2010 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo

High Roller
Day: 1
123
Event Info
2010 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo
Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
q♥q♣
Prize
€956,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€25,000
Prize Pool
€2,825,000
Total Entries
113
Level Info
Level
24
Blinds
20,000 / 40,000
Ante
0
Players Left 1 / 113
Filter

Filter

Sort By
80 Show newer posts

McDo-uble Up

A player from under-the-gun made it 500 to go preflop and was called by Alex Kravchenko, Dario Minieri, and Olivier Busquet before Mike McDonald in the big blind made it 2,500. The player under the gun was the only player to call.

The flop came {5-Hearts}{4-Hearts}{2-Clubs}.

McDonald bet 4,500. His opponent moved all in, and after some thought, McDonald made the call, putting his tournament life at risk.

McDonald: {Q-Diamonds}{q-Spades}
Opponent: {a-Clubs}{10-Clubs}

The turn brought the {4-Spades} and the river the {j-Hearts}, giving McDonald the double up. He now sits with about 90,000.

Tags: Mike McDonald

Stacked

As with any €25,000 event, the field is full big names. Still, with such a big turnout, this event is known as one of the softer high rollers out there. Many of the players showed up today hoping to draw a table full of wealthy European fish. But there is at least one table without a single soft spot, unless you count the empty eight seat, of course.

Seat 1: David Paredes
Seat 2: Isabelle Mercier
Seat 3: Liv Boeree
Seat 4: Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis
Seat 5: David "Viffer" Peat
Seat 6: Carlos Mortensen
Seat 7: Justin "BoostedJ" Smith
Seat 8: dead stack

Short Handed So Early in the Morning

Most of the tables have their eight seats open for late registrants. Players can buy in until the end of the fourth level. But some of the tables are much shorter than that. Michael Binger is currently playing at a table with three other opponents, and he says they were already playing three-handed when he arrived. Binger asked the floor if the other seats had been sold, but there was no answer readily available. The tables will likely fill in as the afternoon goes on. You can't expect too many high rollers to get up quite this early.

Reinkemeir Makes a Hero Call

We missed the hand but Phil Laak called us over to tell us about Tobias Reinkemeir's sick, sick call. Reinkemeir filled in a few details as he counted out his stack so that Alexey Rybin could double him up. Sounds like Rybin played the hand representing a flush, and on a {K-Clubs} {9-Clubs} {2-?} {2-Clubs} {J-Hearts} board, Rybin put Reinkemeir all in. Tobias called for all of his chips with {K-?} {Q-?} and was right. Rybin, a Russian amateur who finished 5th at San Remo, showed {A-Hearts} {7-Hearts} for a total bluff. Rybin still has over 20,000 to make a come back with, however.

A Few More Notables

We took another walk around the room and caught Tony G sitting with Phil Laak, Viktor Blom, and PokerStars Serial Qualifier Pierre Neuville. Carlos Mortensen, David "Viffer" Peat, and Lex Velhuis have joined Liv Boeree at table 14.

Jeff Sarwer, Chad Brown, Sorel Mizzi, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, and Dario Minieri have also made their way to the tables.

Level: 2

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0

Strassmann Stressed

Johannes Strassmann made a raise from the cut-off. The player in the big blind bumped it up to 5,000 and Strassmann called.

The flop came down {7-Spades}{8-Clubs}{9-Spades}.

The big blind made it 7,000 before Strassmann threw in a bigger bet of 24,000. The big blind moved all his chips in the middle and Strassmann called.

Strassman: {10-Spades}{8-Spades}
Big Blind: {j-Hearts}{j-Spades}

The turn brought the {10-Clubs} and the river the {k-Clubs} leaving Strassmann just barely hanging on.

Tags: Johannes Strassmann

Here They Come

More players are definitely on the way. The staff tells us they've sold 14 eight-handed tables so far, and the phone is ringing off the wall with players inquiring about open space.

We'll amend our initial estimate and set the new line at about 125 players. With that number, the total prize pool will exceed €3 million.

Just joining the field in the last few moments are EPT Warsaw champion Christophe Benzimra and EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree. With all of the former EPT champions in the field (including several from this season), it's quite likely someone will earn themselves a second piece of EPT hardware come Saturday's final table.

Who's Here You Say?

From our walk around the room, we spotted 65 players entered in the field already, but as always, more are on the way. Here are just a few faces we've noticed.

Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, Barry Greenstein, Boris Becker, Jennifer Tilly, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke Schwartz, John Juanda, Neil Channing, Jon Aguiar, Humberto Brenes, Viktor Blom, Antoine Saout, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Alex Kravchenko, and Vanessa Rousso.

Aaaaand They're Off

Tournament Director Kevin has issued the command, and the dealers have sprung into action. With the blinds at 100/200 and starting stacks of 50,000, the cards are a'flyin' and the High Roller event is officially a go.

It looks like we have eleven tables in play to begin, and registration will be open for another four hours. So if you've got €25,000 burning a hole in your pocket, get yourself down here and get signed up.
Prev 1…678910 Next