With the first 42 hands completed and entered into the book, it’s time for the antes and maybe even a bit more action. For now, though, chip stacks are listed and the players are resting up for the next few days.
Talal Shakerchi is at 439,000. He’s up 142,000 with 73 big blinds. He’s been all fired up during this event, but finished heat one in seventh place. This time around, Mr. Shakerchi has decided to play on the conservative side during the two opening levels of heat 2. Despite the caution, the chips have still started to build up and now he’s found that he has a good chance of going deep.
Tobias Reinkemeir is at 400,000. He’s up 65,000 and has 67 big blinds. Sitting at second, things are looking bright for this guy. It looks like the heat wave will continue too, because tomorrow is predicted to be another exciting one, with lots of points in the future for Reinkemeir.
Things didn’t look so pretty for Jennifer Tilly, though. She sits at 140,000 and is down 91,000. She’s got 23 big blinds. During the second level of this round, Tilly watched her stack get smaller and she’s rapidly approaching the danger zone. All could feel her frustration as her discomfort grew. Some say that she should consider a three bet and use her image more, but whether she will remain to be seen.
Igor Kurganov is another player who’s definitely seen better days. He sits at 234,000, is down 93,000 and has only 39 big blinds. While he had a level hand against Talal Shakerchi, he lost nearly 100,000 chips. Down to just a third of the start-up stack, things didn’t get better in this round. Despite a depleted pot, he’s played well, but he’s going to have to rebuild his stack if he’s going to remain in the game for much longer. It may be a challenge that Kurganov just isn’t up to.
Action resumed, and the world of poker fans watched as Daniel Cates found him getting booted from the heat way down in eighth place. It was a rough one that cut him down when he raised to 24,000, but Antonio Esfandiari brought him down with pocket nines. The pot held 78,000, but Cates went all in – up to 101,000.
Cates is realistic, though, and admits that getting in, as two to one favourite doesn’t make him an automatic winner. Cates admits that it was his fault and said that he won’t be complaining any time soon. Tomorrow, he’ll come back for the Final Group A heat, and maybe having some time to rest will help to boost his focus.
In the mean time, the action and excitement continues and who will win is anyone’s guess for now, but those that manage to stick around are in for a nerve-racking ride to the finish – and the prize.
Day Six of EPT9 London started with only a fraction of the original players left in the main event, but the excitement and nervousness could be felt in every corner of the place. Everyone wanted to know who would win; some were hanging out waiting to see results, and others had a lot to lose. In the end, Ruben Visser won the Race to London title, along with a sweet £595,000, but getting there was no simple task.
As if followers and players hadn’t seen enough excitement in EPT9 London, Friday night saw Jan Bendik strengthening his hold on the EPT leader board. He’s been a regular player throughout the tour and many said that he was establishing a stronger hold on the Slovakian top spot, but his 1st on Friday night at the £1,100 “Win the Button Event” has him looking out from the front even more. This lead might come as no surprise to some, but others weren’t expecting this turn of events at all.
He went on to beat 112 players to win the first prize of £436,330. It was his third tournament win, and his largest. With such a busy day job, Shakerchi still plans to play, but admits he won’t have a lot of time to sink into tournaments. He still plans to keep playing – and winning. The last half hour of the game seemed almost too easy for him; a flush against Quoss’ pair and then queens to beat Jaka’s ace-queen heads up gave the game a nice, clean finish.
Sunday, March 11 saw some excitement in the EPT9 London. Marc Dubach claimed the High Roller UKIPT winnings of £101,950. The final table was pretty tough, but he pulled through and now he’s feeling pretty good about his winnings.
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