PokerStars EPT High Roller Recap -- Day 1

The 16-event festival of poker that is the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London began today with the £20,000 + £500 ($31,952 + $799) High-Roller no-limit hold’em event. This is always an exciting tournament as so many big names are usually in London for all the poker action that occurs when the EPT and the World Series of Poker Europe overlap.

While the main event of the WSOPE winds down, those who didn’t quite make the cut for that this year, are here at the Hilton London Metropole, trying their hand at the High Roller event. Last year, it was Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier [pictured right] who took the event down, leaving with $905,141 for first place. He could not defend his title this year however, as he is currently enjoying the number one spot on the chip leader board at the WSOPE main event. Hot on his heels, not too far away in chips, is Card Player supremo Barry Shulman, who has been taking each level in his stride and, much like Mercier, became an unstoppable force today.

When all the players eventually made an appearance and took their places in the High Roller event, the field swelled to a total of 75 entrants. This is slightly down from last year’s 86, but is still pretty good considering there were so many big names left in the WSOPE main event at the start of play today.

Some of those looking for a slice of the $2,374,265 prize pool, preferably the first place sum of $866,537, were (inhale deeply) Andrew Lichtenberger, Matthew Glantz, Justin Smith, Nikolay Evdakov, Michael Tureniec, Benny Spindler, Jani Sointula, Will Molson, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Vicky Coren, Vivek Rajkumar, Humberto Brenes, Bertrand Grospellier, November Niner Joe Cada, Dennis Phillips [pictured left], Sam Trickett, Barry Greenstein, Luca Pagano, Mike McDonald, Greg Raymer, Erik Cajelais, Sorel Mizzi, Carlos Mortensen, Juha Helppi, Dario Minieri, John Juanda, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Alex Kravchenko, and William Thorson.

Seeing some of the players who turned out on the day, sparks were bound to fly, with grudge matches and competition aplenty between the likes of Luke Schwartz, Andrew Feldman, Tom Dwan, and Sammy George. George will be the first player to take Dwan on in the Million Dollar Challenge taking place mid-October.

Here are some of the notable busts from day 1:

Phil Ivey [pictured right] appeared to be the first casualty of the day, as he hit the rail not long into start of play. Apparently, after getting into a bit of a hefty pot with Will Molson on a 10-10-6-6-K board, Ivey folded to a shove from Molson on the river, which left him with only 5,000 behind.

A crippled Ivey then shoved all in with K-8 and Dennis Phillips finished him off with A-Q. According to Phillips and Molson, Ivey didn’t want to be there anyway. After three sleepless days, he was wondering why he bought in to the event in the first place. He can now go and catch up on some much needed z’s in time for the main event which starts on Friday.

Last season’s Monte Carlo High-Roller champion, Vanesso Rousso busted to fellow Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker, when his pocket sixes flopped a set against her pocket kings.

Not long after this, Chris Ferguson found himself all in with K Q versus Johan Van Til’s A K. Things looked promising on the Q J 2 flop, but the turn and river came 4 A, and Van Til’s ace on the river put Jesus on the other side of the rail.

During the day Adolfo Vaeza became the chip leader for quite some time but he didn’t get there quietly.

Erik Seidel [pictured left] was sitting comfortably with more than 100,000 in chips when to his delight he looked down and found pocket aces. Flash forward to a few minutes later, and he was sitting with 10,000. There was only one man to blame, Adolfo Vaeza, and perhaps the luck of the poker Gods.

Vaeza and Seidel got into a preflop raising war and when the cards finally got to their backs, Seidel realized he was up against pocket kings.

The board came down 8 7 2 K 5, giving a stunned Vaeza the pot and the chip lead with more than 180,000 in chips. Seidel made his exit a little while after.

Vaeza kept up the momentum, moving all in versus Team PokerStars pro Chris Moneymaker on a J-10-4 flop. Vaeza held pocket kings once again, but was drawing slim against Moneymaker’s set of jacks. However, as seemed to be the way things were going for him, the turn and river came 9-Q, giving Vaeza the winning straight and a massive stack of 370,000. Moneymaker was eliminated, with one hell of a bad beat story to tell.

Things quietened down as we approached the end of play until a poker bomb exploded on the placid tournament floor. Mike McDonald bet 4,100 from late position and Humberto Brenes raised it to 15,100 from the button. Sammy George then reraised it to 36,000. Harry Kaczka turned the heat up a notch by moving all in for 44,000, McDonald folded, and after some thought Brenes folded also, but George quickly called flipping over A K. Kaczka revealed A K and the players held their breath.

George willed the diamonds out, asking for them out loud. The cards slowly fell 10 7 4 and George got even more hyper. “Diamond!” he shouted as the turn came the 7, still hopeful he said it again, and his wish was the dealer’s command. The river was the 6 and George chipped on up.

Just before end of play Ilari Sahamies (who joined the field four and a half hours late) took a monster pot off Bertrand Grospellier to give him the chip lead with 373,800.

Also among players who busted throughout the day were J.C. Alvarado, Tom Dwan, Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein, and Dan Shak.

The top 10 in chip counts going into day 2 are:

Ilari Sahamies: 373,800
Adolfo Vaeza: 319,500
Erik Cajelais: 264,600
Eugene Katchalov: 213,700
Joel Nordkvist: 190,600
Matthew Glantz: 185,600
Sargon Ruya: 181,800
Shane Reihill: 181,200
Vicky Coren: 152,100
Juha Helppi: 128,400

The tournament screen says 31 players remain. They will return tomorrow for day 2 of the star-studded £20,000 + £500 High-Roller event. Card Player will be there every step of the way, bringing you all the highs and lows as the field whittles down to the final table.

Related Articles

PokerStars Poker Media Company Sued For Millions

France Poker Series Underway In Paris

Sponsors Win And Lose At Main Event Final

Most Viewed Articles