ElkY Talks Title Defense and SCOOP Plans
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Level 5
: 200/400, 50 ante
The 2012 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final
€25,000 High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
The 2012 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final
Buy-in
€25,000
Prize Pool
€3,325,000
Entries
133
Level
26
Blinds
30,000 / 60,000
Ante
5,000
Today's Schedule
Level 5
: 200/400, 50 ante
The tournament staff announced that 10 levels will be played today on Day 1. There has been a 15-minute break after every two levels of play and that will continue throughout the rest of the day. After Level 7, a 75-minute dinner break will take place so the players can get their grub on.
Ivey Doubles
On the 
board, Phil Ivey checked to John Andress. Andress fired 17,000 and Ivey put in a check-raise for all of his chips. Ivey's shove was worth 68,350 and it sent Andress into the tank for a bit. Eventually, he made the call holding the 
. Ivey had the best of it with top and bottom pair. His hand was the 
.
The river completed the board with the 
and that gave Ivey the double up. He boomed his way to about 145,000 after dropping a few recent hands in succession that had his stack going the wrong way. Andress was knocked down to 23,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
145,000 | -5,000 |
|
23,000 | -27,000 |
A Little Re-Entry Controversy
Tommy Vedes checked the 
flop and the next player bet 1,100. Phil Ivey called and then Vedes check-raised to 3,000. The original bettor made the call and Ivey folded.
The turn was the 
and Vedes bet 6,200. His opponent raised to 16,200 and then Vedes shoved all in for approximately 55,000. His opponent called.
Vedes tabled the 
for a flopped straight and his opponent the 
for a combo draw. The river bricked off with the 
and Vedes won the pot.
Vedes' opponent was all in for a little less than 50,000 and therefore was eliminated. This all took place after the re-entry period had ended, but the table told the man he should re-enter. He seemed happy to do so and the floor was called over. Unfortunately, the player was told that he couldn't re-enter because Level 5 had started and the re-entry period was officially over. Re-entry was set to be open for the first four levels and through the last break.
David "Doc" Sands did what he could to voice his opinion to the floor from an adjacent table. Even David Williams, Dan Smith and Vedes tried to persuade the floor a little bit into allowing the player to re-enter. In the end, the floor told the player he could try and go to the registration desk to re-enter if he wanted.
About five minutes later, Mike "Timex" McDonald and Jonathan Duhamel showed up between the two tables with new tournament tickets in their hands. Smith asked McDonald if he had gotten back in and McDonald said yes. This struck a cord with some of the players as now they thought no one else should be able to come back into the tournament. Many of them wondered why McDonald and Duhamel were let back in while the other player was told he couldn't. It was pretty apparent that the players' eyes, McDonald and Duhamel were a couple of the last players they'd like to see re-entering.
Even though McDonald and Duhamel did not show up to get their tournament seats from the floor staff until roughly 10 minutes into the level. It's also of note that the registration desk for the tournaments is on the other side of the building, so it does take time to facilitate everything over there and then get back over to where the tables are.
A few players even went on to comment and suggest that the tournament staff should adjust the rules next time around and have re-entry and late registration open for the entire Day 1 and up until the start of Day 2. One problem with that would be that a lot of players wouldn't bother showing up on time for the event, so things could get a little tricky.
One thing is for sure and that's that PokerStars and the EPT are always listening to player feedback and doing what they can to adjust their events for the better. With many of the high rollers voicing their opinion, surely this would go on their list of things to look at and could possibly be tweaked for next season.
We'll see if we can dig up any more information on this story.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
130,000 | 70,000 |
Thorel Takes One Off van der Fluit
From early position, Vincent van der Fluit raised to 1,200. Jean-Noel Thorel called on the button and the flop came down 
. Van der Fluit bet 2,000 and Thorel made the call.
The turn was the 
and van der Fluit checked. Before Thorel could act, the dealer prematurely ran the 
as the river card. Thorel stopped him and told him he hadn't acted yet. The dealer went to call the floor, but everyone at the table knew the ruling would be to put that river card back in the deck and reshuffle. Thorel fired 3,000 anyway and van der Fluit folded. The floor call was cancelled and play moved forward. Thorel showed the from his hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
71,000 | 3,000 |
|
42,000 |
Level: 5
Blinds: 200/400
Ante: 50
Break
Level 4
: 150/300, 25 ante
The players are on their second break of the day. The re-entry period will close when Level 5 begins.
Updated Chip Counts
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
160,000 | 26,000 |
|
|
145,500 | 35,500 |
|
130,000 | 35,000 |
|
120,000 | 70,000 |
|
120,000 | 70,000 |
|
88,000 | 38,000 |
|
78,000 | 28,000 |
Mercier Going the Wrong Way
Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier is down to 22,500 in chips, which is less than half of the starting stack. Here's a couple of hands he lost.
On the first hand, Mercier checked the 
flop and Philipp Gruissem bet an unknown amount. Jason Somerville called and then Mercier check-raised to 6,400. Gruissem folded and Somerville called.
The turn was the 
and Mercier bet 8,600 with a little over 26,000 behind. Somerville jammed for 22,275 and Mercier gave it up.
Shortly after that, Mercier checked the 
board and Gruissem bet 1,800. Mercier called to see the fall on the river. After checking again, Mercier folded to a bet of 3,300 from Gruissem and dropped back to 22,500 in chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
114,000 | 18,000 |
|
60,000 | 10,000 |
|
22,500 | -20,500 |
Re-Entries Allowed
The following players have all re-entered, including Dan Shak for a third time.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | |
|
50,000 | |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |