Another one of those posts, this time starting with the subject of how Prague might actually be the best poker tournament in the world to get knocked out of, and then turning into something about Christmas jumpers and how Jake Cody is spreading some Christmas cheer, as reported by the PokerStars Blog.
We just spotted defending champ Ramzi Jelassi in the field. We caught him in a small hand with around 1,300 in the pot and a board reading 
. Both he and his opponent checked, and then they did the same on the 
river. His opponent tabled the 
for ace high, and it was good as Jelassi sent his cards to the muck.
It wasn't much of a hand, but it gave us a good excuse to let you know the defending champ is in the house.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
29,000 | |
|
||
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
40,000 | |
|
||
|
33,000
6,000
|
6,000 |
|
26,000
8,100
|
8,100 |
|
25,000
-4,000
|
-4,000 |
|
|
||
|
20,000
-10,000
|
-10,000 |
|
||
|
20,000
-10,000
|
-10,000 |
|
|
||
|
9,000
9,000
|
9,000 |
|
|
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|
Busted | |
On the livestream we just saw Mathew Frankland lose a rather big pot. On a 
flop he was all in against Russian player Ramil Boyazitov. Frankland held the 
but was in bad shape against Boyazitov's flopped set of deuces with the 
. A third player folded on the flop and the dealer put out the 
and 
to complete the board.
Frankland droppped down a bit but still has 28,275.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
28,275
-8,325
|
-8,325 |
![[user252447]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Carefully nursing a stack of just over 16,000, PokerStars Team Pro Johnny Lodden clearly doesn’t believe Neil Young’s lyrics “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.” Certainly not when it comes to tournament poker anyway. Glued to his phone he is folding a succession of hands including to a single minimum raise when he was last player in the big blind. The Pro is exerting great patience and using his experience to navigate these tricky levels. As Young’s lyrics almost continued, “Johhny Lodden, Lodden Johnny.”
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
16,000
-14,000
|
-14,000 |
|
|
||
When you’re playing your local casino tournament, or perhaps a home game, and it gets to the stage where everyone has to put in an ante we bet there are always a few players who forget or they claim to have already put it in.
This is the EPT and that would never happen right? Wrong, it happens all the time and the dealers firmly and patiently deal with it. One well known pro (we’ll spare his blushes) claimed he had put in his 25. “No.” the dealer said simply and the player ponied up.
Action folded to Timothy Reilly on the button and he put in a raise. Russia's Arsenii Karmatckii then three-bet from the small blind, and Reilly responded with a four-bet to 2,300. Not to be outdone, Karmatckii five-bet to 3,800 and the pressure was on Reilly.
He thought long and hard before asking, "You're going to show me if I fold right?" Karmatckii indicated that he would. Reilly thought a little more and then folded 
. Karmatckii then showed 
and Reilly was in disbelief.
"How do you click that back?" he asked with a hint of both frustration and admiration. "I was snapping a shove too."
Reilly complimented Karmatckii and continued to wonder aloud about the hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
5,500
-2,300
|
-2,300 |
The EPT Charity Challenge is underway with Rafa Nadal, Daniel Negreanu, Ronaldo, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Alberto Tomba and Andriy Schevchenko mixing it up over a €100,000 charity prize pool. Ronaldo the player at risk. Follow the live coverage at the PokerStars Blog.
Michal Polchlopek was having a bit of a moan. There were only seven people at his table with full tables seemingly all around them. He was also unhappy that people could buy in late and would not have their stacks blinded out for the levels they had missed. Zoltan Purak, a fellow online qualifier, had some insight on the subject too. “Imagine some old guy, a recreational player, bought in for €5k and it was five handed and he was getting run over? I mean this is not a very aggressive table, but it could be.” Polchlopek nodded in mutual sympathy for the hypothetical old guy as Purak min-raised and won the blinds. Hopefully their table will fill up shortly as bust outs increase.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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Busted | |
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Busted | |
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Busted | |
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Busted | |
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Busted | |
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Busted | |
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|
Busted | |
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