According to PokerStars, Heats 3 and 4 of the great new PokerStars TV show “Shark Cage” are going to be filmed at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final today. Shark Cage features qualifiers and poker legends from around the world competing in televised heats for a shot at a $1 million winner-takes-all prize. The first two heats were filmed at the PCA in January and rounds 3 and 4 are being shot today and rounds 5 and 6 at EPT Barcelona in August and the final at EPT London.
Each heat features one qualifier and five invited stars including celebrities and members of Team PokerStars Pro. Among those taking part in the Monaco heats are Victoria Coren Mitchell (who just became the first player in history to win two EPT titles when she won EPT Sanremo last week), fellow Team Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, PokerStars Team Online’s Ike Haxton and Full Tilt Poker Professional Gus Hansen. The two qualifiers were selected after making the final 50 in online tourneys, and then “auditioning” for the show via a two-minute YouTube video. Nearly 60,000 players took part in the online qualifier tourneys and the two winners - Fredrik “FiSHeYe1984“ Keitel from Germany and Canadian Matthew “squirthew“ Herminiano - have now won a fabulous trip to Monaco to take part.
Stars who competed at the PCA included Friend of PokerStars Jason Alexander and actress Jennifer Tilly as well as a roster of Team PokerStars Pros and other well-known players.
On Saturday, April 26, Scott Seiver topped a field of 34 players to take win the €5,000 pot-limit Omaha event for €57,700. Sure, it doesn't really compare to the $2 milliom he received for winning the 2013 PCA Super High Roller or the 219 he fended off to win the $25,000 WPT Five Star World Poker Classic in May 2011 for $ 1,618,344, but it's still nothing to sneeze at.
Plus, he had to defeat a stacked final table that included Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Andrew Chen to do it. Needless to say, it was a nice start to Seiver’s PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final.
Jean-Noel Thorel had lost a lot of chips in the first few levels but in the last ten minutes he has gone a long way to repairing the damage done; his special tactic? Hitting sets.
We saw Thorel move in for 7,050 on the river of a board reading . Marco Bognanni was his opponent and didn’t really seem to know where he was in the hand and made the call with . Thorel’s certainly beat that.
While we watched another table he had apparently hit another set and been paid and as we returned we saw Thorel scoop another big pot with a set of eights. The other players at the table were shaking their heads at the run of luck that had seen Thorel go from risk of ruin to above starting stack.
Johannes Strassmann opened for 525 and got called by Osman Mustanoglu on the button and Benoit Galland in the big blind. They saw a flop of .
Galland checked and Strassmann continued for 1,000. Mustanoglu was the only caller and they went to the turn card . 1,225 was the bet from Strassmann and again Mustanoglu called.
The river was the and a check from Strassmann saw him fold to a 2,525 bet.
Ever played a hybrid super hyper-turbo sat? No, neither have we. But satellite tournaments are broadening their horizons to allow for even more qualifiers. And it's still the best way to get into the EPT Grand Final for cheap. The PokerStars Blog reports here.
Liv Boeree opened for 500 and was called in the big blind by Bernardo Dias. The two players saw a flop of and checked.
The turn card was the and Dias led out for 700. Boeree gave him a stare and called. The river card was the and Dias went for a bet of 1,750. Boeree didn’t take but a moment to raise him to 4,000.
It looked like Dias wasn’t expecting that development and he stared at the board, asked Boeree if she had the ace jack, and finally asked if she would show if he folded. Boeree just sat still and stared him down. Dias let it go and Boeree passed her cards wordlessly to the dealer as the pot was pushed her way.