As we entered the massive tournament room we walked into Wesley Wong who we had seen sitting down not too long ago. He, still with a smile on his face, told us what had happened.
In the first hand, he got involved with and flopped well on with two hearts. His opponent checked and Wong bet 1,400. His opponent check-raised to 4,000 and Wong called. The hit the turn and his opponent bet 7,000. Wong called again and saw his opponent check on the river. Wong bet 8,600 and his rival called with for the turned flush.
That straight proved no good and neither would his second one.
This time there was a raise and three calls before Wong over called from the button with off suit. A player in the blinds called as well and the flop came giving Wong the straight. A player in middle position bet 1,400 and Wong raised to 4,000. Action folded back to the initial bettor and he called. The on the turn made for a second flush draw and Wong shoved for 13,000 after his opponent checked. His competitor called with and send Wong packing after the on the river paired the board.
Out. All in with JT vs 88 on 789Assdd. River 9. #PSCBahamas
The Netherlands' Govert Metaal raised to 750 from the hijack and the player in the small blind called. Uruguay's Alejandro Betschart Deck came along from the big blind and three players took a flop of .
Metaal bet 1,200 after both his opponents checked, and only Deck called to see the turn. Deck turned right around and led out for 3,000, and Metaal released.
David Peters bet 2,200 from middle position into a crowd of opponents on a flop. Two players folded, Arjen Hulskotte called in the cutoff, and the big blind folded, albeit out of turn. Peters checked the turn and Hulskotte bet 2,400. Peters put him all in for 5,025 more, and Hulskotte thought about 30 seconds and called it off.
Hulskotte:
Peters:
Hulskotte's flush was nearly dead as he needed the to survive. The river was a and Hulskotte took his leave.
Ema Zajmovic, from Montreal, Quebec in Canada, booked her biggest score after making the final table at WPT Montreal back in November. She cashed for just over $100,000, with her biggest score before that being $15,000 at the 2016 WSOP Main Event.
Although she only has six recorded live cashes listed, each one of them is in a different country, with cashes in Canada, United States, Bahamas, Malta, Italy and Spain.
On a board reading , a player in early position checked and Zajmovic bet 1,100. The player under the gun folded, and the early-position player called.
The turn was the . The player in early position checked, and Zajmovic bet 2,600. Her opponent called for a second time.
The river was the . Zajmovic's opponent checked to her again, and this time she thought for a full minute before firing out a bet of 7,300. Her opponent tanked and eventually called.
Zajmovic quickly tabled and her opponent mucked his cards, sending the pot her way.
One player who has a reason to smile upon arriving at the PokerStars Championships Bahamas $5,300 Main Event is Brazilian legend and Team PokerStars Pro Felipe Ramos. He’s already cashed in a $2,000 side event and will play tomorrow’s Main Event Day 1b and is all about the positive mental element of success.
“I cashed in the last event of the year and my first event of the year," he said. "It doesn’t get much better than that!”
Ramos, who worked his way up from the slums of Sao Paulo to poker’s top table, has earned a reputation as one of the stars of Brazilian poker and the game worldwide. Friends with FC Barcelona’s legendary forward Neymar, Ramos is the go-to guy on social media, having become Snapchat and Instagram king to his legions of followers. But his family upbringing and father’s strong sense of professional discipline have taught him how important the fundamentals are:
“Momentum is insanely important," Ramos said. "As a poker player, the most important thing is consistency. If you’re a consistent player, you’re always making money. In 2016, I had five final tables in a row, it was insane. Some were small events, some large events. But it keeps that momentum.”
His many fans around the world follow his every move online, and after his recent trip back to Brazil, he found that some of his supporters had been concerned of his whereabouts:
“I took 24 hours to travel home. I landed and my phone lit up with a bunch of random messages asking ‘Are you sick?’ or ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like ‘It’s fine, guys, I’m all right!' I can’t believe there isn’t Wi-Fi on every flight in the 21st century — it’s unbelievable.”
Ramos the Nomad
It doesn’t end there for the Brazilian. The next 12 months are scheduled to be his busiest yet as he pushed to win the biggest tournaments of his life so far.
“I’m going to play everything in 2017," he said. "I sold my house back in Brazil, so that I could have no expenses and travel the world. I’m going to play everything. I go from the Bahamas to London to play the first PokerStars Festival which is going to be huge. I’m going everywhere.”
Unlike the actor and comedian Kevin Hart, who is here with a huge entourage of supporters, Ramos frequently travels solo, with just his guitar — quite literally — on the former musician’s back.
“I like to travel light," he said. "At the PokerStars BSOP, I took two or three people. At the biggest stops such as Monaco and Barcelona where there are a lot of events and I need some help, I’ll have people with me, but at small to medium events I like to travel alone.”
Ramos traveled to the Bahamas following a traditional family Christmas. While so much of his year is spent at poker events, surrounded by people he hasn’t met before, there is no substitute for family.
“Christmas is our biggest holiday including the Rio carnival in February," he said. "We’re very traditional Christians, so Christmas is a huge deal. I spent it with my family and friends, drinking beers with my Dad; there’s nothing better than that.”
Football
Legend has it that every baby boy in Brazil receives a football at Christmas. Ramos confirmed that for him, it was even sooner than his first Christmas.
“Before I was born, I had footballs — I had a bunch of them!" he said. "My whole family are Corinthian fans, but my uncle was a Palmeiras fan and another uncle supported FC Santos. They all gave me team jerseys and balls to try to get me to support their teams. My grandfather saw the things for the other teams and he told me to ‘throw this stuff away!’”
His love of football has grown and grown, leading to Ramos recently giving a seminar on the mental aspects of poker to a professional under-20 team in Brazil. They won the next game, and the coach contacted him personally to tell him what a difference it made.
While he supports Corinthians, Ramos was one of the worldwide football community affected by the tragic air crash transporting Chapecoense players, media and staff to the 2016 Copasudamericana Final. Only six people survived of the 77 passengers aboard, just three players from the fabled team.
“That was really terrible," Ramos said. "I was playing the BSOP Millions, a huge PokerStars event in Brazil when we got the news. I remember that day, I couldn’t do anything. I was devastated.”
It’s clear that for all of his positivity at the felt and on the rail, Ramos was deeply affected by the events of that day. It left him with a lasting message to apply to his own life.
“You can’t imagine such a terrible tragedy," he said. "I was incredibly sad, but because it is something that can happen to any of us, it made me realize that we must live in the present moment as much as we can.
"If you want to say ‘sorry’ or 'forgive me,' do it now and live better. Because you may not have the chance to say it. The tragedy made me much closer to my family. I have a grandma who is 79 and she’s the oldest person in my family. I already told my dad that we’re going to have a huge party when she turns 80. It will have samba, with music and I’m going to play and sing. It’s important.”
With that, Ramos is on the move again, hopping from friend to friend across the tournament floor in much the same way as he’ll travel from tournament to tournament in 2017.
If his life continues on the same track, you’ll be hearing about a major trophy heading the Brazilian’s way very soon... probably because your friends shared it on social media.
Cliff Jospehy, who isn't too far removed from finishing third in the 2016 WSOP Main Event, opened for 700 under the gun and Norway's Stig Moen called from the hijack. The player on the button called, Germany's Daniel Koop came along from the big blind, and four players watched the flop come down .
Two checks saw Koop bet 1,600, Moen called, and the other two players folded. Moen and Koop checked the turn and then Moen check-called a bet of 2,000 on the river. Koop tabled the and it was good as Moen mucked his hand.
PokerStars sponsors interesting and high profile professional poker players, celebrities and international sport stars as part of Team PokerStars Pro and each member of the team are unique in their own way. The breakfast Q&A sessions offer a platform for PokerStars representatives, pros and sponsored celebrities to talk about interesting and fun topics of interest to the poker community.
This morning, the Breakfast Q&A kicked off with Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. The Q&A, which was open to all players, guests
and media, focussed on adapting to and dominating live poker. Daniel offered Tips and Tricks, tournament strategy for qualifiers and Spin & Go winners.
There are more breakfast sessions to come:
Twitch Poker
Date: January 9, 10am – 10:45am
Twitchcasting poker exploded in 2015, with Team PokerStars Pro Jason Somerville achieving some amazing stats while playing online at PokerStars for his Run it Up series. More Team PokerStars Pros and poker players have started their own stream and the popularity of watching online poker streams has grown rapidly. Jason will be joined by Jaime Staples, Kevin Martin, Chris Moneymaker and Fatima Moreira De Melo.
Life inside and outside poker (Open Pro Forum)
Date: January 10, 11am – 11:45am
Host: Brad Willis
Team PokerStars Pros discuss honing their skills in poker and outside the game. The Pros then discuss how other games are linked to improving their poker strategy and how they fit into the poker community in general. How the game / poker environment has changed over the past year.
Women in Poker (Open Forum)
Date: January 13, 11am – 11:45am
Tips and Tricks, Strategy plus Q&A with the leading ladies in the poker world, Vanessa Selbst, Fatima Moreira De Melo, Liv Boeree and Celina Lin.
Christoph Vogelsang was deep in the tank when we got to his table with on the felt. The German was on the button and facing a check from a small blind opponent. Eventually, Vogelsang decided to put 3,300 into the middle to add to about 10,000 already in the pot. His opponent folded fairly quickly and Vogelsang added to a growing stack.
![[user249920]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and flopped well on 
with two hearts. His opponent checked and Wong bet 1,400. His opponent check-raised to 4,000 and Wong called. The 
hit the turn and his opponent bet 7,000. Wong called again and saw his opponent check on the 
river. Wong bet 8,600 and his rival called with 
for the turned flush. 
giving Wong the straight. A player in middle position bet 1,400 and Wong raised to 4,000. Action folded back to the initial bettor and he called. The 
on the turn made for a second flush draw and Wong shoved for 13,000 after his opponent checked. His competitor called with 
.
flop. Two players folded, Arjen Hulskotte called in the cutoff, and the big blind folded, albeit out of turn. Peters checked the 
turn and Hulskotte bet 2,400. Peters put him all in for 5,025 more, and Hulskotte thought about 30 seconds and called it off.
to survive. The river was a 
and Hulskotte took his leave.
, a player in early position checked and Zajmovic bet 1,100. The player under the gun folded, and the early-position player called. 
. The player in early position checked, and Zajmovic bet 2,600. Her opponent called for a second time. 
and her opponent mucked his cards, sending the pot her way.
river. Koop tabled the 
and it was good as Moen mucked his hand.
