Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Day 1a has come to a close at the Pokerstars.com EPT Finals in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Many of the biggest names in poker made it out for the event, but many were also sent packing before the 1st day even ended. Included in the list of players to depart early were Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Tuan Lam, Isabelle Mercier, Annette Obrestad plus many others.

Leading the pack at the end of the day was Stephan Kjerstad. Here are the current top 10 players at the end of day 1a:
Stephan Kjerstad 100K
Johnny Lodden 90K
Shaun Deeb 80k
Sorel Mizzi 65K
Asa Smith 57K
Peter Roche 53K
Maxime Villemure 52K
Marcel Luske 48k
Mel Judah 48K
Andreas Torbergsen 47k

Day 1b kicks off tomorrow morning with many more big names like Pokerstars Pro’s Joe Hachem and Daniel Negreanu. Here is a video from today’s opening ceremony:

Soren Jensen (who looks to have had a few drinks when this video was shot) got the boot from the casino in San Remo, Italy (home of the EPT this past weekend).

According to Soren he had been playing some roulette on 4 numbers when he hit his number “21″. He got a little excited when this happened, but the casino would not take his bet because he had placed cash on the table instead of chips.

The casino proceeded to give him the boot after he started making a scene that he wanted to be paid his $900 and threatened to call the police. Soren took it one step further, and did this for them, by calling the police himself.

The police showed up and the managed to talk things out and Jensen was permitted to return to the casino the following day.

Here is the video of Soren talking with casino security:

Soren Jensen was the runner up at the EPT Copenhagen this year where he took home €472,675.

Many players at the EPT this past week in San Remo noticed one very attractive girl going around giving players massages. The masseuse was none other than poker player, Peter Jepsen’s girlfriend: Frida Johansson. It’s not every day you see such a beautiful lady walking around the poker room, so Cardplayer sat down with Frida in this interview done by Cristiano Blanco:

With the 2008 EPT Finals in Monte Carlo just over a week away, I figured I would post something from last year’s event. Here is a video for the Final Table presentation at the 2007 EPT Final in Monte Carlo… Doesn’t this just make you want to be there to play

I will be there next week because my brother won a seat through Pokerstars and will I am pretty sure he is gonna win it, but you can still try to come in 2nd. There still are a few more qualifiers running on PokerStars.com so don’t miss out before its too late!

After 3 days of poker the Pokerstars EPT in Dortmund has come to an end with 18 year old Mike Mcdonald the winner. Macdonald (smiling on the left with a mouthful of braces) entered the poker scene only 6-months ago and in the last 5 weeks has already cashed in for over $1.5 Million Dollars.

Currently studying at the University of Waterloo (in his 3rd semester) in Ontario, Canada, Mcdonald will have to make a tough decision to continue with school, or persue a career as a professional poker player.

In the final hand German player, Andreas Gulunay, tried to bluff Mcdonald out of the hand. Unfortunately for Gulunay, Mcdonald was very strong and held the best hand. Here is the recap from the pokerstars blog:

“After a series of pots going his way the crowd were getting behind their man Andreas. On a flop of K-7-J Andreas checked and Mike bet 120k. Andreas then made it 300k which was called and it was already a big pot when on the turn, a king, Andreas made it 300k, which again Mike called. A deuce on the river – a 1.4million pot – Andreas moved all-in and with little persuasion Mike called. It was quickly clear why he did so quickly – A-K for the Canadian – the winning hand at the EPT Dortmund.”

Final table result of EPT Dortmund

1st — Mike McDonald – Canada — €933,600
2nd — Andreas Gulunay – Germany — €528,500
3rd — Torsten Haase – Germany — €307,000
4th — Diego Perez – Spain — €234,200
5th — Claudio Rinaldi – Switzerland — €193,000
6th — Johannes Strassmann – Germany — PokerStars sponsored player — €152,000
7th — Thibaut Durand – France — €120,200
8th — Christian Harder – United States – PokerStars qualifier — €85,500

You can start qualifying for the next EPT event in Copenhagen (The Scandanavian Open) today over at Pokerstars. Here is a quick video recapping the end of the event:

The PokerStars European Poker Tour play in Dublin had an amazing finale. Qualifer Ruben Peters, an American from Colorado, USA, took the field by surprise, to even beat out the World Series of Poker Europe Champion Annette Obrestad.
The stock trader, and father of 2, known as ‘seaanchor’ online, is a regular qualifier for PokerStars, and has cashed in on those qualifying seats several times. He has played against Annette many times online and found himself surprised by the win. He entered the final table as the short stack. After steadily chipping away at Annette ‘Annette_15’ Obrestad’s chip lead, he ultimately overturned the WSOPE Champ’s position at the table. Subsequently he surprised everyone at the tournament in Dublin, including himself.

Ruben Peters began as one of 221 players total. This competitive field represented 26 countries, and pushed the prize pool to EUR 1,701,700. Peters took home more than EUR 500 thousand (734,549 USD). Keep in mind this achievement came against some of the toughest players in the game, including Team PokerStars Pros such as Dario Minieri, who made it to the top 3 at the final table in Las Vegas this year, and Katja Thater a record holder in her own right as the WSOP 2007 Razz bracelet holder.

The next stop for the European Poker Tour (EPT) is Prague for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The tournament will begin on December 5th and run until the 10th. Satellites and Qualifiers are running now for seats to the EPT Prague event as well as the Grand Final. The following stop in Dortmund, in January, will initiate satellites on December 3rd, 2007.

The event in Prague from December 5-10, 2007 follows the next EPT in January. Satellites for Prague, the PCA and the EPT Grand Final are running on PokerStars now. Satellites for EPT Dortmund (January 29 – February 2) start on December 3, 2007.