The flop was . Niall Farrell in the big blind checked as did Max Greenwood. Jonathan Karamalikis bet 1,500 and both Farrell and Greenwood called.
The turn card was the which was checked around and all three saw the river card come the .
Farrell led out for 4,200 and while Greenwood quickly folded Karamalikis had a decision to make. That river card brought in a host of draws and was also surely a perfect card for Farrell to bluff into two people with. Was Karamalikis a believer? It took him a while but in the end he folded and in throwing away his cards they accidentally turned over to show his .
Farrell just collected the pot and slid his cards to the dealer.
Jonathan Duhamel opened for 800 under the gun and Steve O'Dwyer made the call. Two more callers followed, one of them Talal Shakerchi in the small blind.
Ray Tabei from the beautiful Saint Kitts and Nevis squeezed all in from the big blind for 11,700.
Duhamel folded, but O'Dwyer made the call. Both other players folded and O'Dywer got Tabei for himself.
Ray Tabei:
Steve O'Dwyer:
O'Dwyer had flatted with a monster, but it wouldn't improve against Tabei's fours: . A small dent for O'Dwyer, a hugely important double up for Tabei.
Vladimir "shabalinvlad" Shabalin. Photo courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.
Among the stars of the EPT Grand Final you would have been hard-pressed to pick out a young Russian by the name of Vladimir "shabalinvlad" Shabalin. The 26-year-old is only the third player to ever break the 10,000,000 VPP barrier, which is, in case you didn’t know, an absolutely phenomenal amount of VIP Player Points. Read the interview at PokerStars Blog.
Daniel Negreanu opened for 675 from the cutoff and got one caller, Max Altergott on the button.
They saw a flop of . Negreanu checked and said. “Go ahead and bet. Eleven hundred.”
Altergott bet 900 which Negreanu called. The turn saw another check from Negreanu and a bigger bet, 2,900 from Altergott. Negreanu quickly folded and Altergott slammed his cards on the table in mild frustration indicating he really wanted to see a call.
The tournament keeps growing. From 122 entries, 116 remain at this time. Two players have already busted and reentered. One of them, Rono Lo, just sat down with a fresh stack of 50,000.
Mohsin Charania and Adrian Mateos Diaz played a pot earlier on where Diaz won, and just now he won another small pot of the EPT Grand Final 2012 champion.
On an board we saw Diaz check-call 1,300. The WSOP Europe champ check-called another 2,500 on the -turn and both players checked the -river.
Charania tabled but would muck it after Diaz revealed .
We watched Viktor Blom play an orbit of his table to get a glimpse of his early level strategy.
Hand #1 From the cutoff Blom opened for 600 and the 2x raise won the blinds and antes.
Hand #2 Blom open folded from the hijack
Hand #3 Artrem Litvanonv opened and Blom folded.
Hand #4 A Fold from Blom from early position.
Hand #5 Ariel Celestino opened for 750 and Litvanov in the small blind and Blom in the big blind call. They saw a flop of . It was checked to Celestino who bet 1,200. Litvanov check-raised him to 2,775 and Blom and Celestino both folded.
Hand #6 Blom folds his small blind to another open of 750 from Celestino.
Hand #7 Again Celestino opened for 750 and another fold on the button for Blom.
Despite his crazy, even reckless reputation Blom has developed his tournament strategy over the years and while he has confessed to finding these game less stimulating that multi-tabling the nose bleeds he has shown the disciple and patience to make a few recent deep runs.
Celestino though looks determined to get full value per hands played for his buy in.
It all went in before the flop as Talal Shakerchi and his neighbor Ray Tabei both had big hands in a cutoff versus button situation. Shakerchi was the underdog with though, as Tabei tabled .
Unfortunately for Tabei, and fortunately for Shakerchi, the flop came king high with two eights: . The on the turn and on the river were blanks and Shakerchi doubled through Tabei.
. Niall Farrell in the big blind checked as did Max Greenwood. Jonathan Karamalikis bet 1,500 and both Farrell and Greenwood called.
which was checked around and all three saw the river card come the 
.
.
. A small dent for O'Dwyer, a hugely important double up for Tabei.
. Negreanu checked and said. “Go ahead and bet. Eleven hundred.”
board we saw Diaz check-call 1,300. The WSOP Europe champ check-called another 2,500 on the 
-turn and both players checked the 
but would muck it after Diaz revealed 
on the turn and 
on the river were blanks and Shakerchi doubled through Tabei.