Thursday, 28th March 2024 13:41
Home / Uncategorized / EPT Copenhagen: Day 3, levels 17 & 18 (3,000-6,000 500 ante)
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8.20pm: Chips updated
With all those poker players out of the way it was easy to do an up-to-date chip count. You’ll find them here.

8.05pm: Level done; dinner time
It’s the end of the level and the 38 remaining players will now leave the tournament area for a nourishing dinner of cigarettes and petrol station hot dogs. — HS.

8pm: Do not go Gentile into that dark night
Fabian Gentile started near the top of the leaderboard this afternoon, but when he was recently all in, it was for about 139,000, significantly less than the average stack of about 330,000.

Good for him he had a better hand than his opponent: Kristoffer Thorsson, who called the all in pre-flop shove with A♥ 7♣ . Gentile had A♣ 9♣ .

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Fabian Gentile

The flop only helped Gentile. It came: 9♦ 3â™  Qâ™  10♦ J♦ and he doubled up, leaving Thorsson with only about 140,000. — HS.

7.55pm: Hands for Hansen
Two hands for Magnus Hansen that take his stack off the floor, up to around 200,000.
First he opened for 18,000 from the cut off getting called by Janne Nevalainen in the small blind. On the flop of 9♣ 8♣ 2♥ Nevalainen checked and Hansen shoved for around 90,000, forcing Nevalainen to pass.

Then a hand against EPT whipping boy Juha Helppi. Again Hansen opened for 18,000 which Helppi called from the small blind. On the flop of 8♦ 3♣ 7♦ both checked for a 4♥ turn card. Here Helppi bet 23,000. Hansen then moved all-in for about 120,000. Helppi thought about it but passed, sending the chips to Hansen. – SB.

7.50pm: A way not to be out-played
Stig Rossen and Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate are sat next to each other, heroes of a different kind to fans of poker and musicals. This may be Eastgate’s turf but Rossen is a keen poker player, no doubt aware of the threat posed by the former world champ.

They just played a pot together, Rossen raising to 18,000 only for Eastgate to pop it up to 54,500. Rossen thought for a bit and splashed the chips needed for the call. The flop came 3â™  K♦ J♥ and an uneasy looking Rossen moved all-in for 365,000. Eastgate took a look at his opponent and a look at the flop and folded, a look of utter-confusion across his face. He still has 450,000 chips to play with though. –MC

7.45pm: Romanello silences Wissing
Mads Wissing is one of the more talkative table presences here, but he couldn’t get a word out of Roberto Romanello during a recent hand. His monologue was amusing enough, though.

Wissing raised to 21,000 under-the-gun and it was folded to Romanello on the button. Romanello seemed to be counting out a call and Wissing piped: “Finally we play a pot together, huh?”

Romanello was silent, but returned to his stack to cut out a few more chips to add to the small pile already assembled to call. “Ah, maybe not,” said Wissing, with a note of circumspection.

Romanello did raise, making it 51,000, and Wissing folded, silent and chastened. — HS

7.40pm: ElkY downed
It’s been a rough level or two for Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – and now the Team PokerStars Pro is out. He only had about 80,000 left when he shoved all in pre-flop with J♦ 10♦ and was called by Kristoffer Thorsson with Aâ™  7♦ .

The board did not help ElkY: 7â™  3♥ 6♣ 7♣ 5♦ and he is out. That’s a second successive EPT cash for him, but short again of the final table. — HS.

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El “Betrand Grospellier” kY

7.30pm: Teng Gaines more chips
Andrew Teng is now the tournament chip leader with 1.35 million chips – 100,000 of those chips just came from Lee Gaines before he made his exit. Action folded around to Gaines in the cut-off and he moved all-in and was called Teng from the small blind. Showdown:

Gaines: A♦ 9♦
Teng: K♦ Q♦

The board ran 4â™  10♣ 8♥ J♥ Aâ™  . Gaines paired his ace on the river but it also made Teng’s straight to eliminate him. Teng’s stack is so high now he’s having a little trouble seeing over the top. –MC

7.20pm: River saves Hansen
A rivered split pot saves Magnus Hansen from elimination. All in with Aâ™  J♥ it looked grim to the river against Pieter van Genderen’s A♥ Q♣ . The board ran 4♣ 10♣ 5♥ 2♣ 3♦ .

“Unlucky,” said Hansen to Van Genderen.
“You got really lucky,” replied Van Genderen.

7.15pm: Junker damaged as Kofoed doubles
Henrik Junker bet 17,500 pre-flop prompting Kristian Kofoed to move all-in for about 50,000. Junker called showing Kâ™  10â™  to Kofoed’s A♥ 9♦ . The board ran 6♦ 3♥ 4♣ Qâ™  3â™  and Kofoed moves up to around 100,000. –SB

7.10pm: You decide
Chip leader Roberto Romanello raised from the hijack and was called by Mads Wissing in the small blind before Nicolo Calia re-raised all in for 177,000. Romanello folded after a short dwell but Wissing took a lot longer to come to a decision.

“I think you have ace-king,” said Wisser. “Do you want me to call?” he added. “I’ll let you decide,” he went on.

His Italian opponent said something inaudible back in broken English but it seemed the offer was declined. All of a sudden Wissing called and tabled 7â™  7♦ and he yelled in delight when he saw Calia’s Aâ™  8♣ . Soon it was a yell of despair leaving the Dane’s lips as the flop came A♦ J♦ 9♣ . The twists continued to come as the turn fell 7♥ to hand the pot to the Italian with a straight. It was now Calia’s time to yell in delight and he aimed his outburst at his opponent with the words “You decide, hey, you decide.” –MC

6.55pm: Helppi on the way
Juha Helppi just doubled up, adding to a likely sense of relief that he’s cashed in an EPT for only the second time, the other time being in Prague season five. In fact Helppi, who has amassed tournament winnings of nearly $2.8 million elsewhere, claims to have lost more money than anyone else on the EPT having played over thirty events.

To put that in perspective, if he’d played the last thirty main events in order he’ll need to finish second in Copenhagen to break even.

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Juha Helppi

That said he just improved his chances of that, doubling up with K♣ 10♥ against the pocket eights of Thomas Froslev. The board ran J♦ Qâ™  7♥ Kâ™  4â™  . — SB.

6.45pm: Back
We’re back, and the full and updated, official chip counts are now on the chip-count page. There are 45 players remaining and we will lose another 21 before the day is done.

6.35pm: Level over
That’s the end of that level. We’ll have full official counts during this 15-minute break, then we’ll also be updating the payouts page. Check back in a moment.

6.35pm: Grace runs out of steam
Richard Grace is out. The New Zealander moved all in over the top of Henrik Junker’s 14,500 opener – a total of 81,500. “Do you think you have any fold equity?” said Junker. “No,” said Grace, chuckling.

Junker pondered his decision for a while, but then called and showed 6♥ 6♠ . Grace showed A♦ 5♥ and was going to need some help.

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Richard Grace

The flop came 5â™  9♣ 3♣ , which paired his kicker, but the 7♦ 3♦ on turn and river didn’t help. Grace departs.

6.30pm: Haution takes bite out of Fohrenbach
Ricky Fohrenbach is down to 260,000 chips after doubling-up Julien Haution. It was a classic cooler as Haution held Aâ™  A♥ to Fohrenbach’s Kâ™  K♥ . The board came 9♦ 2♥ A♣ J♦ 4♣ before Fohrenbach had to hand over 213,000 chips to his opponent. –MC

6.26pm: Rossen continues to shine in different spot-light
Patrick Sacrispeyre has been eliminated by Stig Rossen. Sacrispeyre only had 64,000 and moved it all-in, called by the locally famous Rossen with 10♦ 10♣ . Sacrispeyre held A♦ Q♥ but couldn’t hit on a 2♥ 8♣ 3â™  9â™  7♥ . They continue to fly out of the Scandinavian Room door. –MC

6.25pm: What the Hella?
Yngve Hella Steen just moved all-in. Hardly surprising as he had but 9,500 to his name. Cheap as it was to call the action was folded around to James Bowey in the big blind.
Bowey wasn’t sure. He looked at his chips, and paused before calling, turning over K♥ J♣ to the 8â™  8♥ of Steen.

The board put an end to Steen’s race hopes: Aâ™  10♥ Q♦ J♥ 4♦ but the bigger surprise was the time it took Bowey to call.

“Why did you think about it?” asked Mads Wissing. “I’d call if I only had one card and it was a deuce.”

Bowey no doubt has his reasons. Steen out. — SB.

6.20pm: Short stacks go to war
Table 41 is the table of the short stacks with at least four players sitting with less than 100,000. Three of them got their money all in at the same time, and remarkably none of them were knocked out. It’s true. Here’s what happened.

Yngve Steen moved all in for his small stack, Kimmo Kurko moved in for a similar sized tower, then Francesco De Vivo also insta-shoved. De Vivo had the fewest, then Kurko and then Steen.

Their hands:

De Vivo: Q♣ Q♥
Kurko: A♥ 8♠
Steen: A♣ 3♣

The board didn’t hit anyone: 10♣ 6♦ K♣ 7♥ 5♦ , so the counting started. De Vivo wanted 62,500 from each of them, which he got, leaving Steen with 16,000 and Kurko with 14,000. But then Kurko wanted his share of the side pot, and so took 14,000 from Steen.

That left Steen with 2,000; Kurko with 28,000 and De Vivo with 187,500. — HS.

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Kimmo Kurko

6.05pm: Rustom sings the wrong tune
The flop was out as 5♣ 9♦ K♦ and 35,000 was already in the middle. Stig Rossen was the aggressor pre-flop and continued with a 20,000 bet. His opponent in the hand was Berjar Rustom and he raised to 75,000. Rossen thought for a while periodically scratching his head before moving all-in. Rustom’s turn to think now and call would be an all-in call. He eventually called with Kâ™  but Rossen tabled A♦ K♥ . The board ran out 5â™  and river 8♣ to eliminate Rossen. –MC

6.01pm: Oh no Nicolo
Mads Wissing and Nicolo Calia have been conducting a private heave-ho this afternoon, Wissing on a couple of occasions, forced out of hands by the Italian or on the losing end of Calia’s calculated indifference. Well, Wissing just got his own back.

Opening in the cut off for 14,000 Calia then raised on the button, making it 33,000. Wissing then re-raised to around 80,000 which Calia called. The flop came 5♣ 10â™  9â™  . Wissing checked and Calia moved all-in, walking into Wissing’s trap. He called and immediately turned over aces, tapping his nose as if to say that’s how you do it.

Calia showed Aâ™  J♦ but lost the hand with style, congratulating Wissing on a good hand after the 10♥ turn and 2♦ river. Wissing up to 375,000 while Calia heads the critical list with 50,000. — SB.

6pm: One down
Mark Bech had one of the smallest stacks at the start of the day, but he managed to navigate it all the way into the money. The journey is now over, however, as he became our first player to be eliminated this side of the bubble.

Ricky Fohrenbach shoved from the button with ace-ten and Bech called with jack-nine. Nothing hit and Fohrenbach sends Bech to the rail.

Shortly after, and on the same table, Peter Eastgate and Julien Haution got involved in a big pre-flop tussle, which ended well for the Frenchman. It went raise, re-raise, all in, call and Eastgate had A♣ Qâ™  to Haution’s Aâ™  K♥ . The board ran out dry and the Haution doubled his 150,000+ stack. Eastgate still has about 250,000 to play with. — HS.

5.50pm: Craig hops off with no money
Morten Guldhammer opened the pot with a raise to 12,500 from first position before Craig Hopkins re-raised all-in for 77,000 from the cut-off. Guldhammer swayed his arms around for a moment and then slammed his cards down, making the call.

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Martin Guldhammer, centre, makes the call

The press and other players crowded around as the cards were revealed:

Guldhammer: K♥ 10♣
Hopkins: Q♣ Q♥

The board ran K♠ 7♦ 4♥ 3♠ A♦ . The three-outer came for Guldhammer to knock out the Brit with no payday.

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Craig Hopkins, bubble boy

From now on all eliminated players will receive a prize and details of this will be found on the payout page. — MC

5.45pm: Burst
Craig Hopkins is the unfortunate man. His pocket queens were outdrawn by Morten Guldhammer’s king ten. Full details to come, but we are now in the money. — HS.

5.40pm: All-ins galore
Ten all-ins. Ten double ups, or should that be bubble ups. We just had play stop for three all ins at three separate tables, each going the way of the short stack.

First it was Kristijonas Andrulis doubling up, followed by Patrick Sacrispeyre who showed pocket queens against pocket sixes. Then, Craig Hopkins managed the same, doubling through to a collective laugh/grumble as play continues hand for hand.

That’s ten all-ins hands. Ten. — SB.

5.30pm: Three all ins, three bubble ups
Details are coming, but three players were all in almost simultaneously and they were all called. And they all doubled up to keep this bubble period going. That’s three textbook bubble-ups right there.

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Halldor Sverrisson pulled off one of the bubble ups

5.15pm: Bubble up
This is dragging a bit now. Someone just doubled up, flopping two pair with ace-king, but you don’t what to know about that. You want to know who is still in and who is out. The answer to the first part is on the chip count page, where the full and official counts now appear. The second answer to that is EVERYONE ELSE.

5.05pm: And they’re back
Almost. Play resumes in five minutes with one hand at the previous blind level before the new level kicks in.

The man below has done an awful lot of what he’s doing below during this bubble period. That’s Roberto Romanello, our chip leader, and there you can see him gathering chips.

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Roberto Romanello

PokerStars Blog reporting team: Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young.

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