€10,000 EPT Grand Final Main Event Day 2 | 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final

€10,000 EPT Grand Final Main Event

Day 2 Completed

05-01-2009 00:57 UTC+3

Day 2 Concludes

[user46298]

Now that all tables have finished with their last seven hands, the bag/tag process is underway. The small stacks seem to just pick up their chips and drop them in the envelope, while those leading the pack get the joy of pouring armful after armful of chips in, ready to unpack them again with the same gusto tomorrow at 12pm.

There were several contenders for chip leader near the end, but it looks like Dutch player Marc Naalden got there in the final hour, topping 750,000 and pipping Annette Obrestad from the top spot going in to the third day's play. In a day where we've gone from 530 players down to just 149, the excellent new structure hasn't stopped players busting out with alacrity in all kinds of dramatic ways. The atmosphere here just gets more exciting (and the rail gets thicker and swarmier, but that's a problem for tomorrow).

Will Marc Naalden convert his Day 2 chip lead into a Day 3 chip lead? His experience could well pay off, as he won the Pokernews Alpine Cup this year. The field is still full of top-class players from all over the world, however. Join Pokernews.com tomorrow at noon for more live coverage of the action as they play down to four tables here in the beautiful surroundings of the Sporting Club at the Monte Carlo Bay Resort.

Tags: Marc Naalden

05-01-2009 00:36 UTC+3

Annette Profit

[user46392]

Annette - possibly our overnight chip leader

Looks as though Annette Obrestad is once again our chip leader. Shortly before the press were ejected for the last few hands of the night, she pushed another player off a large pot with a 37,000 bet on the river of a {3-Diamonds}

board. Said player has 130,000 left to his name, while Obrestad is up to around 600,000.

Tags: Annette Obrestad

05-01-2009 00:32 UTC+3

Mizzi Stays In

[user46392]

Sorel Mizzi has doubled up to 200,000 after getting his chips in with {K-Clubs}

while in the small blind and facing a raise from the button. The button called and it looked like {A-?}

, although the dealer mucked his cards pretty swiftly after this reporter's arrival at the table. Either way, the board was {8-Hearts}

and Mizzi took it down.

Tags: Sorel Mizzi

05-01-2009 00:19 UTC+3

Kings for Kelopuro

[user46298]

Kelopuro: not a twitch of those eyebrows during the double up process

Raise to 10,500. Reraise to 32,000. Now, Sami Kelopuro moves his last 93,300 all in. The initial raiser passes and shares some eye rolling with Ami Barer. The other player calls with {A-Spades}

. Optimistic, maybe, but there was still a tense few seconds as Kelopuro's {K-Spades}

had to hold.

It did. He's back in the thick of things with almost 300,000.

Tags: Sami Kelopuro

05-01-2009 00:11 UTC+3

Bing! And He's Gone

[user46392]

Last Binger standing, Nick, joins his brother Michael on the List of the Busted after getting his chips in preflop with {A-Diamonds}

against Dave Atrubin's {10-Clubs}

and failing to hit any part of the {7-Clubs}

board.

Tags: Nick Binger

05-01-2009 00:01 UTC+3

Mercier Ousted

[user66118]

After losing most of his stack trying to run a bluff on Phil Laak, Jason Mercier found himself crippled with a very short stack. Looking down at suited nine-high rags, he moved all in, only to run into an opponent with pocket queens. The pro failed to connect with the board and he's now been relegated to a seat in the €30-buy-in media event, hoping to rack up a roll for tomorrow's High Roller event.

05-01-2009 00:00 UTC+3

"Oops."

[user46298]

Marc Naalden summed up this pot, which he did in fact win and bust a player during. But it was a weird one, to say the least.

The action was caught with a pretty big pot already in the middle, and a pretty big bet coming from Naalden after it was checked to him on the turn with the board standing {J-Diamonds}

. 90k in fact was the bet, and his opponent then moved in for just 50k more. With over 220k in the pot, Naalden looked like he'd just sucked a lemon, but he did make the call.

All in player: {J-Spades}

Naalden:

The river: {Q-Hearts}

There was not one word until one chair had been vacated and one big pot shipped, and then Naalden said, "Oops," recommended as a commentary on the hand by his neighbour Dag Palovic (who's now wearing a scarf tied round his head like a bandanna for some reason).

Tags: Marc Naalden

04-30-2009 23:59 UTC+3

More from the Crazy Man

[user46392]

Laak - not crazy, but concerned about sudden death

The press room was buzzing with tales of the t-shirt-over-his-head disrupter of poker (mostly press members claiming they were ready to take him on when actually they were cowering under tables), when who should appear in the press room but our friend the nutter?

He took his shirt off and screamed an assortment of entirely incomprehensible things. Everyone thought they were going to die, but instead our crazy guy was arrested and led off in cuffs. Good lord.

Incidentally, back in the tournament area, Phil Laak called over TD Thomas Kremser.

"So, if that guy had pulled out a machine gun and killed like 83 poker players, obviously you'd pause the clock while the ambulances came and took everyone to hospital, but those guys that didn't make it... Would they get a refund?"

Kremser considered for a while. "No, we would wait and see who came back from hospital and then see what to do. Unless I am killed, the tournament director."

04-30-2009 23:51 UTC+3

Tureniec Beats a Hasty Exit

[user75032]

We're not sure what happened to Michael Tureniec. He seemed to be holding his own all day, right around the 200,000 to 250,000 mark. We came to his table to see him open-shove for about 70,000 from early position. Action folded to Ami Barer in the big blind, who asked for a count and then called.

Tureniec: {5-Clubs}