On Episode #150 of the PokerNews Podcast, the crew is in Monaco for the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. They break down all of the latest news, including the EPT Grand Final Main Event, Phil Ivey suing Crockfords Casino, the Rational Group suing the Atlantic Club Casino, and more.
They are then joined by Xuan Liu to talk about her poker career, the EPT Players Council, Monaco, and more.
Galen Hall is down to fumes for chips after his top pair faired badly against Ismael Bojang.
The two players were in the blinds and called after an early position raise to 1,600 and a call. The four players took to a flop where the aggressor continued for 4,500. There was a fold before Hall called and Bojang raised to 16,000. The original raiser folded but Hall min-raised and then snap called when Bojang shoved for 54,800.
Hall: for top pair.
Bojang: for trips.
The board ran out and Hall was left with just 3,200.
Australian Grant Levy is the former winner of another Grand Final of the PokerStars variety. Back in December of 2007, he won the APPT Sydney Grand Final to the tune of AU$1000,000. Here on Day 2 in Monaco, he's off to a nice start and up over 200,000 in chips. Here are two recent hands where he picked up some more.
On the first of the couple, Levy opened from the hijack seat to 1,700 and Goran Mandic flatted out of the cutoff position. Everyone else folded, and the dealer produced the flop. Levy checked, and Mandic checked back.
The turn was the , and Levy bet 2,100. Mandic made the call to see the land on the river. Both players checked.
Levy tabled the to beat and win the pot.
On the next hand, Levy opened to 1,700 from middle position, and Andrey Gulyy three-bet from the button to 4,000. Levy reraised to 11,700, and Gulyy gave it up. Levy flashed the and then collected the pot.
Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske has just been eliminated. Following a raise from Calvin Anderson from the under-the-gun position and a call from the player in the next seat, Luske reraised to 8,500 from under the gun plus two. Action then folded to Luke Schwartz in the big blind, and he reraised to 15,000. After Anderson and the other player folded, Luske made a quick call.
On the flop, Schwartz set Luske all in for around 15,000. Luske quickly called with the , but was behind the for Schwartz.
The turn was the and the river was the . Schwartz won the hand and sent Luske to the rail.
Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano has one of the best records in EPT Main Events but this season he hasn't managed to cash yet. Pagano was just granted another chance at that when he doubled through Henri Chapuis.
Pagano moved all in for just 9,500 and the action was folded all the way around to Chapuis who tanked for a bit before calling out of the big blind.
Luca Pagano:
Henri Chapuis:
The board ran out and Pagano stayed alive. The Italian pro is still one of the short stacks in the event and far below average after this double up.
According to one of our Finnish colleagues, Elisabeth Hille has been eliminated by Konstantin Maslak. Hille was all in with on a board of , and Maslak held .