European Poker Tour Polish Open Day 1ASmall But Quality Field Does Battle in Warsaw |
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The third PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Polish Open got underway at Casinos Poland, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Warsaw today with 99 players taking to the felt in this PLN20,000 (approximately $6,744) event. The small field reflects the fact that the Amsterdam Master Classics and Belgium Poker Championship overlapped with the event but a sellout field of 200 is expected for day 1b as players fly in from around Europe today.
The first player was busted in just four minutes by Antony Lellouche when the Frenchman’s kings overcame aces all in preflop by hitting a king on the turn.
Alexander "Assassinato" Fitzgerald was steaming early in the session having had his aces cracked by 8-8. He then accused his opponent of slow rolling him by taking 20 or 30 seconds to call his bet with trips. The player protested that he thought Fitzgerald may have made a better hand so it wasn't necessarily a straightforward call but Fitzgerald remained wholly unconvinced. He lasted another couple of hours but the wind had been taken out of his sails.
At the same table Johnny Lodden, wearing purple headphones, quietly set about accumulating chips. On a board of 9
8
4 Lodden and two opponents checked. The turn came 7 and the two players checked into Lodden who bet 1,125 causing both to fold and the Norwegian scooped the first of many pots.
Soon after he was down to 5,000 in chips when he flopped a flush, but it wasn't good enough when his opponent hit the nut flush on the turn.
He then got very active at the end of level three/start of level four. First he was all in for 6,500 preflop but failed to find a caller with 7-7. Ten minutes later he was the chip leader, sitting on over 35,000, winning two consecutive all ins with K-K vs 10-10 and A-A vs J-J.
Uber-aggressive Frenchman Arnaud Mattern busted Kara Scott with 2-2 vs A-A hitting a deuce on the flop and he joined Lodden on around 35,000 in chips.
In the last hand before the dinner break Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies doubled up to over 12,000 in chips. Facing a raise of 1,100 on a flop of 9
8 3 Sahamies went all in for 5,500 and his opponent called after a short dwell. Sahamies showed 3-3 for flopped trips and his opponent showed K-K and didn’t improve.
After dinner Sahamies was making a lot of moves yo-yoing down (to 8,000) and up (to around 18,000) before eventually having his table broken, joining a table with Serguei Pomerantsev and getting busted by the stoic Russian who lept into the chip lead with 40,000 in chips.
Team PokerStars Pro Gavin Griffin, who had been at Sahamies table, was moved to a new spot at Johnny Lodden’s table and was soon down to 5,500 in chips but he battled back bravely, doubling up and making it into day 2.
At one point on the table Lodden raised almost an entire round of the table and, as a consequence, ended the evening with around 41,450 in chips. The chip leader at the end of play was Antony Lellouche on 57,600. Check back at CardPlayer.com later for an inteview with the Frenchman.
The top ten in chips at the end of play were:
Among those to bust from the tournament on day 1a were William Fry, Richard Sousa, and Albert Iversen. Play ended with 53 players.
Tomorrow will seem a swathe of PokerStars.com pros take part in the event including Humberto Brenes, Luca Pagano, Katja Thater, Dario Minieri, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, and Isabelle Mercier.
Check back tomorrow at CardPlayer.com for full coverage of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Polish Open.
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