2013 PokerStars.com EPT London

High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

2013 PokerStars.com EPT London

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qq
Prize
£436,330
Event Info
Buy-in
£10,000
Prize Pool
£1,342,600
Entries
137
Level Info
Level
25
Blinds
25,000 / 50,000
Ante
5,000

High Roller

Day 1 Completed

Official End-of-Day Counts (full)

Level 8 : 500/1,000, 100 ante
Player Chips Progress
Paul Volpe us
Paul Volpe
239,000 19,000
Vicky Coren gb
Vicky Coren
211,700 -3,300
Davidi Kitai be
Davidi Kitai
EPT Main Event Champion
EPT 1X Winner
Winamax
171,700 36,700
Gautam Sabharwal in
Gautam Sabharwal
170,700 170,700
Ognjen Sekularac rs
Ognjen Sekularac
168,000 168,000
Dimitar Danchev bg
Dimitar Danchev
EPT Main Event Champion
EPT 1X Winner
162,800 25,800
JC Alvarado mx
JC Alvarado
159,600 118,600
Ramin Hajiyev az
Ramin Hajiyev
155,500 155,500
David Boyaciyan nl
David Boyaciyan
149,400 149,400
Scott Seiver us
Scott Seiver
140,000 40,000
Albert Daher lb
Albert Daher
137,400 40,400
Pratik Ghatge gb
Pratik Ghatge
136,000 136,000
Fabian Quoss de
Fabian Quoss
135,800 83,800
Anaras Alekberovas lt
Anaras Alekberovas
131,500 131,500
Eric Sfez fr
Eric Sfez
121,400 121,400
Joao Vieira pt
Joao Vieira
Winamax
115,900 115,900
Kevin MacPhee us
Kevin MacPhee
EPT 1X Winner
115,100 75,100
Philip Sternheimer gb
Philip Sternheimer
113,600 -16,400
Mike Watson ca
Mike Watson
EPT 2X Winner
112,800 -2,200
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
99,800 -20,200
Ankush Mandavia us
Ankush Mandavia
98,100 8,100
Marc-Andre Ladouceur ca
Marc-Andre Ladouceur
98,100 16,100
Yann Dion ca
Yann Dion
94,700 -35,300
Steven Silverman us
Steven Silverman
94,200 94,200
Alexander Millar gb
Alexander Millar
92,800 50,800

Read full

Volpe Leads High Roller into Day 2

Level 8 : 500/1,000, 100 ante
Paul Volpe
Paul Volpe

The 2013 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London £10,000 High Roller began late this afternoon at 4 p.m. local time. That gave players enough time to have their bangers and mash, fish and chips, or anything else from any number of the restaurants that are dotted around the bustling capital of England.

Eight levels was the order of the day, with a one-hour dinner break nicely placed in the middle. So far, there have been 127 entries, and a third day for this event is probably a necessity after it was originally slated for two — players will have until 11:45 a.m. to register tomorrow morning. At the end of the day, it was the man who has been in quite the form as of late, the man in the hat, Paul Volpe. He finished the day as chip leader with 239,000 in chips. He won an early pot against former EPT winner Martin Finger, then never looked back.

End-of-Day Chip Counts for Day 1

RankPlayerChips
1Paul Volpe239,000
2Vicky Coren211,700
3Davidi Kitai171,700
4Gautam Sabharwal170,700
5Ognjen Sekularac168,000
6Dimitar Danchev162,800
7JC Alvarado159,600
8Ramin Hajiyev155,500
9David Boyaciyan149,400
10Scott Seiver140,000

Throughout Day 1, there were a healthy number of re-entries. Bryn Kenney busted his first stack in only his second hand and became one of many players who had to fire two bullets at this event. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was another such player after calling off his stack and running into Dan O'Brien's set of fours. Marvin Rettenmaier and Anton Wigg also busted their first bullet, the latter had made a big move against the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Dimitar Danchev. but the Bulgarian managed to call the bluff.

Jonathan Duhamel was unlucky enough to fire both bullets, but came up empty twice. First, he lost with a straight flush draw against Volpe's set, and then his second bullet proved a dud against Vanessa Selbst.

For some players, like Toby Lewis, David Gent and Tony G, one buy-in lost was enough, and they were among those eliminated before play was over. Max Silver suffered a horrible set-over-set altercation against Salman Behbehani early on and also didn't reload. Selbst also seemed to decide that she didn't want to re-enter after turning top pair into a bluff on the river against Yann Dion's overpair.

Elsewhere, players such as Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, Mike "Timex" McDonald and Max Greenwood all leapt straight into the High Roller after their eliminations today from the Main Event. There's no rest for the wicked, particularly as the former two began goading each other across Twitter with each sizable pot lost resulting in a healthy amount of needling from the other.

Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren had an interesting day. She got off to a great start boosting herself up to around 90,000 before the dinner break before missing the first 30 minutes of Level 5. The reason? She'd managed to lock herself in her own house and had to get help from the neighbors to get back out again. Coren spent the latter part of the day debating the existence of badgers with Albert Daher while also winning a decent pot against him towards the end of the day to push her stack above the 200,000 mark.

Sam Trickett, one of the best known high-stakes players in the UK, was about to finish the day with 90,000, but then got cold-decked in two of the final four hands to get eliminated. He tweeted that it is unlikely that he will get up and reload for the restart tomorrow.

A few of the nose-bleeders still remain, though, with both Viktor Blom and Luke Schwartz late registering this event. They've both made it through to the second day alongside JC Alvarado, Scott Seiver, Kevin MacPhee and Fabian Quoss.

Again, there could still more entries tomorrow as players have until 11:45 a.m. to register for the tournament, and we'll keep you posted on the field size. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be back on Friday at 12 p.m. GMT for the second day of the High Roller event, so you'd better join us.

Tags: Paul Volpe

The Worst Possible Hand

Level 8 : 500/1,000, 100 ante

Ville Wahlbeck opened to 2,200, Philipp Gruissem called on the button, and Mike Watson three-bet to 10,200 from the big blind. Wahlbeck folded, Gruissem called, and the flop fell {6-Diamonds}{8-Diamonds}{6-Clubs}. Watson led out for 8,000, and in a flash, the two were all in.

We were checking up on an adjacent table while it happened, so we're not sure if Gruissem raise-called or just jammed, but we do know that the hands looked like this:

Gruissem: {q-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds}
Watson: {a-Diamonds}{k-Diamonds}

Gruissem muttered something about Watson having the worst possible hand, and the {9-Spades} turned. The {6-Hearts} bricked on the river, and Watson won the pot, doubling to 115,000 chips.

Gruissem was left with just 16,000.

Player Chips Progress
Mike Watson ca
Mike Watson
EPT 2X Winner
115,000 60,000
Philipp Gruissem de
Philipp Gruissem
16,000 -87,000

Tags: Mike WatsonPhilipp GruissemVille Wahlbeck

Doubling Through a Friend

Level 8 : 500/1,000, 100 ante

Faraz Jaka check-called a bet from Mohsin Charania on a board of {9-Diamonds}{4-Hearts}{5-Spades}{a-Hearts}. The river brought the {k-Spades}, Jaka checked again, and Charania moved all in for 17,000 - about a pot-sized bet.

"Do you have something?" Jaka asked.

"I have something," Charania returned.

Jaka eventually called, prompting his friend to show {a-Diamonds}{k-Clubs} for top two-pair. Jaka mucked, leaving himself with 33,000 chips, and Charania now has 63,000.

Player Chips Progress
Mohsin Charania us
Mohsin Charania
EPT 1X Winner
63,000 32,000
Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
33,000 -27,000

Tags: Faraz JakaMohsin Charania