Thursday, 28th March 2024 15:48
Home / Uncategorized / EPT8 Madrid: MacIntyre winning but Boujenah loving the battle
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Towards the end of the level 26 (20,000-40,000, ante 5,000) Ilan Boujenah and Fraser MacIntyre clashed in an interesting spot which saw Boujenah lose close to half of his stack.

While we’ve learnt that Boujenah is not one to shrink away from an argument, its now becoming clear that he actually thrives on conflict. Boujenah loves a battle.

Boujenah had opened to 80,000 from under-the-gun and MacIntyre called on the button. Boujenah c-bet 105,000 into the 8♥ 7♣ 9♦ flop, which MacIntyre quickly called. Both players checked the Qâ™  turn before the Israeli led 225,000 into the A♥ river. MacInytre announced he was all-in, his chip leading stack move than covering Boujenah’s.

This action was getting piped through to the press room courtesy of the fantastic EPT Live Lite service. That service, for a number of solid technical reasons, does not pipe through dialogue direct from the table, so I took my notebook ringside, arriving a few minutes into the stand-off.

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Ilan Boujenah

“Can I ask you a question?” said Boujenah

“You can ask as many questions as you like,” said MacIntyre, “Fire away.”

“Do you believe your hand is better than mine?”

MacIntyre replied but, with his back to me, I couldn’t hear what he said. Due to the EPT Live Lite webcast we can’t get closer than the rail, usual media privileges understandably revoked due to the fact that donkeys do not have transparent skin. Cameras would not be able to see through us.

“I feel lucky. You lied. Please help me, I’m in trouble,” said Boujenah with a smile on his face, continuing his attempts to unbalance his Scottish opponent.

MacIntyre smiled back and Boujenah quickly ducked his head under the table. The Scotsman’s right foot was tucked behind his left tapping out a steady beat. This may have been the final piece of information for Boujenah who mucked his hand shortly after.

“If you do not show, will you tell me afterwards? When only one of us is still in?” asked Boujenah.

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Fraser MacIntyre

MacIntyre indicated that he would and passed his hand face down. That seemed to placate to Boujenah who was left as the shortest stack with just 500,000, just behind Nicolas Levi who said: “Shame there’s no microphones.”

“It’s shame there’s no glass to see the cards,” replied Boujenah, indicating to the spot in front of his where the hole cam would be located, who looked strangely upbeat for a player who’d just close to half his stack.

Shortly after the Israeli moved all-in with A♠ K♥ over a button raise from Andrei Stoenescu who looked him up with A♥ 5♥ . That doubled Boujenah back up over the million mark. Should MacIntyre keep hold of his chips, some 3,500,000 now, and Boujenah get chipped up it would make for one fantastic finale.

Levi has since bust.

Tournament snapshot
Level 27: blinds 25,000-50,000, ante 5,000
Players: 6 of 477
Average stack: 2,385,000
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