As we mentioned yesterday, the Main Event is far from the only tournament currently going down at the London stop of the European Poker Tour. Perhaps the most popular side event among players and the biggest-name pros is the 20k pound High Roller, currently underway.
A total of 75 players took the to the felt for the High Roller, creating a prize pool of over 1.5 million pounds with 520k pounds reserved for the winner. The field is similar to last year’s, in which Jose Barbero of Team PokerStars Pro bested 76 others to win 556k pounds.
The current chip leader in the 2011 event is Sam Stein, who turned his starting stack of 50k chips into 240,000 by the end of the day. Mike Watson and Isaac Haxton are close behind with 225,900 and 199,200 chips, respectively.
A wide range of Team PokerStars professionals joined the event but were eliminated on Day 1, including Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Rousso, Juan Maceiras, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Johnny Lodden and John Duthie.
A number of other non-PokerStars pros were eliminated as well, including Tony G, Tobias Reinkemeier, Matt Waxman, Theo Jorgensen, online poker phenom Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom and Justin Bonomo, who recently relocated to Malta to continue his online poker career and gain better access to events exactly like these.
A number of exceptional players remain in the field, all with their sights firmly set on Stein. Some of the biggest names include James Bord, WSOP final table competitor Phil Collins, 2005 WSOP winner Joe Hachem, Russian poker superstar Eugene Katchalov, Sam Trickett, Olivier Busquet and Mike “Timex” McDonald.
A total of 30 players will reconvene on Day 2. Only the top eight finishers will receive pay-outs, guaranteeing large cash prizes for all who make the final table.
EBay has been a prime landing spot for a number of poker items, as everything from WSOP bracelets to cars owned by poker players have found their way to the popular auction site. And recently another piece of poker history appeared on the online auction site, a rare poker book, first printed in 1978.
I’m sure not too many people are familiar with the poker book, How I made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker, published in the dark ages of poker (the 1970’s), but most people do know the book but its later title of Super System. The book was first written in 1978 by Doyle Brunson with some help from Bobby Baldwin, Mike Caro, David “Chip” Reese, David Sklansky, and Joey Hawthorne, and with a hefty $100 price-tag, and a very, VERY, niche-market it didn’t fare overly well and limited copies of the first edition were produced.
Rebranded as Super System, the book would eventually be purchased by virtually every aspiring poker player for the better part of three decades, and was long considered as “the Bible” for poker; eventually becoming so popular that Super System II was created to update the classic text, with a new cast of authors joining Brunson in the mammoth undertaking.
Now anyone looking for a piece of poker history can now turn to EBay, as a seller has put up a signed, First-Edition, copy of the book, with its original title, with a buy-it-now price of $1,495 –although the seller is taking offers. The short description on EBay states: “First edition, FIRST PRINTING, SIGNED (w/ a small inscription that reads: Good Luck!) by Doyle Brunson directly on the title page (not inscribed to anyone); hardcover; the signature was obtained ‘in person’ and I will include a GLOSSY PHOTO of the author at the signing event!”
The fifth day of action at the European Poker Tour London Main Event concluded when Adria Balaguer hit the rail in ninth place. With that, a final table of eight players was set, with each guaranteed a minimum prize of 64k pounds.
The player responsible for knocking out Balaguer was Martins Adeniya, who now leads the chip counts with 4.736 million chips. Mattias Bergstrom is sitting in a distant second place with 3.62 million.
A total of 24 survivors began Day 5, whittled down from an initial starting field of 791 players. Sebastian Blom (brother of Viktor Blom) limped into the day with the smallest chip stack by far, and was quickly eliminated in 24th place. Talented pros including James Mitchell (11th), Benjamin Jenkins (13th), Joao Barbosa (17th), Basile Yaiche (19th) were eliminated throughout the day as well.
Yaiche was initially favored as a potential final table contender, entering Day 5 in 8th place on the chip leaderboard. That quickly changed when he lost an enormous pot to Mattias Bergstrom. His A-K offsuit wasn’t enough to beat Bergstrom’s 10-10 (which resulted in a full house), and he was crippled for the rest of the event. Andries Swart sent him packing a few hands later with K-Q offsuit over pocket 7s.
Barbosa held on longer than any other former EPT champion. He finally hit the rail in level 24, when his 4-4 received no help from the board against Steve O’Dwyer’s K-J.
One of the player’s who will be returning for final table action is Juan Manuel Pastor of Team PokerStars Pro. He holds 1.9 million chips, putting him 6th on the leaderboard. Right behind Mattias Bergstrom is Benny Spindler, a dangerous young player who currently holds over 3.43 million chips. Fighting from the bottom position is Miroslav Benes, who currently holds only 370k chips.
The winner will be decided on Thursday and receive the prestigious title in addition to 750k pounds.
The Main Event is far from the only tournament currently running at the European Poker Tour London Festival of Poker. A number of varied and exciting side events are constantly happening as well, all with big prize pools, hefty buy-ins and all-star talent. Although the fan-favorite 20,000 pound High Roller has yet to be played, a number of smaller events have had their leaderboards finalized and their top finishers paid out.
First up was Event 1, a standard NLHE tournament with an 1,100 pound buy-in and 150 runners. Michael Benvenuti finished first for just over 45k pounds, followed by Andrew Bedecker and Melanie Weisner with 25k and 15k pounds, respectively.
Jonathan Roux had no problem taking down Event 3, a 5-Card PLO 8oB event with a 550 pound buy-in and 47 entrants. Roux earned 8,440 pounds for his victory, while runner-up Victor Ramdin scored 5,500 pounds for his performance.
Event 5 was an NLHE Turbo with a 330 pound buy-in and 129 runners. Nathan Lee emerged victorious to win just over 10k pounds. He was involved in a four-way deal with Christopher Gordon, Markus Herbel and Gary Lindsay, who earned 6,700, 5,150 and 4,000 pounds for their finishes.
Event 8 was a split between NLHE and PLO played in a bounty format. A total of 108 players paid buy-ins of 1,050 pounds each to generate a 52k pound prize pool. David Williams won the event for 17,300 pounds, while famed pro David “Devilfish” Ulliott came in second for just under 10k pounds.
A deal was also struck in Event 13, a 330 pound buy-in NLHE Turbo Win-the-Button tournament. Age Stalheim and Nik Persaud split the first and second-place prizes almost in half, scoring roughly 7,450 pounds each.
Another big score belonged to Jacques Torbey, who won just under 40,000 pounds for dominating Event 10, an NLHE Turbo Bounty with a 2,100 pound buy-in.
The fourth day of action at the 2011 European Poker Tour London Main Event has now concluded and just 24 players remain to compete for the 750,000 pound top prize. The current frontrunner is Mattias Bergstrom, who steamrolled his way through Day 4 to amass over 1.8 million chips.
The final elimination of the day came down to heads-up action between Jeremy Kottler and Neil Pearce. Pearce pushed all-in before the flop with 7-7, while Kottler held pocket queens. None of the board cards proved useful to either player, sending Pearce to the cage in 25th place. Kottler went on to earn just under 1.7 million chips by the end of the day, giving him 4th-place positioning for Day 5.
The day started with 62 players, and some of the biggest names in poker hit the rail as the field was whittled down. Among those eliminated were Roberto Romanello (37th), Steven Kelly (39th), Marvin Rettenmaier (41st), Daniel Neilson (45th), Jamie Rosen (49th) and Barny Boatman (57th). Team PokerStars pros Salvatore Bonavena (29th), Humberto Brenes (32nd) and Ana Marquez (42nd) received payouts as well, thanks to a payout schedule that awarded over 100 finishers.
Spain’s Juan Manuel Pastor is the final member of Team PokerStars Pro remaining in the event. He’ll begin Day 5 with a healthy chip stack of 960k. Currently occupying the 24th spot is Sebastian Blom, sibling of online poker phenom Viktor Blom, with just 59k chips.
Benny Spindler, who led the field on Day 1b and Day 2, remains strong with over 1.4 million chips. Other big stacks belong to Pascall Hartmann (who’s immediately behind Bergstrom), Adria Balaguer, Andre Klebanov, Basile Yaiche, Kevin Iacofano and Anatoly Gurtovoy.
Day 5 will end once a final table of eight players is set.
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