2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

€25,500 High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qq
Prize
€993,963
Event Info
Buy-in
€25,000
Prize Pool
€5,243,000
Entries
214
Level Info
Level
26
Blinds
30,000 / 60,000
Ante
5,000

Some Assorted Chip Counts From Around The Room

Level 4 : 150/300, 25 ante
Player Chips Progress
Rui Cao fr
Rui Cao
100,000
50,000
50,000
Benny Spindler de
Benny Spindler
77,000
27,000
27,000
Govert Metaal nl
Govert Metaal
64,000
14,000
14,000
Justin Bonomo us
Justin Bonomo
58,000
8,000
8,000
Bertrand Grospellier fr
Bertrand Grospellier
57,000
7,000
7,000
Haralabos Voulgaris ca
Haralabos Voulgaris
54,000
4,000
4,000
Yevgeniy Timoshenko ua
Yevgeniy Timoshenko
51,000
1,000
1,000
Antonio Esfandiari us
Antonio Esfandiari
46,000
-4,000
-4,000
John Juanda id
John Juanda
36,000
-14,000
-14,000
Poker Hall of Famer
EPT 1X Winner
Ole Schemion de
Ole Schemion
27,000
6,600
6,600

Level: 4

Blinds: 150/300

Ante: 25

Karamalikis Believes Farrell

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante

The flop was {10-Clubs}{4-Clubs}{q-Hearts}. Niall Farrell in the big blind checked as did Max Greenwood. Jonathan Karamalikis bet 1,500 and both Farrell and Greenwood called.

The turn card was the {3-Hearts} which was checked around and all three saw the river card come the {j-Clubs}.

Farrell led out for 4,200 and while Greenwood quickly folded Karamalikis had a decision to make. That river card brought in a host of draws and was also surely a perfect card for Farrell to bluff into two people with. Was Karamalikis a believer? It took him a while but in the end he folded and in throwing away his cards they accidentally turned over to show his {a-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}.

Farrell just collected the pot and slid his cards to the dealer.

Tags: Niall FarrellMax GreenwoodJonathan Karamalikis

Tabei Doubles Through O'Dwyer

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante

Jonathan Duhamel opened for 800 under the gun and Steve O'Dwyer made the call. Two more callers followed, one of them Talal Shakerchi in the small blind.

Ray Tabei from the beautiful Saint Kitts and Nevis squeezed all in from the big blind for 11,700.

Duhamel folded, but O'Dwyer made the call. Both other players folded and O'Dywer got Tabei for himself.

Ray Tabei: {4-Spades}{4-Diamonds}
Steve O'Dwyer: {A-Diamonds}{K-Diamonds}

O'Dwyer had flatted with a monster, but it wouldn't improve against Tabei's fours: {8-Diamonds}{7-Clubs}{2-Spades}{9-Spades}{8-Spades}. A small dent for O'Dwyer, a hugely important double up for Tabei.

Player Chips Progress
Steve O'Dwyer ie
Steve O'Dwyer
47,500
-2,500
-2,500
EPT 1X Winner
Ray Tabei
Ray Tabei
27,400
-22,600
-22,600

Tags: Steve O'DwyerTalal ShakerchiJonathan DuhamelRay Tabei

Meet The Cosmonaut With 10,000,000 VPP

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante
Vladimir "shabalinvlad" Shabalin. Photo courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.
Vladimir "shabalinvlad" Shabalin. Photo courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.

Among the stars of the EPT Grand Final you would have been hard-pressed to pick out a young Russian by the name of Vladimir "shabalinvlad" Shabalin. The 26-year-old is only the third player to ever break the 10,000,000 VPP barrier, which is, in case you didn’t know, an absolutely phenomenal amount of VIP Player Points. Read the interview at PokerStars Blog.

Tags: PokerStars Blog

Negreanu Escapes

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu opened for 675 from the cutoff and got one caller, Max Altergott on the button.

They saw a flop of {5-Clubs}{9-Spades}{q-Diamonds}. Negreanu checked and said. “Go ahead and bet. Eleven hundred.”

Altergott bet 900 which Negreanu called. The turn {8-Spades} saw another check from Negreanu and a bigger bet, 2,900 from Altergott. Negreanu quickly folded and Altergott slammed his cards on the table in mild frustration indicating he really wanted to see a call.

Tags: Daniel NegreanuMax Altergott

122 Now

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante

The tournament keeps growing. From 122 entries, 116 remain at this time. Two players have already busted and reentered. One of them, Rono Lo, just sat down with a fresh stack of 50,000.

Player Chips Progress
Oleksii Khoroshenin ua
Oleksii Khoroshenin
50,000
EPT 1X Winner
Rui Cao fr
Rui Cao
50,000
Chenxiang Miao cn
Chenxiang Miao
50,000
Ariel Celestino br
Ariel Celestino
50,000
Max Silver gb
Max Silver
50,000
Calvin Anderson us
Calvin Anderson
50,000
Davidi Kitai be
Davidi Kitai
50,000
EPT Main Event Champion
EPT 1X Winner
Winamax
Martin Finger de
Martin Finger
50,000
EPT 1X Winner
Erik Seidel us
Erik Seidel
50,000
Poker Hall of Famer
Micah Raskin us
Micah Raskin
50,000
Tobias Reinkemeier de
Tobias Reinkemeier
50,000

Diaz Bests Charania Again

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante

Mohsin Charania and Adrian Mateos Diaz played a pot earlier on where Diaz won, and just now he won another small pot of the EPT Grand Final 2012 champion.

On an {A-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}{2-Hearts} board we saw Diaz check-call 1,300. The WSOP Europe champ check-called another 2,500 on the {9-Hearts}-turn and both players checked the {4-Clubs}-river.

Charania tabled {J-Spades}{10-Hearts} but would muck it after Diaz revealed {A-Hearts}{9-Spades}.

Player Chips Progress
Adrian Mateos Diaz
Adrian Mateos Diaz
66,000
6,000
6,000
Mohsin Charania us
Mohsin Charania
35,000
-5,000
-5,000
EPT 1X Winner

Tags: Mohsin CharaniaAdrian MateosAdrian Mateos Diaz

An Orbit With Blom

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante
Viktor Blom
Viktor Blom

We watched Viktor Blom play an orbit of his table to get a glimpse of his early level strategy.

Hand #1 From the cutoff Blom opened for 600 and the 2x raise won the blinds and antes.

Hand #2 Blom open folded from the hijack

Hand #3 Artrem Litvanonv opened and Blom folded.

Hand #4 A Fold from Blom from early position.

Hand #5 Ariel Celestino opened for 750 and Litvanov in the small blind and Blom in the big blind call. They saw a flop of {5-Spades}{10-Hearts}{q-Hearts}. It was checked to Celestino who bet 1,200. Litvanov check-raised him to 2,775 and Blom and Celestino both folded.

Hand #6 Blom folds his small blind to another open of 750 from Celestino.

Hand #7 Again Celestino opened for 750 and another fold on the button for Blom.

Despite his crazy, even reckless reputation Blom has developed his tournament strategy over the years and while he has confessed to finding these game less stimulating that multi-tabling the nose bleeds he has shown the disciple and patience to make a few recent deep runs.

Celestino though looks determined to get full value per hands played for his buy in.

Tags: Ariel CelestinoViktor Blom

Aces Versus Kings

Level 3 : 150/300, 25 ante

It all went in before the flop as Talal Shakerchi and his neighbor Ray Tabei both had big hands in a cutoff versus button situation. Shakerchi was the underdog with {K-Hearts}{K-Diamonds} though, as Tabei tabled {A-Spades}{A-Clubs}.

Unfortunately for Tabei, and fortunately for Shakerchi, the flop came king high with two eights: {K-Spades}{8-Clubs}{8-Diamonds}. The {6-Hearts} on the turn and {J-Hearts} on the river were blanks and Shakerchi doubled through Tabei.

Player Chips Progress
Talal Shakerchi gb
Talal Shakerchi
75,000
25,000
25,000

Tags: Talal ShakerchiRay Tabei