2009 PokerStars.com EPT Vilamoura

Vilamoura Championship Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info

2009 PokerStars.com EPT Vilamoura

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
78
Prize
€404,793
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€1,561,700
Entries
322
Level Info
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
5,000

Good Karma for Karmazinas

Joachim Buch is out - he coinflipped his {A-?} {K-?} against Dominykas Karmazinas' pocket tens and hit, but the tens made a straight by the river to put Karmazinas at 162,000 - a little less than he started the day with but not much less, and infinitely better than Buch, who is busto.

Tags: Dominykas Karmazinas

Santos Not Blessed

Rico Schultz made it 2,700 in early position and Goncalo Santos called out of the big blind. They saw a {4-Diamonds} {K-Hearts} {K-Clubs} flop.

Santos bet out 6,500 and Schultz swiftly called; they proceeded to the {8-Spades} turn. Santos bet out 5,000 this time and Schultz called that; Santos bet out another 5,000 on the {6-Spades} river and Schultz called that too. Eventually Schultz turned over {K-Spades} {J-Hearts}, and Santos had to show his thoroughly inferior {5-Hearts} {5-Diamonds}.

Schultz moves on up to 116,000; Santos, however, looks to be in some serious trouble with just 13,500 left to his name, having lost the best part of his stack in the hand.

Sarwer Surrenders

Antonio Martins limped into the pot to start the action, and Jeff Sarwer raised it up to 3,600. Martins was the only caller, and the two men watched the flop bring {4-Clubs} {5-Spades} {5-Diamonds}. After a check from Martins, Sarwer continued out with a bet of 6,500. Martins quickly called.

The turn was the {2-Clubs}, and it drew checks from both players. When the {K-Spades} hit the river, Martins made a small bet of 5,000 in the form of a single yellow chip. Sarwer couldn't call; he slid his cards into the muck with a grimace, and his stack has taken a small hit down to about 130,000.

Tags: Antonio MartinsJeff Sarwer

Recent Elminations

The following players are no longer in contention for this particular title:

Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown
Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater
Jasper Wetemens
Maria Maceiras
Martin Kabrhel
Reuben Peters

And indeed, a second glance around the room confirms that another Team PokerStars Pro, Joep van den Bijgaart, has been eliminated.

Fully updated chip counts can be found in the Chip Counts tab on this page.

Good Grace

Richard Grace is back up to a respectable 60,000.

He tells us that he raised from the hijack with {A-Hearts} {7-?} and the gent in the big blind called. Mr. Big Blind checked the {A-?} {10-?} {4-?} flop, and then raised to a bet from Grace. Grace pushed, Mr. Big Blind called, and Mr. BB's {A-?} {3-?} was no match when the turn and river came {K-?} and {2-?} respectively.

Tags: Richard Grace

Set or Straight?

We joined the tail end of a pot in progress over on one of the upper tables. The board showed {2-Hearts} {5-Spades} {8-Hearts} {4-Diamonds} {K-Diamonds}, and there was about 30,000 in the pot. Heads up, Marco Paulo Orlandi led out with a bet of 27,700. Pierre Neuville was on the other side of the table, and he slowly counted out a raise. After several minutes of chip handling, Neuville made it 70,000 straight.

Orlandi was hating life as he sat in the tank. He cut out the call and counted down his remaining chips. Finally, he spoke. "Set or straight?" Getting no response from his opponent, Orlandi splashed the call into the pot reluctantly.

Neuville tabled {4-Spades} {4-Hearts}, indeed having a set. Orlandi held his cards up in front of him and shook his head; he showed the table his {A-Clubs} {A-Hearts} as the pot was pushed away from him. Neuville is quite healthy with 230,000 now.

Tags: Marco Paulo OrlandiPierre Neuville

Jesus Saves Himself a Showdown

Jesus Sanchez, who apparently qualified in his local card room for €50, is having a marvellous time.

Having knocked out Barny Boatman earlier to put him on a very decent stack, he just now got himself involved in a massive hand with British online qualifier Matthew Nieberg.

We caught up with the action on the river, the board reading {9-Spades} {6-Spades} {Q-Spades} {8-Hearts} {10-Hearts} and around 60,000 in the pot already. Nieberg in the small blind position thought about it for a while before checking; after some time thinking about it, Sanchez bet 44,000 from the button.

"That's why I should bet," sighed Nieberg, "That's looking like a terrible river check from me now."

He dwelled up for what seemed like a million years. "Show me if I fold?" he asked eventually. "Nope," was the very decisive answer from Sanchez. Nieberg sighed and disappeared into the tank again. He counted out the call - no feeling sorry for him, as a call would still leave him on over 200,000! - but continued to tank. Eventually he called the clock on himself. The dealer thought he was joking, but he wasn't.

"I don't see why you'd call twice," he muttered, offering a tantalizing glimpse of how that pre-river action went down. Eventually he folded.

"If you had a straight I was beat," he said as the pot went Sanchez' way, "I had a set." Sanchez declined to reveal what he'd had, but was spotted giggling with a member of the Spanish media a little later. Curious.

Sanchez - 160,000
Nieberg - even without that pot, looking to be our current chip leader on over 250,000

Tags: Jesus SanchezMatthew Nieberg

Level: 11

Blinds: 800/1,600

Ante: 200