€10,000 EPT Grand Final Main Event Day 1a | 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final

€10,000 EPT Grand Final Main Event

Day 1a Completed

Apr 28, 2009

Day 1a Concludes

And with the final five hands coming to an end in quiet fashion (funny how you almost never get huge action at this point, so close to the start of Day 2), these 223 players remaining in the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final are officially on a day's break.

Among them are leaders Lee Nelson, Luca Pagano, Annette Obrestad and Faraz Jaka. There are a good few over 100,000 now who will start the second day's play near pole position, along with whoever rises to the top in tomorrow's flight.

As cheers come from the monitor-filled corner where Elky has just completed breaking the STT record, the tournament area is being bagged and tagged. The beautiful sunshine absorbed by players on the stunning seaview balcony of the Sporting Club at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel in fifteen minute chunks during the breaks will be back tomorrow, and so will we, with live coverage starting at 12pm local time.

Tags: Lee Nelson

Apr 28, 2009

ElkY a World Record Holder

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With a total profit of $23 at the end of his sixty-two sit n gos, ElkY has bagged himself a Guinness-accredited world record for number of sit-n-gos opened within an hour with an astounding sixty-two! Congratulations to that crazy, crazy man.

Apr 28, 2009

Jesus Shoved

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A late-in-the-day double up for Chris Ferguson. The button raised to 2,400 and Ferguson made it 6,400 from the small blind. Unexpectedly, James Obst made it 12,500 from the big blind, and after the button had got out of the way, Jesus shoved. Obst called and it was an easy double-up for the man in black.

Obst: {9-Hearts}

Ferguson:

Board: an absolutely uneventful {7-Clubs}

Ferguson stays in on 33,000.

Tags: Chris Ferguson

Apr 28, 2009

Lodden Jealous of Nelson

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We approached Lee Nelson's table (happy to see him back in his standard blue blazer after he threw us for a loop in San Remo and wore something different) with the board showing {Q-Diamonds}

. 20,000 chips were in front of Nelson's hand, with action back to his one opponent, who thought for thirty seconds and called.

The river fell {3-Hearts}

. Nelson's opponent checked. With a wave of his hands over his 148,000 remaining chips, Nelson announced that he was all in. It was effectively a bet of about 27,000. Nelson's opponent tanked for about a minute, then quietly pushed his chips over the betting line. Nelson squeezed his cards before opening {6-Clubs}

for two pair, sixes and sevens. It was good, giving Nelson the pot and the chip lead at 225,000 chips.

"So lucky, all day!" exclaimed Johnny Lodden, also at the table.

"What?" asked Nelson with a laugh.

"Just raise it up with six-seven," replied Lodden. Then he added, "Nice hand. I thought you had aces or queens."

"You didn't put me on seven-six?"

"I didn't think you had the moves," Lodden said with a grin.

Tags: Johnny Lodden Lee Nelson

Apr 28, 2009

Nelson's Column

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Several towers of all sorts of unstable looking heights contribute to Lee Nelson's field-leading 225,000 stack. Trying to estimate the count, tablemate Johnny Lodden (himself on around 35,000) said helpfully, "A lot."

Other biggies:
Andrey Zaichenko - 130,000
Faraz Jaka - 143,000
Annette Obrestad - 140,000

Tags: Lee Nelson

Apr 28, 2009

Lucky Luca

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A late surge for Luca Pagano has seen him catapult up to 145,000 after first crippling, and then a few hands later busting, a shell-shocked Scandinavian player.

Tags: Luca Pagano

Apr 28, 2009

Abecassis Doubles from the Brink

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Michel Abecassis, whose stack was looking a little peaky on 14,000, just raised to 2,000 on the button. Big blind Marc Naalden quickly threw in a handful of yellow 5k chips, easily covering Abecassis, who thought for a short while before taking the plunge all in.

It turned out he was in pretty excellent shape, with his {5-Spades}

against Naalden's {A-Spades}

, which failed to improve.

Tags: Marc Naalden Michel Abecassis

Apr 28, 2009

Sit N Go Silliness Update

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ElkY's one hour to open his STTs is up, and he's managed to get 62 of the blighters up and running. Now he's just got to win them -- remember, it doesn't count unless he finishes the session in profit. Guinness Book of Records, no less!

Apr 28, 2009