Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Dermot Blain is off to a flying start in Prague, thanks mainly to a big pot he won from Ryan Spittles. "I'm up to 55,000 because this guy (points at Spittles who's to his direct right) lost his mind," the Irishman said jokingly, he and Spittles are friends. "Somar Al-Darwich raised to 400, Ryan's called and I've made it 1,800 from the small blind with queens. It folds back to Ryan and he raises to 4,200 and I call because I don't know what to do there and just hoping to flop a queen! The flop was he bets 3,300 and I call. The turn is a ten and it goes check, check and the river is a queen. He checked, I bet 9,400 and he folded.
The clock now makes mention of a staggering 580 players who have entered Day 1B of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Prague Main Event. 550 of those players still remain, which gives us an average stack of 31.700.
Andrey Shatilov, a Russian PokerStars player opened to 450, got called by Todd Terry from the USA, Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri and the big blind Sina Alamzad from Romania. The four players saw a flop of and Alamzad bet right out from the big blind for 1,000. Shatilov folded but Terry made the call and last to act Minieri also folded. The turn was the , bet 2,200 from Alamzad continuing the aggression and a call from Terry. The river was the [2] slowing Alamzad down, he checked and Terry checked behind. Alamzad tabled for the flopped flush and it was good until the end.
It’s been a miserable day so far for Minieri who has not seemed his usual ebullient self, unable to catch a break and finding little to smile about.
Jack Salter from England raised it to 500 from early position and got a couple of callers behind him in Hot Besim from Switzerland and Pasi Sormunen from Finland. The blinds folded and we saw a flop of . All three players checked and the turn was dealt . Salter made it 825, Besim called and Sormunen folded. Final card . Salter checked and Besim bet 1,400. Salter tapped the table and mucked as the expressionless Besim, earphones firmly in place, took the pot. Salter always likes to chat at the table and said to a player that he’s folded aces and he was sure his opponent had it. Urged to take an earphone out, Besim obliged and Salter asked him, “You have it?” A shrug was his only response. “Only the board?” Salter asked again. The headphones went back on.
On a | board we just saw Ana Marquez bet out 1,300 from the small blind. Three folds later the decision was on Pratik Ghatge who made the call from the button. The river was the en Marquez now hand picked three red 1,000 chips and a purple 500 and slid that over the betting line. Ghatge had a real decision and took his time. Eventually he called and showed for a missed open-ended. Ghatge tabled his for two pair and raked in the chips.
Liv Boeree's hitherto healthy stack has been reduced to just 10,000 after she tangled in a pot with Taylor Von Kriegenbergh. There were two limps to Von Kriegenbergh who raised it up to 1,000 from the cut-off, Boeree smooth called with pocket tens and Georgios Karakousis did likewise.
"The flop came ," Boeree told me, "we both checked to Taylor he bet 2,000, I called and he (Karakousis) also called. The turn was a ten, Taylor bet 6,500 and I called. The river's a deuce I fake blocker bet 7,000, Taylor shoved for 20,000 and I called. He had nine-six, fun fun fun!"
Despite that dent Boeree still has 50 big blinds, whilst Von Kriegenbergh is up to around 62,000.