£50,000 Super High Roller
Day 1 Started
£50,000 Super High Roller
Day 1 Started
For the first time ever, a £50,000 Super High Roller will be held at the European Poker Tour London, and the tournament is expected to attract a star-studded line-up of players including Team PokerStars Pros Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Jason Mercier.
Other players lined up to shell out at least £50,000 include EPT Barcelona SHR runner-up Erik Seidel; Grand Final champion Steve O'Dwyer; businessmen Bill Perkins, Talal Shakerchi, Dan Shak and Paul Newey; film producer Rick Salomon; EPT Grand Final High Roller winners Tobias Reinkemeier and Steve Silverman; EPT9 Barcelona Super High Roller winner Dan Smith; EPT Dortmund champion Mike McDonald; and World Series of Poker Big One for One Drop runner-up Sam Trickett.
More than 25 players are already confirmed for the event, though almost twice that number are expected to enter the re-entry event before registration comes to a close at the start of Day 2 as PokerStars' VIP host Garry Gates has been busy recruiting some of the biggest names in the game:
Ole Schemion and @ViktorBlom both expected to play tomorrow's 50k EPT London Super High Roller. Get your popcorn ready! #action #EPTLondonFollow @GarryGates
The inaugural Super High Roller of EPT Season 10, which took place in Barcelona last month, attracted 51 entries with winner Vitaly Lunkin snagging €771,300 for his victory, plus a stunning bracelet from Shamballa Jewels, the Official Bracelet Sponsor of EPT Season 10 Super High Roller events.
The tournament, which will be broadcast on EPTLive with expert commentary from hosts James Hartigan, Joe Stapleton, Matt Broughton & Marc Convey from 2:30 p.m. local time, is set to kick off in a few hours, so stay tuned for all the action from the Grand Connaught Rooms here in London.
In the meantime, check out this infographic entitled ‘Rise of the Super High Rollers’, which charts the history behind this new breed of high stakes events.
Things may have kicked off a few minutes later than expected, but cards are now in the air here in the EPT London £50,000 Super High Roller. Only a handful of players are here at the start, but rest assured many more will be filtering in throughout the day.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Paul Newey |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Erik Seidel |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
||
Steve O'Dwyer |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
||
Timothy Adams |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Andrew Chen | 250,000 | |
Bertrand Grospellier |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Haralabos Voulgaris |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Level: 1
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
There are three tables in play here during the early goings of this Super High Roller and Erik Seidel was one of the first to win a pot.
Seidel raised from the cutoff to 2,000 and Paul Newey called from the small blind. Haralabos Voulgaris called from the big blind and the flop brought .
Seidel bet 3,500 after two checks and Newey folded quickly. Voulgaris tossed in the call and on the turn the popped up.
Voulgaris double-checked his cards after Seidel put in a bet worth 8,000, and the professional NBA bettor opted to fold.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Erik Seidel |
257,000
7,000
|
7,000 |
|
||
Haralabos Voulgaris |
244,000
-6,000
|
-6,000 |
As it is a custom during Super High Roller events the start is always slow, but the action will not be. We just spotted another few players that have taken their seats, as we are now up to 25 total.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Talal Shakerchi |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Martin Jacobson |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Betrand Grospellier
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Sorel Mizzi | 250,000 | |
Jonathan Duhamel |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Christoph Vogelsang |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Mike Watson |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
||
Johannes Strassmann |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
Dan Smith |
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
The tournament director has just informed the players of the plan for the day. Day 1 will consist of eight levels with a break after every two levels. That means play will come to a close around 9:10 p.m. local time.
The tournament features unlimited re-entries on Day 1, though players will not be able to re-enter during the last 20 minutes of the night. Late registration and re-entries will then remain open until 15 minutes prior to the start of Day 2 on Saturday.
The stacks are deep, so it's understandable that big and exciting pots are lacking here in Level 1. To give you an idea of the sort of hands we've been observing, here are two examples:
Hand #1: Dan Smith opened for 3,000 from the cutoff and Timothy Adams defended from the button. Both blinds folded, the flop fell , and Adams called a bet of 4,500 from Smith. After the dealer burned and turned the , Smith fired out 10,500 and won the pot.
Hand #2: Erik Seidel opened for 2,000 from the cutoff and received calls from Christoph Vogelsang and Haralabos Voulgaris on the button and in the big blind respectively. Two checks on the flop put action on Vogelsang, and he promptly bet 3,500. It did the trick as both Voulgaris and Seidel folded.
The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Player of the Year race began Barcelona and continues here in London. Remember, this season a new points formula was implemented in conjunction with the Global Poker Index.
Players will be able to accumulate points in all events throughout Season 10, regardless of the buy-in level. In addition, all of the Festival Events (Estrellas, UKIPT, Eureka, FPS, IPT) that combine with an EPT tour stop will be eligible for Player of the Year points. The winner of this season’s award will walk away with €50,000 in Main Event buy-ins, good for any PokerStars or Full Tilt sponsored event.
The Global Poker Index (GPI) points formula, which will be used to determine the EPT10 POY, is a bit complicated, but you can read about all the details here.
Here are the top ten on the EPT10 POY Leaderboard:
Place | Player | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | David Benefield | 261.67 pts |
2 | Ole Schemion | 259.32 pts |
3 | Joao Barbosa | 220.20 pts |
4 | Thomas Muehloecker | 196.87 pts |
5 | Jonathan Duhamel | 195.58 pts |
6 | Tom Middleton | 181.74 pts |
7 | Vitaly Lunkin | 176.97 pts |
8 | Steve O'Dwyer | 175.30 pts |
9 | Kevin Vandersmissen | 173.42 pts |
10 | Oleksii Khoroshenin | 166.89 pts |
We'll be bringing you daily updates on the Player of the Year race, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.
We just spotted five new guys and most of them sat down on the Erik Seidel-Haralabos Voulgaris table. Bill Perkins, Mike McDonald and Steven Silverman sat down at that table making it a lot more interesting right away.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Joni Jouhkimainen | 250,000 | |
Mike McDonald | 250,000 | |
|
||
Steven Silverman | 250,000 | |
Bill Perkins | 250,000 | |
Jeff Gross | 250,000 |