Mike 'Timex' McDonald has played his fair share of Super High Rollers to which he admits, is often the same crowd. So with a record-breaking turnout in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final event, he discusses with Jennifer Robles what it's like having a few new faces in the mix.
No big hands on the second feature table so far but the players are beginning to feel each other out with a lot of glances at stack sizes and betting postures. A few of the hands that have happened went down like this…
Igor Kurganov opened for 45,000 from UTG+1 and when it folded to Daniel Colman all eyes were on him as he took a few moments to three-bet to 110,000. It folded round to Kurganov who mucked his hand.
A couple of hands later short stack Olivier Busquet open shoved and it folded to big blind Ole Schemion who looked at his cards almost expecting to find something to call with but shook his head and folded. Blinds and antes to Busquet.
Richard Yong opened from the button for 40,000. Schemion three bet him to 125,000 from the big blind and Yong responded by splashing out a pile of T25000 chips for a bet of around 380,000. Schemion folded face up.
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There's no denying Ole Schemion has been on fire as of later. Less than a week ago he won the EPT10 Sanremo €10,000 High Roller for €265,000, and then a couple days ago he won his way into this event via a 12-man €10,000 satellite. Schemion's heater has continued throughout Day 2, and that was evidenced by a hand he just played against Talal Shakerchi.
Shakerchi managed to get his last 288,000 all in preflop and was well out in front of the German wunderkind.
Shakerchi:
Schemion:
Shakerchi had waited patiently for a spot to double, and while this seemed like a good one, the flop had other plans. Schemion flopped the nuts and left a shell-shocked Shakerchi looking for running cards.
The turn made that an impossibility, and Shakerchi was felled in 17th place after the was put out on the river.
Up at the feature table, Ole Schemion opened for 35,000 under the gun and Daniel Negreanu called from the button. Fabian Quoss came along from the big blind, and three players watched the flop come down . Quoss checked, Schemion bet 50,000, and two calls followed.
When the appeared on the turn, Quoss checked for a second time and Schemion bet 140,000. Only Negreanu called and it was heads-up action to the river. Schemion slowed down with a check, and Negreanu snap-bet 225,000.
Schemion began to think, and that's when Negreanu started to talk. "Kid Poker" began to list hands with which he would bet, which drew the ire of the dealer. Negreanu defended himself that he didn't state what he had, just merely a range. It brought a laugh from everyone, including Schemion, who ended up making the call.
Negreanu admitted that he missed a straight and showed the . Schemion then tabled the to win the pot.
Remember that hand yesterday when Chun Lei Zhou ran into Philipp Gruissem's royal flush, for 200 BBs and €100,000? Well, PokerStars Blog went after Zhou today to find out what's the story with the six-four. They listened in on some interesting table talk at the same time.
PokerStars Team Online Isaac Haxton found himself a bit short and shoved allin from the cutoff. Richard Yong in the big blind was interested in a battle and made the call.
Richard Yong:
Isaac Haxton:
"I can make a wheel, both my suits are live" laughed Haxton, "this isn't such a bad spot for me."
The on the flop wasn't giving him any direct leads for improvement though. Haxton still had a positive mind on the matter though; "Running fives for the chop?"
The on the turn was a complete blank and thus Haxton had only two outs left. The deuces stayed in the deck and instead the hit the river and Haxton was sent to the rail.