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

04-30-2009 13:51 UTC+3

Marciano KO'd

[user46392]

Marc Marciano is busto after calling all in to a reraise from Alan Smurfit, and finding his {A-Hearts}

not looking good against Smurfit's {K-Spades}

. No aces at all on the {5-Spades}

board, and Smurfit is now up to almost 80,000.

04-30-2009 13:39 UTC+3

Negreanu Khan't See Blue 10K Chip

[user46298]

Hevad Khan just doubled through Daniel Negreanu, dropping him to the point where he's grazing the felt. I picked up the action on the river, when Khan had checked, and Negreanu pushed all in for 23k, which covered his opponent. The board stood {4-Hearts}

, and Khan eventually called all in, showing {5-Hearts}

for a winning two pair.

It did really look like Khan only had a couple of thousand, but it turned out at the bottom of his stack lurked a newly introduced blue 10k chip. Negreanu was surprised: "What is that, 10k? I swear I thought it was a 500 chip!"

"Sick beat," commented Khan.
"Whatever," countered Negreanu, "I haven't seen a 10k chip in this tournament!"

Tags: Daniel Negreanu Hevad Khan

04-30-2009 13:36 UTC+3

Table of... Broken

[user75032]

One of the more interesting table draws this afternoon was in the Battleship Room. Niccolo Caramatti (fourth in chips to start the day), Isabelle Mercier, and Alexander Kravchenko all drew Table 59. The intrigue was short-lived, however, as Table 59 was the first table to be broken.

04-30-2009 13:35 UTC+3

Doom All Over the Place

[user46392]

A quick tour of the card room revealed that we have one very obvious contender for the title of Table Of Doom. Check out this line-up:

- Dennis Phillips
- Sorel Mizzi
- Liya Gerasimova
- Ilari Sahamies
- Sebastian Ruthenberg

Where's the value in that?

Not far behind on the doom stakes we also have this lovely line-up across the room, all of them sitting in a row:

- ElkY
- Alexia Portal
- Andrew Feldman
- Joe Beevers

04-30-2009 13:33 UTC+3

Bloch's Play for Chips No Good

[user75032]

The early casualties are mounting here on Day 2 of the EPT Grand Final. Over in the Battleship Room, where there were nine tables to start the day, young Aussie Millions preliminary event winner Jarred Solomon opened a pot to2,400. Andy Bloch, seated to Solomon's left, reraised to 9,000. That took care of everyone else in the hand, but not Solomon. He moved all in and Bloch called.

Solomon: {10-Spades}

Bloch:

Board:

"Wrong face card," said Bloch with a disappointed smile. He stood up, put his jacket on and headed to Casey Kastle, sitting one table away.

"You're not out...?" Kastle asked Bloch.

"Yeah," Bloch replied.

"What the hell," was all Kastle could say in response.

Tags: Andy Bloch Casey Kastle Jarred Solomon

04-30-2009 13:13 UTC+3

Shuffle Up and Deal!

[user75032]

The button is in Seat 5. Cards are in the air! The tournament staff have opted to play seven levels today (rather than the scheduled six), a change that makes everyone in the media extremely happy. Tomorrow was looking like a very long day before that change.

Level: 9

Blinds: 500/1,000

Ante: 100

04-30-2009 12:45 UTC+3

Rendezvous with Day 2

[user75032]

Welcome back to the beautiful Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort for Day 2 of the 2009 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final. It took two days to play Day 1. During the course of those two days, the 935 players who each put up the EUR 10,000 buy-in were cut down to a shade more than 500. That's almost half the field that has to either go home or find something else to do for the rest of what is shaping up to be a beautiful week here in Monaco.

Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson raced out to more than 250,000 chips by the end of Day 1a. That was a chip lead that was not seriously challenged by any of the Day 1b players, with young Canadian Ami Barer coming closest at 207,000. They start the day with a leg up on the field, but there's a long way to go between here and a champion. This was a field loaded with poker talent and many big names are still in the running.

Play is scheduled to get underway at 12 noon local time, in about fifteen minutes. Stick around!