Tournament Potpourri

There is a risk that I am getting obsessed with Nordic poker players, but if you follow the results worldwide, you'll know it's hard to avoid them. Take Finland's Patrik Antonius, who finished third at the Barcelona EPT, first at the Baden EPT (despite arriving five hours late and having blinded off half his chips), and then went on to win $1 million with a second-place finish at the World Poker Tour event at Bellagio in Las Vegas in December. By all accounts, Antonius was unlucky against eventual winner Rehne Pederson, who is – surprise, surprise – from Denmark.



Antonius has the game and the looks to be a poker superstar. Every player has a distinctive table persona, and Antonius' body language suggests that he is holding an absolute monster hand every time he makes an investment in a pot, which makes him hard to read and rather intimidating. While the fabulous Finn has been the standout performer, plenty of other Nordic masters have made an impact. Mats Gavatin of Sweden won the Dublin EPT, and a Scandinavian has finished second in every EPT event so far: Christer Johansson (Sweden) in Barcelona, Jonas Helness (Norway) in London, Gunnar Ostebrod (Norway) in Baden, and Henrik Olander (Sweden) in Dublin. Even the best-known of all Scandinavian players – three-time WPT champ Gus Hansen (Denmark) – came fifth in Barcelona. Altogether, Nordic players have taken a staggering total of €1,271,512 from the final tables in just four EPT events. Some of their European and American rivals will be hoping that the cake is shared in more equal measures in the second half of the EPT season.

There are always several scare stories about "bot" activity circulating in the media and poker forums. So, when a player spotted a rival taking part in 24 sit-and-go tournaments on PokerStars at the same time, he sent a worried e-mail to the support team explaining his concern at this manifestly nonhuman behaviour. PokerStars investigated thoroughly and was able to establish that the multitabling account holder was indeed a real person. The method used for this sophisticated investigation was the telephone, which succeeded in locating a genuine human voice at the end of the line. But could this person really be playing all of these single-table tournaments at the same time? PokerStars remained skeptical until the player under investigation (a young American gamer) provided irrefutable proof on his own initiative: He sent PokerStars a home video showing him starting and finishing not 24, but 26 sit-and-gos in one session. Even more amazingly, the player used just one regular-size computer screen. After watching the video of frenetic poker action, a female colleague in our office wondered aloud, "Why is it that the only thing men can multitask at is poker?"

I recently made an advance visit to the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, the venue for the EPT Grand Final, starting March 7. This brand-new property, developed in association with the Wynn Group (responsible for Wynn Las Vegas), has a splendid location on a promontory sticking out into the Mediterranean, on the other side of the bay from the old Monte Carlo casino.



The front of the building looks a bit too much like one of Saddam Hussein's palaces for my taste, but the interior, the restaurants, and the garden/swimming pool area are all designed with great style and care. There is no end to the stunning sea views, and the resort should provide a splendid home to the many visitors expected for the Grand Final (211 players in 2005). From an organizational point of view, the pleasure of the Monte Carlo Bay is that everything will take place in one luxury complex, with the cardroom being just a one minute-walk from the hotel.



The resort just opened in October, and they were still finishing up the detailing when I was there, but the restaurants were up and running, and the service – in a significant break with tradition on the Riviera – was helpful, friendly, and attentive.

When is it on TV? That's the most common question people ask about the EPT. The answer is that EPT Season Two is being broadcast across a multitude of different stations, including Challenge TV (UK), TV Norge (Norway), ZTV (Sweden), TV3+ (Denmark), TNS (Canada), and across 29 territories on Eurosport. Check http://www.ept.com/ for full broadcast details. My favorite moment in the TV show so far came at the London EPT, when American Noah Jefferson was facing a large reraise from the deadly serious young Norwegian Jonas Helness. Noah considered his options for a while and then said to Jonas: "If you smile just once, I'll fold."

Conrad Brunner works for PokerStars.com.