Thursday, 28th March 2024 17:54
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Live updates from day 1B, level seven of the EPT London Main Event event brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains, Brad Willis and Simon Young.

Click refresh to see the latest updates below. The up-to-date selected chip counts are on the chip count page.

Blinds: 300-600 (50 ante)

9:12pm–Great Dane…bad

Hey, we won’t say it, but Gus Hansen declared as he left the room that he is out because he, quoting here, “played bad.”

Well told.

With special thanks to Amnon Filippi for his special reporting on this post.

9:08pm–ElkY won’t let us leave

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier is unsatisfied with this 30,000 stack. He started with that amount and it’s getting on his nerves that he doesn’t have more. In between every hand, he counts out his red 1,000 denomination stack, and each sigh he heaves an unsatisfied sigh.

We vowed to leave the table the next time he didn’t play a hand. We ended up staying for a long time. Here’s four consecutive hands.

Hand #1: ElkY open rasied to 1,500 and got a call from the big blind. The flop came 4♣ A♣ 6♦ . The big blind checked, ElkY bet 2,600, and the big blind called. On the 3♥ turn, the same thing repeated itself, this time for 2,600. The river 2♥ drew two checks. Out came 6♠ 3♦ from the big blind. Elky tossed his cards in the air. During flight, we saw his A♦ . ElkY sighed.

Hand #2: ElkY opened for 1,500 (you will see a pattern here soon) and got a call from the button. The flop: 7♥ K♦ 9♥ . Elky checked, then called a 2,100 bet. It went check check on the Q♠ turn, and again on the 7♦ river. ElkY counted his chips and sighed.

Hand #3: Guess what ElkY did? Ayup. Open to 1,500. Thus time he got two calls. A continutation bet to 2,600 on the 5♦ 6♠ 4♣ flop won the pot and a well-deserved sigh from ElkY.

Hand #4: Read the first sentence of the last three hands to see what ElkY did. This time, the button and big blind called. The K♥ 6♦ 9♥ flop drew a check from the big blind. ElkY bet 2,225 and got the call from the button. The A♦ turn didn’t slow either player down, and they played for ElkY’s 3,300 bet. The 9♣ on the river saw ElkY put an end to it with an uncalled 11,100 bet.

You know what ElkY did? He counted his chips and sighed.

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9.00pm: Brecard bubbling up

Former frequent member of the press room, Julien Brecard is up to 145,000 chips after more than doubling up. There was a raise and a call in front of him and he called from the big blind with pocket tens. The flop came 7-10-Q and the initial raiser continued with a 3,500 bet that the other player in the hand raised up to 13,000. Brecard then moved all in for more than 50,000 prompting the initial aggressor to fold. The other player thought for a long while but eventually called with pocket kings that failed to improve.

8:46pm–He returns!

The MIA player we mentioned at the top of these updates has returned from dinner, finally. He still had a 1/3 of a bottle of wine waiting for him. Just in case that wasn’t enough, he brought an ice cold bottle of Becks back to the table.

8.40pm:Bad news for Brenes

Here’s that Humberto Brenes post for you:
The player on the button made a standard raise before the small blind re-raised to 5,000. Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes then made it 12,000 from the big blind but the action wasn’t finished there as the button moved all in for 40,000. The small blind player folded (Ace-queen he would later say) before Brenes called all in after his usual amateur dramatics. It was a “classico” race as Brenes held A♥ K♥ to the button’s Qâ™  Q♣ . The board ran out jack high and Brenes headed off in to the London night.

8.35pm: Nudge, wink, keep it quiet squire; it’s gonna be 850 large
Now all the money is in and the player count known it is only a matter of time until the full payout breakdown is revealed. As a sneak preview, I can tell you this: word is that the winner is going to get £850,000 and they will pay 104 places. But don’t tell anyone yet. And don’t tell them I told you. It’s not official.

8.32pm: Akenhead downed
Coming back from dinner we realized that someone else had taken residence in James Akenhead’s seat. Further investigation led us to the fact that he was knocked out just before the dinner break. After losing chips to Greg Dyer he lost the rest whilst holding pocket Kings to an opponent’s pocket fives. We’re led to believe that that all the chips went in on a five high flop.

8:28pm–Mizzi missing

We were caught up in a hand with Humberto Brenes that you’ll read about in just a moment, but Sorel Mizzi is now among the departed, the victim of a king-queen vs. ace-jack incident. Terrence Chan, also sitting at the table, told us the money went in on the flop, on which we noticed an ace. The details aside, Mizzi now has time to spend on any of the multiple side events going on at EPT London.

8.20pm: Pack your passport

Of all the moments I look forward to on the European Poker Tour, the one that stands out the furthest is the moment I get an email telling me the full breakdown of nationalities of the players. And that moment has just occurred. Here we have it, with UK players leading the count, followed by USA and, as ever, a very strong showing from the residents of Unknown. A fine country this time of year:

UK – 139; USA – 131; France – 63; Germany – 45; Italy – 42; Canada – 36; Sweden – 35; Finland, Netherlands – 22; Russia – 21; Ireland – 19; Denmark – 15; Lebanon – 14; Norway – 12; Brazil, Spain – 9; Israel, Unknown – 8; Romania – 7; Australia, Poland, Portugal – 5; Austria, Belgium, Switzerland – 4; Hungary – 3; Argentina, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Iraq, Singapore, South Africa, Ukraine – 2; Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Ghana, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Slovakia, South Korea, Taiwan, Trinidad, Turkey, UAE, Uruguay, Vietnam – 1

8:12pm–Missing (possibly intoxicated) in action
You might recall in the last level that we mentioned a man showing up just in time to see Tom Dwan bust out of the event. You might also remember we mentioned the man showed up with a full bottle of wine.

Now post-dinner, that man’s 30,000 stack sits unattended. Moments ago, the dealer pulled the ante off his stack and asked the table, “He’s not coming back?”

Jerry Van Strydonck shook his head with mock rue. “I don’t think so,” he said. “He was really drunk.”

We’ll keep you posted.

8:04pm–Dinner ends, play begins

Have you ever been in a packed Italian restaurant in which at the end of your meal the room feel into complete darkness? If so, was the problem solved by a man in chef’s pants climbing up into the ceiling with a large butane lighter? If not, you may want to try it sometime. And the saltimbocco. Yes, try that, too.

In other news, the players are back (those that aren’t still trying sort out the lighting at the Italian joint).

In the meantime, here is a picture of a guy who really doesn’t want to give away any tells, or, perhaps, any communicable diseases. We’re not asking.

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