PokerStars.com EPT London High Roller Day 1: Sabini Leads; Mercier and Buchanan Near Top
On Thursday, the £10,000+300 EPT10 London High Roller kicked off at the Grand Connaught Rooms. The five-figure buy-in, one re-entry event attracted 148 entries – 36 more than the EPT9 London High Roller in March – and registration is still open until the start of play tomorrow.
Leading the 74 survivors is Carla Sabini. The Canadian bagged 269,700 chips, and is looking to add to her $255,690 in career live tournament earnings. Right behind her was Peru’s Antonio Lafosse (257,800). Lafosse climbed up the counts when he cracked German Fabian Quoss’ kings. All of the money went in preflop between the two players, and Lafosse’s pocket queens were trailing, but the Peruvian made a four flush on the river.
Also among the leaders are Shawn Buchanan (211,500), Frederik Jensen (196,100), Talal Shakerchi (187,400), and Jason Mercier (164,400).
Mercier garnered a large stack during the last level of play. Irishman Steve O’Dwyer joined his table, sitting in a seat that had been occupied by four others during the day, and became the fifth to exit. According to the Team Pro, he put in a cold four-bet and O’Dwyer moved all in for around 97,000. Mercier tank-called with 6x6x, which held up against the Irishman’s AxQx.
Team Pro’s joining Mercier on Day 2 will be Luca Pagano, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Vicky Coren, Ville Wahlbeck, and Jonathan Duhamel.
Jensen padded his stack in the final level as well, refusing to fold kings to David “Bakes” Baker on an ace-high board. Baker tried to bluff on the turn with five-high, but gave up on the river and Jensen checked behind.
Martin Finger, winner of the £50,000 Super High Roller, also had a nice day, bagging 151,800 chips. Finger won a key pot in Level 6 against Team Pro Angel Guillen, where Guillen flopped top set of queens. Finger held a flush and straight draws, and made the straight on the river. Guillen bet for value, Finger just called, and the German shipped the pot.
While some prospered, others fell – some twice. Richard Yong, Andrew Chen, Sam Greenwood, and Daniel Negreanu all misfired two bullets. On Negreanu’s first bullet he was slow-rolled by Salman Behbehani, who was also eliminated by Buchanan at the end of the night, and on his second bullet Kid Poker was busted by Max Greenwood. He tried to tell our PokerNews bloggers a tall tale, but Dan Smith and others were around the help uncover the truth.
Also exiting during Day 1 were Ashton Griffin, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Max Altergott, Mike McDonald, Todd Terry, Paul Newey, and Eric Sfez.
Play will resume on Friday at noon local time. Be sure to check back with PokerNews for live updates.
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