2008 World Series of Poker Europe

£10,000 WSOP Europe Main Event
Day: 1a
1a1b2345
Event Info

2008 World Series of Poker Europe

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
k♠6♣
Prize
£868,800
Event Info
Buy-in
£10,000
Prize Pool
£3,620,000
Entries
362
Level Info
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000
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Shuffle Up and Deal!

[user46298]
[user46298]
Empire Casino - It's Actually a Sunny Day
Empire Casino - It's Actually a Sunny Day
The dealers are sat at their tables, the players are thronging the bar, camera crews drift like recording clouds and the atmosphere here at the Empire has definitely risen a notch in intensity. The players have been called to their seats to take their shot at the big bracelet that's on offer in the £10,000 Main Event.

Spotted outside, and therefore definitely here on time - Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow, somehow amplified, on the pavement directly outside the casino. Whipping up a crowd made up of around 20% journalists and 80% random wanderers, they joked with each other, Hellmuth announcing the imminent start of the Main Event. So good is he at attracting attention, that when he'd finished the announcement and turned and strode off into the interior of the casino, most of the crowd, press or not, just sort of followed him into the marble corridor. Fascinating to watch.

Tags: Mike MatusowPhil Hellmuth

Level: 1

Blinds: 50/100

Ante: 0

Moorman Just Makes It.

[user76023]
[user76023]
Online prodigy Chris 'Moorman1' Moorman almost didn't make it to the main event today due to not having any ID. This problem was solved by a hasty trip to the passport office yesterday where the speedy and expensive 'express choice' was made. A few hours later and with the appearance of a brand new spanking passport, problem solved.

Tags: Chris Moorman

1pm: An Early Start

[user46298]
[user46298]
Poker players are not known for their diurnal habits, and there's more than one bleary almost-awake eye gracing the early flops. It seems like everyone's pretty much made the effort to show up on time, however, which is unexpected. Maybe it's the free energy drinks liberally displayed on their side tables which convinced them to play the early levels.

A few names at the tables, where action is predictably a little slow to start, with 20,000 chips, two hour levels and starting blinds of 50/100:

Markus Golser
Karl Mahrenholz
Phil Ivey
Andy Bloch
David Benyamine
Andy Black
Mark Teltscher
Erica Schoenberg
Howard Lederer
Isaac Haxton
Ram Vaswani
Stuart Fox
Vicky Coren
Erik Seidel

Lights...Camera...

[user76023]
[user76023]
All the attention on the upper floor is focused on the former Australian cricketeer Shane Warne. There's three cameras trained on him already, as well three boom mics which are hovering above the players like a group of stalactites. Whether he or the other players will be affected by all this attention, remains to be seen.

Tags: Shane Warne

Pardon the Interruption

[user38449]
[user38449]
We're just about 20 minutes into game play and the camera crews are going through the room table by table giving their 'spiel' to each one as they pass through.

"After you win a pot, please hold your cards up like this so that the cameras can see them," instructed one producer to Table 6.

"What?!" replied an unhappy customer.

"We need to see your cards for the cameras," the producer replied.

"You're telling me I have to show my hole cards after the hand? I don't even show my cards to my own brother let alone the people at my table!" the angry patron continued.

"No one will see them here, sir, only when the show airs on TV!" said the young producer.

"Oh, OK. I feel much better now, thank you," the man replied.

Back Room Brawl

[user38449]
[user38449]
There are six tables and at least as many TV cameras crammed into the Face 2 Face room here at the Empire. Some of the players seated at those tables include Jason Potter, Daniel Alaei, Linda Lee, Thor Hansen, Joe Beevers, Arnaud Mattern, Ross Boatman, Max Pescatori, Scott Fischman, Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith, Kathy Liebert, Vanessa Rousso, Ben Grundy and Josh Arieh.

The tournament staff has informed us that the back room tables will be the last to break today, which means they probably won't break at all. At least it's cozy back here!

Rousso Rakes an Early Pot

[user38449]
[user38449]
On a board showing {5-Diamonds} {Q-Clubs} {2-Spades} {J-Spades}, an unknown player led out with a 1,600 bet.

"Can I see your stack?" asked Vanessa Rousso, who then proceeded to raise, making it a total of 4,500 to play.

Her opponent quickly folded and then Phil Hellmuth gave his two cents:

"Three ducks . . .," he said, assuredly.

"Sump'n like that," Rousso replied, as she stacked up her winnings.

Halfway through the first level of play, Rousso has built her stack up to 24,000.

Tags: Vanessa Rousso

Kalo OK

[user76023]
[user76023]
A raise in early position to 250 is met by several callers, including EPT Monte Carlo runner-up Denes Kalo. Craig Marquis reraises on the button to 1,125 and everyone passes, save Kalo. They see a flop of {7-Clubs} {A-Diamonds} {9-Hearts} and Kalo checks to Marquis, who bets 1,775. Kalo then raises to 3,950 and gets a thin, icy stare from his opponent who then mucks his hand.

A good start then for one EPT Monte Carlo finalist, but not so good for another. Isaac Baron has not been doing so well, he's down to 13,200 early on, but given the super slow structure of this tournament, it's easily recoverable.

Tags: Denes Kalo

Benyamine Busto!

[user76023]
[user76023]
While watching the table of Howard Lederer, Erica Schoenberg and Chris Moorman, Gallic giant David Benyamine came by at the rail and made a 'cut throat' gesture to his fiancee. "Kings against aces," were the Frenchman's words, though it appeared it was more than just a simple all-in preflop jobbie.

Sometimes two players at a table clash right from the start, and it was so with David Benyamine and Andy Bloch. Right at the start, the first chip fluctuations saw Bloch up by about 6,000, around what Benyamine was missing from his stack. After a preflop raise/reraise, it appeared that Benyamine had bet 2,800 on a flop of {4-Clubs} {4-Diamonds} {6-Diamonds} only to find Bloch setting out enough chips to put him all in. He went into the tank for ages, really thinking, getting the call pulled, counting the stacks, breathing a sigh and eventually calling all in with {K-Clubs} {K-Spades}. He was up against Bloch's {A-Hearts} {A-Diamonds} though and was on the rail soon after.

Tags: David Benyamine

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