Winning with the lowest possible hand is possible in poker. Most of the times you have to bluff to accomplish that. Frederik Jensen unlocked a new achievement, he won with the nut low at showdown.
The Dane had bet 6,500 on the river with the board reading: . It was up to Armando Collado Lanuza, who was on his immediate right.
Lanuza tanked for a minute or so and then threw a single chip into the middle signaling a call.
"Show me the five", he shouted. Expecting that Jensen had made a straight.
Jensen slowly turned over for the worst possible combination with the board.
Apparently, Lanuza misread the board and mucked his hand, leaving the table dazzled by this unexpected action.
Even with all the buzz his action caused, Lanuza still didn't realize what he had done.
When one of the other players asked why he mucked his hand, something got up to him. "Wait, he didn't had a straight?". Lanuza asked.
"No, you said show me the five, that would have made a straight, this was the nut low", several players replied.
"O, wow...", Lanuza gasped. "Now the wishky is really kicking in", refering to the drink he ordered earlier on.
Polish player Bartlomiej Machon was down to his last 22,800 and moved in when the action folded to him in the cutoff. Sarah Herzali, who made a deep run in the WPT Marrakech earlier this month (5th, €15,044), called from the small blind. Russian player Asker Aloev called from the big blind to make it three-handed.
The flop came and Herzali bet 21,000. Aloev didn't waste much time calling.
With the hitting the turn, Herzali moved all in. Aloev still had over 70,000 in front of him at this point and sat back to ponder for a bit. He eventually called and received the bad news seconds later.
Sarah Herzali:
Asker Aloev:
Bartlomiej Machon:
Herzali had both opponents drawing dead and so whatever river would come, it would be inconsequential. Just to make things official, the dealer did burn and complete the board with the but by that time, Herzali was already stacking.
Start-of-the-day chip leader Andras Nemeth has just been eliminated from this EPT Main Event. First, he lost almost all of his stack to qualifier Pawel Brzeski. An orbit later his last chips went Eugene Katchalov's way.
In the first hand, it was Sergey Sergeev that opened with a raise to 4,000. Brzeski called on the button, before Nemeth raised to 18,000 from the small blind.
Sergeev folded but Brzeski four-bet to 42,000. Nemeth gave it some thought, then five-bet all in for 123,500 effectively. Brzeski call after a few seconds.
Andras Nemeth:
Pawel Brzeski:
Brzeski was at risk but he was ahead with his jacks. Nemeth needed to hit to score to knock-out. The flop didn't provide him any help.
He got some extra outs with the on the turn but the couldn't help him.
Nemeth had only 12,000 left after that hand. He got some more by shoving all in once when he didn't get any callers.
The second time he moved all in ended his tournament.
He called a 4,500 opeining raise from Eugene Katchalov and shoved all in on the flop. Katchalov called, holding and Nemeth was in front with .
However, the turn was the and Nemeth was on the brink of elimination. The on the river couldn't save him and he was done for this event.
The last 20-minute break for the players just commenced. When the remaining players return, just two more 75-minute levels are scheduled for the day.
After 12 levels of 75 minutes each, the 468-entry strong field of the 2016 PokerStars.com EPT13 Malta Main Event has been whittled down to just 111 hopefuls and 87 of them will take home at least €8,070. Leading the field thus far with more than 100 casualties after four levels of Day 2 is Guillaume Diaz with 428,000. The Frenchman knocked out Pasi Sormunen in a big pot and ran up his stack further after that, second in chips currently is fellow Frenchman Guillaume Valle with 380,000.
Start-of-the-day chip leader Andras Nemeth was also sent to the rail in level 12, first Pawel Brzeski doubled through him and then Nemeth sent the remainder of the stack over to Eugene Katchalov. Sarah Herzali's rise to the top came also from a double elimination and she ended the level with around 335,000, closely followed by Piotr Franczak (331,000), Davidi Kitai (330,000), Dominik Panka (330,000) , Louis Cartarius (320,000) and Yurasov with 315,000.
Among those to depart the last two levels were Dara O'Kearney, former EPT champion Benny Spindler, Erwann Pecheux, Anton Morgenstern, Johan Guilbert and Juha Helppi.
Dmitry Yurasov took a smaller pot off Gaelle Baumann and could even afford to fold to a four-bet shove by Dan Shak. But then, he claimed the entire stack of Pierre Calamusa when the two most aggressive players at the table clashed.
Calamusa raised to 5,500 and Yurasov three-bet to 16,000 in the small blind. Calamusa four-bet to 37,000 and Yurasov called. On the flop, Yurasov check-called a continuation bet worth 30,000 and checked again the on the turn. Calamusa shoved for 60,000 and received a snap-call.
Pierre Calamusa:
Dmitry Yurasov:
Only a ten could save the Frenchman, but instead it was the that sent him to the rail and let Yurasov's mountain of chips grow even bigger.
A huge pot developed on table 3, as Simon Amyot and Gianfranco Visalli eventually got it all.
Apparently, Amyot raised Visalli on the flop. The Italian qualifier called and the two saw the on the turn.
Visalli bet 27,700 and Amyot shoved all i for 142,000 in total. Visalli called and the cards were tabled.
Simon Amyot:
Gianfranco Visalli:
Visalli's overpair was good but he had to dodge some outs, as Amyot had a straight draw. The river wasn't a four, eigth or three. It was the and Amyot was sent home.
Sergey Sergeev, who's getting a massage all day long, raised and it was folded to small blind Anton Bertilsson. The Swede made it 20,000 to go and Sergeev called.
Sergeev quickly called another 20,000 on the flop. The turn was the and Bertilsson now slid out a bet of 80,000. That was enough to put Sergeev all in and the Russian said call, sliding out most of his chips.
Bertilsson showed for two overcards and then Sergeev claimed he wasn't all in cause he had some chips in his hand.
"Yes, you are all in, you called eighty thousand and you've got less", he was told by Maria Ho.
The dealer confirmed and Sergeev slammed his on the felt. He was ahead and doubled when the on the river.
Bertilsson looked a little surprised about Sergeev snap calls and the Russian explained.
"For me it's no problem I've money. If I lose it means nothing to me", he said.
"Maybe that's just the problem", someone at the table replied.
Drama for the Maltese poker mama Jacqueline Cachia, as she narrowly missed out on the money.
Dan Shak raised to 8,500 and Gianfranco Visalli called. Daniele Colautti then moved all in from the cutoff and Cachia also called in for around 35,000 on the button. Shak went over the top and Visalli folded.
Jacqueline Cachia:
Daniele Colautti:
Dan Shak:
The flop improved Shak and he was about to eliminate two players just before the money. The turn was a blank, but the river provided the two-outer for Colautti, who doubled through Shak for 61,100 and sent Cachia to the rail.
Huit retardataires ont profité de la possibilité de s'inscrire jusqu'à l'entame du Jour 2 pour participer au plus petit petit Main Event European Poker Tour depuis l'EPT Copenhague en 2012 (299 joueurs). Avec ces 8 joueurs, ce sont finalement 468 entrées qui ont été enregistrées pour l'avant dernière étape du circuit PokerStars créant un prizepool de 2 269 800€ (min-cash de 8 070€).
La désaffection des joueurs pour l'EPT Malta 2016 n'a pas empêché les 241 joueurs de se jeter avec force dans la bataille du Jour 2. Une bataille qui s'est étalée sur 6 niveaux de 75 minutes et a amené les 90 survivants du tournoi aux portes des 87 places payées. La partie reprendra mercredi à midi sur les blindes 2000-4000 (500) et la bulle devrait donc rapidement exploser.
Guillaume Diaz doit plutôt rêver des 355 700€ promis au vainqueur, samedi. Le Team Pro Winamax est en tête du classement provisoire avec 583 500 jetons. Le Français devance finalement Gianfranco Visalli (518 000) et Peter Ockenden (469,500) après que les Français aient animé la journée.
Guillaume Valle (363 000) a emballé des jetons après avoir été en tête à la première pause du Jour 2. La Team Pro PMU Poker Poker Sarah Herzali a elle ensaché 362 000 après avoir entamé la dernière pause de la journée avec la casaque du leader.
Xixiang Luo (390,000), Dmitry Yurasov (358,000), Elie Saad (302,000), Martin Stazko (244 500), Walter Treccarichi (233 000) et Eugene Katchalov (284,000) ont monté de jolis tapis tout comme Sylvain Loosli (89 000) et Benjamin Pollak (224 000), tous les deux en queue de peloton à l'issue du Jour 1. Les anciens vainqueurs EPT Dominik Panka (365,000), Davidi Kitai (284,500), Frederik Jensen (191,500), Jean Montury (85,000) et Roberto Romanello (82,000) sont toujours en course.
Ils seront donc 7 Français au départ du Jour 3 puisque Thibault Letort (114,000) s'ajoute aux joueurs déjà cités. Ces tricolores devraient tous entrer dans l'argent sauf accident.
13 autres représentants du poker hexagonal ont rendu les armes lors d'une journée qui avait commencé avec l'élimination de William Kassouf avec les contre les ... comme sur le Main Event WSOP. Pierre Calamusa, Gaëlle Baumann, Fabrice Soulier, Erwann Pecheux, Pierre Merlin, Damien Luis, Johan Guilbert, Ivan Deyra ont sauté tout comme Jakub Michalak, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Georgios Zisimopoulos, George Danzer, Koray Aldemir, Paul-Francois Tedeschi, Mikhail Petrov, Russell Thomas ou Stefan Jedlicka.
Pasi Sormunen, le chipleader à l'entame du Jour 2 Andras Nemeth ou encore Asker Aloev, Ludovic Geilich, Alexandros Kolonias et Paul Newey devront aller à Prague sur l'ultime étape de l'histoire de l'EPT pour ajouter une ligne à leur palmarès.
Le Top 10 à l'issue du Jour 2
Guillaume Diaz FR 583,500
Gianfranco Visalli IT 518,500
Peter Ockenden NL 469,500
Xixiang Luo CN 390,000
Dominik Panka PL 385,000
Guillaume Valle FR 363,000
Sarah Herzali FR 362,000
Louis Cartarius DE 313,500
Elie Saad LB 302,000
Davidi Kitai BE 284,500
Seatdraw du Jour 3
Le payout de l'EPT Malta 2016
Vainqueur : 355 700€
Runner-up : 261 730€
3e 192 650€
4e 141 780€
5e 104 340€
6e 104 340€
7e 56 510€
8e 41 590€
...
10e 32 140€
20e 19 640€
30e 15 540€
50e 9 960€
87e 8 070€