€25,500 High Roller Dia 2 | 2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

2015-03-19 18:27 UTC+2

The CONVersation: Quick-fire Edition

Nível 15 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

During the break of Day 1B of the IPT Main Event we decided to have a bit of fun and ask some quick-fire questions to Niall Farrell, Bryan Paris and Dominik Nitsche.

Q. What the biggest animal you think you could throw over a goal post (Football/Soccer height)?

NF. Oh wow! I always overestimate this (get asked a lot, Niall?) I want to say a baby horse but I feel like that’s too big. Ok, we’ll go with that.

BP. Probably like a big dog, I guess.

DN. I’m terrible at throwing so probably a really small horse.

Q. Would you rather face off against a table full of supermodel sharks or a table full of fish, who smell like fish?

NF. Ha ha ha. Probably the first one as I do the second one every trip anyway!

BP. Oh man, I’d have to go with the supermodels there.

DN. Supermodels. I’m probably better than them anyway so it doesn’t matter.

Q.You’re hosting a four handed poker game and need to fill the other three seats. You need to choose a poker player for entertainment; a player for value and lastly you have a completely open choice, but have to explain that choice.

NF.
Entertainment: I’d have to take Ludo [Geilich].
Value: I can’t take Ludo again, no? I’d take Craig McCorkell then, he’s such a punter!
Open choice: The first two boys always like to drink a lot so I’ll stick in Jake [Cody] as well so we can all get drunk at the table.

BP.
Entertainment: I’d have to go with Daniel Negreanu.
Value: Do I have to insult someone? No, it’s okay; let’s go with Jason Wheeler.
Open choice: Richard Dawkins is an interesting fella. I’d like to see where the table talk would go and the debates between him and Daniel [Negreanu] would be great and overall it’d be a fun mix.

DN.
Entertainment: Jean-Noel Thorel because he plays in a very entertaining way. (Story checks out. Once he six-bet bluffed Viktor Blom in a €10k high roller event).
Value: Jean-Noel Thorel again? No? Okay, I’ll have Ilkin Garibli who won the $25,000 High Roller at the PCA this year. (Garibli busted Dominik from the tournament so an understandable answer)
Open choice: Probably someone like Dan Shak because he’s so rich he doesn’t care. (Dominik pointed out he's also very good friends with Dan as well)

Tags: Bryan Paris Dominik Nitsche Niall Farrell

2015-03-19 20:21 UTC+2

Dan Smith Eliminated in 15th Place

Webjoker

Nível 16 : 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante

Action folded to Dan Smith on the bubble and the American grinder shoved his last 43,000 in. Ramin Hajiyev in the big blind made the call.

Ramin Hajiyev:
Dan Smith:

The flop was full of blanks with , but the on the turn did make a difference. The on the river didn't, and Smith left in 15th place.

With just 14 players remaining, the tournament is now on the bubble. Hand for hand is now in progress.

Dan Smith @dansmithholla

Bubbled again.March 19, 2015

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Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Ramin Hajiyev	380,000 40,000	40,000
Dan Smith	Eliminado

2015-03-19 22:21 UTC+2

Sorel Mizzi Bubbles the EPT Malta €25,000 High Roller

Webjoker

Nível 17 : 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante

Connor Drinan opened the hijack for 16,000 and Martin Finger folded his cutoff. Sorel Mizzi on the button, the complete shortstack with just over 30,000 in chips, three bet to 24,000. That got rid of both blinds, but Drinan wasn't so eager to lay his hand down. Drinan clicked it back and Mizzi called all in.

Connor Drinan:
Sorel Mizzi:

Mizzi went in as the underdog, but came out ahead after the flop: . From a severe equity disadvantage to an eighty percent favorite to win the hand after the first three cards.

While Sorel had already gotten up from the table after the tabling of the cards pre flop, he made no attempt to sit back down after the flop while he was ahead . It was like he already knew; on the turn.

With less than five percent now to win the hand, Mizzi probably had accepted what was going to happen.

The river sealed his fate and Mizzi wished the rest of the table good luck, and headed to the exit.

Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Connor Drinan	855,000 165,000	165,000
Sorel Mizzi	Eliminado

Tags: Sorel Mizzi Connor Drinan

2015-03-19 22:35 UTC+2

Philipp Gruissem Eliminated in 13th Place (€43,100)

Nível 17 : 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante

On one of the first hands after the bubble burst it was Nick Petrangelo who raised under the gun plus one to 17,000 and Philipp Gruissem moved all in over the top from his immediate left.

The action folded around to Daniel Dvoress in the big blind and he moved all in over the top. Gruissem was at risk for 137,000 and Petrangelo folded his cards to create a heads-up showdown.

Dvoress:
Gruissem:

The flop brought out and this did not change much. On the turn, when the hit, Gruissem was given a bit of hope, but the river was the making his elimination in 13th place official.

Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Daniel Dvoress	280,000 130,000	130,000
Philipp Gruissem	Eliminado

Tags: Daniel Dvoress Nick Petrangelo Philipp Gruissem

2015-03-19 23:00 UTC+2

Andreas Eiler Eliminated in 12th Place (€43,100)

Webjoker

Nível 17 : 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante

Dzmitry Urbanovich opened the button for 16,000 and Andreas Eiler shoved for 102,000 from the big blind. Urbanovich must have taken the possibility of a shove into account before opening, as he wasted no time calling.

Andreas Eiler:
Dzmitry Urbanovich:

The flop was rather safe for Eiler with , but the on the turn wasn't. The on the river was a blank and Eiler hit the rail in 12th place.

With the tournament down to 11, the remaining players are now guaranteed €46,400.

Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Dzmitry Urbanovich	750,000 120,000	120,000

Andreas Eiler	Eliminado

Tags: Andreas Eiler Dzmitry Urbanovich Dmitry Urbanovich

2015-03-19 23:17 UTC+2

Agshin Rasulov Eliminated in 11th Place (€46,400)

Webjoker

Nível 18 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante

Agshin Rasulov was down to under five big blinds, and just failed to double that stack in a roller coaster hand. A short roller coaster ride, but still.

Dzmitry Urbanovich opened the button, and called Rasulov's shove. Rasulov was the proud owner of while Urbanovich had pocket deuces.

The flop came king high putting Rasulov well in front.

The turn was a blank but a deuce fell on the river to send Rasulov packing.

Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Dzmitry Urbanovich	775,000 25,000	25,000

Agshin Rasulov	Eliminado

Tags: Agshin Rasulov Dmitry Urbanovich Dzmitry Urbanovich

2015-03-19 23:19 UTC+2

Jeff Rossiter Eliminated in 10th Place (€46,400)

Webjoker

Nível 18 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante

Dani Stern opened for 23,000 under the gun on his five handed table, and next door neighbor Jeff Rossiter shoved all in for 159,000.

Action folded back to Stern who made the call.

Dani Stern:
Jeff Rossiter:

The board consisted solely of cards not making any difference for Rossiter: .

With the departure of Rossiter, the tournament is now down to 9 players which are seated at one table. Play won't stop just yet though, one more player has to go before the official final table of eight is reached and play is halted for the night.

The remaining players are all guaranteed €60,400 at this point.

Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Dani Stern	646,000 246,000	246,000
Jeff Rossiter	Eliminado

Tags: Jeff Rossiter

2015-03-20 00:12 UTC+2

You Don't Know Who I Am?

[user153638]

Nível 18 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante

The 13 players who made the money in the €25,000 High Roller can be split broadly into two categories — those you know and those you probably don’t. That latter includes a player from Azerbaijan who’s "better" than Phil Hellmuth, Benny Spindler, Jake Cody and Calvin Anderson.

Click here to read the whole story over on the PokerStars Blog.

Tags: PokerStars Blog

2015-03-20 00:32 UTC+2

CONVersations: Getting to Know Nick Petrangelo

Nível 19 : 6,000/12,000, 2,000 ante

There comes a time when a player demands attention. Nick Petrangelo has been an emerging online and live talent for a while now but prior to EPT10 Prague all the American’s results had been on his side of the pond, meaning the folks in Europe know little about a player who’s very likely to be sticking around for a while.

Prior to the start of 2015, Petrangelo had amassed $423,783 in live results. This year is less than quarter gone and he’s already won $507,777. I think it’s safe to say we can call this a breakout year in the live arena, and he still has more than eight months to amass even more results.

Petrangelo had a strong finish to 2014, making deep runs in two $10K events. He came seventh in the World Poker Tour Montreal event in November and followed that up with a deep run (16th) in the prestigious WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic the following month.

Maybe the extra confidence gained from those results helped contribute towards his flying start to this year when he was one of the top performers at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with two huge results.

He kicked off by winning the $5K Turbo for $113,853, had one other small result and finally came sixth for $301,500 in one of the festival’s most prestigious events, the $25K High roller.

“Last year I started traveling a lot more, playing more live and getting more comfortable with it. I went deep in Monte Carlo (14th in the Grand Final) and then deep again in the Bellagio as you said. I kept getting deep and was eager to make one of them work out.

“I didn’t win the big one at the PCA, but it felt good to make a final table and a decent score. The $5K was really nice, but being a turbo you have to run really good to win one of those.”

“When you have scores and start going deep in stuff, running good, it helps with confidence. You also start to make better decisions and it all basically perpetuates itself.”

Petrangelo’s story – like most of today’s top players – started with friends, then online.

“Just like everybody else I started playing with friends. Everyone really loved it in high school. When I was in college I really worked on my game and some guys who were really good players helped me out. I also learned a lot from Jonathan Jaffe, he really helped me out and is now one of my roommates. “

At the back end of 2012 he won online poker's biggest tournament — the PokerStars Sunday Million — an outright victory that earned him $209,354. The evidence suggests he’s a momentum player as the day before that victory he won a heads-up FTOPS event for $36,872.

“Those wins enabled me to play a little higher stakes. I had come second in a SCOOP for $160K prior to those results and all those results combined really set me up.

“I had planned to get a job after college but carried on playing and it went really well. Once Black Friday came around, Jonathan, me and a couple of our other buddies moved to Montreal and I had a pretty big year that year so never considered doing anything else after that.”

If Petrangelo can survive one more elimination and make the final of the €25K event here in Malta, he’ll have guaranteed himself a European-best score of €79,800, another personal record broken. He wasn’t a certainty to make the money though as he had about 60% of the average on the bubble that lasted nearly an hour. Luckily for him, players busted around him before a crucial double-up post bubble went a great way to ensuring he’ll be back for Day 3.

It happened when Sam Greenwood raised to 20,000 from the button before Petrangelo three-bet to 54,000 from the small blind. The flop fanned and Petrangelo led for 58,000 and then called all in for 169,000 after Greenwood shoved.

Petrangelo: for an over pair.
Greenwood: for a flush draw.

The board ran out and Petrangelo found himself back above average for the first time in a while.

“The 25K here has been pretty good. I had a pretty tough table yesterday but ran good to make chips. I had momentum as you said and was able to make today where I picked up some hands at the right time. I’ve felt good and haven’t done anything crazy; I’ve picked my spots carefully and paid attention to what’s going on.”

Petrangelo seems to have his head screwed on right and we’ll be eagerly following his progress until the end of play today and hopefully long in to tomorrow.

Tags: Nick Petrangelo PokerNews Live Blog Feature

2015-03-20 01:42 UTC+2

Ramin Hajiyev Eliminated in 9th Place (€60,400)

Webjoker

Nível 20 : 8,000/16,000, 2,000 ante

Ramin Hajiyev open shoved his last 210,000 to the middle from middle position. Hajiyev was kind enough to cut out his own chips, making it clear for the entire table how much it was.

Dzmitry Urbanovich in the hijack right next to him showed interest. He thought for a bit, and then tossed in a single 1,000 chip to indicate to the rest of the table he was calling. While the other players all folded, Urbanovich slid forward the calling chips.

Everyone folded and it was time to open the cards. Hajiyev got the bad news soon enough.

Ramin Hajiyev:
Dzmitry Urbanovich:

The flop just about ended all hope for Hajiyev; .

The on the turn made it final, the on the river was there just to make things official.

With the departure of Ramin Hajiyev, play ended for the day. There are 31 minutes left in the level. The remaining players will be back at 12:30 p.m. local time, all already guaranteed €79,800.

Jogador	Fichas	Progresso
Dzmitry Urbanovich	734,000 214,000	214,000

Ramin Hajiyev	Eliminado

Tags: Ramin Hajiyev