Better Poker | Poker Strategies

The final table of the 2011 European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Madrid was made up of an eclectic group of eight players, with seven different countries being represented and contrasting personalities making for a unique live broadcast on PokerStars.tv on Thursday. Venezuela’s Ivan Freitez entered the day with the chip lead and put on a masterful display of big-stack poker to earn the first place prize of €1,500,000 and become the first Latin American player to win an EPT title.

PokerStars Supernova Elite member Andrew Li and Team PokerStars Pro Alex Gomes were sent home within the first 90 minutes at the final table, the latter coming up short on his bid to become only the third player ever to win a WSOP bracelet, a World Poker Tour event and an EPT event (Roland DeWolfe and Gavin Griffin are the only players to win all three). Gomes began the day short-stacked and moved all in preflop with 8s-7s from the small blind. Eugene Yanayt called with pocket tens in the big blind and the board ran out Kc-5c-3c-8h-5s to end Gomes’ spirited run.

Yanayt, who also sent Li packing early on, didn’t hang onto his newfound chips for long. After losing much of his stack to Andrey Danilyuk, Yanayt three-bet shoved over a Freitez preflop raise with pocket fives and found himself up against the nines of Freitez, whose overpair held up on a non-threatening board of Qc-Ts-6d-Ac-6h. Yanayt exited in 6th place for €250,000.

Spain’s Juan Maceiras, another Team PokerStars Pro, was the next to go at the hands of Germany’s Torsten Brinkmann. Maceiras moved his short stack in preflop with Jh-10h and was called by Brinkmann’s As-Kd. The best hand held again, sending Maceiras out in fifth place with €315,000.

After a three-hour break, Freitez completely took control of the four-handed final table. Danilyuk, who had been quiet for most of the day, moved all in preflop with pocket threes and Freitez called with Ad-9c. The Venezuelan’s chip lead would grow even larger as the board ran out Jc-7h-Td-Kh-Ah, giving him a pair of aces on the river and eliminating Danilyuk in fourth place for €400,000.

The Freitez buzzsaw continued as he knocked out Tamas Lendvai in third place with another timely ace. This time, he cold-called a three-bet shove by Lendvai and was in bad shape with Ah-9h against Lendvai’s picked nines, but Freitez found an ace on the flop and held on to pick up even more chips and leave Lendvai hitting the rail in third place.

Freitez began heads-up play against Brinkmann with roughly a 4 to 1 chip advantage. After he doubled up with Ac-5c against Freitez’s Qc-Qh, his dream of an EPT title was brought to a halt by the constant pressure of the aggressive Venezuelan. On the final hand of the tournament, Freitez opened the button with 10d-9d and Brinkmann moved all in with Ah-Kd. Freitez made a bold insta-call and again came from behind to win on a 9s-2s-5h-6d-8c board, prompting his South American rail to erupt in cheers.

Freitez won €1,500,000, a Shamballa bracelet and a ticket into Friday’s Champion of Champions freeroll tournament, which will see almost all of the EPT Main Event winners from all seven seasons battle it out for a €100,000 prize pool.

Here’s a look at the final results from the 2011 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final:

1. Ivan Freitez (Venezuela) — €1,500,000
2. Torsten Brinkmann (Germany) — €900,000
3. Tamas Lendvai (Hungary) — €550,000
4. Andrey Danilyuk (Russia) — €400,000
5. Juan Maceiras (Spain) — €315,000
6. Eugene Yanayt (United States) — €250,000
7. Alex Gomes (Brazil) — €185,000
8. Andrew Li (United States) — €130,000

Over half the field of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final Main Event has been shown the door as both flights of Day 1 are set to merge on Monday. The final Main Event of season seven will end up being one of the richest in EPT history, as 686 players paid the €10,000 + €600 ($14,354 + $861) to enter, creating a total prize pool of €6.86 million ($9.85 million) and a first prize of €1.5 million ($2.15 million).

Leading the way going into Day 2 at the Gran Casino Madrid is Sweden’s David Sonelin with 275,900 chips. Sonelin is looking for his first major poker title, though he did take down the Everest Poker ONE High Roller Event less than one month ago, winning €75,000 ($108,352). Obviously, leading a week-long tournament after the first day does not guarantee him anything, but having a 23.5 big blind lead over his next closest competitor is a good start.

That competitor is Brian England from Hazlet, New Jersey, USA, currently sitting with a stack of 238,300 chips. England only has two recorded live tournament cashes to his credit, but like Sonelin, his biggest success occurred just last month, when he placed second in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Main Event at Caesars Palace, cashing in for $94,944.

All told, the top five players in the chip counts all played during Day 1A. Norway’s Ole Kristian Nergard was the Day 1B leader, finishing with 198,200 chips, just 200 more than Mattias Bergrstrom and 400 more than 2008 WSOP runner-up, Ivan Demidov.

Entering Day 2, the top ten is about as international as we’ve seen, with two players from Sweden, two from France, and one each from Canada, Brazil, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Expand that into the top twenty and you add players from Iceland, Mexico, and Hungary.

Here is a look at that top ten:

David Sonelin (Sweden) – 275,900
Brian England (USA) – 238,300
Ben Wilinofsky (Canada) – 233,400
Alex Gomes (Brazil) – 225,900
Lucien Cohen (France) – 201,500
Ole Kristian Nergard (Norway) – 198,200
Mattias Bergstrom (Sweden) – 198,000
Ivan Demidov (Russia) – 197,800
Jean Noel Thorel (France) – 180,300

There looks to be some extremely tough tables on Day 2, as several will feature multiple players with top twenty chip stacks. Three players in the top twenty will be seated at table 45, two will be at table 8, three will be at table 52, two will be at table 4, and three will start at table 35.

Despite the withdrawal of PokerStars from the U.S. following the “Black Friday” indictments of April 15th, there are more players from the United States at the EPT Grand Final than any other country. Americans accounted for 18 percent of the field, followed by Spain at 9 percent, France at 8 percent, Germany at 7 percent, and Russia at 6 percent. PokerStars is the headline sponsor of the European Poker Tour and many players in the field qualified via the world’s largest online poker room.

A total of 104 players will make the money, with eight cashing in the six figures. Here is a look at the top ten payouts:

1st – €1,500,000
2nd – €900,000
3rd – €550,000
4th – €400,000
5th – €315,000
6th – €250,000
7th – €185,000
8th – €130,000
9th – €95,000
10th – €95,000

This is the first time that the EPT Grand Final has been held outside of Monte Carlo. Said EPT chief executive and accomplished poker player in his own right, John Duthie, “We wanted somewhere new, dynamic and inspiring, and just knew that Madrid would tick all the boxes for the travelling poker player, regardless of age or desires. The same familiar team will be running the event and the schedule will provide something for everyone.”

Play resumes at noon CET at the Casino Gran Madrid as we advance towards the final table on May 12th.

Blanca Games, operator of both Absolute Poker and UB, issued a statement over the weekend in an attempt to clarify the activities on Friday, during which agents of the Organismo de Investigaciones Judiciales (OIJ) (essentially, the Costa Rican FBI) raided the offices of the two poker rooms.

As could be seen in a Costa Rican news broadcast, and was confirmed by Blanca Games, the raid occurred at the offices of a company called Innovative Data Solutions (IDS), the customer service center for both Absolute Poker and UB. Rumors were flying that the raids were somehow related to the April 15th indictments of eleven people involved in online poker, including Absolute Poker principals Scott Tom and Brent Beckley, but Blanca claims this is not true.

The Blanca press release read, in part, “The Organismo de Investigaciones Judiciales (“OIJ”) took action yesterday to further their investigation of Olman Rimola, the owner of IDS, Scott Tom, who was also recently named in the indictment list issued by the Department of Justice on April 15th, and a third lesser known party, Oldemar Vargas.”

A Blanca spokesperson went on to say:

“We want to correct the rumors being reported in poker circles and the wider community that yesterday’s events are related to the recent Department of Justice indictments. Our understanding is that this is not the case, and that they were driven by local investigations of a separate matter in Costa Rica that involves a concerted effort to locate and apprehend Rimola, Tom and Vargas for questioning in relation to a money laundering investigation.”

Other than what Blanca Games has said, it still is not 100 percent clear exactly what the OIJ raids were all about or if they were coordinated at all with the U.S. FBI. A.J. Green, a former Costa Rica law enforcement agent and Absolute Poker security staffer, said on the QuadJacks radio show that both the FBI and Interpol were stronger driving forces behind the raid than was the OIJ, but this may not be anything more than speculation, as there has been no other evidence presented to indicate any organization besides the OIJ was involved.

OIJ agents also reportedly visited both Tom’s and Rimola’s residences.

The PokerStars offices in Costa Rica were also raided, but as it turns out, it was a case of mistaken identity, as law enforcement officials had thought they were hitting Absolute and UB.

The past week has been rough for Absolute Poker and UB. On May 5th, Blanca Games announced that it was laying off almost its entire workforce in order to trim labor costs as much as possible as it re-focuses on its non-U.S. facing business. Then Friday brought the raids. The latest blow came yesterday, when Blanca released all of its U.S.-based sponsored pros from their contracts. These players include members of Team UB Prahlad Friedman, Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin, Joe Sebok, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, Brandon Cantu, Scott Ian, Bryan Devonshire, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, and Adam “Roothlus” Levy, as well as Absolute Poker’s Trishelle Cannatella.

Additionally, poker writer/investigative reporter extraordinaire, Haley Hintze, published on her blog last week communications between Rimola and UB COO Paul Leggett in which Rimola demanded $2.75 million owed to IDS by UB to pay IDS’ terminated employees their severance. Rimola threatened to disclose information about Absolute and UB (whatever that may be) to U.S. law enforcement officials if IDS did not receive the money by May 3rd. He also seemed to fear for his life, saying to Leggett, “Just a reminder, if anything happens to me, or people close to me, I have prepared 3 sets of this information which are in hands of 3 different lawyers, with instructions to proceed with US Embassy and Costa Rican authorities.”

The money was paid shortly thereafter, but that apparently wasn’t the end of the situation. According to the Blanca press release, some or all of those funds never made it to IDS employees.

“Blanca has terminated its supplier contract with IDS after discovering that Rimola has misappropriated millions in IDS severance payments,” the statement reads. “The company is currently exploring all legal options available to recover the lost funds. Furthermore, Blanca is cooperating fully with the local Ministerio de Trabajo (Department of Labor Officials) in Costa Rica in order to coordinate an alternative method to remit all severance payments to IDS employees, thereby bypassing the facilities of IDS and Rimola to ensure that all obligations to former employees are fulfilled.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily as events continue to unfold.

The high-stakes online action was fairly substantial during the midweek. Most surprisingly, much of the action occurred on PokerStars as opposed to the regular home of high-stakes games in Full Tilt Poker. “Vmnielsen” ended up the biggest winner of the midweek, booking $252,614 in 13 sessions consisting of 1,491 hands. Coincidentally, he accomplished all of that on PokerStars. He was followed closely by Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, who finished as the third biggest winner with $140,234 in 1,309 hands over on Full Tilt.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, “antonionel” became the midweek’s biggest loser after dropping $225,114 in eight sessions totaling 1,306 hands on PokerStars. Here is a look at some of the midweek’s most interesting hands.

Sahamies Gets to Work

On Thursday, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies drove the high-stakes action as he took a seat at the heads-up $100/$200 pot-limit Omaha tables. It was there he squared off against the likes of “Sauce1234″ and “davin77,” dismantling both (with the majority coming from the former player) for $186,000 in profit in just over 1,000 hands.

In one of those hands, Sahamies ($70,782.50) raised to $600 on the button only to be reraised to $1,800 by Sauce1234 ($61,309.50) in the big blind. Sahamies pushed back to the tune of $3,600, Sauce1234 called, and the flop came down {3-Hearts}{8-Hearts}{K-Spades}. Sauce1234 checked, Sahamies bet $3,800, Sauce1234 check-raised to $10,450, and Sahamies called, leading to the {8-Clubs} on the turn.

Sauce1234 wasted little time in firing out $12,750, Sahamies called, and the {2-Clubs} was put out on the river. Sauce1234 was first to act and immediately moved all-in for his remaining $34,509.50, which Sahamies called, creating a pot worth $122,619. Sauce1234 rolled over {7-Hearts}{9-Clubs}{A-Hearts}{8-Diamonds} for trips, but it was no good against the {K-Hearts}{6-Clubs}{K-Clubs}{J-Hearts} full house of Sahamies.

In another hand, Sauce1234 ($71,520) was on the button and raised to $600. Sahamies ($25,811.50) exercised his option in the big blind by reraising to $1,800, Sauce1234 called, and the flop fell {9-Diamonds}{10-Spades}{5-Clubs}. Sahamies checked, Sauce1234 bet $2,600, Sahamies check-raised to $11,400, Sauce1234 reraised to $37,800, and Sahamies called off for a total of $24,011.50.

Sahamies: {J-Hearts}{J-Clubs}{K-Diamonds}{K-Clubs}
Sauce1234: {2-Clubs}{8-Hearts}{J-Diamonds}{9-Clubs}

Sauce1234 had flopped a pair of nines with an open-ended straight draw, but it was behind the pocket kings of Sahamies. The turn and river were run twice, but both the {2-Hearts}/{10-Hearts} on the first run and the {6-Hearts}{A-Hearts} on the second ensured Sahamies would scoop the $51,623 pot.

Mizzi Wins FTOPS XX Leaderboard

While players in the U.S. had to miss the 20th installment of Full Tilt Poker’s popular FTOPS, the series was not without its stars. In fact, Canadian Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi emerged atop the FTOPS XX leaderboard earlier this week after cashing in 17 of the series 45 events and earning 1,365 points. As a reward, Mizzi won entry into all FTOP XXI events later this year — a package worth $14,000 — as well as a custom avatar.

In an interview with Pokernyhederne, Mizzi elaborated on his big win: “I didn’t plan on playing that many FTOPS events, but after doing well in some of the earlier events I decided to head for the leaderboard. I found out I could win a $14,000 package and a custom avatar, and as I had already planned paying 1 million FPPs to buy an avatar, I decided to go for the win.

“I definitely feel like it has become easier to win. I feel like I get paid more off on my value bets, and that I can make more sophisticated bluffs. It’s like playing poker two, three years ago.” He went on to say: “So for me to see there are both advantages and disadvantages that Americans are not here anymore. The fields are softer, but prize pools are not as great as they were. But yes, I would say that my recent success can be partly attributed to the fact that the Americans are gone.”

For a look at some of the winners from the FTOPS XX, check out our recap from earlier in the series.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down?

Week’s biggest winners (5/3-5/5): *vmnielsen (+$252,614), schadenersatz (+$199,802), Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies (+$140,234), KidPoker705 (+$128,151), Alessio Isaia (+$117,705)

Week’s biggest losers: *antonionel (-$225,114), samrostan (-$200,571), anna164 (-$162,940), KOMIJENDO ($-127,455)

Year-to-date winners: Gus Hansen (+$3,085,000), Daniel “jungleman12” Cates (+$1,952,000), *Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane (+$1,870,000), Patrik Antonius (+$1,775,000), Matt Hawrilenko (+$1,440,000), bixiu (+$1,406,000), Phil Ivey (+$1,336,000)

Year-to-date losers: Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$2,474,000), kagome kagome (-$1,922,000), fishosaurusREX (-$1,399,000), cadillac1944 (-$1,336,000), UarePileous (-$940,000)

When the developments of Black Friday broke, the U.S. online poker world was turned upside down. It was in the days after when players really began to analyze how they would personally be affected. The Spring Championship of Online Poker on PokerStars is the one time of year that every serious grinder, to happy-go-lucky amateur looks forward to. After debuting in 2009 to excellent numbers, the series saw tremendous growth in 2010. The 2010 SCOOP added 48 events and saw its player pool increase significantly.
*General Information

Year # of Tournaments # of Buy-ins Total Prize Money
2009 66 199,958 $39,372,270
2010 114 491,936 $63,802,405

Unfortunately, the upward trend will come to an end. After originally offering a total prize pool of $45,000,000, there was no doubt that PokerStars was going to scale back after learning the U.S. poker market would be unable to partake in the 2011 festivities. In the end, the guarantees were dropped by almost 45 percent to $25,000,000. Out of the 114 tournaments that the SCOOP offers, 111 of the guaranteed prize pools were reduced. We broke down the numbers to see what stood out about the changes and what we think the overall turnout will be.
2011 SCOOP–L Prize Pool Changes

Tournaments Original Guarantees New Guarantees Change Percent Drop
38 $5,825,000 $4,035,000 -$1,790,000 30.7%

Affected the least by the overall adjustments, the slash in SCOOP–L guarantees range from zero to 60 percent. Three events (PL Draw, Razz, 8-Game) kept their guarantees the same. The biggest fall came in the NL Omaha H/L event. At first offering a $50,000 prize pool, it was dropped to $20,000. The $109 Main Event, previously set at a $1,000,000 guarantee, shrunk 25% to $750,000.
2011 SCOOP–M Guarantee Changes

Tournaments Original Guarantees New Guarantees Change Percent Drop
38 $16,075,000 $8,885,000 -$7,190,000 44.7%

With drop-offs varying from 20 to 60 percent, the SCOOP–M holds similarities to both it’s Low and High counterparts. Like the Low, its biggest guarantee slip is the NL Omaha H/L event, down from $100,000 to $40,000. Like the High, its Main Event promise will fall 50 percent as the once $3,000,000 prize pool is now $1,500,000.
2011 SCOOP–H Guarantee Changes

Tournaments Original Guarantees New Guarantees Change Percent Drop
38 $23,100,000 $12,080,000 -$11,020,000 47.7%

The most substantial of all the modifications came in the SCOOP–H where a whopping 21 of 38 events had their guarantees plummet by 50 percent or more. One of those events is the $3,150 stud affair. Now only guaranteeing $40,000, the tournament would exceed its guarantee with just 14 entrants. Last year, the $10,300 Main Event drew 615 entrants and had a first-place prize of $1,162,350. Unfortunately, those numbers will drop significantly this year because the tournament’s guaranteed prize pool is down to $2,500,000 (initially $5,000,000).

Prediction

The SCOOP will undoubtedly miss the U.S. contingent. In 2009, about 40 percent of entire SCOOP entries were from the US. While the same statistic isn’t available to us for 2010, we cant imagine it being much of a gain or drop from 2009. The guarantees this year were dropped by 45 percent, a number that seems reasonable to cover the U.S. portion of SCOOPs past plus a little extra. We envision that as a whole, the total prize pool will indeed surpass the guarantees that PokerStars has left. It won’t for every event, but in the end the bottom line will read more than $25,000,000.