo Crucitti takes early lead in Main Event
Day 1As often just tick along. This felt like a text book version of it. The eight levels of the Main Event's opening day passed while surrounded by other events today, the preamble to a story that will get interesting later this week, but which today was all about bedding in.
Some 184 players took a seat today. They were the early-arrivers, those wishing to avoid the larger field of Day 1B, and those with plans to play the single day high roller event tomorrow. By the close tonight 114 remained, led at the bell by the little known Carmleo Crucitti.
Carmelo CrucittiOthers were within reach of him, with Mikko Turtiainen, Noah Villancourt and Ferdinand Le Pichon the closest, each ending the day with good stacks for their return on Tuesday for Day 2. Nothing is won today but it was job done as far as their working day was concerned.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Some of the players who made it through today.
Name Country Status Chips Carmelo Crucitti Italy PokerStars qualifier 163,000 Mikko Turtiainen Finland PokerStars qualifier 136,400 Noah Vaillancourt Canada PokerStars qualifier 125,800 Ferdinand Le Pichon France 117,500 Patrick Jann Switzerland 102,200 Tsugunari Toma Japan PokerStars qualifier 102,000 David Yan New Zealand PokerStars qualifier 97,875 Thomas Muehloecker Austria PokerStars qualifier 93,200 Niall Farrell UK PokerStars player 92,300 Bernhard Haider Austria PokerStars player 90,900 Steve O'Dwyer Ireland PokerStars player 90,600 Rainer Kempe Germany PokerStars qualifier 87,100 Elliot Smith Canada PokerStars player 85,500 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia PokerStars qualifier 83,900 Mukul Pahuja USA PokerStars player 82,300 Dominik Panka Poland PokerStars qualifier 81,400 Anthony Zinno USA 76,500 Jose Carlos Garcia Poland 73,700 Adrian Mateos Spain PokerStars qualifier 72,200 Felix Bleiker Switzerland PokerStars qualifier 70,400 Rodger Reynolds UK 69,800 Lauri Varonen Finland PokerStars player 64,900 Daniel Dvoress Canada PokerStars qualifier 60,600 Giuseppe Zarbo Italy 60,300 Dylan Linde USA PokerStrars player 57,700 Brian Roberts USA PokerStars player 56,600 Jennifer Shahade USA PokeStars Mind Sports Ambassador 51,300 JC Alvarado Mexico 51,000 Ivan Luca Argentina PokerStars qualifier 49,000 Andrea Dato Italy 48,000 Juha Helppi Finland 46,600 Fabrice Soulier France 45,300 Vicente Delgado Spain PokerStars qualifier 44,900 Charlie Carrel UK 43,600 Jorryt van Hoof Netherlands 41,500 Justin Bonomo USA PokerStars qualifier 40,700 Andrew Black UK 39,700 Ben Heath UK PokerStars qualifier 39,700 Robert Schiffbauer USA 38,300 Claudio Daffina Italy 36,600 Antonio Buonanno Italy 34,200 Roberto Romanello UK 31,900 Maria Ho USA PokerStars qualifier 29,800 Joni Jouhkimainen Finland PokerStars qualifier 29,200 Senh Ung UK 24,000 Isaac Haxton USA Team PokerStars Pro Online 23,500 Chistoph Vogelsang Germany 22,000 Jason Mercier USA Team PokerStars Pro 14,700 Jake Cody UK Team PokerStars Pro 8,600 Keven Stammen USA 7,600 Ihar Soika Belarus PokerStars qualifier 7,200 Byron Kaverman USA PokerStars player 5,800 Andrew Chen Canada PokerStars qualifier 4,900
Meanwhile the list of eliminations grew by the hour, some big hitters among them. Benjamin Pollak, Martin Finger, and Ben Willonofsky made their way to the rail, as did Connor Drinan, John Juanda, Marvin Rettenmeier (who we featured earlier today), Paul Newey, Stephen Chidwick, Ole Schemion, Shaun Deeb and Vladimir Troyanovskiy.Christopher Frank was unable to build on his High Roller cash from yesterday, while countryman Fedor Holz is out. One suspects an appointment with the single day high roller, starting tomorrow, awaits many of not all of them.
It was not all about the Main Event today, which took place surrounded by multiple tournaments each coming to a close.
Mike McDonald won the High Roller event, picking up his first High Roller title and a winner's check of more than €498,000. You can read the full story here.
There was also a win for Natan Chauskin in the IPT Main Event, one worth XXX to the Belarussian who was understandably delighted with the result, as he explained to the blog. Read that story in full here.
You'll find all the festival results from Malta on our side events page, while hand for hand coverage from the Main Event can be found here.
Play from the EPT Malta festival continues tomorrow with Day 1B of the Main Event, as well as the single day high roller. Join us then.Apologies for the technical problems on the Blog today. Normal service should resume shortly.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Late night in store for IPT High Rollers
IPT High Roller final nine
It's just gone 11pm and it's time for a packed side event round-up. We have a champion in the Malta Cup; we're at a final in the IPT €2,000 High Roller; there are three tables left in the seniors and the Dealer's Choice is on a dinner break. There you have it. Goodnight!
OK, OK, I'll flesh it out a bit.
So, last time we dropped in on the Malta Cup, there were five players left and a couple of short-stack ninjas somehow managing to navigate the choppy waters of a shallow-stacked EPT tournament end-game.
To bring you up to date: Andras Stumpf's comeback didn't last all that long. Although he doubled to eight big blinds when we were last watching, he still went out in fifth for €12,050. However Grzegorz Wyraz enjoyed a spectacular comeback from his own five-handed difficulties. He only had about eight big blinds of his own at one point, but put them to excellent use and watched Neil Ryder and David Breitfuss bust in fourth and third, leaving him heads up with Roman Skudar.
Skudar was by far the least active player when things were getting messy five-handed, but he had the most chips so could afford to be circumspect. He eventually proved to be the immovable object to Wyraz's irresistible force and claimed the title and the €48,155 first prize. Wyraz took €29,320 for second.
The full results will be over on the Side Events Results Page very soon.
Back to the IPT High Roller and the remaining nine players are now crowded around one table. There is no huge stack among the final nine, but it seems that Michael Tureniec, the former EPT champion, is probably ahead. He has a stack of about 1.9 million, with blinds at 12,000-24,000. So yes, there's a lot of play still in that one.
Michael Tureniec: EPT champion looking for IPT glory
The second most recognisable player at the table is Kiryl Radzivonau, the man otherwise known as Angry Moron. Radzivonau made the final table of the EPT Main Event in Barcelona last season and is back chasing a six-figure score again.
The plan is to play to a conclusion tonight, but I'm not sure it will be possible. These €2,000 High Rollers have had a habit of creeping into a third day.
The €200 Senior's Event has 19 players remaining, spread across three tables. The intention there is to play to a winner also, but that too could be postponed. Fifteen players will be paid, so they have a bubble to play through too before they can think about shrinking to a final and then a winner.
As I dropped by Jackie "Poker Mama" Cachia was all in with her tournament life on the line. She had pocket tens and had been called by ace-king. She wrapped her knuckles on the table when a king came on the flop, but a ten fell on the river to keep her alive.
"I love you," she told the dealer.
The eight-handed dealer's choice tournament is also under way. There are nine left, meaning they're still on two tables -- actually more, if I'm honest. They're on a dinner break, so are probably scattered across the tables of Portomaso.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: The MVP returns
Cast your mind back to March of this year and the EPTs first visit to Malta. It'd been some time since a brand new stop had been added to the tour and the EPT wasn't the only event in town that week. As well as the EPT festival there was the stand alone Global Poker Masters.
It comprised of eight teams of six players representing Italy, Russia, United States of America, Germany, Canada, Ukraine, France and the United Kingdom and there's no polite way of saying this, but nobody gave Italy a chance. But, if history teaches us anything about Italian teams it's that they're at their best when they're written off. They weren't fancied before the 1982 or 2006 Soccer World Cup's but lifted the trophy on both occasions and they made a mockery of their 22/1 odds in Malta to defeat Russia heads-up to win the inaugural Global Poker Masters.
Champions!
Whilst this was poker as a team effort if there was one player key to the Italian's victory it was Giuliano Bendinelli. He accumulated more points then any other player on the first day of the event and also took heads-up scalp in the quarter-final. He was rightfully voted the MVP of the tournament, a personal triumph that was somewhat forgotten due to this being one of the few occasions where poker wasn't about the individual.
Since then Bendinelli has racked up another eight cashes, including one already here in Malta, in the €300 Malta Cup. During the dinner break we spotted him doing a interview to camera for one of the many media here in Malta. Unfortunately his Main Event is now over though as he four-bet shoved for around 25 big blinds with [Qs][Js] only to run into Thomas Muehloecker's aces.
Giuliano Bendinelli
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here. Earlier today Mike McDonald and took down the €25,000 High Roller whilst Natan Chauskin prevailed in the IPT Main Event.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
Natan Chauskin wins IPT7 Malta2 Main Event from the front
Natan Chauskin - the winner
A total of 947 players turned up a few days ago to play the IPT Main Event, and here on a Sunday evening, just one man was left standing. Natan Chauskin defeated Govert Metaal in a relatively short heads up battle to claim the trophy and €149,560.
Chauskin entered the day as clear chip leader and, taking that stat (alone) into account, was expected to win. Metaal came in to the final table as the short stack so was never expected to get as far as he did, so can be very proud of his achievement.
Asked if he was happy and expected to win, he responded with, "Yes, very, and I came to win, and I was sure I would. When back in Belorussia, we were in a bar with our team and my coach, Jenya Gavrilovich, winner of EPT12 Barcelona €2k, asked me, when shooting a video, "What about this IPT Malta?" and I said: "I'm going to win it! Go there and win it for sure!" This is what happened, so I can say I was just looking forward to it."
Trophy PresentationHe went on to say, "It's not the amount of money that changes my life, and plus, I don't play just for the money, I play to become a sportstar, because poker is a sport, where the competition is the most important thing. I will play the EPT Main Event tomorrow and win it too!"
The final hand saw Metaal three-bet all in with pocket fives and Chauskin call after he had raised with king-queen. The Belorussian took the lead when he turned top pair and victory was confirmed when he improved to a flush on the river.
Fortune favoured this brave man todayMeetal won the €10,000 High Roller event at EPT Campione back is Season 8 and was so close to claiming a second major trophy on tour. The €124,080 he won today tops the €110,000 he won back in 2008 and, after the tournament had ended, he had this to say on both achievements, "The field was harder here so this result is more valuable to me."
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Timofeev was downed first
Day 3 started with two quick eliminations and a bustout (on average) every 12 minutes throughout the day, whereas today it took around two hours for the first player to bust. Denis Timofeev, short stacked at the time, made his move with pocket fours but failed to stay ahead of Chauskins ace-jack. The Belorussian only took five more minutes to claim another scalp and this time he didn't event need coin-flip odds to get the job done. After raising with ace-seven, he called James Grogan's shove with big slick and rivered a seven.
Grogan got his chips in good
Garp after his last hand
They say bad things come in threes and Tobias Garp will agree with that sentiment. He three-bet all in with pocket sevens after Metaal -who was midway through his rush up the leader board - had raised with pocket aces. An easy call and an ace high board later saw Garp leave stage-central. A period of consolidation followed before the second Dutch representative at the final table, Joep Raemaekers, was given his marching orders. He moved all in with jack-eight suited from the button but Chris Brammer, and his pocket queens, lay in wait in the small blind.
Gomez couldn't gain traction today
David Gomez helped start Metaal's resurgence at the beginning of the day and, ten minutes after Raemaekers bust, his nemesis came back to finish off the job. Metaal opened with ace-king and called the Spaniard's shove with pocket nines. The board ran ace high and just three remained.
Chris Brammer headed off to start his Sunday session after busting third
The second period of consolidation kicked in and chips were passed around the table before Metaal, who was left short after an end of level confrontation with Chauskin, returned from break and made his second recovery of the day to the ultimate cost for Brammer. First he doubled his very short stack through Chauskin and then, when armed with more chips, took most of Brammer's when his pocket jacks stayed ahead of his king-queen.
The final hand
Before heads up play began, the two player struck a deal that meant they were effectively playing a €20,000 heads up sit and go. Chauskin held a 13.8 million to 9.8 million lead and only extended it until he had all the chips. He proved over the last two days that he's a phenomenal front runner and has made a very impressive start to his live poker career.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Mike McDonald back at the top of the podium
Mike McDonald, €25K High Roller champion Towards the beginning of this festival, when the €25,000 High Roller event was just getting started, a reporter in the press room at EPT Malta was writing about Mike McDonald. The reporter noticed that for all the myths, legends and glories of Timex, McDonald had won "only" four live tournaments in his career.
The reporter will remain nameless, and his observation never made it as far as McDonald himself. With more than $11 million in live tournament cashes, one suspects the Canadian pro wouldn't have been too concerned by the slight even if it had.
But that fickle beast "fate" had clearly been tempted. This was obviously now going to be McDonald's event. He was a big stack at the end of Day 1, was still going strong at the end of Day 2 and, at around 7.30pm local time in Malta tonight, he beat Juha Helppi heads up to pick up the fifth title of his career.
McDonald adds a €25,000 High Roller crown to an EPT Main Event title and deposits another €498,575 to the bank of Timex.
How it played out
Players resumed just after noon today with three of the final eight--Sylvain Loosli, Benjamin Pollak and Jason Wheeler--returning for only their second day of competition. That trio had skipped the first day of this event entirely, opting instead to register at the beginning of the second day. The two French players paid the full buy-in, but Wheeler was in on the cheap, via a last-minute satellite.
Final table players: Back row (l-r): Juha Helppi, Nick Petrangelo, Mike McDonald, Benjamin Pollak, Byron Kaverman. Front row (l-r): Sam Greenwood, Jason Wheeler, Sylvain Loosli. Either way, their hourly rate was good and that remained true even after Loosli and Pollak became the first two out of the door.
Loosli, a former November Niner, who earned his biggest payday on European soil in the Super High Roller in Barcelona, lost a big pot in the opening stages of the day, when his [as][kd] lost the most classic of flips against Byron Kaverman's [qh][qd].
That left Loosli in the kind of mood to shove with [qd][8c] and his stack short enough that McDonald made a mandatory call with [kc][2s]. Loosli didn't catch up and off he went, with €67,990 for eighth.
Sylvain Loosli Pollak assumed the unfortunate mantle of short stack and McDonald was in no mood to be merciful. When action folded to the last remaining Frenchman on the button, Pollak found an ace and moved all in. It was another standard move, even though his precise hand was the meagre [ah][2c].
It was especially pitiful when faced with McDonald's [ac][jh] and a jack appeared on the flop to all but end it. Two more blanks and it was done. Pollak took €87,025 for seventh.
Ben Pollak Sam Greenwood had come to the final table with the chip lead, sitting with more than a million more than McDonald at the start. But while McDonald's progress was as smooth as one might possibly hope, Greenwood's was the complete opposite. He had become the go-to man for opponents seeking a double up.
Greenwood's stack inevitably dwindled in the face of such ill fortune and eventually he got it all in with [4d][6c] looking at a flop of [qh][7h][6d]. It was a pair, but it was by far the second best hand against Juha Helppi's [qs][7s].
Greenwood didn't find a miracle and he was out, earning €110,590 for sixth. Any six-figure payday is not to be sniffed at, but having had such a lead at the start of the day, Greenwood was understandably somewhat miffed.
Sam Greenwood Helppi was now the undisputed table captain. He had at least three times the chips of any of his opponents, and duly thinned the field further when he got his jacks to hold up against Kaverman's [ad][jd].
Kaverman hit the rail in fifth, winning €141,415, while Helppi had the first eight-figure stack of the tournament.
Byron Kaverman The final four comprised Helppi, with more than 11 million chips, McDonald (3 million approx), Nick Petrangelo (2.5 million) and Wheeler (1.6 million). Helppi knew he could afford to let the smaller stacks cannibalise one another, or do the damage himself only when strictly required.
As it happened, the two smallest of them went at it: Petrangelo knocked out Wheeler with [ad][kd] versus [as][qh]. That was all fairly standard given the circumstances, and it left Wheeler with €178,580 for fourth. He was the last of the late registrants to go.
Jason Wheeler The three remaining players talked about doing a deal, but then abandoned it when Helppi and McDonald had a difference of opinion with Petrangelo about whether to leave anything to play for if they carved it three ways, according to the Independent Chip Model (ICM).
They soon sorted that: McDonald knocked out Petrangelo with [ac][kd] to Petrangelo's [ad][js]. Petrangelo would have earned slightly more than the €232,065 he ended up with had he persuaded his two opponents to deal, but another near quarter-million euro payday represents yet another fine result in the young America's extraordinary 2015. It's his eighth cash of more than $100,000 since the turn of the year.
Nick Petrangelo McDonald and Helppi were left heads up, with stacks that were now almost even. Helppi had 9,650,000 but McDonald's elimination of Petrangelo put him with 8,850,000. And it was time for McDonald to show precisely what he is capable of.
Juha Helppi and Mike McDonald get started heads up He got things started by making a huge hero call with third pair jacks, raking the pot after Helppi showed air. McDonald then started applying pressure on a succession of scary boards, forcing Helppi into the tank and then to fold. The full details of how this all played out is in the panel at the top of the High Roller page. You can scroll through for blow-by-blow details.
Juha Helppi The one-way traffic eventually ended when Helppi moved all in--only about 3 million at that point--with [kc][8c] and quickly learned that he was dominated when McDonald called and showed [kh][js]. The board bricked and McDonald was champion, leaving Helppi with €354,440 for second.
Greeting the news of McDonald's triumph on Twitter, Kevin Mathers said, "Another day at the office..." It certainly had that feeling, watching McDonald pocket half a million euros and posing for a winner's photo.
But it was actually "only" the fifth time he had done so and the first since September 2011. Must do better.
Mike McDonald, trophy in hand
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: The most predictable news of the week: Urbanovich wins in Malta
Dzmitry Urbanovich: Five time The furthest end of the tournament room is presently occupied by three final tables--in the €25,000 High Roller, the Malta Cup and the €500 Turbo--as well as the last two tables in the €2,000 IPT High Roller. It's the kind of place you'd expect to see Dzmitry Urbanovich given his track record, but he busted the High Roller before the money and didn't enter the other three.
However, moments ago, Urbanovich was indeed spotted wandering into that area and taking a seat on the photographer's set reserved for winner's photos. In most cases this would have seemed presumptuous, but as far as Urbanovich is concerned, it was probably just a time-saving device. Might as well get the photo done in readiness for inevitable victory, huh?
Well actually, Urbanovich wasn't acting out of turn. Outside the gaze of almost everybody in Malta, Urbanovich had taken a seat this afternoon in the €5,000 Mixed Games event, featuring 2-7 single draw, 2-7 double draw, no limit hold'em and PLO.
Want to get involved? Course you do. Click here to get a PokerStars account.Before he was the tournament beast that he has so rapidly become, Urbanovich was known as a mixed game specialist, so this was right up his street. The tournament only actually attracted five players, so they were straight to the final, but Urbanovich still needed to defeat three Finns (Jussi Nevalinna, Sampo Ryynanen and Jyri Merivirta) and Great Britain's Adam Owen to prevail.
He picked up €15,760 for his title--the fifth he has won in Malta in this calendar year. I'm assuming he brought a bigger bag to the island this time around. He had a hell of a job getting the four trophies home last time.
(Merivirta finished second, for €8,490.)
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
EPT12 Malta High Roller Champion Mike McDonald
Mike McDonald has plenty of accolades, but the EPT High Roller trophy alluded him until today! Sarah talks to him right after his victory. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Tricks and treats at the festival welcome party
In the queue at the Dr Juice pop up juice bar in the tournament area this morning, I thought I sensed a slight surge in demand for the "Raw Detox" juice they sell. It's a complex mixture of apple, carrot, celery, spinach, and avocado, designed to lif...
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25 October
EPT Malta: The Maltese Curiosity Shop
Final five in the Malta CupI didn't know until reading it this month that Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel about gambling addiction. It really is. Little Nell and her grandfather are required to flee the titular emporium because of gambling debts, and the novel has a couple of scenes of card-playing that must be among the earliest in English literature.
Dickens was a peerless observer of humanity, both timeless and prescient in a lot of what he saw. His descriptions of the card table are characteristically astute and when he wrote of the players in a game in the Valiant Soldier public house that "there they sat, with a calm indifference to everything but their cards, perfect philosophers in appearance, and with no greater show of passion or excitement than if they had been made of stone", he might easily have been writing about the final table of the Malta Cup.
They are down to five players in that particular jamboree and it is playing out in the furthest, darkest corner of the main tournament room. There is no conversation whatever between the final five, and the only indication that they are not indeed made of stone comes when they are forced to post blinds or declare betting intentions, or occasionally skittering to talk to friends on the rail.
Want to get involved? Course you do. Click here to get a PokerStars account.For all that, it's a cosmopolitan affair, with players from Austria, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Poland and Hungary, and some fascinating end-game strategy being applied by each of them.
Roman Skudar, Neil Ryder and David Breitfuss are very closely grouped at the top of the chip ladder, with around 4 million each (blinds 60,000-120,000). But when I arrived, Grzegorz Wyraz and Andras Stumpf were in desperate danger, each with only about eight big blinds.
Grzegorz Wyraz: Shove, shove, shoveIn the traditional sense, Stumpf had position on Wyraz, i.e., Stumpf was to Wyraz's left. But in the particular circumstances, Wyraz was making the most of the fact that he was able to get his chips in the pot first and moved all in twice when he was in early position, folding only when Breitfuss and Ryder wanted to play a pot when he was in the big blind.
Wyraz then open-shoved from the small blind, forcing Stumpf to fold his big blind, and then open-shoved again from the button, again getting it through.
The hand between Breitfuss and Ryder threatened to be one of those dreams for the short stacks. Both Wyraz and Stumpf looked on with glee after the Austrian opened to 250,000 and Ryder three bet to 500,000. Breitfuss called and they saw a flop of [4h][4s][ah]. Check, check.
Breitfuss check-called Ryder's bet of 375,000 on the [8s] turn, then they both checked again on the [kc] river. Breitfuss's [as][js] beat Ryder's [9d][9h], with both men realising it would be very foolish to get knocked out with the shorties still at the table.
David Breitfuss
The blinds went up to 80,000-160,000 and Wyraz again started shoving every hand. He managed to get his stack up to more than 2 million in the process, without ever being called, and was even able to push Ryder out of a pot when Ryder opened the button and Wyraz shoved from the big blind.
Stumpf was frustrated. He had dwindled all the way to four big blinds, obviously finding no appropriate spot to get his chips in. Eventually when he did jam, it was scarcely appropriate too: he had only [tc][7d] when he decided to defend his big blind against Ryder's open.
Andras Stumpf
Ryder had [ac][Ts], but was certainly somewhat more animated than previously when the flop fell [8s][9h][5d]. That gave Stumpf an open-ended straight draw, which didn't get filled on the [2d] turn. But the [jc] was one of Stumpf's outs and he doubled back to eight bigs.
Down they all sat again and turned back to stone.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
IPT7 Malta2 Main Event Final table: Levels 31 (80,000/160,000, ante 20,000)
7:15pm: First blood to Chauskin
Natal Chauskin has opened up a near three-to-one chip lead after getting good value out of top pair.Govert Metaal raised to 350,000 from the button and called a three-bet to 875,000. The flop came [js][5c][6c] and Metaal continued for 825,000. Call.
The turn was the [7d] and Chauskin bet again, for 1,650,000. Metaal called once more before both players checked the [9s] river. Chauskin's [ad][jc] was good to beat out Metaal's [ts][6s].
Chauskin - 17,285,000
Metaal - 6,310,0007pm: Heads up counts and deal details
The two players have come to a deal, based on the following chip counts.Natan Chauskin (Belarus) - 13,815,000.
Govert Metaal (United Kingdom), PokerStars qualifier - 9780000Chauskin guaranteed €129,560
Metaal guaranteed €124,080That leaves €20,000 to play for.
Cards are back in the air.
Heads up6:30pm: Chris Brammer eliminated in third place (€72,660)
Chris Brammer folded from the button after being left short but wasn't going to do so the next hand, when in the big blind. It ended it defeat for him.Govart Metaal raised to 325,000 from the button and Natan Chauskin called from the small blind before Brammer moved in for 475,000. Both opponents called. The board rolled out [4h][3h][kd][as][6h] and was checked down to the river where Chauskin called a 1.8 million bet from Metaal.
The live stream didn't show the cards properly but Metaal definitely won the pot with [kh][jh] for a flush. It's believed that Chauskin held [ad][4d] and Brammer [qs][4s] but it to be confirmed.
Chris Brammer - third placeThe two remaining players are taking a short break to discuss a deal.
6:25pm: Metaal doubles again and leaves Brammer short
Chris Brammer has dropped to around half a million chips after he doubled up Govert Metaal. All the chips went in preflop.Brammer: [kh][qc]
Metaal: [js][jh]The board ran [9s][7d][3d][2h][th] to see the jacks hold up. It might just be Metaal's destiny to win this thing.
6:20pm: Metaal doubles first hand back
When Govert Metaal has needed help today, the deck has come to his rescue.He moved all in for 1,320,000 from the small blind and was called Natan Chauskin to set up a showdown.
Metaal: [ad][kh]
Chauskin: [as][9h]The board ran [8h][jd][jh][qc][4d] to send the chips the Dutchman's way.
6:10pm: Play resumes
The final three players are back in their seats. Here's how the chip stacks stand at the beginning of level 31:Name Country Status Chips Natan Chauskin Belarus 18475000 Chris Brammer Netherlands PokerStars player 4250000 Govert Metaal UK PokerStars qualifier 1340000
Business end of the final table
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For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Farrell fastest out the blocks in the Main Event
Farrell has made a fast start The opening flight of the EPT12 Malta Main Event follows a similar pattern to the others: eight 75 minute levels, 20 minute breaks after levels two and four, and a 75 minute dinner break at the end of level six. Late registration is open until play starts on Day 2. But right now, after four levels of play, 174 players have entered so far, and 154 still have chips.
At the halfway point of Day 1A let's see who's stacking chips high and who's gone for a cry (or hopped into a side event).
Mid-day update
One of the jibes aimed at poker is that in this day and age it lacks characters, with live events overrun by the online generation who put up the duel conversation killers of hoodie and headphones. One player who can't be tarred with that brush is Scotland's Niall 'Firaldo' Farrell. Chatty, smiley and not afraid to poke fun at himself, Farrell has relocated to Canada and just knocked out a 'Canuck' in the biggest pot he's played so far.
His victim was Jonathan Roy, who turned a set of fives on a [8][3][2][5] board only to run into Farrell's [Ah][4h]. That boosted Farrell to 54,000 and since then he's steadily built to 70,000.
He's not the only notable player to have enjoyed a decent start to the day, below are the counts of some of the names in the field.
Selected chip counts
Name Country Status Chips Ivan Luca Argentina PokerStars qualifier 50,000 Senh Ung UK 45,000 Fabrice Soulier France 42,000 Andrew Chen Canada PokerStars qualifier 40,000 David Yan New Zealand PokerStars qualifier 40,000 Justin Bonomo USA PokerStars qualifier 40,000 Marvin Rettenmaier Germany PokerStars player 40,000 Daniel Dvoress Canada PokerStars qualifier 38,000 David Benefield USA PokerStars player 37,000 Mohsin Charania USA PokerStars qualifier 36,000 Shaun Deeb USA PokerStars qualifier 35,000 Steve O'Dwyer Ireland PokerStars player 35,000 John Juanda Indonesia PokerStars player 33,000 Connor Drinan USA PokerStars qualifier 29,000 Isaac Haxton USA Team PokerStars Pro Online 27,000 Jennifer Shahade USA PokeStars Mind Sports Ambassador 27,000 Patrik Antonius Finland 27,000 Vladimir Troyanovskiy Russia PokerStars player 26,500 Charlie Carrel UK 26,000 Martin Finger Germany PokerStars qualifier 26,000 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia PokerStars qualifier 25,000 Ole Schemion Germant 25,000 Oleksii Khoroshenin Ukraine PokerStars player 24,000 Ben Heath UK PokerStars qualifier 22,500 Jake Cody UK Team PokerStars Pro 19,000 Ihar Soika Belarus PokerStars qualifier 17,000 Jason Mercier USA Team PokerStars Pro 14,500 Chistoph Vogelsang Germany 11,500 Maria Ho USA PokerStars qualifier 9,375 Paul Newey UK 9,000 Sergio Aido Spain 9,000 Soulier and Haxton were drawn to the same table Notable eliminations
Poker is a zero sum game which means whilst plenty of notables remain in, others have already headed for the exit door. Mateusz Moolhuizen was the victim of a set over set battle with pocket nines against Rob Schiffbauer's pocket kings. It all went in on a [Ks][Qs][9s] flop and the Dutchman became one of the early casualties on Day 1A.
He's in good company as Scott Montgomery, Stephen Chidwick, Craig Varnell, Anatoly Filatov and Mikita Badziakouski are also out.
Badziakouski has been bounced from this touranment Key coverage links
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
JC Alvarado on Fight Bet with Olivier Busquet
JC Alvarado explains how the bet was started, the stakes, the rules, and his plan for training. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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25 October
P1 Million: Local player David Erquiaga claims the Main Event title
The PokerStars Live Manila poker room at City of Dreams Manila held its final day of the P1 Million Guaranteed Main Event with 66 players returning to the felt. After seven hours of play, Filipino player David Erquiaga bested them all to claim the cha...
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25 October
A Twisted Fairytale at EPT Malta
Sarah heads to Level 22 at the Portomaso Tower for a night of Halloween partying. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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25 October
Pay Jumping the Hight Roller Nick Petrangelo
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: The return of Mad Marvin
Rettenmaier - back in Malta and back on the EPT
Marvin Rettenmaier is back! Not that he ever went away of course but a glance at his results indicates a North American bias to his recent tournament exploits. Indeed this is Rettenmaier's first EPT since the last time the tour was in Malta and the WSOPE in Berlin earlier this month was his first European tournament series since March.
The reason for that is simple, Rettenmaier has upped sticks from London and joined the ever expanding list of poker pros who call Mexico home. "I moved to Mexico after the summer, after the WSOP," he told the PokerStars Blog during a break in play. "It's more like a home base that I travel to in between tournaments. I don't have a place in Playa del Carmen yet, but I have a lot of friends there. There's a lot of poker players there."
Poker was low down on the list of reasons he moved though. "I don't really play poker when I'm there, I just enjoy myself. If I'm awake and not too hungover on a Sunday I will play. I'm playing a lot more online that I did last year and the year before but it's still very little. Before I moved to Mexico I spent the last six or seven years living in London in between tournaments. I'm a good weather person and I couldn't stand it anymore."
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.So whilst a lot of poker players come to tournaments to socialise as well as to play poker, Rettenmaier is attempting to do it the other way round. Party when in Mexico where most move for poker and then play poker when not in Mexico, he even skipped the players' party last night here in Malta.
That wasn't always the case though - you don't get the nickname 'Mad' lightly - with Rettenmaier perhaps over doing the social aspect at some events. A recent post on social media though indicated that he's once again taking poker more seriously. "I could've taken poker more seriously in the past," he says. "I definitely liked going out a lot, I did that a lot during tournaments when I had to play the next day. It just makes it a lot harder to play hungover and you play worse that's for sure. I still always felt like I had an edge in the tournaments that I played. I wouldn't have played like a €25,000 and drink the night before, then I'm definitely minus EV."
Rettenmaier in work mode
This is the second poker leg of a six week trip back to Europe before he heads back to Mexico, via another tournament in Jacksonville, Florida but it might be the last we see of him on the EPT for a while. "To be honest (the trip) was mostly to see my family, I wouldn't have come over just for the tournaments. I'm trying to reduce my travelling back and forth between time zones so I haven't decided if I'm playing EPT Prague yet."
But whilst he is here he's going to make the most of it and play as much poker as he can. "I definitely looked at the schedule here, it's great that if you bust a tournament there are plenty more to play and you have another chance. It's why the EPTs don't need re-entries in the Main Event. I'm probably going to play the €10,000 one day tournament tomorrow and the €10,000 High Roller. I plan on playing a lot."
He's playing with confidence too having final tabled the six-max event at the WSOPE in Berlin at the beginning of October. "It was definitely nice to start the WSOPE with a deep run, especially after saying I was going to take it more seriously again. It was a little bit frustrating because I had one tough decision with seven players left and I still don't know what my opponent had. I changed my mind during the hand, which I don't usually do, and I lost a lot of chips that hand and it might have cost me a good chance at winning a bracelet."
As part of his new 'taking poker more seriously' ethos Rettenmaier is putting in more time away from the tables too. "I definitely do more studying these days. But the main thing is that playing tired is just the absolute worst thing for a poker players. I knew that five years ago, I knew it two years ago and I know it now. But I still partied and I still went out because I set my priorities in a way where that was the most important thing. Whereas now I think it should be ok for me to party half the year wherever I am and the other half of the year play poker and take it seriously."
Amen to that. It's good to have you back Marvin.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Salloum’s vanishing trick, and Margets’ expletive-strewn departure
Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo, pictured in Marbella
It's a profoundly bitter experience to bubble a major poker tournament, particularly after more than two days' work. And so few people could blame Charbel Salloum for scooting out the door the minute he learned he had been eliminated during hand-for-hand play on the €2,000 IPT High Roller bubble.
The dealer at Salloum's table tried to get him to stay, but for whatever reason Salloum wasn't interested. Off he went. However, the dealer wasn't intending to cast him into some absurdist administrative nightmare, as he possibly feared. Rather the dealer wanted to let Salloum know that another player, Filippo Lazzaretto, was also all in on another table and he too was facing elimination.
Salloum was due half of the payout for 56th place, but wasn't anywhere to be seen.
All of this information was relayed second hand by one of the tournament officials (PokerStars Blog was regrettably not in attendance). It was a truncated conversation, however, because the tournament official had to scurry away and join the search for Salloum.
"The other guy [meaning Lazzaretto] was asking whether he was going to get all of it," the official said. "But the first guy [meaning Salloum] has to get it. That's the rules."
Soon enough, Salloum was located. Mercifully, he had not opted to throw himself into the sea after his painful elimination, nor had he scooted all the way to the airport and back to Lebanon. He was eventually dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically) back to the cash table where he was given €1,918 for finishing in what was deemed officially to be 56th place, while Lazzaretto got €1,917 for 55th.
That left the remaining players in the money. It was a gathering that included the esteemed likes of Steve O'Dwyer, Yann Dion, Michael Tureniec and Leo Margets.
Want to get involved? Course you do. Click here to get a PokerStars account.The latter was a short stack and so, as the first break of the day approached, things were a little anxious. Margets' Red Spade friend and colleague, Fatima Moreira de Melo, had popped by to rail the Team PokerStars Pro, but Moreira de Melo had become distracted by a conversation with Jorryt van Hoof.
Unbeknownst to Moreira de Melo, Margets was in the process of moving all in. Jesper Feddersen, with a stack of similar size, pondered the call and then decided to make it, tabling [as][td]. Margets flipped [7h][7d].
"You need to be calling for a seven," Margets said, interrupting the two Dutch pros' conversation.
"Oh f---," Moreira de Melo said, immediately fulfilling every expectation the world has of the potty-mouthed pro.But Moreira de Melo had accurately summed up the mood, especially after a [ts] appeared on the flop. The board then ran [kd][ks][6c][kc] and at least Margets was able to say that she lost boat under boat.
Away the rest of the field went for a break. There are fewer than 40 left now, and no Red Spades among them.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Stammen heads monster IPT High Roller into final day
Keven Stammen, pictured in Sanremo, leads IPT High Roller in Malta,
As Day 1A of the Main Event commences, there is fervent activity elsewhere as two of the festival's most popular events will play to their conclusions.
The €2,000 IPT High Roller resumed at 1pm with Keven Stammen in a commanding chip lead. Stammen, who has a WPT title and a WSOP bracelet to his name, bagged 674,500 chips last night, which was nearly double the total of anyone else in the room.
However, neither Stammen nor the 67 players remaining from the 403 who entered are guaranteed any return on investment just yet. The bubble bursts when 55 players remain, which should be one or two levels into the day. (First prize is €151,670; a min-case is €3,835.)
Stammen faces stiff competition from a field of similar quality to any in the week's festivities. Jorryt van Hoof (269,000), Steve O'Dwyer (205,500), Michael Tureniec (180,000), Ondrej Vinklarek (162,500), Ari Engel (159,500)D, Dermot Blain (135,000), Ismael Bojang (110,500), Martin Finger (81,500), Ariel Celestino (63,500), Connor Drinan (53,000) and Yann Dion (51,500) are also still involved. Leo Margets flies the Red Spade alone after the late-night elimination of Theo Jorgensen. Margets has 112,500.
Want to get involved? Course you do. Click here to get a PokerStars account.The Malta Cup resumes at 3pm, with 11 players remaining. That one wrapped up pretty late last night, but Neil Ryder heads the field. The British player is a regular around England's casinos, where he has a string of cashes in smaller buy-in events.
But he is on course to smash his highest tournament cash. There's nearly €50,000 on offer for the winner of the Malta Cup and, having outlasted a field of 894 to get there, it will be richly deserved.
Here are the survivors:
Neil Ryder, UK, 3,240,000
Ludovic Heinry, France, 1,800,000
Andras Stumpf, Hungary, 1,375,000
Guillaume Diaz, France, 1,365,000
Michael Michaelides, Cyprus, 1,335,000
Grzegorz Wyraz, Poland, 915,000
David Breitfuss, Austria, 850,000
Roman Skudar, Ukraine, 755,000
Benny Taieb, Israel, 735,000
Boris Kolev, Bulgaria, 535,000
Antonio Wehbe, Spain, 520,000A quick recap of what went on late last night:
Benjamin Chiss, of France, achieved the best result of his live poker career when he beat Yury Gulyy to win the €500 NL Hyper Turbo event. The two remaining players cut a deal heads up, with Chiss taking €16,670 and Gulyy €15,000 for second place. There were 176 entries creating a €85,360 prize pool.
In the women's event, Caroline Pillet picked up the trophy, beating Jen Shahade into second place and earning €3,360 for her troubles. Pillet finished 12th in the Women's event in Barcelona and continued her fine run of form. Shahade, the PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador, won €2,430 while Sabina Hiatullah, who was chip-leader for much of the final, finished fourth for €1,170. There were 55 entrants.
Nearly 100 players competed in yesterday's three €100 "Flipout" tournaments with two Italians and a Japanese player taking the top honours. Raffaele Gaetano and Alessio Peciarolo both defeated 32-strong fields to win €1,055, while Japan's Tsugunari Toma scored his first ever cash in Europe when he outlasted 34 players in the first Flipout of the day to win €1,120.
Toma has a string of results in Asia - including sixth in the APPT 2012 Asia Championship of Poker - but is new to EPT competition.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, the action from the Main Event is on the Main Event page. All the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
IPT7 Malta2 Main Event Final table: Level 27 (30,000/60,000, ante 10,000
1:25pm: Final table about to begin
Welcome back for the last day of the IPT Malta Main Event. The final table was set early evening yesterday after an unfortunate bustout out for Franco Arlotta in ninth place. The hand enabled Natan Chauskin to gain a firmer grasp on today's final table. As you can see from the table below, he's going to be a hard man to stop:Seat Name Country Status Chips 1 Christopher Brammer United Kingdom PokerStars qualifier 3,580,000 2 Denis Timofeev Russia PokerStars qualifier 2,090,000 2 Govert Metaal Netherlands PokerStars player 750,000 4 David Gomez Antelo Spain 2,525,000 5 Tobias Garp Sweden PokerStars qualifier 1,690,000 6 James Grogan Ireland PokerStars qualifier 890,000 7 Natan Chauskin Belarus 9,835,000 8 Joep Raemaekers Netherlands PokerStars player 2,235,000
Natan Chauskin
The final table is being streamed on PokerStars.tv on a one-hour delay but only in Italian. If that tongue suits you feel free to watch, if not, stick here with us all day as we'll be bring you all the key hands and exits. Cards are due in the air at 1:30pm CET.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: For the glory (and 500k), the happy few high roller finalists return
As the Main Event prepares to start today, the High Rollers, now three days in to their Malta adventure, take centre stage one last time to seek the honour and glory of an EPT win.
It's a good day to speak of such things, it being St Crispin's Day, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. For some it's a day to remember the plucky underdog, the outnumbered archers taking on a superior force of men at arms. Others might prefer simply to speak of Shakespeare and quote Henry V, coveting honour and pointing out how "gentlemen in England now a-bed (enjoying the extra hour) shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here."
For we should have a thrilling finish to the festival's opening high roller, with a happy few of eight finalists back for one more day. Each has previous, turning this into a straight and difficult fight. But the harder the task the greater share of the glory.
Who are those eight?
Seat Player Country Chips 1 Juha Helppi Finland 2,215,000 2 Nick Petrangelo USA 650,000 3 Sam Greenwood Canada 4,775,000 4 Jason Wheeler USA 930,000 5 Sylvain Loosli France 2,065,000 6 Benjamin Pollak France 1,365,000 7 Byron Kaverman USA 2,970,000 8 Mike McDonald Canada 3,500,000 No one on that list is short of a powerful resume.
McDonald might not have won a high roller, but he's reached countless final tables (as well as winning an EPT). Loosli got his High Roller crown in Barcelona two months ago, while Petrangelo came close in the same festival. Greenwood makes back-to back EPT Malta High Roller final tables, following his seventh place back in March. Juha Helppi has been winning like this since his opposition today were in short trousers (actually some of them are still in short trousers), and while Pollak might not have the High Roller experience he has enough time in the game to handle himself. Same goes for Wheeler. Both however, are more than capable of that Crispian upset.
And so they play on today until we have a winner, one who will take away a first prize just shy of €500,000, and the lion's share of that glory stuff. Every cut and thrust will be detailed on our live coverage page; there many years from now to remember what feats were done that day.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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25 October
EPT12 Malta: Time for the main course
Jean Montury celebrates his victory earlier this year
So here we are, back in Malta for a second time in a calendar year. Or more accurately back for the start of the second EPT Main Event here in a calendar year. The fact that the flagship event is tournament #32 on a 76 event schedule tells you that plenty of action has already occurred in Malta already.
Two of the biggest amuse-bouche's reach their climax today with the IPT Main Event and €25,000 High Roller final tables starting at 12.30 CET.
But back to the Main Event. To refresh your memory last time we were here Jean Montury defeated a field of 895 to capture the inaugural EPT Malta title and add a poker trophy to those he won in a former career as a pool player. They say no one remembers the runner-up but we did here as the defining image of that final table was Montury consoling Valentin Messina after their long heads-up battle was over.
Montury consoles Messina
We know he'll be back to defend his title as he played a side event yesterday. This event is like all other Main Events on the EPT. There are, as normal, two opening flights: Day 1A today and Day 1B tomorrow. Entry costs €5,000+€300, players begin with 30,000 in tournament chips and the plan is to play eight 75-minute levels, with a dinner break after level six (approximately 8.10pm).
It should all be done and dusted by about midnight, before we rinse and repeat tomorrow.
As alluded to above the Main Event is just one of many events you can follow today. Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page. You can also watch that final table on a one hour delay (cards up, with Italian commentary) on PokerStars.tv.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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25 October
The King of Berlin: Kevin MacPhee Wins the 2015 WSOP Europe Main Event
Kevin MacPhee won his second major title in Berlin, Germany, Saturday night, taking down the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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25 October
2015 WSOP Europe 888 Hand of the Day: Kevin MacPhee Flops a Monster
Kevin MacPhee cruised to victory in the 2015 WSOP Europe Main Event after winning the 888 Hand of the Day. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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25 October
Duhamel and MacPhee win WSOPE bracelets
Two big names take down the High Roller and Main Event as the World Series of Poker Europe concludes in Berlin.
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25 October
Play like Phil Hellmuth, not like Phil Ivey
We congratulate another completed Bankroll Challenge, but do you agree with the advice our latest winner has shared?
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25 October
1st | Dan Livingstone wins big at Horseshoe Hammond
Dan Livingston certainly enjoyed his time at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana – situated right outside of Chicago, Illinois – back in 2009. It was on this day six years ago that Livingston would finish 1st in the WSOP Circuit Hammond Main Event, taking home $291,740 for his efforts. Amazingly, Livingston only has one other result on the live tournament circuit – that came earlier this year in a Rio Daily DeepStacks event...
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25 October
P1 Million: Final Day Updates
The final day of the P1M Guarantee Main Event has started with 66 hopefuls looking to go deep and claim the first place purse of P357,300. Only 36 players will make a profit which means, nearly half the field will fall before the money is guaranteed. W...
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25 October
P1 Million: Final Day Begins
Cards are flying at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room for the final day of the P1M Guarantee Main Event. A total of 66 qualifiers from the combined results of the day one flights are batting it out for the first place purse of P357,300 plus the add...
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Mikita Badziakouski swings and misses on the bubble
The bubble burst with an "oh, shhhh..." The bubble would not belong to Nick Petrangelo, who outran Ben Pollack's queen-seven with ace-eight, neither would it be Andrew Chen, for some time one of the short stacks, who was made to choose all in or fold ...
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Sam Greenwood leads final table of €25,000 High Roller
Greenwood grabbed the most chips
For much of today it looked like it was a case of different day same chip leader as Quan Zhou became the first to eclipse the one million and two million chip marks. It would've been somewhat of a surprise had he led wire to wire on Day 2. But by the time the blinds were high enough, and the field small enough, new faces had taken his place.
Mike McDonald assumed that position with 16 players remaining, and it was only a late flourish from Sam Greenwood that saw him eclipsed at the top of the chip counts. That means it'll be a Canadian one-two when the final eight return tomorrow at 12.30 CET to play for the trophy and €498,575.
Seat Player Country Chips 1 Juha Helppi Finland 2,215,000 2 Nick Petrangelo USA 650,000 3 Sam Greenwood Canada 4,775,000 4 Jason Wheeler USA 930,000 5 Sylvain Loosli France 2,065,000 6 Benjamin Pollak France 1,365,000 7 Byron Kaverman USA 2,970,000 8 Mike McDonald Canada 3,500,000 For Greenwood it means he's made back-to-back final tables in this event, having finished seventh here in Season 11. He set the unofficial final table when he eliminated Dietrich Fast in tenth place. It all went in pre-flop with Greenwood's pocket twos racing against Fast's [Kc][Th]. A two on the flop made it a one-sided race and gave Greenwood the chip lead. He barely had time to stack his chips before Jason Wheeler eliminated Christopher Frank in ninth and play was done for the day.
McDonald has made yet another High Roller final table
As we discussed earlier, for all McDonald's final table appearances in high roller events he's yet to taste victory in one. If he's to do so tomorrow he'll have to get past men who have. Men like Sylvain Loosli and Juah Helppi.
The Frenchman of course took down the Super High Roller event in Barcelona back in August. Remarkably Loosli is one of three players amongst the final eight who didn't enter this tournament to the start of the day. The others are Jason Wheeler and Benjamon Pollak. Why even bother with the first eight levels indeed!
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.As you'd expect from a buy-in of this size none of the final eight are unknowns, although some are better known for their exploits in tournaments in America than on the EPT. Like Byron Kaverman. He was McDonald's closest challenger for the latter part of the day after he picked off a bluff from Charlie Carrel to ascend the chip counts.
Kaverman (right) picked off Carrel's bluff
Like Loosli he went deep in Barcelona, where he bubbled the official final table. He's put that demon to rest here and back to back high roller wins at The Aria in March and a WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 six-max NLHE event in June of this year are proof of his ability.
Badziakouski bubbled
The finalists are now guaranteed €67,990 but aren't the only ones who'll get paid. With 74 entries in total (63 unique, 11 re-entries) the €1,813,000 prize pool will be split 11 ways (full details here). Last to leave empty handed was Mikita Badziakouski. The Belarusian had trouble staying awake in this event last year but needed all his senses to stay alive when this one reached the final two tables.
He was almost permanently short stacked and couldn't avoid the hangman's noose forever. He lost the most classic of races with queens against Christopher Frank's [Ad][Ks] - which rivered a straight - and everyone else was in the money. Andrew Chen was first out in the money in 11th place (€45,325) and was followed by Fast (10th, €45,325) and Frank (9th, €51,670).
Another high roller cashe for Chen
The €25,000 High Roller is just one of many events that have been taking place today. The IPT Main Event is down to the final table. That's being streamed on a one hour delay (Italian commentary only) from 1.30pm CET on PokerStars.tv.
Elsewhere today there was fun with flipouts a qunituple stud event that featured the defending EPT Malta champion. There was plenty more side event action with the Women's event and the IPT High Roller among those that caught our eye.
Jen Shahade made the money in the Women's event
The Main Event starts tomorrow at noon tomorrow and headlines the action. Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Late night side event update
Sabina Hiatullah: Leading the way in the women's event
It is just edging past 11pm in Malta but the two tournament floors are still abuzz with activity. While the €25,000 High Roller plays on either to the end of level 16 or until eight players remain (whichever is sooner), the two neighbouring tournaments have plans to go until the bitter end.
At the time of starting this post, there were nine players left in the €200 Women's Event, of whom only seven were due to be paid. But on second glance, they were down to seven already, and then six, as Sabine Hiatullah's dominance pushed them through the bubble.
The tournament is exceptionally shallow now, with blinds of 1,500-3,000 and Hiatullah leading with about 140,000. The average stack is only 80,000, or 26 big blinds, so a resolution will come sooner rather than later.
Jennifer Shahade is once again in the money. She has one of the shorter stacks of the five left, but is by far the most experienced of the remaining players.
Jennifer Shahade: Into the money for the Red SpadeOnly a few paces across the tournament floor, the quintuple stud is down to its last eight players, with five due to be paid. Ben Dobson, the British pro, is leading, but there's still a lot of play in that one.
The players went off for a dinner break and have only just returned. It is slow going in stud and Thomas Stacha, one of our photography team, reckons it won't be done until about 3am. Stacha knows about these things. He is very frequently to be seen in hotel breakfast buffets on his way to bed after finishing the graveyard shift at EPT poker festivals.
Let's see if he's right tonight.
In the downstairs tournament room, the Malta Cup and the €2,000 IPT High Roller continue on. The Malta Cup will play until around 2am, or to a final table. There's practically no chance of the latter--there are still 40 remaining--so that one will be finishing by the clock.
We will pick up more in depth action from tomorrow, the day on which they will crown a champion.
Meanwhile the IPT has 110 of its 403 starters remaining, and the plan to play to the end of level 15. That will come at 12.15am and will leave them the arduous task of playing to a winner tomorrow as well.
There's still a really high-quality cast of characters remaining in that one, including the Team PokerStars Pros Luca Pagano, Theo Jorgensen and Leo Margets, as well as the likes of Steve O'Dwyer, Dylan Linde, Mohsin Charania and Ivan Luca. Similarly, we'll watch that one in more depth tomorrow.
Steve O'Dwyer: From one high roller to another
Theo Jorgensen: Whiling away the hours before the cash games
And if all that isn't enough, the hyper-turbo is just getting under way. It's lucky the clocks go back tonight...
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: A familiar name heads the sweet sixteen in the €25K High Roller
Look who' s got the chip lead! One of the many certainties in the big events on the EPT is the redraws that take place with 24, 16 and 9 players remaining. Talk to any tournament director and the primary reason given is to 'even out the luck'. The theory - and it's a sound one - is that at this stage of a tournament if just one table were to break then the players moving from that table to those that remained would be at too big of a disadvantage. With the elimination of Huidong Gu in 17th the players who were still spread over three tables had to be condensed into two and so there was a complete re-draw. The random seat draw did a fine job of distributing the chips evenly amongst both tables as you can see below (all counts are approximate):
Table Seat Name Country Chips 1 1 Juha Helppi Finland 1,750,000 1 2 Mike McDonald Canada 2,850,000 1 3 Mikita Badziakouski Belarus 650,000 1 4 Sylvain Loosli France 930,000 1 5 Nick Petrangelo USA 875,000 1 6 Christopher Frank Germany 1,050,000 1 7 Frederik Jensen Denmark 190,000 1 8 Jason Wheeler USA 520,000 Total Chips: 8,815,000 2 1 Byron Kaverman USA 2,750,000 2 2 Quan Zhou China 1,450,000 2 3 Dietrich Fast Germany 1,200,000 2 4 Benjamin Pollak France 550,000 2 5 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia 380,000 2 6 Andrew Chen Canada 900,000 2 7 Sam Greenwood Canada 1,350,000 2 8 Justin Bonomo USA 890,000 Total Chips: 9,470,000 
Byron Kaverman - chip boss at table two Neither table are at a disadvantage when it comes to chips with just 655,000 difference between the two. The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that Mike McDonald has assumed the mantle of chip leader, although only by a sliver from Byron Kaverman. The Canadian, who came so close to becoming the first ever two-time winner on the EPT has some unfinished business with High Rollers on their tour - be they regular, mid-sized, or super sized. It's not for want of trying, he's a regular fixture in the high buy-in events on the EPT, but he's been routinely close to the winner's circle only to have the door slammed shut. His roll of honour in big buy-in events on the EPT (those with a €/$/£ buy-in of 10,000 or more includes final table finishes in most places other than first and is simply outstanding: 2nd: EPT8 Prague €10,000 High Roller 3rd: EPT8 Sanremo €10,000 High Roller 4th: EPT10 Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller 5th: EPT7 Madrid €10,000 Turbo High Roller 5th: EPT9 Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller 5th: EPT10 Prague €10,000 High Roller 5th: EPT12 Barcelona €25,000 High Roller 8th: EPT8 Grand Final six-max Turbo High Roller 8th: PCA 2014 $100,000 Super High Roller He's been there, done that, got the t-shirt but as of yet not the trophy. Indeed his last recorded tournament victory was in September 2011, his last, and indeed only victory, on European soil was his EPT victory in Dortmund as an 18-year-old back in January 2008. We're sure he'd love to end that wait here in Malta. Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page. Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: All the fun of the Flipouts, a player’s-eye view
A player's eye view of the Flipout spectacular Dara O'Kearney had time to kill before the Malta Cup got restarted this evening. In the spirit of any poker player with some time to kill before a poker tournament gets restarted, O'Kearney played some more poker--specifically a few of the €100 "Flipouts" that were scheduled in 45-minute intervals from 5.30pm through 7pm.
There's nothing all that remarkable about that. Poker player in playing poker shocker. But O'Kearney decided to marry one of his passions with another: poker met social media as O'Kearney filmed the entire flip-out phase of the tournament to share via Periscope. This was a rare chance for a player's eye perspective of an entire tournament.
If you're au fait with neither "Flipouts" nor Periscope, this will likely need some explanation, not least because the use of electronic devices--video-capturing devices in particular--are prohibited if one has live cards. Periscope is a live-streaming platform, allowing short video clips to be shared in real time (YouTube meets Twitter), so a video-capture device is certainly required.
But in truth, there's very little danger to a game's integrity to film the opening stage of a "Flipout" tournament. Players get only two chips, one of which he or she is obliged to gamble on the first hand, regardless of cards, and the second of which must be gambled on the second.
Want to get involved? Course you do. Click here to get a PokerStars account.There are no decisions to be made, no strategy to be applied. In the vast majority of cases, ones tournament lasts precisely two hands (ie., as long as it takes to lose those two chips) and then it's off to find something else to do.
(The winner of each table in a "Flipout" tournament then goes through to a final and plays some proper poker to declare an overall champion.)
I first got wind of O'Kearney's Periscope/Flipout intentions via a tweet that landed in PokerStars Blog's Twitter timeline. Twitter said that the tweet had been sent 25 minutes ago, and after clicking on to it, it quickly became clear how successful O'Kearney's tournament had been. The landing page for the particular Periscope clip said the broadcast had finished 24 minutes ago.
Yep, O'Kearney went whiff, whiff and the tournament was done within a minute, despite a slightly wishful comment appearing in Periscope's live chat box from someone identifying himself as "DKLappin" (rumoured to be O'Kearney's friend and countryman David Lappin) saying, "Get there." He didn't.
Dara O'Kearney, pictured in Cork on the UKIPT (Lappin in background) Approximately 44 minutes later, O'Kearney was back at the felt and again the camera was turned on. The result, however, was something very similar. Whiff, whiff, out.
The third tweet was as plaintive as it was inevitable. "LIVE on #Periscope: Last chance in the flipouts at EPT Malta." Sorry to say that not even a live-action Lappin on the rail, sticking his thumb up on cue when the camera swivelled in his direction, could rescue O'Kearney. He lost both hands again.
"I've never even had a sweat," O'Kearney said soon after, once he had settled back into the Malta Cup field. "I've lost 12 from 12."
The final three "Flipouts" of EPT Malta are played tomorrow, at 5.30pm, 6.15pm and 7pm. Can O'Kearney complete the clean sweep? Fifteen from 15? Tune into Periscope to find out.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: What do you say to the man who just bluffed off his chips?
What exactly do you say to the player you just busted in what was likely the biggest hand of the high roller event so far? All that Byron Kaverman could manage was "good game." To back up a little, this one had been huge. It was started by Charlie Car...
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24 October
IPT7 Malta2 Main Event final table set: Natan Chauskin clear leader
Chauskin leading the way Every so often at one of PokerStars' festivals you get a day in a Main Event where the stars align so that the action is played at a crazy pace and, if it happens, it's normally on the penultimate day. Today was one of those days. Thirty players returned with the aim of making the final table of eight and it took just four-and-half levels to get there.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
After the dust settled, Belarussian player Natan Chauskin ended the the day as massive chip leader with 9,835,000. He was already in pole position but firmed up his lead by eliminating Franco Arlotta in ninth place in an aces versus kings cooler.
This is how the final eight will line up tomorrow:
Seat Name Country Status Chips 1 Christopher Brammer United Kingdom PokerStars qualifier 3,580,000 2 Denis Timofeev Russia PokerStars qualifier 2,090,000 2 Govert Metaal Netherlands PokerStars player 750,000 4 David Gomez Antelo Spain 2,525,000 5 Tobias Garp Sweden PokerStars qualifier 1,690,000 6 James Grogan Ireland PokerStars qualifier 890,000 7 Natan Chauskin Belarus 9,835,000 8 Joep Raemaekers Netherlands PokerStars player 2,235,000 A player busted roughly every twelve minutes today. The first two to go, in the opening minutes, were Ben Richardson and Russell Thomas. The latter staged a remarkable comeback on Day 2 when he might've expected to have gone early; today he would've expected to last longer than he did. His pocket eights faired badly against Klaus Gortz on a seven high flop though.
Watch out for Brammer tomorrow
The eliminations continued at a frantic pace and it seemed as if most players were contagious to some sort of bustout disease, one that caused a player to bust if they were all in at any point. One player who made sure he was vaccinated this morning was Chris Brammer. The (mainly) online star doubled three times when all in, once when he was behind, twice when he got his chips in good. Entering tomorrow's final table second in chips and with position on the chip leader, means he'll be a force to be reckoned with.
There were a number of three-way all ins as well today. The last of which saw Govert Metaal - the short stack at the final table - get lucky to triple up with the worst hand. His ace-eight beat Elias Moukawem's ace-king and Pierre Chambon's ace-queen. Chambon works for PokerStars in the Malta office and was eliminated in 18th place.
Dion was happy with his deep run
Yann Dion was another player, like Thomas, who made an improbable comeback yesterday. He was down to two big blinds around the bubble but came all the way back to make Day 3. He never got anything going today but managed to ladder to 14th just by virtue of players busting around him. Day 1A and 2 chip leader Alessio Peciarolo busted three places after him when he flopped the wrong end of the straight. Chauskin held the better end and scooped a huge pot that catapulted him into a lead he would never relinquish.
Not Peciarolo's day today
Tomorrow's final table starts at 12:30pm but, as it's being streamed live in Italian (only) on PokerStars.tv our coverage will coincide will the delay, so will start at 1:30pm. Meanwhile, who don't you read back over today's frantic action?
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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24 October
P1 Million: Final Day Information
PokerStars Live Manila saw a combined total of 368 entries for the P1M Guarantee Main Event. The prize pool well exceeded the guarantee but the break down is yet to be announced (so stand by for that). At the end of each day one flight, only 66 players...
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Why bother with the first eight levels?
Jason Wheeler: Bounced back from four bigs
All of us here have covered poker tournaments for quite some time, both before and since registration periods were routinely extended until the start of the second day.
In that more recent period--the era in which players typically have more than ten hours to decide at which point to enter proceedings--we have often wondered whether or not it is worth even playing the opening day.
By that, I mean it can often be interesting to watch how the latest of late entrants get on, the folk who buy in with minutes to spare and try to spin up a 40 big-blind stack. Here at the €25,000 High Roller event in Malta, where the starting stack is 250,000 chips, a new entrant would have had almost precisely that at the beginning: 41 big blinds to be exact, as level nine had blinds of 3,000-6,000 (1,000 ante).
If we took this event as our one and only sample, we would likely draw some fairly odd conclusions. At the beginning of play today, Sylvain Loosli, Benjamin Pollak, Craig Varnell, Frederik Jensen, Jason Wheeler and Michael Rocco bought in for the very first time, the former three with cold hard cash, the latter three after winning a seat in last night's super satellite.
Want to get involved? Course you do. Click here to get a PokerStars account.And as the players have just entered level 15, two thirds of them are still involved, with only Varnell and Rocco having hit the rail. The overall field has been cut to 20 players--ie, less than a third of the players who entered are still involved--but our newbies are defying the odds.
Indeed, Loosli has spun his 250,000 into a stack of more than a million. Wheeler was down to four big blinds at one point, but is now sitting with 460,000. Pollak has something similar, while Jensen has close to 800,000.
Benjamin Pollak: Late arrival, still around
However, before anybody gets the idea that Day 1 of these events is a total waste of time, it's worth a quick glance at the top of the leader board. Yesterday's two chip leaders, Quan Zhou and Dietrich Fast, remain at the summit, largely thanks to their good work on the opening day.
Blinds are now up to 8,000-16,000 in level 13, so it is far from certain that anybody is certain to make the money. Nine more players will need to be eliminated until the bubble bursts, and there's still a very real chance that the current statistical anomaly will be ironed out.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
P1Million: Kim is the chip leader for Day 1b
The PokerStars Live Manila poker room at City of Dreams Manila was in full swing with both cash tables and tournament tables filled up. Quite a number of alternates were in line waiting for their chance to get in the P1M Guarantee Main Event. By the en...
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: High Rollers reach half-time on Day 2
The plan today in the High Roller is to play ten levels or until the final table of eight is reached, whichever comes first. With five of those ten levels completed lets take a look at how things stand...
Mid-day update
Different day, same chip leader. Without sounding like a broken record Quan Zhou has picked up where he left off and still leads this tournament. The difference being that only he and 19 other players remain now whereas there were 55 at the start of the day. As you'd expect Zhou's played a significant role in that number descending downwards, we caught him in the act as he was eliminating Vladimir Troyanovskiy .
The Chinese player was the first to breach the one million chip barrier and is so far the only player to have put his head above the two million mark. His chip leading stack of 2,100,000 leaves him some way clear of the chasing pack. The blinds have just ticked up to 10,000/20,000 ante 3,000 and this is how the remaining players stack up:
It's all about Zhou
Name Country Chips Quan Zhou China 2,100,000 Dietrich Fast Germany 1,550,000 Juha Helppi Finland 1,500,000 Byron Kaverman USA 1,405,000 Chris Hunichen USA 1,350,000 Sam Greenwood Canada 1,350,000 Sylvain Loosli France 1,220,000 Huidong Gu China 1,100,000 Mike McDonald Canada 1,000,000 Nick Petrangelo USA 970,000 Frederik Jensen Denmark 800,000 Andrew Chen Canada 750,000 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia 570,000 Charlie Carrel UK 542,000 Christopher Frank Germany 535,000 Jason Wheeler USA 460,000 Benjamin Pollak France 425,000 Thomas Muehloecker Austria 400,000 Justin Bonomo USA 260,000 Mikita Badziakouski Belarus 225,000 Earlier today the prize pool information was announced, the winner will take home €498,575 with 11 players cashing for at least €45,325. There will though be a new champion as Dzmitry Urbanovich was eliminated by Dietrich Fast. Short stacked the Pole moved all-in for just under 10 big blinds with [Ks][Jd] and lost out to Fast's pocket kings.
Position Prize 1st € 498,575 2nd € 354,440 3rd € 232,065 4th € 178,580 5th € 141,415 6th € 110,590 7th € 87,025 8th € 67,990 9th € 51,670 10th-11th € 45,325 He's not the only big name to be sent to the rail today. There was a three-table re-draw with 24 left and since then Brian Roberts, Dan Smith and Team Pro Online's Ike Haxton have been eliminated. It's Haxton's home EPT and he was sent crashing out by Charlie Carrel. Down to just 12.5 big blinds Haxton made his stand with [A][10] but lost a race to Carrel's pocket sevens. There were three Team PokerStars members alive when play resumed but Jason Mercier and Andre Akkari are also out as are: Adrian Mateos, Shaun Deeb, Connor Drinan, Stephen Chidwick and Steve O'Dwyer to name just a handful.
Akkari - out
Haxton and Smith (foreground) also out
Key links
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Quintuple stud brings out the champion
Jean Montury: Champion playing the stud
The "quintuple stud" tournament is under way in Malta, which represents a unique challenge to players, reporters and the people who write the festival tournament schedule brochure alike.
Let's start with the latter: They have only a tiny on with which to describe a tournament in the at-a-glance festival line-up, but "quintuple stud" doesn't quite describe what this is all about.
More particularly, this is a six-handed tournament in which you play a rotation of five stud games. First up, it's seven-card stud, then seven-card hi/lo, then seven-card razz, then seven card super stud hi/lo and then five-card stud. They are all similar, but they are all different (and I'll confess, I don't know what makes super stud super). But at least 30 players here do and have come out to join the fray.
Among them is the man who has the best reason to remember this room fondly: Jean Montury. Having mastered no-limit hold-em this time last season--he won the main event--Montury is making his first appearance of this season's EPT Malta in the quintuple stud.
It's a tough one to live-blog. I watched one hand, during a seven-card hi/lo round, and poor Olli Kokko was required to declare himself eliminated at the end of it. His opponents and the dealer were still pondering who had won what of the two pots on offer--Kokko was all in on fourth street--but Kokko knew the game was up.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.After Tobias Hausen, who won the razz here last year, paid the bring in with the [4d] exposed, Bas de Laat called with [jd] up and Kokko raised with [qh] showing. The other two called. The betting then capped when the three had the [9h], [8s] and [5s] added to their exposed cards, respectively. And I totally lost track of what money was going in when the [ac], [kd], [Ts] came next.
By this point Kokko was definitely all in, so Hausen and De Laat were piling cash into a side pot. The [6d], [7h], [7s] were the next out and then they all got their final down card too.
A load more betting ensued--this really is first rate coverage, isn't it. Bookmark. This. Page!--and they all flipped over their hands.
Hausen showed [2h][6c][ah] to go with his [4d][5s][10s][7s].
De Laat had [7d][jh][8d] to go with his [jd][8s][kd][7h].
Kokko had [qs][2s][4c] to go with his [qh][9h][ac][6d].When all was said and done, Hausen won the low with his ace-to-six and De Laat won the high with his two pair, jacks and eights. Meanwhile Kokko said, "One pair, no low," handed his tournament ticket to the dealer and headed off, very politely.
Montury and Fabrice Soullier are still involved at this point, as the tournament officials announced the prize pool details. There were 31 players, five places paid and few grand for the winner.
In the tournament area adjacent to the quintuple stud, the ladies event was also in its early stages. There are 55 players in that one--another fine turnout--and a decent whack up for grabs to whoever takes that down later this evening.
Jennifer Shahade, the PokerStars Mind Sport Ambassardor, is wearing the Red Spade.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: The mysterious leader of the pack
Zhou still leads on Day 2
We've a confession to make. We don't know a great deal about the chip leader of this event - although we're learning more level by level. Quan Zhou held the lead at the end of Day 1 and almost 40% of the way through Day 2 he's still looking down on the rest of the field. He's the only player to have more than a million chips to his name and subsequently he's also the only player with over a 100 big blinds (the big blind is currently 12,000).
A quick google will uncover a bit more about his poker prowess and inform you that he's won just over $420,000 in tournaments since his maiden cash in June 2011. A quick scan will also uncover a reason why we don't know too much about him, 18 of his 23 cashes are in tournaments held in Asia. All of this doesn't though give us any more information on how he plays poker or what sort of style he employs at the table.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.However a hand he just played against Paul Newey gave the PokerStars Blog - and his opponent's - an insight into how he approaches some situations in poker. In the hand in question Newey shoved for 143,000 from under-the-gun+1 and action folded to Zhou who was in the small blind. With blinds at 6,000/12,000 ante 2,000 it meant that the Chinese player was facing a shove of right around 12 big blinds.
It soon become clear that he had a fairly close decision to make as he got a count of Newey's shove and slipped his headphones off so he could think more clearly. He took out the 137,000 more he needed to call and stcked them in one tower. He then stood up and stared at Newey, puffed out his cheeks to exhale and sat back down.
The biggest chip in play right now is worth 25,000 and Zhou has a lot of them. They were stacked in one columnand comprised the last tower on the left of his chip stack. He took them in his hand and slid them to the far right so he could cut them down. They totalled 675,000 and were soon rehoused from whence they'd came. We can assume Zhou is right handed, not just because around 90% of the world are, he was stroking the tower of chips that totalled 137,000 with his right hand and suddenly looked up to once again try and get information from Newey. He smiled at the Englishman and Newey smiled right back.
Zhou has plenty of chips to play with
Another 10 seconds passed and Zhou then pushed his cards towards the muck, no sooner had he done so then Charlie Carrel, who had a stack of around 435,000, folded from the big blind and said: "I've folded, don't muck I want to see what you were thinking about calling with."
"Can I show?" asked Zhou as he went to retrieve his cards from the muck but only one was easily identifiable and so he could show just the [Ac]. "I had ace-ten suited," he said to Carrel, who assured Zhou that with that holding it really was a close decision and his tanking was more than justified. Newey was game too as he turned over the [6s] indicating, so the table believed, that his other card was also likely a six.
And with that the game continued, on the next hand Newey raised and when it got to Zhou he mucked his cards with zero fanfare and went back to doing something on his phone.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: How Zhou could lead again tonight
Quan Zhou ended the day yesterday as chip leader. Right now he seems intent on doing the same today. Dressed in a three-piece suit, albeit without the third piece, he has on a pressed white shirt, polished leather shoes, a grey scarf, and a rather ni...
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24 October
The Maltese Laundry Debacle with Shaun Deeb
Several players who came from the WSOP-E have been Tweeting about the Maltese laundry situation. Sarah chats to Shaun Deeb about how he almost missed the start of Day 2 of the High Roller. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Cut adrift in a world of bubbles
The world of bubbles
Back in Barcelona in August, I was in the middle of fixation with bubbles. It was nothing so decadent as an addiction to champagne, rather a childish obsession with an online game named Agar.io.
As with all the best viral hits, Agar.io is devilishly simple but enduringly difficult to master. It also doesn't sound quite so compelling when described in words, but the general gist of the game is that a player controls a small bubble floating in a sea of other bubbles, attempting not just to survive but to grow bigger. You feed on small bubbles scattered across the landscape.
If you cross paths with a player-controlled bubble that is smaller, you consume it, adding its mass to your own. If you happen to run into a bubble that is bigger, your opponent consumes you and your game is over. Simple, yes, but fiercely addictive--and, in my opinion, with a resonance that spreads far wider than the simple parameters of the game itself.
I'll spare you my theories about how Agar.io mirrors life. Existential musings have no place on a poker blog. But I will say this: the press room of a major poker festival proved to be a really good place to become obsessed with Agar.io. There are many, many parallels.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.When stepping out on to the tournament floor, it felt in many ways like entering an almost perfect avatar of Agar.io's particular world, where hundreds of bubbles did battle with hundreds of others. The small ones tried to take hits from the big ones, risking their very livelihood in the process. Meanwhile the bloated huge bubbles, the chip-leaders, did their best to pick off the small fry at limited risk to themselves.
In Agar.io, much like in poker, opponents come from all over the world and adopt various strategies in their bid to grow the largest mass. On some occasions, a game will be over before it really begins, when a larger mass immediately swoops in and takes you out. At other times, you grow so enormous that you can simply seem to do no wrong. Opponents have no option but to defer, to get out of the way, to hope to get lucky--or to launch guerrilla assaults in the attempt to undermine authority.
Similarly, when a game ends in Agar.io--either in ignominy or glory--it's simple to leap immediately into another one. But when you start again, you are in control of a tiny bubble, a mere fraction of the bloated mass you may have just surrendered.
This element had particular echoes in Barcelona. I remember one occasion when I watched Sylvain Loosli wrap up victory in the €50,000 Super High Roller event, earning an enormous pay-cheque of €1.2 million and ending with all the chips from the tournament in front of him. About 30 minutes later, however, I spotted him entering the main event, wandering through the hundreds of other players carrying a tiny rack of about 20 chips, forced to start all over again.
Sylvain Loosli: Accumulating new mass
Loosli had been the biggest of bubbles moments before, envied and feared in equal measure. Then suddenly he was back among the sprats: a tiny bubble of spawn taking his chances in a vast sea, where what came before meant nothing. (He was duly out before the money kicked in.)
Loosli was one of the late buy-ins into the €25,000 High Roller event here in Malta today, collecting a mass of 250,000 chips with which to begin. It was significantly smaller than the mass already being carried around by Dietrich Fast and Quan Zhou, for instance, but he began accumulating quickly. After an hour of play had enough to consume David Yan's stack.
Yan, of course, is now free to start again, perhaps to hop into the alternate reality of the €2,000 IPT High Roller. Or he can just take time away from the tables and recharge, before preparing another assault.
Either way, the tournament continues without him. His mass has been swallowed, swelling Loosli's bubble. And he beats on, a bubble against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: The champion of champions table
So what have you won lately?
There are many ways to keep score in poker but the most traditional one is winnings. Money talks after all. So imagine having accumulated over $1,100,000 in live tournament earnings and being the pauper of the bunch as everyone else at your table had accumulated at least $2,500,000. That sounds insane, unbelievable even, but it was the situation that Chris Hunichen found himself in when he sat down at the start of Day 2 in the €25,000 High Roller and was faced with this motley crew of opponents.
Table Seat Name Country Chips 6 1 Bryn Kenney USA 184,000 6 2 Mike McDonald Canada 226,000 6 3 David Peters USA 212,000 6 4 Chris Hunichen USA 220,000 6 6 Thomas Muehloecker Austria 230,000 6 7 Jason Mercier USA 291,000 6 8 Dzmitry Urbanovich Poland 246,000 Before you shed a tear for Hunichen whilst he might 'only' have won a little over $1,100,000 in live tournaments he's racked up over $7,750,000 in online winnings under the screename 'Big Huni'. He's a multiple online Triple Crown winner and there aren't too many major online tournaments he hasn't won. He's not exactly the sucker in this line-up, but then who is?
David Peters and Chris Hunichen
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Here's a look at some of their collective achievements:
- Over $48,000,000 in live tournament earnings
- 47 outright tournament victories (Mercier has 18 alone)
- six victories in $10k+ buy-ins outside of PokerStars tours.
- four EPT High Roller titles
- three WSOP bracelets
- two EPT titles
- two NAPT Bounty Shootout titles
- two Eureka High Roller titlesIn short they know how to close. There are no easy tables in events with a buy-in of €25,000, but if there's a harder one in the room we're yet to find it.
Just another day at the office
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: Dietrich on high roller Fast track
If it's possible to know you're playing badly, it must follow that you know when you're playing well. It's not that Dietrich Fast said as much, he just implied it, both in the stack he bagged-up last night and something he said before he did so.
I was standing alongside his table as play ended last night. I thought I'd check whether my chip counting skills were still up to scratch and set about making a rough guess as to how much Fast had: a stack of pale greens, three stacks of blues, some pale ones and a couple of loose ones on top. All in I figured he had 930,000 and wrote it in my notebook.
Dietrich FastFast then got up to watch the last hand of the day from a safe distance behind his seat. He nodded as he stood beside me, then he looked down at my notepad.
"Your number is wrong," he said, smiling. "It's nine-three-one".
So I was 1K out, but to the grinning Fast this was all part of the game. He was enjoying himself, and it showed.
He's man in form, having flown here from his hometown of Berlin on the wings of a first WSOP bracelet earlier this month. You could say it's reward for the effort he's put in over the past few years. As we mentioned yesterday, Fast is a player who has cut his teeth in side events, and worked his way up to what is now his first €25K tournament.
Today we'll find out how that experience, and his current form, fares at the business end of an EPT High Roller.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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24 October
Christian Lusardi to Serve Five Years for Borgata Counterfeiting Scheme
Borgata chip counterfeiter Christian Lusardi sentenced to five years in prison. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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24 October
Hanging with Game of Thrones Stars
Sarah heads to the Northern Hills of Malta to spend some quality time with the horses featured in the Television hit Game of Thrones. If you want to meet them check out Bidnija Horse Riding. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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24 October
EPT12 Malta: The major side events kick off
The hordes arrive for side event season
As the €25,000 High Roller event enters its second day, players have arrived in Malta from far and wide to get warmed up for the Main Event in slightly smaller buy-in tournaments. It's a good schedule of side events today--of which the pick is probably the IPT High Roller with a €2,000 buy-in.
The regional tours' high roller events have been wildly successful since the EPT joined with its smaller neighbours. All the requisite boxes tend to be ticked by these particular events: For the pros, the buy-in is not so small as to be negligible, and the field is usually huge meaning the first prize is considerable.
Meanwhile, for the more recreational player, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck, which justifies the extra expenditure. You'll get a chance to rub shoulders with some of the top pros, have a stab at a monster pay-day, and there are also several satellites to allow entry on the cheap.
The first list of entrants shows 214 names, a number that is likely to rise by at least 50 percent during the four levels registration remains open.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo and Team PokerStars Pro Matthias De Meulder (who won the €500 NL Deepstack Turbo a few days ago) are both competing along with several EPT champions including Ben Wilinofsky, Michael Tureniec and Sebastian Pauli.
The former EPT Player of the Year Ondrej Vinklarek is also involved as are the prominent American players Marc Pliska, Jonathan Little , Shannon Shorr and Dylan Linde. Shyam Srinivasan represents the Maple Leaf.
Last season here, Keith Johnson, the British pro, prevailed from a 473-strong field.
The Malta Cup enters its second day after three opening flights. The €300 buy-in tournament attracted 894 players and that monstrous field meant a prize-pool of €260,154. The winner will get €48,155, which represents 160 times the buy-in.
The runaway leader at the start of day two is David Breitfuss, one of a pair of identical twins travelling the circuit to play poker. His brother Fabio has not been spotted yet this week, but presumably David has his eye on earning enough for the both of them.
Breitfuss begins today with 547,000, which is 200,000 more than his closest challenger, David Kristek. Sofia Lovgren is placed third of the 134 still involved, with 134 to be paid.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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24 October
What Do You Think About a Live Four Color Deck?
Sarah talks to Neil Johnson, Mickey Petersen, and Luca Pagano about the introduction of a four color deck which can be used at live events. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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24 October
IPT7 Malta2 Day 2: Level 23 (12,000/24,000, ante 3,000)
12:55pm: Final three tables
Table Seat Name 1 1 Joep Raemaekers 1 2 James Grogan 1 3 Pierre Chambon 1 4 Salvatore Agliozzo 1 5 Natan Chauskin 1 6 Elias Moukawem 1 7 Govert Metaal 1 8 Klaus Gortz 2 1 Massimo Di Cicco 2 2 Luigi Serafin 2 3 Yann Dion 2 4 Gediminas Uselis 2 5 Julian Stuer 2 6 Alessio Peciarolo 2 7 Franco Arlotta 2 8 Mohamad El-Rais 3 1 Gorki Oliveira 3 2 Denis Timofeev 3 3 Chris Brammer 3 4 Tobias Garp 3 5 Julian Stuer 3 6 Alessio Peciarolo 3 7 Henry Broens 3 8 Georgios Mylonas 12:44pm: Three players bust and a redraw will take place
Milan Cicka, Ciampo Nicola and Timotheos Georgios all busted within moments of each other leaving 23 players remaining. They all be redrawn onto the last three tables.Cicka's [as][ts] couldn't come from behind to beat Mohamad El-Rais' [ac][kd]; Nicola's [as][js] raced badly against Elias Moukawem's [3h][3c] and Georgios had same the same problem with his [8c][8d] versus the [as][jc] of James Grogan. All three hands were all in preflop.
New seat draw coming up shortly.
12:25pm: Peciarolo loses some
Alessio Peciarolo has given some chips back to the field after he couldn't beat the top pair owned by Denis Timofeev.They were heads up to the turn of a [9c][ac][jh][2d] board and four stacks (100k) of high society (plus change) sat in the middle of the table. Timofeev checked from under the gun and called when Peciarolo bet 200,000. The board completed with the [kc] and both players checked. Timofeev opened [ad][3d] and his Italian opponent mucked.
12:15pm: Two down in the first ten minutes
There was no comeback for Benjamin Richardson, one of the shortest stacks heading into today, as he was the first player out today. He failed to follow the lead of a Day 2 Russell Thomas who made a remarkable comeback yesterday.Day 3 Thomas couldn't even harness the power of Day 2 Thomas as he was soon out as well.
Yann Dion opened to 50,000 from under the gun and was called by Thomas in the next seat before Klaus Gortz squeezed to 109,000 from the big blind. Dion folded but Thomas called to see a [5c][6h]7s] flop where Gortz checked dark. Thomas bet and called all in when raised.
Thomas: [8s][8h]
Gortz: [9c][9d]"Oh f%%k, that's not what I wanted to see!" remarked Thomas.
The [kd][qc] turn and river weren't what he wanted to see either
12pm: Shuffle up and Deal
Cards are in the air!11:55pm: The race to the final table is on
Welcome back to Day 3 of the IPT Malta Main Event. Just 30 players remain and the aim for today is to get down to an official final table of eight. There are four tables remaining and they line up like this at the start of the day.Day 1A chip leader Alessio Peciarolo also ended Day 2 as chip leader after a huge hand at the death of play, his aces fairing well against the ace-king of Julian Stuer. Those two players bookend the rest of the field and all the players counts can be seen by clicking here.
Cards will be in the air very soon so stay tuned.
No one wants to end up on the rail today
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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24 October
Why do poker pros fight for money?
Why have so many rich and successful poker professionals willfully stepped into the boxing or MMA ring in the name of prop bets?
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24 October
Off the Green and On the Felt; or, The Object of the Game
When struggling with a particular aspect of poker, it can be helpful to focus on improving that one area, making it a new "object of the game" for you. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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24 October
#1 | Ram Vaswani wins EPT1 Dublin
Dublin was the third-ever stop on the European Poker Tour’s first season. back in 2004. The Merrion Casino Club would play host to a historical moment as THM original Ram Vaswani would take down the Main Event, defeating Rory Liffey heads-up for the crown. Vaswani would add WSOP gold three years later – winning the 2007 Limit Hold’em Shootout event in Las Vegas. Dublin would be removed from the EPT schedule after Season 4, but, for the first...
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24 October
P1 Million: Day 1b updates
This is the final day one flight of the P1 Million Guarantee Main Event. Play is already underway, and late registration is still open. We will be posting random updates throughout the day to give you a glimpse of some of the action at the felt. Good l...
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24 October
P1Million: Up and running here at day 1b
Day 1b of the P1M Guarantee Main Event has just started here at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room inside City of Dreams Manila. This is the last day one flight so for those unable to attend yesterday's kickoff, this is your final chance. For a q...
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Zhou far, Zhou good at end of €25K day 1
Quan Zhou: Leads after Day 1
You would be amazed how anxious the organisers of poker tournaments can become, even though they are almost always on to a good thing. In the run up to EPT Malta, there was a traditional air of apprehension surrounding proceedings when we all wondered whether players would come.
Sure, EPT Malta was a roaring success last time out, but then there was the benefit of novelty. Could it be hoped that the best poker players on the planet could again be tempted to a rock in middle of the Mediterranean? It would be the second time within seven months.
Well the early indications, at the end of the first day of the €25,000 High Roller, is that yes, they have indeed come. At the end of the first eight levels of play in this three-day tournament, 67 players had registered and 10 had already used their single re-entry. That was already closing in on last season's 68 uniques and 20 re-entries, which sets a high bar for the rest of the festival.
There are planes still jetting in--most pertinently from Berlin, where plenty of players have been holed up for the WSOPE--and so the chances are the number will increase by at least a handful.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.When bagging and tagging was finished for the night, Quan Zhou was the leader of the pack. He had 952,000, from a starting stack of 250,000, and didn't need a re-entry to get him there.
Zhou is among the most familiar of a small Macau-based contingent who are increasingly appearing on the EPT. He plays a more considered game compared with many of his compatriots, but is still notoriously difficult to read. He ended the day sitting next to last season's champion, Dzmitry Urbanovich, and will hope some of the run-good rubs off.
Dzmitry Urbanovich, last season's winner
Dietrich Fast is close behind. Fast won the first World Series bracelet of his career at the beginning of the WSOPE festival in Berlin and is making all the right noises at the moment. Having progressed through the ranks from side events on the EPT, through Main Events to bracelets, he is in his first high buy-in event.
Dietrich Fast: Bracelet winner
And it's going well. After Brian Roberts flew into an early lead today, Fast was the first to overhaul him and get up to about 800,000 chips. He finished with 931,000, while Roberts is still healthy with 485,000
Other counts include the following:
Christopher Frank, 704,000
Marvin Rettenmaier, 670,000
Anton Astapau, 552,000
Huidong Gu, China, 531,000
Connor Drinan, USA, 510,000
Dan Smith, 497,000
Jean-Noel Thorel, France, 430,000
Isaac Haxton, 267,000
Andre Akkari, 255,000But it's really all about what happens tomorrow, when the prize pool is decided and we play down close to the money that it will actually get properly serious.
You can look back on all the action on the EPT Malta High Roller page. The IPT and side events continue into the night.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: The next chapter in the story of Good Time Charlie
If stories have beginnings, middle and ends, it's hard to pinpoint where exactly the Charlie Carrel story currently rests. We don't mean in terms of his poker career - you'd be hard pressed to find anyone to say he's not at the beginning of that long s...
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Fast becoming a firm favourite
Dietrich Fast, pictured at the PCA
Dietrich Fast has one of those poker graphs that seems to be curving in the right direction. That is: upward.
He first came to our attention at the PCA in January, where he bagged the chip lead at the end of Day 1B. We celebrated him as much for his achievement as for his headline-ready last name--a blessing that did not escape the people in our position in Berlin earlier this month when Fast won a bracelet at the WSOPE.
Although he went out in 60th at the PCA, earning "only" $24,000, it represented another step forward. Having served his time and built a bankroll through side events, then EPT Main Events (he also cashed in Barcelona), his six-figure score in Germany should have surprised few.
The most significant factor from the big victory in Germany is that Fast is now able to pony up the €25,000 for this event in Malta. And Fast has continued his rapid rise: he is already close to a million in chips here, the first in the room with that many.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.We'll endeavour to find out how he managed to get them all. He was a late buy-in, so his feat is even more spectacular, but Fast is clearly a player in form and is moving in the right direction.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Urbanovich returns to defend title
Headphones on, ready for action
To be fair it was always a case of when not if Dzmitry Urbanovich would enter this tournament and in the process try and defend the title he won in Season 11. He's one of many players who've headed here after playing the WSOPE in Berlin.
He'd been spotted in the Portomaso Casino earlier today with Piotr Franczak and Jose Carlos Garcia, but whilst the latter two entered the tournament about halfway through the day Urbanovich was notable for his absence. The Polish sensation, who won four tournaments at this event last year and went on to become the EPT Player of the Year has now got involved though and is in fact sat to the immediate right of his mate Garcia.
They're in seats two and three and, amongst others, they've got Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari (seat two), Scott Seiver (seat six) and Mikita Badziakouski (seat eight) for company. A sure sign that Urbanovich had flown in from elsewhere could be found by looking at the back of a chair. Draped over it you'll see a chunky wollen knitted jumper and a scarf. Bpth are of some use in Berlin (14 degrees today) but are not as essential in Malta where it topped out at 22 degrees. Although as any poker player or blogger will tell you that as most tournaments take place in air conditioned auditoriums that whatever the weather outside, long sleeves are necessary to combat the elements inside.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.As the PokerStars Blog arrived at the Pole's table a big hand involving Seiver, Akkari and Garcia was in progress. The former had opened to 9,000 from under-the-gun+1, Akkari had called on the button and Garcia had three-bet to 26,500 from the big blind. Action was on Seiver who was sat perfectly still was mulling over his decision. The 2013 PCA Super High Roller Champion announced all-in for what looked like around 80,000-90,000 although we'd never know the exact amount as after Akkari folded Garcia immediately called with [Ks][Kc] which held against Seiver's [Jh][Jd]. That was Seiver's second exit of the day so the most successful player ever in EPT High Roller events will have to wait until later in the week to add to his illustrious achievements.
Jose Carlos Garcia
On the very next hand Urbanovich tangled with Akkari in a pot with the two of them seeing a [2d][Td][5d] flop. First to act was Akkari, he bet 12,300 but folded when an in position Urbanovich raised to 29,000. That hand boosted the Pole to 330,000 and he's back doing what he does best in Malta, accumulating chips.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
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23 October
IPT7 Malta2 Day 2: Level 19 -20 Updates (6,000/12,000, 2,000)
9:05pm: Big slick can't save Francesco
"Ciao!" said a philosophical Francesco Procida after ace-king failed to sae him from busting.He four-bet all in for 115,000 from the small blind after Martin Dahle had three-bet an open to 52,000 off the button. The original raiser folded before Dahle shrugged and called.
Procida: [ad][kh]
Dahle: [8h][9d]The board ran [4d][4c][8s][2h][4s] to make the Norwegain a full house that saw his stack rise up to 350,000.
8:50pm: Grogan on a charge
James Grogan won two pots on the bounce to soar up to around 420,000 in chips.He was under the gun and moved all in for 119,000. The action folded around to Chris Brammer in the big blind and he called after thinking for a minute.
Grogan: [ah][js]
Brammer: [as][9d]The board ran a blank [7h][3c][qs][2h][3h] to double the Irishman up. Brammer dropped to 285,000.
Grogan stands for chips
The very next hand, Grogan was all in again. Day 1A chip leader Alessandro Benazzo opened to 26,000 before Tomasz Chmiel moved all in for 127,000 from the button. Grogan did likewise from the big blind and that was enough to get it heads up.
Chmiel: [kc][tc]
Grogan: [jd][js]The board ran [4s][9c][8c][8d][ah] to send the pot to Ireland and Poland to the rail.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 6,000/12,000, ante 2,000
8:25: Life by quads for Kakatolis
"I'm sorry!" lied Sotirios Kakatolis to Pedro Ventura after he flopped quads to crack his kings to double up.Joep Raemaekers opened from under the gun before Kakatolis three-bet all in for 157,000 from mid position. Ventura was in the big blind and moved all in over the top, which was enough to oust Raemaekers from the confrontation.
Kakatolis: [7h][7c]
Ventura: [kc][kd]The board ran [7s][4h][7d][ad][ac].
Ventura took the hit very well and said it was ok after the apology came his way.
8:05pm:Hana shown the door
Robert Hana was down to just 9,000 chips when he called all in. There would be no comeback.Alessandro Pichierri raised to 22,000 from under the gun before Hana called all in from the cutoff. No other player was interested.
Hana: [ts][3s]
Pichierri: [3h][3d]It was a bad spot for him to be in and his exit was confirmed when a [4s][jc][as][6c][9c] board was dealt.
Hana waiting to be taken to the payout deask
7:45pm: Wyrzykiewicz on fumes
EPT11 Malta Main Event eighth-place finisher Remi Wyrzykiewicz has fumes for chips after a mistimed four-bet doubled up his opponent Benjamin Richardson.The action folded around to Wyrzykiewicz on the button and he raised to 20,000. Richardson was in the big blind and three-bet to 55,000 before calling all in for 261,000 after Wyrzykiewicz shoved.
Wyrzykiewicz: [ks][td]
Richardson: [jc][jh]The board ran [8h][4d][as][5s][js] to make the Australian a set. Wyrzykiewicz sat with a lowered shaking head and 17,000 chips.
7:25pm: Day 2 is moving day as well as bubble day
The bubble was taken care of before the break, Matas Cimbolas the unlucky player to bust.
Russel Thomas
The same fortune cannot be said for Russell Thomas and Yann Dion. The former entered Day 2 as one of the shortest stacks with 20,600 to his name, less than ten big blinds to play with. He never gave up though and now around 540,000 chips.
The latter has a big smile on his face now. Dion came back with more than twice Thomas but slid all the way down to two big blinds before he staged a remarkable recovery and has climbed up to 386,000.
Both are behind a top five of:
1. Julian Stuer (Germany), 975,000
2. Henry Broens (Netherlands), 858,000
3. Alessio Peciarolo (Italy), 830,000
4. Giuseppe Polichetti (Italy), 702,000
5. Pedro Lamarca (Spain), 687,000
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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23 October
Hand Analysis with Isaac Haxton
After reading an interesting hand on the blog, Sarah get the hand analysis from the perspective of Team PokerStars Online Pro Isaac Haxton. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Antonio Buonnano back among the bullies
Grand final champion, Antonio Buonanno
No one has ever accused Antonio Buonanno of a reluctance to get involved. Part of the reason he won the EPT Grand Final a couple of years ago was because he was fully prepared to take on the noted bullies at their own game, refusing to back down even when the stakes were at their highest.
Buonanno has found himself a tough spot on Day 1 of the €25,000 High Roller here in Malta, on the same table as Shaun Deeb, Chris Hunichen, Isaac Haxton and Patrik Antonius, among others. But far be it from Buonanno to sit back and fold.
In fact, it's quite the opposite, even though results have not been wholly successful. I watched only about five minutes of play at Buonanno's table, but he was involved in almost every hand.
The first time, in early position, he called Deeb's betting on every street on an ace-high board, losing with ace-six to Deeb's ace-nine. But the same two players were first into the next pot too--and Deeb again picked up some chips.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.On this hand, Deeb opened to 5,500 (blinds are 1,200-2,400) from the cut-off and Buonanno almost immediately three-bet to 15,000 from the button. Perhaps sensing that these two were on the brink of getting a room, Hunichen, in the small blind, thought this was a good spot. Hunichen four bet, announcing a raise to 39,000.
Action folded back to Deeb and he wanted to see how much Hunichen was playing. Hunichen moved his hands away from in front of his chips and then Deeb wanted clarification of how much the four bet was.
The dealer said, "Thirty nine" but Deeb pointed out that only 35,000-worth of chips were in the middle. Hunichen flicked in the extra. Satisfied that everything was right, Deeb announced that he was all in.
Buonanno might have been forgiven for thinking that he had been forgotten about. He was still in this pot after all. But after carefully counting his own stack, making it about 250,000, he folded and watched his three bet dragged into the middle. Hunichen folded soon after too.
On to the next one, with Deeb again opening from the hijack and again making it 5,500 to play. Buonanno this time opted for a call, but Hunichen wanted to earn back some of the chips he surrendered last time. Hunichen made it 18,500. Deeb folded, Buonanno folded.
A lesser man may have decided it was time for discretion. But after Deeb folded pre-flop on the next hand, Buonanno opted for an opening raise. He made it 5,500 to play. It went fold, fold, fold all the way around and the former Grand Final champ was, finally, hauling in a small handful of chips.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
IPT7 Malta2 Day 2: Matas Cimolas bubbles Main Event
Matas Cimbolas turned up on the live poker scene exactly two years ago but it feels like the Lithuanian had been around a lot longer. He's tricked us into believing that due to the amount of times he goes deep in tournaments and the huge amount of cash (over $700k) he's won in that short space of time.
As well as being a good player, he's most probably found his fair share of luck during that period. That luck averted him today though as he busted the IPT Main Event on the bubble - a bubble that spanned 13 hands, three separate levels and a break. More on that bubble hand later. First to hand just before hand for hand play began, a hand that was one card away from everyone having to endure the lengthy period that followed.
Cimolas (seat 1) bubbling
The hand involved the recent UKIPT Isle of Man winner Dan Stacey, Day 1A big stack Henry Broens and Tomasz Wrobel. With the big blind at 5,000, Wrobel opened from under the gun to 11,000 before Stacey moved all in for 104,000 from the next seat. The action folded around to Broens in the small blind and he looked down at his cards and moved all in as well, for 269,000. Wrobel had around 400,000 total and took a couple of minutes before he flicked in a chip to call, putting both opponents at risk.
Wrobel: [qs][qh]
Stacey: [ac][ks]
Broens: [ad][kd]The board ran [td][2s][8h][6d][qd].
Wrobel (left), Stacey (seat 1) & Broens (bottom) react to the huge hand
Stacey knew he was a gonna and made his way from the table. Many watching thought that Wrobel had won the pot, and burst the bubble, with a rivered set but the reality soon set in for everyone. Broens had made a flush with that river card and raked in 662,000 chips as a result. He was one card from being out but, all of a sudden found himself as chip leader with 136 players remaining.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Bubble time
As was written above, the bubble period lasted 13 hands. We won't bore you by detailing all of them, instead, read on for a selection of the most interesting hands.
Hand 5. Ben Heath opened to 10,000 before Bela Toth three-bet to 29,000 from the cutoff. Heath sat still for a minute and then four-bet all in and saw Toth quickly call off his stack worth 128,500.
Heath (seat 1) & Toth (seat 3)
Matteo (Floor man) came over to announce the action and said that Heath had called the all in of Toth. "I shoved," corrected Heath and after the cards were revealed it's understandable to see why he wanted it clarifying.
Heath: [3d][4c]
Toth: [jc][jh]The board ran [7s][2s][2c][ac][qd] to double up the Hungarian.
Hand 6. There were two all ins on this hand.
Firstly, Simon Sennhauser moved all in from the cutoff for his last 38,00 and was called by start of day chip leader, Andreas Chalkiadakis.
Sennhauser: [ks][kc]
Chalkiadakis: [jd][jh]Before the board was dealt a positive Chalkiadakis said, "I'm feeling it. Loving it. Window card!"
He didn't get the jack he craved in the window but the [3d][7d][ad] flop certainly gave him a sweat. The board ran out [kh][8h] though to miss his flush draw.
Everyone then moved over to table one after that, where Vanni Desenzani had moved his short stack in preflop and had been called by Gediminas Uselis and Kaddouri Mounim. The [qc][qs][jc][7h][9c] board was checked down and Desenzani opened [as][qh] for trips. Neither Uselis ([4s][6s]) or Mounim ([ah][jh]) could match that and the bubble rolled on.
Hand 11. This hand was the last of level 16 and the last before the players went off on a break. Once more there were two all ins.
Alessandro Barone checked the river of a [as][ad][4d][2h][as] board and called all in for 28,000 when his opponent, Tomasz Chmiel, set him all in. The latter opened a bluffing [jc][7c] and doubled up Barone who revealed a full house with [js][jh].
Mattias De Meulder (background) tries to burst the bubble
Meanwhile, a smiling Matthias De Meulder was waiting over on table 12. He's got himself committed preflop versus Alberto Borsoi and, by the way he was talking, knew he had to come from behind to burst the bubble. Borsoi was all in for 30,000.
De Meulder: [th][5h]
Borsoi: [ac][kc]The board ran [4c][3h][3d][3s][9s] to send the chips the way of Borsoi.
Hand 13. The bubble finally burst on a hand where there were three all ins. The second and third player both doubled meaning Cimbolas, who's hand was announced first, was the lone bubble boy.
He was all in, bar a ante, in the big blind and faced a 12,000 raise from Roi Milrad and a call from Timotheos Georgios. He gave it some thought and then slammed in his last 1,000-chip.
The board ran out [th][9d][5c][7c][qc] and both Cimbolas' opponents checked it all the way down. He opened [5h][4h] for one pair but his elimination was confirmed when Milrad showed [ac][ad]. Georgios chuckled as he showed a losing [tc][6h].
That went on longer than everyone expected and hoped. A fair few big stacks around the room benefited from the longevity of the bubble and a lot of short stacks suffered badly. Therefore it came as no surprise to see a mass migration of players from the tournament after normal play resumed.
By the end of level 18, when the players went on their next break, 61 had made their way to the payout desk. Some of the fallers included:
Min cash for Chen
Jonathan Roy (132nd), Andrew Chen (131st), Mickey Petersen (130th) Mudasser Hussain (118th), Claudio Pagano (99th). Check out the results page where all the payouts will be updated as the day continues.
Min cash for Mickey
For the rest of the Main Event our coverage will switch to hand-for-hand style rather than feature pieces. Four more levels are scheduled for tonight with a 75-minute dinner break right in the middle of them.
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Cool, calm, collected, and um, out.
In a world where it's perfectly acceptable to wear a cap with the word "F***" on the front (see the rail in Malta right now), those of a more considered appearance tend to stand out. Players like Rasmus Vogt for instance. Whether it's the solid jaw l...
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Brian Roberts leads halfway through Day 1 of the €25,000 High Roller
Roberts has raced into the lead
Mike McDonald has made his living by making correct decision based (partly) on numbers. Before play started today - and with only 13 players registered - he was asked by Charlie Carrel how many runners he thought this event would get. His 'plucked from thin air' number was 70. We believe McDonald's guess was for the number of unique entries - this event allows for one re-entry up until the start of Day 2 - and would you believe it his guesswork is looking fairly accurate at this point.
As level five came to an end 61 unique players had entered the fray, seven of whom had re-entered after busting out. This is the second running of this event and last season Dzmitry Urbanovich beat a field of 88 (68 uniques, 20 re-entries) to scoop a top prize of €572,300. The defending champion is definitely here - he's been seen in the building - however he's yet to take a seat, he's got a habit of buying in at the start of Day 2 so he may keep us waiting longer.
Each player who has entered began with a starting stack of 250,000 and Brian Roberts is the player who's made most headway during the opening half of the first day of this three day event. The American has climbed all the way to 720,000 to lead from Quan Zhou (630,000). As is so often the case in these High Roller events early progress to such heights often has a whiff of 'cooler' about it and indeed one such hand has helped boost Roberts to the top. Both he (pocket tens) and Martin Finger (pocket threes) flopped a set on a [Jd][3d][Th] board, the vast majority of the chips went in on the [5c] turn and there was no one out miracle for Finger on the [2c] river.
A good start is of course no guarantee of a good finish - although it helps - but as well as Roberts, Justin Bonomo (600,000) Justin Liberto (580,000), Connor Drinan (525,000), Marvin Rettenmaier (445,000), Dan Smith (412,000) and Nick Petrangelo (400,000) have started well.
Decent start for Dan
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Most of those names are familiar to followers of the EPT but Justin Liberto is, as far as we can tell, making his EPT debut here in Malta. As you'd expect, given the size of the event, he's no newcomer to poker and indeed won a WSOP bracelet this summer in a $3,000 no-limit Hold'em six-max event.
Haxton - on home turf
Team PokerStars have three representatives in the field, from Team Pro, Andre Akkari (315,000) is up a bit, whilst Jason Mercier has just taken to the felt so is still on staring stack. And from Team Online, Ike Haxton, playing in his home EPT is down a touch as he's got 185,000 which is still a healthy stack as it equates to over 60 big blinds.
The big names keep on coming with EPT12 Barcelona Champion John Juanda, Stephen Chidwick, Steve O'Dwyer, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Shaun Deeb, Ivan Luca, Jeff Rossiter and Patrik Antonius all in the field. This is the second EPT event in a row for Antonius which makes the tournament shy Finn an EPT regular now in our book!
With this being a re-entry event most of the players who've busted out have elected to re-enter and the likes of Charlie Carrel, Adrian Mateos, Martin Finger and Scott Seiver have done just that. Even the players who've busted out and not re-entered are not permanently out as no one has fired twice and missed yet. But for now Piotr Franczak, Yingui Li, Berthold Winz and Rasmus Vogt have chosen to stay on the sidelines.
Franczak - out for now
They've got until the start of Day 2 to enter, as has anyone else with a spare €25,000 or even a spare €5,100 as there's a €2,500 + €100 Hyper-Turbo re-buy satellite at 22.00 CET tonight.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
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23 October
P1 Million: Jessie Leonarez bags the most chips in day 1a
It was an action-packed day at PokerStars Live Manila with players flocking in to participate in the P1 Million Guarantee Main Event. By the end of late registration, a total of 170 entries were recorded, and at the end of tournament play, only 30 made...
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Pushing past the half-century
Quan Zhou: Among a small contingent of Chinese at EPT Malta
The €25,000 High Roller field is up to 50 players and it continues to move in that direction. Ivan Luca sat down and one of his new table-mates said, "You're the first one here off that plane."He was referring to the poker-player jet express -- a succession of them, actually -- presently making its way from Berlin to Malta. As Nick Wright mentioned earlier, numerous players will today be trading the WSOPE for the EPT as the festival in Germany winds down while this one gets into full swing. The €25,000 High Roller is the carrot dangled to get the game's biggest names to the airport.
Luca is indeed now in the field as is a small contingent of Polish players, including Piotr Franczak and Jose Carlos Garcia. They were seen in the casino lobby with Dzmitry Urbanovich, but the defending champion is yet to take his seat. (He almost certainly will at one point, though.)
The new contingent also includes Stephen Chidwick, whose friend Kevin MacPhee is chip-leader back in Berlin. One assumes Chidwick would have been railing his mate had this event not intervened. But one also assumes that MacPhee will forgive Chidwick's absence. These are the sacrifices one makes given the nature of their career.
Not all of the new players are especially familiar on this side of the Atlantic. They include, for instance, Justin Liberto, who has a string of cashes over the pond including a World Series bracelet earned this summer. But he has never to our knowledge played on the EPT. He won a live satellite to earn his passage into the tournament.
Similarly Rasmus Vogt and Smain Mamouni prevailed from a super satellite and are among the less familiar players involved. There's also a number of Chinese players who have been persuaded to Malta -- Quan Zhou, Huidong Gu and Yingui Li -- while the likes of Sean Winter and Chris Hunichen, both familiar in the US, also make rare European forays.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Live Spin & Go’s
PokerStars is introducing Live Spin & Go's at EPT Malta! Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: The Poker Gods have no memory
The sports lexicon is littered with clichés. Some work only for certain sports, like 'on any given Sunday,' or 'he's got a good touch for a big man'. Others such as 'give 110%' and 'you're only as good as your last game,' transcend multiple sports.
Poker is a game that some consider a sport and if the last of those clichés was put through the poker translator it'd (probably) come out as 'you're only as good as your last tournament.' Well, if that's the case there's a lot of poker players who've gone from hero to zero (enough with the clichés, Ed.) here in Malta today.
You can't win them all Charlie
At the EPT11 Grand Final, which took place in May of this year, Adrian Mateos and Charlie Carrel won the Main Event and the €25,000 High Roller respectively, within minutes of each other for a combined €2,196,000. Here in Malta they were hit with the rough end of the stick, busting out a few hands apart (although Mateos has since re-entered).
First to feel the icy hand of lady variance on his shoulder was Carrel when he got involved in a pre-flop raising war with Nick Petrangelo which the American won. The cut off versus button battle ended with Carrel five-bet shoving with [A][9], for a shade under 60 big blinds, and Petrangelo snap calling with [Ks][Kd]. No outdraw was forthcoming and Carrel was on his way.
Whilst Carrel's exit was akin to ripping off a band-aid - swift and mostly painless - Mateos' exit saw the plaster stretched off the skin a centimetre at a time. He, Scott Seiver and Mike McDonald were all involved when the [Ac][9s][6h] flop hit the felt, but after a 5,000 bet from Seiver McDonald ducked out to leave the pot heads up. The [3s] turn card didn't look like it would cause the flurry of action that followed but after Seiver bet 13,200 Mateos responded by moving all-in for 46,500.
Seiver had earlier regaled the table with the hand history of the big Mateos versus Johnny Lodden hand from the EPT11 Grand Final so certainly knew what the Spaniard was capable of. He got a count, grimaced, weighed it all up, made the call and showed [Ad][Jc]. His reticence was unfounded as Mateos opened [Qs][Ts] for a flush draw which missed on the [8h] river.
Mateos - sick as a parrot
In poker though there are always 'plenty more where they came from' all willing to take their shot at being the next hero, the next champion. Indeed, as Carrel and Mateos exited Piotr Franczak and Jose Carlos Garcia were buying in. The latter has already come mighty close to a major title on the EPT having finished fifth in the event that Mateos won and fourth in the Estrellas Main Event at EPT12 Barcelona. They're both trying to keep this title in Poland as it was won last time out by some guy called Urbanovich. Whatever happened to him?
We've got all the usual coverage on the EPT Malta page on PokerStars Blog, including the IPT Main Event which is fast approaching the money and don't forget you can follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
You get a million! You get a million! You…!
I don't how well this will translate in certain places around the world, but ten years or so ago when online poker was still young, entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey once hosted a show where she surprised every audience member by giving them all cars. The climax (memorialized in this remix) was the now iconic "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!"
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.I sort of feel like PokerStars is playing the same game this week. Before we even had time to celebrate Wednesday's $1 million Spin & Go winner, there was another one to talk about. It's as if Lee Jones is standing atop Corcovado mountain screaming, "You get a million! You get a million! You get a million!"
Last night, Brazilian "wrawras" became the seventh PokerStars Spin & Go Millionaire after signing up to play a $100 three-person game.
If his PokerStars' avatar is any indication, "wrawras" is a fan of the Brazilian Clube de Regatas do Flamengo
This was the second time this week someone from Brazil picked up one of the special million-dollar first prizes. And because it was a big-time event, second and third places, Canada's A13X_J0neS & Hungary's Sir.Whiteman both picked up $100,000 apiece.
For more on this month's big money celebration, visit the PokerStars Spin & Go Anniversary page.Congratulations once again to "wrawras" on the million-dollar win!
Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.
Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.
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23 October
Justin Bonomo Embraces Polyamory
Sarah talks to Justin Bonomo about an alternative lifestyle choice referred to as Polyamory. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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23 October
Tonybet Poker Announces Second OFC World Championship at King’s Casino from Dec. 6-9
The Tonybet Poker OFC World Championship returns to Prague from December 6-9. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Remember the time?
Scott Seiver: Story-teller
The familiar, scornful observation about high buy-in events is that they feature the same handful of players sharing what amounts to the same bundle of money between them. Certainly the concentration of familiar faces is higher than in "normal" tournaments, but the very fact that some of the sharpest minds in the game continue to play High Rollers would suggest that there's a little bit more to it than financial pass-the-parcel.
The table that has drawn the most interest in the early stages today features Mike McDonald, Scott Seiver, Adrian Mateos and Vladmir Troyanovskiy, who must have played against one another on numerous occasions. They have certainly each taken a few parcels in their time, with Seiver still the highest earner from Super High Roller events under the EPT/PCA banner.
(They also have Christopher Frank and Quan Zhou with them today, whose games are possibly less well known. But action seems to be brisk and mental notes will likely be made fairly quickly.)
Within the first five or ten minutes of the second level of the day, Dan Smith also came to join this table. Smith too is a high buy-in regular, with brilliant success at all levels. He too shares long history with his new table-mates, having jousted with them in similar events for at least five years.
Even if they didn't share a history, Seiver was certainly intent on filling in Smith with the details of how things have gone this afternoon. In response to Smith's opening "Hello", Seiver came straight in with, "So far, I have three bet four times and four bet twice and tripple-potted the river three times."
McDonald revealed that he too had been keeping tally on Seiver's blunderbuss approach, questioning whether the number of four bets was accurate. (Seiver assured him that it was.) And then Seiver talked Smith through the action again, just to make sure he knew what he was getting into. He was essentially handing Smith a hand-history transcript of the highlights from the previous hour.
This is the thing: despite loud conversation or total silence, whether they are apparently fixed on the table or on their smartphone, players pay a great deal of attention to what's going on. Or, at least, the good ones do.
Conversation then shifted to the final table of the EPT Grand Final Main Event, the tournament from which Mateos emerged clutching a €1.1 million winner's cheque. Seiver again led the narrative, and again proved that Seiver had been keeping an eye on the activities of his opponents.
Adrian Mateos: Centre of the attentionThe conversation quickly focused on the hand that Mateos played against Johnny Lodden when they were four handed. This was the hand in which Mateos bluffed all in with jack-high and Lodden very nearly called with pocket fives, clearly thinking (knowing, even) that he was ahead.
Lodden didn't call, Mateos won the hand and then the tournament.
"Perhaps you want to tell it," Seiver said to Mateos, but the Spanish champion seemed content enough to allow Seiver to do the honours. And Seiver did a very good job of it, only getting some very small details wrong. (In Seiver's retelling, Lodden had fours rather than fives, but it was essentially the same thing.)
I don't know what the sub-text was here or, indeed, whether there even was one. However, by the time the re-telling was done, everybody at the table clearly knew that Mateos was capable of ripping it in with jack high, regardless of the stakes or the gravity of the situation. ("It was the final table of the Grand Final!" Seiver made clear.)
Furthermore everybody was also clear that Seiver did his homework. There was a high chance he'd been watching when McDonald and Troyanovskiy had got out of line too.
To bring everybody up to scratch on the Lodden/Mateos hand, here it is in all its glory. And here's Lee Jones's take on the affair.
Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.
Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
8 days left to share your PokerStrategy.com experience
Upload a picture of yourself and the community logo on your Instagram account before the end of the month for the chance to win a prize!
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23 October
Five Reasons Why the WPT500 is the Must-Play Tournament of the Year
There’s A Million Pound Prize-Pool! That’s not a typo. A million pound sterling is up for grabs and the tournament entry is only £500+50. The incredible prize-pools put up by WPT and Dusk Till Dawn really are what keeps thousands of players coming back to the Nottingham poker hotspot, and this year will be no […]
The post Five Reasons Why the WPT500 is the Must-Play Tournament of the Year appeared first on partypoker.com blog.
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23 October
Tour of St Julians, Malta
St Julians plays host to the EPT in Malta. Sarah heads out to explore the town on a rainy day. Share: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: The Malta Poker and Social Club. All welcome
There's a sort of pleasing element to the start of the High Roller event. With only a couple of tables in action, alongside the busier IPT Main Event, it would be easy to miss. For right now it doesn't look like a poker tournament, more like a social club, albeit an exclusive one.
Three days of poker and friendly chatThe Malta Poker and Social Club
Come and meet old friends and make new ones!
In aid of the high roller "money to play more high rollers" fund
All welcome.
Suggested donation €25,000
That said its members are familiar and it's hard to think of another group of people who are prepared to pay so much to enjoy each other's company and get close to those considered the best in the business. A political fundraiser perhaps, with five figure fee for a "plate" and a handshake with the candidate? Or maybe court side seats in an arena somewhere.But there's something appealing about this small corner of the EPT Malta tournament room. For while this event starts slowly, with fewer than two tables full, it will soon come alive. Already there are four tables. A fifth is on the way.
Social club regular: Mike McDonaldStanding alongside and watching, the reasons for its appeal seem obvious. For one thing it looks like a fun, pleasant place to be (seriously, it makes the IPT field look like a room full of grown men sitting a math exam). But there's something else, a kind of magnetic pull. If you're poker player without a capped budget you have to play. Who could bear to be left out?
Sure, the social element might fade at some point (although it never completely evaporates), and thoughts will turn to business. But not today. Instead this is a day to play what at least looks like care free high stakes poker. So care free in fact that a single re-entry will put right any mistake you might make, and takes those cares away.
So come along and join in. There's a seat waiting for you. Maybe even tea and cake.
Haven't got a PokerStars account yet? Join the world's biggest site now.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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23 October
IPT7 Malta2 Day 2: What brings online players to live events?
Ten years ago the poker landscape was very different from today. Many poker players claimed that online poker players were the "value" and that most of the game's sharks operated in the live arena. Make your own mind up whether or not that was true.
Today, the online poker has grown significantly and is deemed to be a lot tougher as the standard of play has improved over the years. The live poker scene has also seen big growth and many, in this day in age, see it the softer of the two.Some people just play live, some just online but most play both. It's got us wondering. What motivates players who mainly play online to turn up to live events these days? Time to hunt out some players who started out online and ask them why they started coming to live events.
Shaun Deeb
Shaun Deeb, "When I first started coming to live events it was to to meet people. I also always felt like there was more money in live tournaments because the prize pools were bigger but I don't know it that was true looking back on it.
"Now, I live in the (United) States and I don't get to play that often so I go to a live stops to play online while I'm here and play a few of the high buy ins that are floating around."
Charlier Carrel, "I think the main motivation I play live events is down to the longterm EV of money, which I hate to say. It's just because the game is softer (than online) and there's more breadth to it. There's more room for improvement; there's a bigger edge to be found and I find myself slowly moving away from the online world because so much of it is about learning software and learning how to use programs that other people have made, which is not really working of your own merit. Basically, anyone can do it if they put time into it but I'm sure other people can do it better (than me)."
Charlie Carrel
Adam Owen, "I used to watch live events on TV and they looked a lot of fun so I come to have that sort of fun. I also come to make money as I find live events to be a lot easier although completely different to playing online."
Vicente Delgado, "My motivation of playing live is for the glory. Online you can play more tables and have a better hourly (earnings) but I play live for the titles!"
Vicente Delgado (right)
David Lappin, "I spoke to a good friend of mine, Fintan Hand , who's an Irish pro living here in Malta for the last couple of years and he looks at it very differently. I always say I like to balance in a little live action - four or five tournaments in a month - because I think it's good for my life balance and gets me out of the house playing poker, it gets me interacting with people and I don't get bored and sick of it as quickly. Fintan says when he thinks about travelling to events he doesn't want to play poker, he just wants to hang out and socialise. All his life balance comes from parties and enjoying his life when he's not sitting at a computer. He just doesn't enjoy the pace of live poker, it doesn't suit him."
David Lappin
The most common theme is that live poker seems to be an easier game to beat than online poker these days but, for many, it's also about the travel, social aspect and a change from the usual online grind. Come a to a PokerStars event to work hard but also play hard.
So it's worth getting yourself a PokerStars account if you don't have one. Come and join the fun!
Main Event update
No spin up for Akkari
The first two levels of the day have passed and the exits (as normal at the beginning of a Day 2) have been coming thick and fast. Almost 100 have been eliminated and included are names such as: Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari; EPT London champion Sebastian Pauli; online heads up specialist Kellyann Hefferan; Italian cowboy Alfonso Amendola; Scottish businessman/poker player Fraser MacIntyre; the man, the myth, the legend that is Salvatore Bonavena; former ultra marathon runner Dara O'Kearney; former November Niner Antoine Saout and Irish poker player of the year Dermot Blain.
Busted #IPTMalta AQ suited into AK all in pre for 40 k blinds 1200/2400 good spin before but unlucky 😀
— Kellyann Heffernan (@Platinum_kell) October 23, 2021At the other end of the scale, Andreas Chalkiadakis has lost the chip lead he came into the day with as he's dropped back to 270,000 which is still good for a top-ten stack. He had a difficult start before recovering yesterday so he won't be getting down-hearted.
The top five at the first break (according to Pagano events):
Yohan Cohen (Israel), 452,000
Henry Broens (Netherlands), 326,000
Denis Strebkov (Russia), 310,000
Loius Cartarius (Germany), 290,000
Francesco Lombardo (Italy), 290,000For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.
Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.
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23 October
EPT12 Malta High Roller: Everyone always shows up late
With a couple of minutes to go until play was due to start there were five players seated in the €25,000 High Roller. Over on table two Shaun Deeb (seat three), Juha Helppi (seat five) and Berthold Winz (seat seven) sat in glorious silence while on table one Charlie Carrel (seat three) and Mike McDonald (seat five) had struck up a conversation.
"You know more about this than me," said Carrel to McDonald, as he pointed at the tournament clock showing 13 players registered in the tournament. "How many do you reckon we'll get?"
He might not have known it, but Carrel had picked a good, nay the right person to pose this question to. McDonald is a permanent fixture in high buy-in events on the EPT. Whilst this may not be a Super High Roller, it's 'only' a €25,000 buy-in after all, McDonald and Jason Mercier are the only two players to have played every single Super High Roller held on the EPT.
Always here, always on time
The Canadian mulled over Carrel's question and then said: "I would guess about 70, everyone always shows up late."
Part of the reason for the slow start to this event is that a number of players who'd usually be in their seats right now are in transit from Berlin, where the WSOP Europe is taking place and which McDonald alluded to.
"A bunch of people are on a flight from Berlin," said McDonald, and this seemed to make the Englishman feel better about having entered. However, this particular respite didn't last too long. After saying hello to Paul Newey, who was now nestled in seat seven, Scott Seiver plonked himself between McDonald and Carrel. The table didn't exactly soften up after that as Sam Greenwood and Justin Bonomo got their feet under table one.
McDonald's assertion that everyone always shows up late wasn't technically true, as Carrel, Adrian Mateos and Juha Helppi were all here well ahead of time. So much so in fact that the tournament director told them to come back later as they needed to get a better grasp on numbers and how many starting tables were required at the start.
This gave Carrel time to finish his smoothie - purchased from a newly installed 'Dr Juice' juice bar at the Portomaso Casino - and reflect on returning to the venue where it all began for him on the EPT some seven months ago. "I'm very excited to be back," he told the PokerStars Blog. Back in March Carrel finished fifth here in the €10,000 High Roller and he'd then go on to win the €25,000 High Roller at the EPT11 Grand Final.
Carrel - loves a drop of Malta
Table two was also filling up and Justin Liberto - who was one of three players to win their seat to this event in last night's satellite - looked on as Adrian Mateos and Berthold Winz clashed in a pot. They, along with Shaun Deeb, had reached the river of a [2h][3d][8s][7s][4s] board. Winz led out for 7,000, Mateos raised to 22,000, Deeb got out the way and Winz got confirmation of the raise size and called. The EPT11 Grand Final champion showed [Ah][5h] for the rivered straight but it was no good - for the whole pot - as Winz and he had indulged in a game of Snap, showing [Ad][5d].
Whilst all this was happening Steve O'Dwyer took up residency in seat eight over at the McDonald/Seiver/Carrel table and thought he'd arrived in time to be dealt into the hand that was just starting. He hadn't. After a bit of fake annoyance he sat down and delved into his brunch instead. It was, we're told, a local Maltese delicacy called a pastizz. O'Dwyer's was pea flavoured and he implored anyone visiting the island for this event to try one. His one hand exile soon ended though and he, like 17 others are now busy getting their teeth into this poker tournament.
Hungry for poker action? Then sign up here for a PokerStars account if you don't already have one.
We will have all the usual coverage on the EPT Malta page on PokerStars Blog, including the IPT Main Event which is fast approaching the money and don't forget you can follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS
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23 October
EPT12 Malta: Everyone always shows up late
With a couple of minutes to go until play was due to start there were five players seated in the €25,000 High Roller. Over on table two Shaun Deeb (seat three), Juha Helppi (seat five) and Berthold Winz (seat seven) sat in glorious silence whil
