£5,000 EPT London Main Event Day 1a | 2009 PokerStars.com EPT London

10-02-2009 18:38 UTC+2

No Pagano No Gain

[user46298]

Luca Pagano, who knows what it's like to be EPT Player of the Year, also knows what it's like to lose a big pot in the fourth level to a young Norwegian sat on your left.

In a small blind vs. big blind pot, they'd built a 17,500 pot around a board of {4-Hearts}

. Luca bet out 8,000 and that's how it stood for ages - young Norwegian vs. this bet, staring at it.

After about a minute and a half, young Norwegian counted out the call, but then pushed his whole stack in - 14,550 on top of the 8k. Back to Pagano, who took his turn in the still-as-a-rock tank. The table waited patiently for a good while as Pagano came to a decision and gave up that large pot.

Tags: Luca Pagano

10-02-2009 18:23 UTC+2

Schaffel Shafts Foe

[user76023]

November Nine member Kevin Schaffel just got rather lucky to knock out his opponent to his left, Schaffel held {A-?}

dominated by his opponent's {K-Hearts}

until the river of a {9-Clubs}

board.

10-02-2009 18:12 UTC+2

8-Game Final Going On

[user76023]

The 8-game final table has just begun, the players on the table include Richard Gryko, Huck Seed, Joe Hachem, Nikolai Evdakov, David Williams and Miami John Cernuto.

10-02-2009 18:05 UTC+2

Once More Unto The Breach!

[user76023]

The running antes have kicked in, time to go aggro!

10-02-2009 17:45 UTC+2

Joram Tells It Like It Is

[user76023]

There's a raise to 775, Darren Kramer calls, Keith Johnson thinks for ages before also just calling but then the big blind, Joram Voelklen reraised to 4,800.

The first two passed but Johnson called just as Roland de Wolfe left the table temporarily to make fun of Ilari Sahamies, who had just busted from the high roller event.

The flop was {8-Hearts}

and both players checked, Voelklen then fired 3,500 on the {5-Diamonds}

turn and 5,000 on the {2-Clubs}

river.

This last bet put Johnson into the tank as the break started.

Voelklen attempted to coax his opponent into doing the wrong thing by saying, "Either I have A-K or Jacks...or something totally diffrerent." He continued, "I know what you have, you will call and I will win."

Eventually Johnson did call and Voelklen showed Jacks to win the pot. Johnson mucked, Voelklen added, "He had tens..."

Level: 5

Blinds: 150/300

Ante: 25

10-02-2009 17:38 UTC+2

Break

[user76023]

15 minute break for all involved.

10-02-2009 17:35 UTC+2

Shorn Deeb

[user76023]

Shaun Deeb is missing from the Andrew Chen table and presumed eliminated.

10-02-2009 17:25 UTC+2

A Lundmark Victory

[user76023]

Kent Lundmark has takend down most of a 70,000 plus pot after three players, one of them a short stack, got all-in on the flop of {A-Hearts}

.

Lundmark: {K-Hearts}

Other big stack: {Q-Hearts}

Short stack: {8-Diamonds}

The turn was the {10-Clubs}

but the short stack gained some respite with a treble up after the {3-Spades}

river made him a house.

Lundmark still took the main pot to push him over the 60,000 mark.

10-02-2009 17:24 UTC+2

Contrast Between EPT and High Rollers In High Def

[user46298]

They're down to the last six in the £20k High Rollers Side Event - and the average stack is about 9 bb. Such a lot of money, or such a lot of your sponsors' money, to hang on a final table which is moving so fast, and apparently randomly at times. Currently the early leader Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies is in last place, with Adolfo Vaeza in the lead, but there's only one double up between them.

Meanwhile talking to Danny Ryan on the rail, he's practically misty-eyed about the new deeper-stacked, slower-structured EPT Main Event. "It's amazing," he said, before correcting himself, "No, it's how poker should be. I've just gotten used to all the crapshoots..."