4.20pm: Level ends
That’s it for level four. There will now be a 15-minute break before they return to level five. We’ll have a shiny new post for that. — SY
4:18pm: This is a really big name
Soheb Porbandarwala. If this surprisingly long name sounds surprisingly familiar to you, it’s because it should. Porbandarwala was recently featured on the PokerStars Blog as the Day 1A chip leader of EPT London. Today, he’s also building up a stack.
The flop was 10♣ 3♣ Kâ™ and Daniel Reijmer bet 2,200. Porbandarwala made the call and an A♥ came on the turn. Reijmer bet out again, this time it for 4,800. Porbandarwala called again and a 4♥ came on the river. Once again, Reijmer led out, 13,000. Porbandarwala called, Reijmer sighed in defeat and flipped over Q♣ 9♣ , a stone cold bluff. Porbandarwala on the other hand showed 10â™ 10♥ for a set of tens. He’s now up to around 65,000. — AV
4.17pm: Leo locked in
Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez was in the small blind and facing 6,100 bet from his big blinded opponent. There was around 10,000 in the middle and the board read 4♦ Jâ™ J♣ 2♣ A♦ . Fernandez studied long and hard before throwing in the calling chips. The big blind mucked and the Argentine scooped the pot without having to show his hand to move up to 40,000 chips. — MC
4.15pm: Ivey back
It’s no real surprise that having been down to 14,000 earlier Phil Ivey has got himself back on track above 30,000. That’s despite a minor setback on this hand. Bruno Francesco called from under the gun and it was folded around to Ivey in the small blind. He called and John Leathart checked his option in the big blind.
On the Q♣ 3â™ 10♣ flop, Ivey made it 500 and Francesco called. Both then checked the Jâ™ turn to see a K♣ river. Ivey checked again then called Francesco’s 2,000 – and the Candian’s A♣ 3♦ was good for the rivered straight. — SY
4.10pm: Minieri does his thing
As is customary in these things, Dario Minieri is accumulating chips fast. 58,000 right now. What is also reasonably frequent is that the Italian loses them just as fast. A small chunk went just now, pushed over the table towards a young gentleman who check-raised on a A♥ 6♣ 5♥ flop. — SY
4.05pm: Ramos gets rammed
Felipe Ramos doubled up an opponent and is back down to around a starting stack, 32,000.David Schechter raised to 725 and Ramos re-raised to 2,025 from middle position. The rest of the table got out of the way and Schechter called.
The flop,3♣ 6♥ 8♣ , brought a lot of low cards and lots of draws. But both players checked. The turn was a 9♣ , making the board very flushy and straighty. Schechter led out for 3,700 and Ramos tanked. He thought for a while, evaluating his chip stack. He grabbed a big pile of it, around 30,000, and dropped it in the pot. Calling would put Schechter all-in for his remaining 20,450. He did it anyways. Schechter tabled 5♦ 7♦ for the straight and Ramos flipped over A♣ Kâ™ . The river brought no fourth club for Ramos and Schechter doubled up. –AV
4pm: De Korver de climbing
Team PokerStars Pro Pieter de Korver is up to 70,000 after winning a hand with a baby four-flush. He called a Jameson Painter under-the-gun-raise as did the big blind to see the 8â™ 2♦ 3â™ flop. Painter c-bet for 1,125 and only De Korver called to go to the 6â™ turn. Painter checked to face a 1,626 bet that the called. The river came Qâ™ and both players checked. “Flush” announced the Dutchman who took the pot as Painter mucked. — MC
3.57pm: Pantling sinks Garcia
Golf super star Sergio Garcia has been sunk by Andrew Pantling. The Spaniard was short-stacked when he moved in with A♦ 10♣ and was called by PokerStars qualifier with A♣ Jâ™ from the small blind. The A♥ 5♣ K♦ 3♦ 7♦ offered no help for Garcia and he wished everyone luck before heading off to the 19th hole, presumably. — MC
3:48pm: The sad details of Selbst’s exit
We reported Vanessa Selbst’s elimination earlier, but now have the final details. Down to less than 10,000, Selbst check-raised all-in on a 10♦ 7♥ 5♦ Qâ™ board with Q♥ [8♥ . The bad news was she was up against a set of fives. Dead on the turn, the irrelevant A♣ on the river, and Selbst was gone. –BW
3:40pm: Elizabeth Bennett-Martin back again
Over the past couple of PCA events, we’ve come to know and look for a maple leaf hat. Underneath it, we always find Elizabeth Bennett-Martin. Her full story can be found HERE. Here’s a clip from that story that is just a sampling of her PCA accomplishments.
She has won two $10,000 buy-ins in two years for the biggest tournament outside the World Series of Poker (WSOP). In 2009 she finished in 25th place, out of 1,347 players. Out of those 1,347 players, she was one of only fourteen women in the event (1,333 men, 14 women). Of those 14 women, she was one of only 7 satellite winners. She qualified again this January for both the Main Event and the Ladies Event at the beautiful Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. In the process she scored her second week long, all expenses paid vacation at the resort for her family.
Now to see how she can do this year.–BW
3.40pm: Leijenaar the king of the Junglen
Adam Junglen is down to 26,000 after running into the full house of Michel Leijenaar, who won his seat here as a 200 FPP Mega-Path winner. Four players made it to the Q♦ Q♥ 2♥ flop where Leijenaar bet 1,500 when it was checked to him on the button. Two players folded but Junglen called to the A♦ where both players checked. The river came 9♦ and Junglen check-called a 4,000 bet after some thought. Leijenaar tabled Aâ™ Q♣ for a full-house and the pot to move up to 50,000. — MC
3.35pm: Cada motoring
Joe Cada already has a WSOP Main Event in the bag, and now he’d quite like to add the second biggest tournament in the world to his name. Things are going along quite nicely for the Team PokerStars Pro right now – he’s up to 55,000.
On this one he raised under the gun to 750 and got a call from the small blind. Cada then made a continuation bet of 1,150 on the 6♣ 5♦ 7â™ flop and that was good enough for another small pot. — SY
3.30pm: Johnny Lodden does not think
Facing a raise from under the gun, Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden called quickly from the small blind. He quickly check-called 1,475 on the 10â™ 3♣ 6♥ flop, quickly checked the Qâ™ turn and quickly checked-called the Q♣ river – only to quickly muck when shown J♣ J♥ .
Despite that the man from Norway is still on around 40,000. — SY
3:22pm: Selbst’s early exit
Sometimes a post to Twitter can tell the whole story. This one comes from Vanessa Selbst, and it’s not pretty. She writes “Sigh made a real bad bluff for 30k of my stack and got somewhat coolered for the rest of it. Busto. Gl to all still in.” –BW
3.18pm: LEVEL UP: Blinds 150-300
3:14pm: Pardon moi
There are two people in his room that are best avoided when they’re working. Phil Ivey and his ubiquitous plump-lipped massage therapist. Working bloggers sometimes pay little attention to the floor under the feet, so I can’t be blamed (can I?) for putting a size 11 right on top of the aforementioned therapist. Ivey’s reaction? I couldn’t hear it while running away. –BW
3:04pm: Careful Noah
It was 8,050 to Noah Boeken, not a trivial amount at this stage in the game. He was looking at board of 9♦ 6♥ A♦ 4♦ 3â™ . After a couple minutes of thought, he folded face up. He might as well have taken a baseball bat and hit everybody at the table in the face. His cards Q♦ 2♦ . He ruefully shook his head and spent the next five minutes defending his fold. Amnon Fillipi was nonplussed. “Small flush, I can fold there,” he said. “But if I have the queen, I’m calling and you’re going to have to show me the king. I mean, what’s he have? King-jack of diamonds. You call the flop, got there on the turn, and then folded then river!” Boeken, meanwhile, seems fairly convinced he made the right laydown. In any case, he’s still in the game with 23,000 –BW
3pm: Ivey trying
Each time I walk past his table, Phil Ivey is in a hand. But it’s not doing him much good as he still has around 13,500 chips. On his table is Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgensen, who is doing much better on around 39,000. — SY
2.55pm: Selbst slides
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst had an outstanding 2010, but 2011 is getting off to a trickier start. She’s down to 10,000 right now after losing to what appeared to be a set of tens to Kyle Knecht, a PokerStars player from the USA. — SY
2.50pm: More on FPPs
After bumping in to Bernard Lee (see below) we happened upon one of this year’s potential big FPP story. This is Teet Randma, a gentleman from Estonia who managed to bag his seat here in the 5 FPP Mega-Path qualifier.
This is Randma’s first shot at the big time. “Yes, this is my first big live tournament,” he said. “That is why after every hand I write down what I had and what happened in the hand. Later I will go through it and see what there is to learn.”
He’s on around 24,000 right now, a little short of his starting stack. “It is not the best,” he said, “but let’s see what we can do.” — SY
2:40pm: From FPP’s to a career
We can’t let a this Day 1A go by without mentioning the presence of Bernard Lee. Seeing him again reminds us that it was nearly six years ago that we met him for the first time. Back then, he was just a PokerStars FPP qualifier at the WSOP. He turned his freeroll into a 13th place finish and $400,000. More than that, though, he turned it all into a career. The one-time marketing exec has since become poker’s renaissance man. He’s now a writer, broadcaster, and Foxwoods Casino sponsored pro. In the time since his first major poker cash in 2005, he’s won more than $1.7 million in live poker tournaments alone. He’s brought his family with him here to the islands and is working on adding some more cash to the pile he has at home. –BW
2:35pm: Horecki’s library
As we walk about the room trying to find the biggest hands of the day, we couldn’t help but notice Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki has brought a book to pass the time. Harder to determine, however, is what he’s actually reading. We weren’t aware Dean Koontz had written a book titled “Kilka Godzin Przed Switem” (and we’d be willing to bet Koontz doesn’t even know). Thanks to the magic of Google, we’ve been able to determine it’s Koontz’s “Odd Hours,” which says a lot more about the state of play here than Horecki’s taste in literature. –BW
2.35pm: Small bites
There were no big pots witnessed on that walk around but these small incidents occurred:
Paul Berende raising to 550 from late position and Will Reynolds defending from the big blind to see a 6♥ 7♥ 3♣ flop. Reynolds led for 800 and his Dutch opponent folded after studying the flop.
Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero betting a hefty 8,000 on a 10♣ 3♥ 9♥ K♦ Q♣ board to force a fold from neighbour, Andrew Weisner to move up to 50,000.
And finally, Spain are having a bad time of it. Juan Manuel Pastor’s seat is now filled by another so we can assume he never made a comeback and Sergio Garcia is down to 6,000 from a high of 40,000. — MC
2.20pm: Level 3 underway
As we are scheduled to play 10 levels today, the remaining players can be proud they’ve survived 20% of the day already. Eighty percent is still a large chunk of play and many obstacles will need to be overcome to make it to the promised land of day 2.
PokerStars Blog PCA main event reporting team (in order of rank): Simon Young (Colonel), Brad Willis (Captain), Marc Convey (Corporal) Alex Villegas (Cannon fodder)
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