Table one in the €10,000 High Roller is first in more ways than one for it currently plays host to the chip leader and what’s more four of the top six stacks in the entire tournament. That seemed like more than enough reason to follow the progress of its inhabitants for an orbit.
As the orbit began blinds were 2,500/5,000 ante 500, 66 players were left in making the average stack just over 230,000. This is how table one lined-up.
Seat one: Max Silver, 550,000
Seat two: Sylvain Loosli, 815,000
Seat three: Igor Yaroshevskyy, 390,000
Seat four: Philipp Gruissem, 300,000
Seat five: Gerald Karlic, 450,000
Seat six: Carlos Cadha, 176,000
Seat seven: Fady Kamar, 106,000
Seat eight: Andras Nemeth, 230,000
Hand one: Button on Max Silver
A big pot to kick things off!
The PokerStars Blog arrived to see a 10♦ 5♣ Q♣ flop on the felt, a bet of 34,000 in front of Max Silver and a check-raise all-in of 204,000 by the cards of Andras Nemeth. There was enough in the pot to suggest that this pot had been three-bet pre-flop.
Silver asked the dealer to pull in the 34,000 and after what remained of Nemeth’s stack was again counted there was then some confusion over whether she’d pulled the right amount in. Indeed Carlos Cadha showed the dealer the correct amount via the calculator app on his phone.
Once it had been established that Silver needed to put another 170,000 in to equal Nemeth’s shove, the UKIPT champion reached into his stack, totted up the amount and then pushed it over the line in one tower. Nemeth was first to show, he opened K♥ Q♥ , Silver tapped the table in acknowledgement and showed A♦ K♦ . The board ran out 3♥ 7♠ and Nemeth doubled up.
Hand two: Button on Sylvain Loosli
Four-way action alert!
Gerald Karlic raised to 11,000 from under-the-gun and his raise was given no respect at all as it was called by Andras Nemeth (hijack), Igor Yaroshevskyy (small blind) and Philipp Gruiseem (big blind).
Karlic’s c-bet of 16,500 on the K♥ 7♦ 3♣ flop managed to get rid of Yaroshevskyy and Gruissem, but not Nemeth, who stuck around to see the 5♣ fall on the turn, however a second barrel of 42,000 from Karlic was enough to earn him the pot.
Hand three: Button on Igor Yaroshevskyy
In which Max Silver gets some chips back.
There were three folds in a row before Max Silver opened the pot for 11,500 from the hijack, Sylvain Loosli and Igor Yaroshevskyy declined to get involved but after a few riffles of his chips Phillip Gruissem did.
A 3♣ 3♦ 8♦ flop hit the felt, Gruissem checked, Silver bet 14,000 and Gruissem, who has over $9,500,000 in lifetime winnings, shifted his eyes from Silver to the board and then back to his chips before smooth calling. A flush draw completing 5♦ fell on fourth street, again Gruissem checked, once more Silver bet, this time 32,000 and after fewer than 10 seconds Gruissem released his hand.
Hand four: Button on Philipp Gruissem
Kings all but kill Kamar!
Fady Kamar was by someway the shortest stack at the table and also by some distance the oldest player at the table. His grey hair had a pair of sunglasses propped on top of them as he slid out a bet of 11,000 from under-the-gun.
So grey hair, short stack and an under-the-gun raise probably equals a strong hand and everyone agreed, well everyone apart from Gerald Karlic who decided to three-bet to 27,000 from the small blind. When the action got back to him Kamar didn’t think too long before deciding to flat call.
So going to the 9♣ A♠ 2♠ flop Kamar already had 30% of his stack invested in this pot, perhaps Karlic smelled a rat, perhaps he didn’t like that ace, regardless he elected to check and Kamar did likewise. They both also checked on the K♣ turn and the Q♥ then hit the river. First to act was Karlic, he bet 32,000 Kamar instantly called and then instantly mucked when Karlic showed K♥ K♠ .
Kamar was now very short on chips indeed as he was left with fewer than five big blinds.
Hand five: Button on Gerald Karlic
No comeback for Kamar.
Sylvain Loosli, who was the current chip leader, had been very quiet so far in this orbit. He was one of five players at the table wearing headphones (Max Silver, Andras Nemeth and Faday Kamar were not), and played his first pot of the orbit by raising to 11,000 from middle position, Gerald Karlic smooth called on the button and Kamar, who was in the big blind, called from his stack of 23,000.
On the 3♣ 8♣ 5♥ flop it was checked to Karlic, he bet 17,000, Kamar committed the rest of his chips and Loosli didn’t take long to fold his hand.
Karlic: Q♦ J♦
Kamar: J♠ 7♦
Kamar was in trouble and was drawing dead when the Q♠ fell on the turn.
Hand six: Button on Carlos Cadha
If at first you’d don’t succeed…
Sylvain Loosli raises are like London buses it seems as he entered the pot from under-the-gun+1 for 11,500 and only met resistance from Andras Nemeth, who was the big blind in this hand. There had been a trend in this orbit of nobody folding to c-bets and it continued as when Loosli bet 13,000 on the 10♥ 5♥ 6♠ board, Nemeth decided to stick around.
The 5♣ turn went check check and the Q♦ completed the board. Nemeth checked for a third time and Loosli went into the tank. Whilst he was thinking Carlos Cadha stood up from the table and took his white baseball cap off and started talking to Gerald Karlic. “You and me are the only survivors from this table, but you’re doing a better job of surviving than me,” he laughed indicating that from the start of day table only he and Karlic remained. He then counted his stack and added. “I’ve got 1,000 more than I started with.
Loosli eventually elected to bet 28,500 and despite looking like he wanted to call, Nemeth sent his cards into the muck.
Hand seven: Dead button
A simple raise and take.
It’s said by some players that the higher the buy-in the more aggressive the play gets. This had somewhat been shown in this orbit so far as they had yet to be a simple raise and take. That all changed on this hand though as Philipp Gruissem raised to 11,500 from middle positon and the German won the blinds and antes.
Hand eight: Button on Andras Nemeth
Silver takes on Gruissem
The first time Max Silver and Philipp Gruissem clashed in this orbit it was Silver who came out on top, on this hand Gruissem evened the score.
He opened the action from under-the-gun+1 and Silver defended his big blind. Both players checked the 2♠ A♥ J♥ flop and Silver then led for 17,000 on the 10♣ turn. After a short dwell Gruissem threw in calling chips.The 7♠ rounded off proceedings, Silver fired again, 42,000 was the bet but Gruissem didn’t call this time, instead he raised to 120,000. Back on Silver he thought for only around 10 seconds before folding his hand.
“Maybe you were bluffing with the best hand,” said Silver to Gruissem. “Mine didn’t work out too well!”
“Yep,” replied Gruissem, which made Silver laugh.
So a decent orbit for Andras Nemeth and Gerard Karlic and a bad one for Max Silver whilst Sylvain Loosli still leads.
Follow coverage of the EPT Malta Main Event on the EPT Malta Main Event page. There are plenty of side events going on, and the €10,000 High Roller is under way. Keep abreast of everything via the EPT App, available on Android or IOS.
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