Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

The Poker Stars European Poker Tour kicks off today at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London. With only 24 players remaining in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, many are expected to head over and pick up where they left off in this event. With so many known professional players and online phenoms still in town, this may well be a nice event.

In a bit of irony, there are so many Full Tilt Pro’s left in the WSOPE that Poker Stars may steal the show with the most logo’s on display by players. John Juanda, Brian Townsend, Scott Fischman, Brandon Adams, Mike Matusosw, Eric Siedel, and Andy Bloch are all left in the WSOPE and all fly the Full Tilt Poker colors.

The Main Event will be followed with the EPT London £1 Million Showdown, an interesting format limited to only 100 players. Played over the course of two days, the event has a £1 Million guaranteed prize pool.

This last years EPT London Main Event had 392 entries with a £611,500 prize pool. The top 32 players were paid and Joseph Mouwad from Lebanon was the Champion.

As the exclusive sponsor of the European Poker Tour, PokerStars.com continues to set the standard on how to host a world-class poker tournament. The annual event is held in some of the most beautiful host cities in Europe. This year’s event kicks off in Barcelona before heading to London, Budapest, Warsaw, Prague, and many other cities. The season finale will be hosted in the high-class, high-society town of Monte Carlo.

Always known for their high level of customer service and attention to detail, PokerStars has announced that they’ve launched www.epthotels.com. This site will allow players, spectators, and media to get great deals on blocks of rooms reserved for these events. Of course, being European these are no shabby digs in bad part of town. These are prime properties and very close to the host casino sites where these tournaments take place. You can book your hotel with confidence, that you’re getting the best price/value and perhaps even rooming next door a major poker pro!

You can watch television airings of the EPT events on your local station or even tune into PokerStars.tv to watch the latest shows. They even have an archive of all of their events that they’ve hosted over the years, including the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT). PokerStars.tv also has video segments of pro poker player tips and tricks and other random bits to keep you entertained.

You can qualify for the next EPT event on PokerStars today for as little as $2.22!  Use Marketing Code BRB50 for a $50 Bonus when signing up!

Congratulations to Glen Chorny (known online as Choron) on an amazing performance at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.  After 6 days of some very amazing poker, Glen outlasted one of the biggest fields that the EPT has ever seen to win the biggest EPT prize ever:  €2,020,000!

Glen qualified for the tournament online at Pokerstars and told me that going into the tournament he knew he was going to win it.  His aggresive style play, combined with his great confidence at the poker table, really helped Glen make it to the end as #1.  Chorny’s chip stack constantly swung up and down and at several points he went from chip leader to short stack.  Each time he got low, he would open his game up and aggressively grind his way back, with few players really willing to take a stab at him.

Here is the final list of winners for the 2008 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo:
1. Glen Chorny (Canada) – € 2,020,000
2. Denes Kalo (Hungary) – €1,179,000
3. Maxime Villemure (Canada) – € 715,000
4. Isaac Baron (United States) – € 589,000
5. Michael Martin (United States) – €421,000
6. Luca Pagano (Italy) – €337,000
7. Valeriy Ilikyan (Russia) – €253,000
8. Antonio Esfandiari (United States) – € 168,000
9. Henrik Gwinner (Denmark) – € 126,000
10. Stig Top Rasmussen (denmark) – € 126,000

Here are some pictures from the final table:

Glen Chorny with Denes Kalo

Glen Chorny with his massive stack after doubling up from Maxime Villemure

Kara Scott interviews Chorny after the win

Choron’s new trophy

One of the many bottles of Cristal that were had to celebrate the win:

Luca Pagano has set a few new records at this EPT in Monte Carlo. Pagano now holds the record for most EPT cashes with a total of 9. Also, Luca and his father Claudio Pagano have created a new record for first father and son cash in an EPT event.

Luca’s biggest cash yet came in 2006 when he cashed for just over $25,000 in the EPT Dublin € 5,000 EPT – No Limit Hold’em event. Luca is currently sitting with one of the larger stacks and should be a favorite for the final table.

The Bubble Has Burst!

After 2 and a half hours of waiting for the bubble to burst at the 2008 the day finally came to an end for Surinder Sunar. Surinder shover all-in when he was dealt pocket Jacks only to be called by Ricardo Sousa’s KQ. Ricardo hit the Queen on the flop, which was all it took to send Surinder packing.

As I am currently attending the 2008 EPT Finals in Monte Carlo, it is only right that I post up some pictures. Here are some pictures from around the EPT and even some of just Monte Carlo in general.

Entrance to Le Sporting, where the EPT Finals are being held in Monte Carlo

The cars parked outside the Bay Casino in Monte Carlo (the hotel where the EPT is running)

The Grand Casino, Monte Carlo (Where the James Bond poker scene was shot)

EPT Floor

Daniel Negreanu being interviewed on Day 1a

Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, and Victor Ramdin

Barry Greenstein

Greg Raymer

Mel Judah and Noah Boeken

Maya Antonius (wife of Patrik Antonius) with Patrik’s new baby

Phil Ivey

Hot Polish reporter covering the EPT

Thomas Wahlroos

Tony G’s Car

Marcel Luske

Anna Wroblewski

Luca Pagano pushes all-in, but doesn’t get a caller

Chip leader after 2 days… Oyvind Riisem

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At the end of day 2, Oyvind Riisem (seen below) has a massive lead with 441,400 at the 2008 EPT Finals in Monte Carlo.  Even after kicking back the Heinekens, Oyvind managed to dominate the players at his table.

Riisem is hoping to better his fourth place finish at the WSOP Europe last September and currently leads the Norwegian dominated leaderboard.  Here are the current Top 10 going into day 3 of the EPT Finals in Monte Carlo.

Oyvind Riisem – Norway – 441400
Johnny Lodden – Norway – 380300
Borge Dypvik – Norway – 296000
Andreas Hagen – Norway – 276800
Joe Hachem – Australia – 255300
James Campbell – USA – 241700
Luca Pagano – Italy – 229000
Amit Makhija – USA – 219100
Andreas Fluri – Switzerland – 205900
Sorel Mizzi – Canada – 203200

Oyvind Riisem with his fortress of Chips