Chouity Wins PokerStars EPT Tournament
With the PokerStars European Poker Tour now completed, the player who will be carrying home the first place title and the huge first place payout is Nicolas Chouity.
Chouity entered the final table with more than 40% of the poker chips firmly sat in front of him, something that hasn’t been seen for a long time and as we reported yesterday, with a chip lead like Chouity held, you would have to play some very poor poker to throw that lead away.
Although, with many thinking that the final eight players were going to head to the rail in the order of chips that each player had, it wasn’t to play out like that with Mesbah Guerfi who started the day in joint second place been the first player to crash out of the tournament.
Chouity however played his huge stack to his advantage and closed in for the kill with all of his opponents who looking at the sheer size of the players stack could only try to avoid each bullet that the player was firing.
With Roger Harabedain and Aleh Plauski finding themselves running out of chips as the game progressed, both fell into the firing line of Chouity who was able to eliminate both players to further increase his already firm grip on the title.
With the final table losing players as Chouity stamped his authority all over the game, Josef Klinger worked his stack hard, waiting for the right hand to fight out of the traps with, successfully doubling his chip stack before getting into a hand with Andrew Chen and eliminating the player with his pocket kings dominating the Canadians 9-7 clubs.
With action flowing and what must have seemed like each and every card falling in Chouity’s favour, Herve Costa opted to play his game of sit out of the action and simply watch the action unfold.
With this, the player tried to keep out of the action as much as possible with what must have been the ‘sit out and ladder the final standings table as much as I can’ technique.
The final two players seated at the tables for the heads up section of the tournament was finally set and left Josef Klinger to try to over turn what seems to be a formality.
The game came to a conclusion when Chouity made a raise pre flop to 350,000 and Klinger who looked down into his hand to reveal a pocket pair of eights quickly re-raised all in for 6 million chips.
Chouity couldn’t have wished for a better sight than the all in shout and with that he was very quick in calling the bet after sitting on a pocket pair of aces.
Seneca Niagara Casino Robbed Last Night
A casino based in the Niagara Falls in the US has been robbed last night by man who walked up to the cashiers counter and told the assistant that he has a gun and wanted them to hand over the money.
The robber than progressed to lift up his shirt in a bid to try to expose the weapon but with the fear kicking in and the shock that came with the experience, the cashier couldn’t see the weapon but had been told that in that situation they were not to risk their own life.
The cashier then handed over an unknown amount of money to the robber who then turned and ran out of the casino with his haul to escape from the scene of the crime on what has been described as a small BMX bicycle.
The event was the first of its kind for the casino that has been in operation since 2002 but with reviews from gamblers who have visited the venue widely available on the internet, it is a shock to see that there are so many that are praising the level of security.
The suspect who being searched for by both local and New York police forces has been described by the cashier as being within his late 30’s.
Titan Poker Capture ‘Imper1um’
The leading iPoker Gaming Network online poker room has today announced that they have successfully agreed terms with Sorel ‘Imper1um’ Mizzi, a player who is better known for his successes on PokerStars over the last week.
The 24 year old Canadian professional poker player joins the Titan Poker professional roster after parting ways with Team Betfair, giving Titan Poker yet another big name to add to their portfolio.
The player recently had a great week last week on the world’s biggest online poker room PokerStars after winning more than $150,000 in tournament cashes.
The player is not simply known for his online play, replicating his online tournament successes at the live poker tables too, with some of the poker industry’s leading live poker tournaments firmly within his armoury.
But with the positives of signing the player comes the negatives after the player and a friend were banned from Full Tilt Poker after being found out about taking charge of a friends account midway through a tournament, winning the tournament for his friend.
Following a stream of complaints from the opponents within the tournament, Full Tilt Poker investigated the accusations of cheating and it was clear to see that the player had taken control of the tournament after seeing a huge difference in the level of poker playing ability that the player was representing.
After being found to have been involved with the switch, both players were banned from the online poker site and are still actively fulfilling their ban.
Mizzi even offered some advice to poker players who dream of being able to represent one of the major online poker rooms too, Mizzi said:
“Play within your bankroll. Keep detailed statistics of what games you’re making most money from and focus playing what you’re best at. Find a mentor whose game you respect and that is where you want to be.”
EPT Monte Carlo Final Stage Decided
As I’m sure that all of you will be aware, the European Poker Tour (EPT) has been in full flow over the recent 4 days and with the tournament getting close to the end it has now come down to the final eight players at the final table.
The tournament that is being held in Monte Carlo saw a large player field of 840 players buy into the tournament in the hope of taking the first place finish but there has been some great action for all that have been following the play.
With the tournament now at the final eight players, each and every player still in with a chance of winning the tournament is set to take home a minimum of €200,000 but you can be sure that with a €1,700,000 first place payout, none of the remaining players will be looking to be heading home before the others.
The United Kingdom had a good showing within the tournament, with UK based duo Matt Perrins and Craig McCorkell breaking into the top 10 positions but after a stream of bad hands, crashed out before either could break for a spot within the final eight.
With the final stage now set and a whole lot of poker action to follow, lets have a look at the remaining players in terms of their seating at the final table:
Seat 1. Herve Costa – 1,590,000 chips
A name that’s not very well known within the poker industry but that’s down to the fact that this guy doesn’t play the game at a professional level, instead he runs a local shop based in Nice.
Costa finds himself taking to the final table with 1,590,000 chips in front of him and one thing for sure, he will be gunning for any player that tries to eliminate him anytime soon.
Seat 2. Roger Hairabedian – 1,130,000 chips
Roger is a well known French professional poker player who has had a number of successes recently, having taken the title at the Grand Prix de Paris which saw the pro take home over €400,000 in prize money.
This guy will be one to watch out for after winning the title of being the best tournament poker player in France.
Seat 3. Aleh Plauski – 1,695,000 chips
Plauski is more known for his tournament play online but even playing online he has managed to create a fear factor within the online community due to his successes.
Seen as a specialist of re-buy tournaments, could this be a tournament that he can take down without needing the second chance?
Seat 4. Dominykas Karmazinas, -2,285,000 chips
Karmazinas is an EPT regular and with that he has been able to bring a little more to the tournament than a number of players who are entering the series for the first time.
He was able to eliminate Alexander Gomes during day 3 after his pocket kings held up against Gomes’ pocket nines.
Karmazinas finds himself sat in third place at the moment but knowing this player like we do, he won’t be sitting out that many hands as he looks to gain the lead.
Seat 5. Josef Klinger – 1,170,000 chips
Klinger has been able to create shockwaves within the poker industry since making the switch from playing professional chess to finding his seat at the poker felts.
The most recent success that the Austrian has been able to create is his €85,000 cashing during a tournament played in Vienna.
Seat 6. Mesbah Guerfi – 3,670,000 chips
A player who is better known for playing Omaha poker, his most recent success was back in 2009 when he was able to take down the Grand Prix de Paris, winning €50,000 in prize money.
Seat 7. Nicolas Chouity – 10,280,000 chips
After qualifying for this tournament online, the player has really made a stake for the title so far. With two other EPT cashes the player is no stranger and with a chip lead as big as this one, he would have to lose his head to throw this one away.
Seat 8. Andrew Chen – 3,670,000 chips
The Canadian online poker professional is more know for his run of bad luck and failing at the final leg of tournaments after a number of ‘nearly’ and ‘almosts’.
He is still seated quite strongly in terms of the field remaining but he will be looking to exceed his previous attempts in the EPT tournaments and will most certainly be looking to take down the first place position.
Well the stage is set and now we know who the players are that are still in contention to win the tournament, we will keep a close eye on Chouity and find out if he has the finishing power to main the number one spot come the end of play.
Townsend Not Next For ‘Durrrr’
Poker professional Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan has been involved with the ‘Durrrr Challenge’ for a number of months and the high stakes poker game has always attracted a large amount of interest from players and spectators.
To date the only player to have taken on the challenge is Patrik Antonius but with the busy lives that both players run, the game still hasn’t been completed.
Although the current challenge isn’t complete, rumours have been circulating that Dwan is looking for a new challenger and Brain Townsend was the next in line to take on the challenge.
The rumours that stated that Townsend was next in line have now been quashed by Dwan following a post that the professional player made on poker forum 2+2.
Dwan’s post read:
“Long story, but he’s not next. I’ll blog after seshy.”
The post came after the young poker pro told Bluff Magazine that if he was to enter into a challenge with Brain Townsend, they would easily be able to play over 5,000 poker hands.
With Townsend seemingly out of the picture, Full Tilt Poker are claiming that two other poker professionals are ready to step up to the challenge, with Phil Ivey and David Benyamine been placed into contention.
The current challenge is still to have a further 10,000 hands to play out but with over 50,000 hands already played the luck of the cards seems to be in Dwan’s favour, with reports suggesting that the pro poker player is up anywhere between $1.5 – $1.9 million.
One thing for sure, we are going to follow this story closely as more and more big names enter the fold to get into action.
