Few players in the high roller are as fascinating to watch as Ludovic Geilich. He speaks very little but somehow says a lot, and all while playing a short stack like the chip lead. The PokerStars Blog reports.
Ivan Luca raised to 80,000 from the button and Nicola D'Anselmo moved all in from the big blind for right around 350,000 chips. Luca called right away and the showdown went as following.
Luca:
D'Anselmo:
The board ran out and the ten on the turn gave Luca a winning pair. D'Anselmo was knocked out in 9th place and eight players remain right now.
Viacheslav Goryachev opened the button for 85,000 and big blind David Peters made the call. Both players checked the flop and the hit the turn. Peters bet out 140,000 and Goryachev made the call.
The completed the board and Peters bet 275,000. Goryachev thought for some time before calling. Peters showed for top pair, Goryachev mucked.
Ivan Luca raised to 65,000 from the hijack and the action folded to Nick Petrangelo in the small blind. The American pro, who finished fourth in the €25,000 High Roller earlier this week, three-bet to 277,000 and the action was then on Charles Carrel.
Carrel gave it some thought and four-bet to 650,000.
This hand had the potential for a massive clash, but Luca quickly folded putting the action back on Petrangelo.
"All in," Petrangelo stoically said, and in the same breath Carrel tossed his cards to the muck.
Petrangelo picked up a ton of chips without seeing a flop and he now takes a million-chip lead over his nearest competitor as Luca sit in second.
Ivan Luca opened the button for 72,000 and small blind David Peters made the call. The big blind folded and both players checked the flop. So far, nothing really out of the ordinary and the 110,000 bet by Peters and call by Luca on the turn wasn't remarkable yet either.
It would be the river that made for some interesting things to happen. The appeared and Peters bet out 250,000. Luca thought about it for a bit. And some more. And then some.
After about nine minutes of tanking, Sylvain Loosli called the clock on Luca.
Floor Kate Badurek: "Ok sir, you have one minute"
Luca didn't move.
Floor Kate Badurek: "Thirty seconds sir"
No movement on Luca's part yet.
Floor Kate Badurek: "Ten Seconds, nine, eight, seven"
And just like that, without anyone seeing it coming, Luca announced all in with seven seconds to go on his clock for 1.9 million. Peters jaw dropped a little. After about a minute of thinking Peters folded his hand.
"Show the bluff" Charles Carrel laughed, "Do it for the cameras"
There were no cameras around actually, but Luca smiled big and showed the .
In the history of the European Poker Tour, no player has ever won four events at a festival. That changed on Friday night when Poland's Dzmitry Urbanovich took down the €220 No-Limit Crazy Pineapple event for his fourth win at the EPT Malta festival.
The 19 year old began his historic run by topping a field of 88 entries to win the €25,000 High Roller for €572,300, and then followed that up by winning the €1,000 No-Limit Deepstack Turbo Big Ante for €32,500.
"See you soon," Urbanovich joked with official EPT photographer Neil Stoddart after that win. It actually proved true too as the very next day he beat Jack Salter heads up to win the €5,000 No-Limit Turbo event for €110,000.
In the crazy pineapple event, which attracted 56 entries and created a prize pool of €10,864, Urbanovich defeated Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki in heads-up play to capture the title and €3,260, a modest amount that no doubt took backseat to the record.
According to the PokerStars Blog, Horecki began heads-up play with a nearly 2-1 chip lead, but with blinds at 12,000/24,000 anything could happen. Indeed it did as Urbanovich, who was playing crazy pineapple for the first time, managed to take over the lead, and then in the final hand of the tournament, Horecki was all in, the flop came out , and both players discarded one of their three cards.
Urbanovich showed the for a flush draw, while Horecki held the for a pair. The turn paired Urbanovich, but he needed more help to win the pot. He found it too when the river have him the flush. Horecki had to settle for €2,350 while Urbanovich immediately rushed off to register the €1,100 triple stud event.
"The man is clearly on a mission to win everything he possibly has time for because immediately after snagging that victory, he jumped in another event," PokerStars touted after his latest win. "It seems that where there’s a trophy, then Urbanovich will be somewhere nearby."
It's also worth nothing that Urbanovich finished runner-up in the €1,100 Limit Stud Championships for €6,680. If it wasn't for John Thrower, the winner of that event, Urbanovich would have five EPT Malta titles on his résumé.
Event #59 €220 NL Crazy Pineapple Turbo
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
56
€10,864
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Dzmitry Urbanovich
Poland
€3,260
2
Marcin Horecki
Poland
€2,350
3
Marco Wendt
Germany
€1,520
4
Daniel Effendy
Germany
€1,160
5
Dariusz Paszkiewicz
Poland
€890
6
Timothee Colcher
France
€695
7
Roy Pedersen
Norway
€554
8
Dominic Cyrill Vogel
Swaziland
€435
Prior to his unprecedented run at the EPT Malta, Urbanovich's biggest cash had been €31,950 for a third-place finish in the 2014 EPT Barcelona Event #39: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo. He also took down Event #13: $2,200 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo Bounty at the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $37,640, and followed that up six weeks later by winning the €2,200 Eureka High Roller in Rozvadov for €25,725.
Urbanovich's recent success has given him the early lead in the 2015 Global Poker Index Player of the Year race with 2,380.48 points, though that doesn't yet take into account his latest win. His prior wins had him in the hunt, but it was his performance in Malta that saw him jump 16 places to the top of the leaderboard.
Urbanovich has results dating back to July 2013, but it's safe to say he didn't become a superstar until visiting the first-ever EPT Malta. Something tells us we'll be seeing plenty more of him on the EPT, but it'll still be two years before he's old enough to travel to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. Kind of reminds you of Ole Schemion, doesn’t it?
For more on Urbanovich, check out his €25,000 High Roller winner interview with Sarah Herring:
and Petrangelo checked to Metalidi who bet 141,000. Luca made the call and Petrangelo folded his cards.
hit and both players checked. The river was the 
and Metalidi check-folded when Luca bet 299,000.
flop and the 
and Luca mucked.
and the ten on the turn gave Luca a winning pair. D'Anselmo was knocked out in 9th place and eight players remain right now.
flop and the 
hit the turn. Peters bet out 140,000 and Goryachev made the call.
for top pair, Goryachev mucked.
flop. So far, nothing really out of the ordinary and the 110,000 bet by Peters and call by Luca on the 
turn wasn't remarkable yet either.
.
for a flush draw, while Horecki held the 
turn paired Urbanovich, but he needed more help to win the pot. He found it too when the 
