The 2012 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info

The 2012 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qq
Prize
€1,350,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€10,000
Entries
665
Level Info
Level
33
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
30,000

Quads For Chouity

Level 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

It was two years ago that the EPT was last here for its Grand Final and it is an event that Nicolas Chouity will remember well. The man from Lebanon withstood the pressure from 848 entries to win the first prize of €1,700,000 and here is is acting as if he never left.

We joined the action on a flop of {8-Clubs} {4-Clubs} {3-Diamonds}, Chouity had checked, Andries Swart had checked and a player in the cutoff had bet 2,400. The action fell back to Chouity and he made the call, before Swart check-raised to 7,000. The initial bettor folded but Chouity decided to draw a line in the sand and moved enough blue 5k chips into the middle to put Swart all-in. Swart made the call and it was a set versus the flush draw.

Chouity{8-Hearts} {8-Diamonds}
Swart{Q-Clubs} {J-Clubs}

The turn was the {A-Spades} and then the river {8-Spades} delivered quads for Chouity. Swart was sent packing and Chouity now has 80,000 chips.

Tags: Nicolas ChouityAndries Swart

Will "The Thrill" Failla is Eliminated

Level 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

Will "The Thrill" Failla has been eliminated it the worse way possible. The table told us that Failla had flopped a set of tens in a three-bet pot and moments later was heading for the rail. The board paired on the turn, giving Failla a full house, while his opponent was holding pocket kings. A king on the river gave his opponent a higher full house and Failla was eliminated after calling off all of his chips when the last card was drawn.

"I can't take anymore of these beats," said the man with over $3.5 million in live tournament earnings to his name.

Tags: Will Failla

EPT POY Leader: Ondrej Vinklarek

Level 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

Earlier we reported on Roberto Romanello's exit and commented on how disappointed he would be with is exit, as he tried to gather points for the EPT Player of the Year race (the Welshman was lying in second place before his early exit). The man that Romanello is chasing is Ondrej Vinklarek and he is still alive and well. We just witnessed him doubling up with {A-Clubs} {A-Hearts} versus the {A-Diamonds} {K-Clubs} of Andrzej Siemieniak and he now has 72,000 chips.

Tags: Ondrej VinklarekAndrzej Siemieniak

Chip Counts

Player Chips Progress
David Sands us
David Sands
100,000
Dragan Kostic
Dragan Kostic
100,000
Nicolas Chouity lb
Nicolas Chouity
80,000
EPT 1X Winner
Martin Kabrhel cz
Martin Kabrhel
80,000
5,000
5,000
David Sonelin se
David Sonelin
78,000
Scott Seiver us
Scott Seiver
71,000
2,000
2,000
David Peters us
David Peters
70,000
Talal Shakerchi gb
Talal Shakerchi
68,000
Marvin Rettenmaier de
Marvin Rettenmaier
65,000
Kenny Hallaert be
Kenny Hallaert
65,000
Dermot Blain ie
Dermot Blain
60,000
28,500
28,500
Andrew Chen ca
Andrew Chen
55,000
-10,000
-10,000
Freddy Deeb lb
Freddy Deeb
55,000
Andrey Gulyy ru
Andrey Gulyy
55,000
Scott Baumstein us
Scott Baumstein
55,000
Guillaume Darcourt fr
Guillaume Darcourt
55,000
Bryan Piccioli us
Bryan Piccioli
53,000
Dieter Albrecht
Dieter Albrecht
53,000
Martin Staszko cz
Martin Staszko
52,000
Mike McDonald ca
Mike McDonald
50,000
20,000
20,000
EPT 1X Winner
Andrew Badecker us
Andrew Badecker
50,000
Pierre Neuville be
Pierre Neuville
49,000
Paul Berende nl
Paul Berende
48,000
Kevin Vandersmissen be
Kevin Vandersmissen
47,000
17,000
17,000
Jason Wheeler us
Jason Wheeler
45,000

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Break Time

Level 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

The players have reached their second break of the day. Pokernews will be back in twenty minutes time.

Level: 5

Blinds: 150/300

Ante: 25

A Few Missing Chip Counts, and a Few Bust Outs

Player Chips Progress
Walid Bou-Habib
Walid Bou-Habib
41,000
-10,000
-10,000
Pratyush Buddiga us
Pratyush Buddiga
36,000
6,000
6,000
Jason Somerville us
Jason Somerville
32,200
2,200
2,200
Taylor Paur us
Taylor Paur
11,600
-17,400
-17,400
Kevin Bromfield
Kevin Bromfield
Busted
Marko Neumann de
Marko Neumann
Busted
Georgios Karakousis gr
Georgios Karakousis
Busted
Ankush Mandavia us
Ankush Mandavia
Busted
Christopher Lovett
Christopher Lovett
Busted
Benjamin Gann
Benjamin Gann
Busted
Alan Claes Hvedehave Nielsen
Alan Claes Hvedehave Nielsen
Busted
Paulino Subtil
Paulino Subtil
Busted
Igor Kurganov 
Igor Kurganov 
Busted

Three Barrels For Chen

The action folded around to Andrew Chen, in the small blind, and he raised to 800. Ankush Mandavia was seated in the big blind and he made the call.

Flop: {9-Hearts} {7-Spades} {4-Diamonds}

Chen bet 900 and Mandavia called.

Turn: {K-Diamonds}

Chen bet 2,200 and Mandavia called.

River: {7-Diamonds}

Chen fired his third barrel of 5,250 and Mandavia called once more. Chen turned over {K-Hearts} {Q-Hearts} and it was good as Mandavia mucked his hand unseen.

Player Chips Progress
Andrew Chen ca
Andrew Chen
70,000
15,000
15,000

Tags: Andrew ChenAnkush Mandavia

Ivey On The River

Andrew Chen raised to 600 on the button and Phil Ivey called in the big blind. The pair were soon staring at a flop of {8-Spades} {4-Hearts} {2-Spades} where Ivey check-called a 800 Chen bet. The turn of {6-Hearts} was checked through, and then Ivey bet 2,000 when he saw the river {2-Clubs}. Chen mucked his hand and Ivey won the pot.

Player Chips Progress
Andrew Chen ca
Andrew Chen
68,600
-1,400
-1,400
Phil Ivey us
Phil Ivey
26,000
Poker Hall of Famer

Tags: Phil IveyAndrew Chen

Short Ones

  • George Danzer lost more than two-thirds of his stack in the first level. He's re-building, slowly. We caught the Team PokerStars Pro opening to 700 from the hijack and continuing for 800 on a {10-Hearts}{8-Diamonds}{6-Diamonds} flop. A player on the button called but folded on the flop.
  • Dermot Blain doubled up Roger Suter after putting him to the test for his tournament life. The two were heads up to the turn where the board read {8-Spades}{7-Clubs}{10-Clubs}{3-Diamonds}. Blain had 20,000 out in front of him to cover the 17,800 Suter had behind. The Swiss tanked for a two minutes and called with {j-Hearts}{j-Diamonds} and was up against Blain's {6-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds}. The river came {3-Hearts} and Blaina handed over the necessary chips
  • Talal Shakerchi has been moved tables and has dropped a few chips. He may be 100k down after going from chip leader to out in the Super High-Roller but he seems to be reveling in his environment away from his stress full day job as a hedge fund manager.
Player Chips Progress
Talal Shakerchi gb
Talal Shakerchi
42,000
-26,000
-26,000
Dermot Blain ie
Dermot Blain
25,800
-34,200
-34,200
George Danzer de
George Danzer
14,000
-14,000
-14,000
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