2010 PokerStars EPT Vilamoura

Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info

2010 PokerStars EPT Vilamoura

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
55
Prize
€467,835
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€1,862,400
Entries
384
Level Info
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
5,000

Select Chip Counts From Around Break Time

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Arnaud Mattern fr
Arnaud Mattern
111,000
12,000
12,000
Profile photo of James Dempsey gb
James Dempsey
75,000
28,000
28,000
Profile photo of John Duthie gb
John Duthie
65,000
5,000
5,000
Profile photo of Christer Johansson se
Christer Johansson
65,000
35,000
35,000
Profile photo of Allan Bække
Allan Bække
55,000
-15,000
-15,000
Profile photo of Juan Maceiras
Juan Maceiras
50,000
3,000
3,000
Profile photo of Andre Dias pt
Andre Dias
50,000
21,500
21,500
Profile photo of JP Kelly gb
JP Kelly
37,000
-21,000
-21,000
Profile photo of Tobias Reinkemeier de
Tobias Reinkemeier
32,000
-3,000
-3,000
Profile photo of Yury Kerzhapkin
Yury Kerzhapkin
29,000
-2,500
-2,500
Profile photo of Barny Boatman
Barny Boatman
14,000
4,000
4,000
Profile photo of Vicky Coren
Vicky Coren
12,000
1,000
1,000
Profile photo of Martin Wendt dk
Martin Wendt
8,000
-29,000
-29,000
Profile photo of Casey Kastle si
Casey Kastle
Busted
Profile photo of Antoine Amourette fr
Antoine Amourette
Busted
Profile photo of Pierre Neuville be
Pierre Neuville
Busted

Moar Sunshine!

Back out we go on to the balcony with our cameras and our sunglasses and whatnot. When we return we will be playing just two more levels before calling it a day.

Wendt All Go Wrong?

Martin Wendt: prefers indoors
Martin Wendt: prefers indoors

Yury Kerzhapkin just flopped a double up courtesy of his big blind {5-Spades}{7-Hearts} with which he'd presumably called the early-position preflop raise of Martin Wendt. The board fit him like a glove - {6-Diamonds}{8-Diamonds}{9-Clubs} - and his straight move all in for just under 15k on the flop was called by Wendt who tabled {A-Diamonds}{A-Spades} and then made a noise like a kettle hissing as he saw the turn and river brick and most of his stack go to his right. Not best pleased, and now with just 8k, two hands later Wendt got a few chips back when Kerzhapkin raised to 1,025 on the button but passed when the big blind Dane moved in.

Tags: Martin WendtYury Kerzhapkin

Maxi Stack for Minieri

Yoohoo!
Yoohoo!

Alexander Dovzhenko made an opening raise which Jose Maria de Noronha flat-called. On the button, Dario Minieri reraised. Dovzhenko folded and de Noronha flat-called again.

They saw a {4-Diamonds}{2-Diamonds}{8-Clubs} flop which de Noronha checked. Minieri pushed an apparently random collection of chips across the line, which on close inspection turned out to be 4,950 in value. We had time to conduct this inspection because de Noronha spent some time sitting back in his chair, wondering what to do. Eventually he folded.

"Why didn't you reraise me?" Minieri asked him in his frankly fantastic heavy Italian cadences.

"Next time I reraise all in," promised de Noronha. They both laughed. Minieri was not done with his lesson in how to play cards, though.

"You raise and I reraise and you call," ("You RISE an I RERISE an you COLL,") "You raise and I reraise and you call again. Three-bet!"

Minieri is our runaway chip leader on 140,000.

Tags: Dario Minieri

Dempsey Raises Ascari Board

Self proclaimed Crazy Italian Fabrizio Ascari has barely stopped talking (to himself, opponents, the dealer) since the start of play today and is never far from the action either. Just now he had to interrupt himself mid-flow - in Spanish no less - "Oh - I raise!" to up it to 800 preflop. Button Dempsey made the call as did the silent big blind. This of course sparked him off:

"Uh oh - just a call. Is this a problem for you? Or a problem for me?"
"A problem for you," replied a confident Dempsey.

The flop was the {9-Clubs}{Q-Hearts}{Q-Clubs} and instantly Ascari bet 5k when the big blind checked. Dempsey: "What would happen if I go all in?" - but this was sort of drowned by Ascari telling him repeatedly, "I don't have a Queen. He (the BB) has a Queen but I don't have a Queen. How much do you have? I don't have a Queen."

Finally Dempsey just threw in 15k getting a pass from the big blind who evidently did not have a Queen, and from Ascari too, who showed him {A-Spades}{9-Spades} saying what sounded like a weird toast: "Very good hand to you! I don't have a Queen!"

"You don't lie," admitted Dempsey, raking in the pot. He was given a warning finger: "Only one, eh, only one!" And the next hand progressed to the accompaniment of hearty Italian laughter which appears to be infectious.

Tags: James DempseyFabrizio Ascari

How Many Chips Do They Have?

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Antonio Esfandiari us
Antonio Esfandiari
105,000
30,000
30,000
StakeKings
Profile photo of Dan Heimiller us
Dan Heimiller
73,000
13,000
13,000
Profile photo of Aaron Lerner
Aaron Lerner
67,000
12,000
12,000
Profile photo of Michel Abecassis fr
Michel Abecassis
49,000
18,000
18,000
Profile photo of Toby Lewis gb
Toby Lewis
48,000
-2,000
-2,000
Profile photo of Antony Lellouche fr
Antony Lellouche
40,000
-8,000
-8,000
Profile photo of Kevin Eyster us
Kevin Eyster
28,000
-15,000
-15,000
Profile photo of Marcin Horecki pl
Marcin Horecki
27,000
-500
-500
Profile photo of Derek Lerner
Derek Lerner
27,000
1,000
1,000
Profile photo of Paul Berende nl
Paul Berende
25,000
Profile photo of Teddy Sheringham gb
Teddy Sheringham
22,000
-5,800
-5,800
Profile photo of Dan Carter
Dan Carter
21,500
-15,900
-15,900
Profile photo of Ludovic Lacay fr
Ludovic Lacay
14,500
-5,500
-5,500
EPT 1X Winner

Mattern, Minieri Vying For Chip Lead

It's all going rather swimmingly for the two Team PokerStars Pros at the top of the chip counts.

Arnaud Mattern has increased his stack to 99,000 after calling a 3-bet with {8-} {6-} suited and proceeding to check-raise his opponent's 2,800 bet on a {J-} {8-} {6-} board to 6,200. The latter moved all-in with {A-} {J-}, Mattern made the obligatory call and his two pair held on the {Q-Hearts} turn and {K-Spades} river.

Meanwhile Dario Minieri has broken the 100,000 chip barrier very early after an insanely odd hand. Minieri had raised to 800 from UTG with one caller before José Vicente Besalduch reraised to 2,900 from the big blind. Minieri called while the other player folded and the dealer put out a {J-Hearts} {9-Hearts} {J-Clubs} flop.

Besalduch bet 5,000 and Minieri moved all-in, the Spaniard tanked before calling all-in for his remaining 16,000.

Minieri: {J-Spades} {8-Spades} for trips.
Besalduch: Err...{10-Clubs} {7-Clubs} for a gutshot but actually already drawing dead bar perfect perfect for a straight flush.

The {9-Clubs} gave Minieri a full house but an actual glimmer of hope as Besalduch now had improved to actually having an out.

But sadly for Besalduch, the tree of hope that had suddenly sprung up was equally quickly chopped down on the {4-Spades} river.

Minieri moved up to 105,000; elsewhere across the room Antonio Esfandiari is in possession of a similar amount.

Tags: Arnaud MatternDario Minieri

Level: 6

Blinds: 200/400

Ante: 50

Cezarescu Collects Calling Coren

Vicky Coren enjoying breaktime sunshine
Vicky Coren enjoying breaktime sunshine

Vicky Coren, not sitting idly by, has been recently involved in a stack-halving sort of pot after giving it three barrels of bluff but failing to dislodge Alexandru Cezarescu. She'd raised preflop (to 700), bet out 1,500 on the {3-Hearts}{J-Hearts}{A-Diamonds} flop, and again (3,500) on the {5-Spades} turn. It took Cezarescu a little more time to call this bet, and action slowed further as the {8-Diamonds} fell on the river.

"I honestly don't know whether to bet or not," admitted UK Pokerstars Team Pro Coren, before settling on Yes and throwing out 6k (leaving herself 10,425 behind). Over to Cezarescu, who gave this one some more lengthy thought - but finally called.

"If you call, you must win," said Coren, or words to that effect, showing {10-Diamonds}{5-Hearts} for just a pair of fives. She mentioned she'd been considering his holding the flush draw, and that's precisely what he had, but his {A-Hearts}{4-Hearts} was also a pair of Aces and good to take down the decent pot and leave her with just over the old-school EPT starting stack (10k).

Tags: Alexandru CezarescuVicky Coren

Paging the EPT

Our friends at PokerStars would like everyone to know that the EPT Facebook group is now an EPT Facebook page! No, we don't really know what the difference is either, but it's full of fun EPT-related stuff, and it's well worth having a peek and hitting the little thumbs up button on there.

Check it out here.