On the table with Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier, Lex Veldhuis and other top pros Kyle Julius and Paul Volpe we're noticing an extraordinary amount of banter.
"Let's do a last longer!" Mercier suggested while having a short stack. Nobody seemed to agree on an amount when Veldhuis suggested a last shorter. After Volpe had explained to Mercier what a last shorter entailed there was some discussion about the money, but once again nothing ended up happening.
"I've never seen him like this," Julius said as he had a hard time not laughing, "I'm having a great time here," he added.
"The thing is, I don't want to shut up!" Mercier yelled after a while.
The conversation went on about Mercier wanting to get paid for being quiet for an entire level, but the negotiations seemed to be going nowhere.
"You just said you would do it for less, so why wouldn't you do it for $50?" Veldhuis said about the initial price being $200.
"It's not that I can't do it, I just don't want to," Mercier replied as everyone chuckled. As the conversation wasn't going anywhere soon Veldhuis suggested a topic change.
"Let's talk about your anger," Veldhuis suggested and both Volpe and Julius encouraged Mercier to open up about what was bothering him in a playful way.
"I'm not angry, I'm just very excited about life!" Mercier said.
The four went back and forth some more but with no clear end in sight we had to step aside to focus on the poker action elsewhere. It seems like Mercier is a lot more talkative than he usually is at the table and the other three at the table are clearly having a go at him every chance they get.
When you first look at Andy Moseley, you no doubt see a young run-of-the-mill poker player from the UK. What you might not know is that Moseley is an accomplished high-stakes cash game player who has played in the famed Macau games.
"I have played in the big game in Macau. I have probably played about 25 to 30 sessions," Moseley previously told PokerNews in an interview. "I initially got in the game about 14 months ago when it was a lot smaller than it is now. It was $5K/$10K with a $1 million buy-in. It has now possibly tripled in size on average. The biggest I played was $10K/$20K with a $2 million buy-in and a button ante. The major appeal about the game was not the softness but the size of it."
Today Moseley isn't in Macau, but instead is on his home turf taking a shot at EPT glory. In a recent hand, Moseley opened for 1,100 from early position and received calls from Patric Laudam and Christopher Brammer on the button and in the big blind respectively.
After Brammer checked the flop, Moseley bet 2,500 and Laudam called. Brammer folded and then both players checked the turn and river. Moseley flashed , but it was no good as Laudam tabled the for a winning pair of aces.
Moseley dropped to 60,000 on the hand. Meanwhile, Brammer is sitting with a monster stack of 150,000.
When we arrived at the table, Davidi Kitai had a bet of 1,400 sitting in front of him on a flop of . Jeff Rossiter announced a raise, tossing out a blue T5,000 chip, but we are unaware of the exact amount. It could've been anything from 2,800 to 5,000.
Kitai put in a third bet, making it 5,800 to go, and confirming that Rossiter's raise was for no more than 3,600.
The Aussie tanked for a bit, then released his hand.
Former EPT Baden Champion Julian Thew is on the headier heights of 55,000. He just had an 1,800 bet paid off on the river of a board. Thew turned over for the sneaky backdoor two pair.
David Randall opened to 1,500 from the cutoff, Jeff Gross called on the button, and Jamil Kanji defended his big blind. The flop came , Kanji checked, and Randall continued for 2,500. Only Gross called.
Both players checked when the turned, and the completed the board. Randall checked, Gross tanked before firing out 3,600, and Randall shook his head before folding.
Once again the buy-in was adjusted for the EPT London, this time jumping to £5,200, and as a result attendance dropped slightly to 392 runners, which created a prize pool of £2,038,400. German player Florian Langmann began that year’s final table as the chip leader, and eventually made it to heads-up play against online qualifier Joseph Mouawad.
The two battled for less than an hour, and in the final hand Langmann raised preflop and Mouawad called, which brought about a flop of . Langmann bet and then called off after Mouawad shoved. Langmann tabled the for middle pair, but it was no good as Mouawad tabled the for top pair. The turn left Langmann drawing dead, and after the was run out on the river, Mouawad captured victory and the £611,520 first-place prize. In addition, the 47-year-old became the first player from Lebanon to win an EPT title.
It was a storybook ending for Mouawad, but his fairy tale ended there. In the six years since his big win, Mouawad has just two tournament cashes to name – second in the 2010 Five Star World Poker Classic $1,000 No Limit Hold’em for $25,500 and eight in the €2,000 No Limit Hold’em event at this year’s EPT Barcelona for €16,650.
flop, Moseley bet 2,500 and Laudam called. Brammer folded and then both players checked the 
turn and 
river. Moseley flashed 
, but it was no good as Laudam tabled the 
for a winning pair of aces.
. Jeff Rossiter announced a raise, tossing out a blue T5,000 chip, but we are unaware of the exact amount. It could've been anything from 2,800 to 5,000.
board. Thew turned over 
for the sneaky backdoor two pair.
, Kanji checked, and Randall continued for 2,500. Only Gross called.
turned, and the 
completed the board. Randall checked, Gross tanked before firing out 3,600, and Randall shook his head before folding.
. Langmann bet and then called off after Mouawad shoved. Langmann tabled the 
for top pair. The 
turn left Langmann drawing dead, and after the