£10,000 WSOPE Main Event Day 1b | 2009 World Series of Poker Europe

09-27-2009 14:10 UTC+2

Spanish Fall

[user4144]

OK. Detective hat on. With Carlos Mortensen in the big blind, it looked like he'd defended a preflop raise from under the gun. Detective hat off.

Carlos Mortensen then check-raised a continuation bet of 375 to 1,750 on a {3-Diamonds}

flop.

On the {8-Spades}

turn, he insta-led (have I coined a new phrase?) for 2,500. His opponent quickly called.

On the {7-Diamonds}

river, the Spaniard made a second swift move for chips, this time dropping 6,000 onto the felt. His opponent, stoic throughout, began riffling his chips as the cameras drew closer. As he continued to tank, Mortensen was equally statuesque, no movement whatsoever. But ultimately his poker facial skills were of little use as his opponent made the call. Mortensen tapped the table in defeat and the victor took the spoils with {5-Diamonds}

.

Consequently, Mortensen's stack has been bisected (17,250 to be precise), and to make matters worse, he had to show the mobile hand-cam his hole cards, be it with a begrudging grimace that can only bestow someone who's just had their paws snapped shut in the cookie jar.

Tags: Carlos Mortensen

09-27-2009 14:12 UTC+2

Tabatab-ite out of Danny Wong

[user46298]

John Tabatabai, runner-up in this event's inaugural year to Annette Obrestad, has made a few chips in the first level - just now a tough decision gave Danny Wong pause for thought on the river. He'd bet out 2,800 on the river of a {Q-Spades}

board, only to find Tabatabai raising him to 6,000. After a pretty long think, he eventually passed, and a quiet, focused-looking Tabatabai raked in the pot.

Tags: Danny Wong John Tabatabai

09-27-2009 14:28 UTC+2

Herbert Richer

[user46298]

Richard Herbert has had a dramatic first level - sitting pretty on 50k right now, but it wasn't a smooth progression, more like two big pots - the second a little chunkier than the first.

"The very first hand of the tournament I played 5-6 of spades, and flopped an open ended straight flush. I managed to bluff 8k off - well, 5k on the river, against a guy with a set of Aces," he told me, his brow furrowing slightly.

Then he perked up as he said, "Then the same guy got it all in preflop against me with Kings vs. my Aces! So I'm on 50,000."

Tags: Richard Herbert

09-27-2009 14:28 UTC+2

Nguyen Versus Thorson

[user4144]

A see-saw battle appears to have developed between Scotty Nguyen and William Thorson who seem to be targeting each other with the channelled vision of UFC warriors. Their last two encounters were brief, but consecutive.

The first hand was five-handed with a flop of {K-Diamonds}

. Nguyen bet 700 on the button and Thorson made the call. The {Q-Spades}

turn looked dangerous, but Nguyen led again, this time for 2,300, which was good enough to take it down.

On the very next hand, Thorson raised it up preflop to 250 from middle position and Nguyen called from the button. After both players checked the {4-Diamonds}

flop, Thorson fired 475 on the {7-Diamonds}

turn. Nguyen raised to 1,000; Thorson called. Come the {5-Diamonds}

river, the Swede bet 1,400, and Nguyen quickly folded.

Tags: Scotty Nguyen William Thorson

09-27-2009 14:34 UTC+2

Table Five Gets Interesting

[user46298]

Ram Vaswani has joined Julian Thew, Richard Ashby and Ben Roberts. Also flaxen-haired Jani Sointula has been moved over there following the first table break - a particularly out of the way table which I imagine was a kind of overflow one and which has now sent its six players into the main areas.

Also found lurking on that ex-table was Michael Binger, who's joined a table sporting Christer Johansson and Peter Eastgate, no less. A lot of players' Tweets at the moment include the words, "Tough table..."

Tags: Michael Binger Peter Eastgate

09-27-2009 14:45 UTC+2

Notable Stacks

[user4144]

Daniel Negreanu - 24,500
Barry Greenstein - 36,500
Annette Obrestad - 24,500
Antonio Esfandiari - 32,000
Carlos Mortensen - 18,000
Dennis Phillips - 47,000
Devilfish - 37,000
John Juanda - 32,000
Neil Channing - 29,500
JC Tran - 29,000

09-27-2009 14:46 UTC+2

Two Minutes Before First Break= Fashionably Late

[user46298]

According to Neil Channing, at least, I imagine. He's just joined the Tabatabai/Wong table in time to go on a break (20 minutes). That does mean that his stack's pretty much dead on 30k, though.

Other counts:

Arnaud Mattern - 32,200
Michael Tureniec - 28,600
Danny Wong - 17,850
David Williams - 43,000
Freddy Deeb - 27,000
Mike McDonald - 28,900

Tags: Neil Channing

09-27-2009 14:54 UTC+2

Raise a Bat

[user4144]

It's been a cagey start thus far with no one really grabbing this event by the scruff of the neck and taking that early chip lead. In fact, I haven't personally witnessed a single exit.

A quick scamper around the playing area, however, did unveil a handful of players who have not quite doubled up, but at least raised their bat in the air and basked in the applause of making the half century. Richard Herbert, Michael Binger and Haris Kapernopoulous are just three of the players to have reached that milestone.

09-27-2009 14:59 UTC+2

Rules are Made to be Inconsistent

[user46298]

Just before the break, I saw a hand between two players get to the river, when one player bet, and the other one called. The first player - let's call him Bluffy McAir - instantly pushed his cards, face down, into the middle of the table. They didn't hit the muck - player two (Snappy O'Read) waited until the dealer had touched them to the muck and then reached out to scoop in the pot. His own cards remained face down.

Bluffy McAir saw this as odd, while another player actually asked the dealer, "Aren't you meant to show your hand to win a pot?"

"Normally we do," she replied, "But not, apparently, for the World Series. I made a player show their hand to win the pot in a situation like this yesterday and got in trouble."

This does indeed seem odd considering the rule is standard in most casinos in the UK at least and I can see a less mild-mannered table giving the dealers and each other all kind of aggro should a big pot end in this manner.

Level: 2

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0