2008 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo

PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final
Day: 2
Event Info

2008 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a5
Prize
$3,198,500
Event Info
Buy-in
$15,764
Prize Pool
$13,393,124
Entries
842
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
10,000

Rasmussen's Rocky Ride

Germany's Stig Top-Rasmussen has been on a recent roller-coaster ride but continues with plenty of table talk to entertain the fans on the rail of table one.

In an interesting recent hand, an early-position raiser made it 5,400 and Rasmussen popped it up to 18,400 to go in the hope of taking down the pot right there. However, a player on the button flat-called his raise in a sign of strength. The original raiser folded and the two players took a flop of {K-Clubs}{J-Diamonds}{7-Clubs}. Rasmussen led out with a bet of 20,000, but his opponent moved all in. Rasmussen grumbled and laid down his hand to keep his stack of 44,000 intact.

However a few hands later, he was able to reclaim his chips against the same opponent, firing a 20,000 bullet on the turn on a board of {K-Hearts}{4-Spades}{7-Clubs}{J-Hearts} to collect the pot, much to his delight, moving back to a safe stack of around 62,000 in chips.

Tags: Stig Top-Rasmussen

Lodden Reclaims Chip Lead

Loddon's Blossoming Stack
Loddon's Blossoming Stack
Just before the break Johnny Lodden eliminated a player in a classic pre-flop race with A-K against his opponent's pocket nines. A king on the flop was enough for Lodden to collect the pot and move to 325,000 in chips to reclaim the tournament chip lead!

Tags: Johnny Lodden

Level: 12

Blinds: 800/1,600

Ante: 200

Break

The players are now taking a 15-minute break. There are 157 players remaining in the tournament.

T6 Player Felted by T-6

T6 Poker pro Thierry van den Berg and his opponent got all their chips in the middle on a J-10-6 flop, Thierry holding top pair, top kicker with A-J, but his opponent had flopped two pair with 10-6. Thierry's hand could not improve and he headed to the rail.

Tags: Thierry van den Berg

Gus Hansen Eliminated

Gus Hansen has just lost all of his chips over the course of two hands. In the first hand we caught the action with the board reading {7-Clubs}{K-Clubs}{2-Hearts}{Q-Diamonds}{8-Clubs} and Hansen facing a 20,000-chip decision from a young opponent. Hansen seemed confused and stated that he simply couldn't put his opponent on a hand before making a call. The answer was a set of deuces, which was too good for Hansen's holding.

Two hands later and Hansen found himself in the big blind holding {A-Diamonds}{9-Hearts}, facing a raise from the same opponent. With only 5,300 behind once his blind was in the middle, Hansen decided to go with the hand. His opponent made a pot-committed call with {8-Clubs}{8-Diamonds} and we were off to the races.

Unfortunately for Hansen, it was a short race as the door card revealed the {8-Hearts} to all but end his hopes. The board ran out {8-Hearts}{3-Diamonds}{2-Clubs}{7-Diamonds}{2-Diamonds} and Hansen was eliminated from today's field.

Tags: Gus Hansen

Ed de Haas Likes Quads

Ed de Haas
Ed de Haas
Holding quad eights, gentle giant Ed de Haas extracted the rest of his opponent's chips on the river with the board reading {A-Clubs}{8-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}{8-Diamonds}{10-Clubs}. The poor chap made two pair with his A-10 on the river and coudn't get away from it.

de Haas is now up to 80,000.

Tags: Ed de Haas

Oyvind Riisem = New Chip Leader

Oyvind Riisem
Oyvind Riisem
Our new chip leader is young Norwegian player Oyvind Riisem, who is currently sitting on 286,000 in chips. Though he hasn't been playing on the circuit for long, the 22-year old's name might be familiar to those of you who followed our coverage of the WSOP-Europe, where he finished fourth in the Main Event for a £257,020 payday.

Tags: Oyvind Riisem