WPT Merit Cyprus Classic Championship Day 2 | 2009 WPT Merit Cyprus Classic

09-08-2009 17:27 UTC+3

Break Time

[user75032]

It's the third break of the day. Like the others, this one will be fifteen minutes.

09-08-2009 17:26 UTC+3

Andreas Hagen, who started the day with 125,600 in chips as one of the biggest stacks in the field, has tumbled to short-stack status and moments ago had moved all in for his last 9,000 before the flop.

Quoc Diep, seated to Hagen's immediate left, made the call with {A-Clubs}

and turned his cards face up on the table, but for whatever reason, the dealer burnt his cards face down in the muck.

Mildly irate, Diep demanded that the dealer call the floor to sort things out. The ruling was quite simple: since the cards were already exposed, the floorman instructed the dealer to dig into the muck and retrieve Diep's erroneously killed hand.

Once the right cards were found, the dealer spread a {7-Clubs}

flop that gave Hagen a pair and the lead in the hand.

"She dropped the deck!" argued Diep, visibly frustrated over what had just transpired. His cries fell on deaf ears, however, as the dealer continued to fill out the board... {8-Diamonds}

,

.

Hagen took down the pot, worth right around 20,000, and Diep fell to ~71,000 in chips.

Tags: Andreas Hagen Quoc Diep

09-08-2009 17:22 UTC+3

A Disappearing Act

[user66118]

Antonio Esfandiari pictured in more lucrative times

We caught up with a hand in progress as the dealer spread out a flop of {10-Diamonds}

. Joe Cassidy was first to speak, and he passed over to Antonio Esfandiari. The Magician slid out a bet of 8,400 before Cassidy check-raised him to 45,000 straight.

That raise was enough to cover Esfandiari, and he would go deep into the tank for several minutes. Eventually, he let out a quiet, "Nice hand," and made the call for his tournament life.

Esfandiari tabled {J-Diamonds}

for the wired pair of jacks, Vince. As he seemed to suspect already though, the {K-Hearts}

of Cassidy had out-flopped his pocket pair, leaving him dead to two outs (or runner-runner) for his survival. The turn was a blank {7-Diamonds}

, as was the river {5-Clubs}

; no help to The Magician. With that, Esfandiari wished his table luck and headed off toward the exit.

Tags: Antonio Esfandiari Joe Cassidy

09-08-2009 17:05 UTC+3

Lacay Back to Starting Stack

[user75032]

As our colleague danafish might say, "Oh dear." Ludovic Lacay was heads-up against one opponent for a flop of {K-Hearts}

. Lacay checked, then raised all in after his opponent bet 6,000. That player snap-called all in for 28,300 total with a set of jacks, {J-Spades}

. Ludovic showed down top pair and a gutshot draw, {A-Spades}

. He never improved to anything better than his opponent's hand as the board came running trey,s {3-Spades}

. After paying off what he was required to pay, Lacay dropped to 39,000.

Tags: Ludovic Lacay

09-08-2009 17:03 UTC+3

Tales from the Rail

[user38449]

Gus Hansen just paid a visit to the tournament room, though he wasn't one of the 181 players on the main event entrant list. In the middle of making his rounds, he stopped by Sefik "Rob" Peltekci's table to discuss the less-than-adequate Internet situation in his room (Rob and brother Michael were the masterminds of the entire event).

"It's one thing when I can't check my mail," Hansen said. "But the Internet porn..."

Tags: Gus Hansen

09-08-2009 17:02 UTC+3

Watkins Takes a Tumble

[user66118]

Va Shon a bit displeased with the result

We caught up with the action on the flop in what appeared to be a limped pot. On a flop of {10-Diamonds}

, Va Shon Watkins made the first bet under the gun, slipping out a strong bet of 4,100. On the button, a middle-aged opponent announced a raise, making it a total of 12,300. When the action came back to Watkins, he slowly made the call.

Heads up, the turn card brought the {9-Hearts}

and a check from Watkins. His opponent shrugged and moved all in for 25,500, and Watkins instantly called with the covering stack.

He flipped over {A-Diamonds}

, and the

of his opponent was in awful bad shape to survive. Much to the chagrin of Watkins though, the {K-Clubs}

spiked the river like a dagger, sending the pot across the felt and dropping the young online stud down under 12,000.

Tags: Va Shon Watkins

09-08-2009 16:52 UTC+3

Wong's Big Fold

[user75032]

It took Danny Wong six full minutes to make the fold, but he made what seemed to be a huge one against Jazzar Mamoun. The two engaged in a pre-flop raising war, putting 20,000 total chips in the middle before Mamoun raised another 15,000 on top. Wong tanked for about a minute and then called with position.

The flop was jack-high and ragged, {2-Hearts}

. Mamoun quickly bet enough to put Wong all in, sending Wong deep into the tank. He seemed positively agonized by his decision.

After five minutes without action, Felix Osterland finally said, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call a clock." A floor was summoned to the table. With fifteen seconds left on the floor's countdown, Wong finally folded. Mamoun rewarded him by showing {A-Diamonds}

.

Tags: Danny Wong Jazzar Mamoun

09-08-2009 16:48 UTC+3

Antonius Finds His Double

[user66118]

Jonathan Little opened the pot with a raise from middle position, and only Patrik Antonius came along out of the big blind. The flop showed up {5-Spades}

, and Antonius would check-raise all in after Little's continuation bet. It was a bit less than 15,000 total, and Little made the call to put Antonius at risk.

Showdown
Little: {A-Diamonds}

Antonius:

The turn was a miss with the {5-Hearts}

, but the river paid off Antonius with the {2-Spades}

, making his spade flush and doubling him back to about 35,000.

Tags: Jonathan Little Patrik Antonius

09-08-2009 16:39 UTC+3

Flack and Matusow Feeling Good

[user75032]

Layne Flack and Mike Matusow have continued their running dialogue from across the tournament room.

"Mike, Mike, look at this," Flack called out as Nenad Medic arrived and took the seat to Flack's left.

"Oh my god," replied Matusow. "Does he have chips?"

"He does."

"How do you run like that?" Matusow called out. "I mean, I've got Roy Winston calling me with two deuces on a king-queen-five board in an unraised pot. That's pretty good."

Flack had already turned his attention to his table, hoping to get some ribbing in at Medic's expense. "Don't worry," Flack told the table. "Nenad does everything he can to dump his stack off to me in a tournament."

09-08-2009 16:36 UTC+3

Push-up Props

[user38449]

Layne Flack and Sorel Mizzi have agreed to the following prop bet: If the flop comes all red, Sorel owes Flack ten push-ups, and vice versa if the flop comes black.

When asked how many push-ups he's had to do thus far, Flack responded, "Well, I did 70 this morning when I woke up."

At the time this photo was taken, Flack was down two sets to one.

Tags: Layne Flack Sorel Mizzi