SCOOP: lili275 needs less than four hours to win
Event 18: Triple Stud $22 buy-in

Triple your stud. Triple your fun.

For those who enjoy a game in which 43 percent of the hand is revealed face up, Event 18 of SCOOP, a $22 buy-in Triple Stud tournament, had much to offer. This event included a rotation of Stud Hi, Stud Hi-Lo and everyone's favorite--Razz.

This low version of Event 18 drew 1,705 players and created a prize pool of $34,100 to eclipse PokerStars' $25,000 guarantee by nearly double. First place was a lofty $5,934 and 256 players made the money..

Team PokerStars pros in the money included Bryan Huang in 206th ($32.05), CharismA3 in 128th ($42.62) and Goral in 119th ($44.33).

The turbo format ensured some fast chip moving, and the players did not disappoint as the final table was reached in just over three hours.

The participants were:

Seat 1 -- Oddla (810,504)
Seat 2 -- semkim (1,048,810)
Seat 3 -- rakajoonas (664,842)
Seat 4 -- tommygotNUTZ (1,970,895)
Seat 5 -- lili275 (2,114,836)
Seat 6 -- stronghawk (310,081)
Seat 7 -- Misko83 (1,239,544)
Seat 8 -- Lunatum20 (365,488)

Lunatum20 exited first from the final table. Down to about 117K, he pushed the rest in the pot during the 160K/320K Razz round showing [8h], and Oddla raised to 160K with the [6h] up. Semkim called with the [Ah], but subsequently folded on fourth street. Lumatum20 was behind on fourth as the players showed:

Lumatum20 [2h] [5d] [8h] [7d]
Oddla [Ac] [4s] [6h] [3d]

Oddla caught the [7h] to make the seven low on fifth and the best Lumatum20 could muster was an eight low. He won $341 for eighth.

Semkim found himself short stacked and in a bad spot a few hands later. He got the lucky bring in during razz holding the [Ks] and, immediately to his right, rakajoonas raised it to 160K with the [Ah]. Semkim pushed all in for 302K on a hope and a prayer, but the cards ran out in unfavorable fashion:

semkim [2s] [8h] [Ks] [4h] [5s] [Td] [Qd]
rakajoonas [5c] [4d] [Ah] [9d] [6c] [9c] [Ad]

For the seventh-place finish, semkim earned $682.

Moving to Stud Hi-Lo, stronghawk was scooped on this close hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Stronghawk made $1,023 for the sixth-place nod.

On the next elimination, rakajoonas opened for 60K two hands later still playing Stud Hi-Lo and lili275 called with the [Ad]. Misko83 raised to 200K with the [Kh], rakajoonas folded and lili275 called. After a check-call fourth street, Misko got all in for 383K on fifth street holding [As] [Jh] [Kh] [9c] [2s] against the [5h] [Kd] [Ad] [Qd] [3h] held by lili275. Lili25 caught a five and three to make two pair while Misko83 completely bricked, but collected $1,705 for fifth.

Down to only 53K, rakajoonas found himself all in for the ante in Razz and a starting threesome of [9s] [Ts] [Tc]. TommygotNUTZ made an eight low to finish off the Finn in fourth place, worth $2,387.

This hand set up the heads-up battle:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Oddla took home $3,239.50 for the third-place finish.

The first six final table eliminations only took about 20 minutes, and the heads up battle only lasted another 10. After surviving a few all-in spots, tommygotNUTZ finally ran out of lives.

Playing 500K/1M stud with a 100K ante, tommygotNUTZ brought it in for 150K with the [7c] up and lili275 called showing the [Jd]. After a fourth street card of [8s], lili275 bet 500K and tommygotNUTZ called with the [3h]. Fifth street brought lili275 the [3s] and she bet 1 million, which prompted a 1.8 million all-in raise by tommygotNUTZ after he got a [Js] on fifth. When the cards were revealed, lili275 showed [5c] [8d] for a pair of eights, while tommygotNUTZ held [5h] [7s] for a pair of sevens. Neither player improved on the last two streets and lili275 won the event and the SCOOP champion's wrist wear.

Final table results:

1st -- lili275 ($5,934.08)
2nd -- tommygotNUTZ ($4,236.58)
3rd -- Oddla ($3,239.50)
4th -- rakajoonas ($2,387)
5th -- Misko83 ($1,705)
6th -- stronghawk ($1,023)
7th -- semkim ($682)
8th -- Lumatum20 ($341)

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/scoop/2011/scoop-lili275-needs-less-than-four-hours
-081382.html

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SCOOP: mojocha runs over final table in Event
18-Medium, $215 Triple Stud Turbo

Triple Stud is a mixed-game variant that's become more popular since the 2009 World Series of Poker, when Jeff Lisandro won a gold bracelet in each of Stud, Razz and Stud Hi/Lo. Those events were played with a deep structure. The 2011 SCOOP Event 18-Medium Triple Stud tournament was played with a turbo structure, turning the stud variants (which tend to encourage tight play) on their heads.

262 players took a flyer on the tournament. A full 15% - 40 players - would receive something for their trouble. Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske received nothing but frustration with a bubble finish in 43rd place. Team Pros Marcin Horecki and Lex Veldhuis were more fortunate. Horecki scraped into the money at 40th place; Veldhuis bowed out with three tables left, finishing in 23rd place.

Three and a half hours after the tournament began, only eight players remained.

Seat 1: mojocha (222337 in chips)
Seat 2: FONBET_RULIT (152024 in chips)
Seat 3: MUSTAFABET (58518 in chips)
Seat 4: stige2 (188970 in chips)
Seat 5: slammedfire (412176 in chips)
Seat 6: goleafsgoeh (146615 in chips)
Seat 7: Psixiatr (82663 in chips)
Seat 8: NoNaLoKa (46697 in chips)

The final table began in the razz round, with limits of 20k and 40k and an average stack of 163k. There was no doubt that it would be zippy final table.

On the second hand, mojocha delivered a beat to send NoNaLoKa crashing out of the tournament. They were all in on 4th street, with NoNaLoKa showing down the better draw, 3-3 / 5-10 versus mojocha's 7-A / K-J. NoNaLoka made a running three pair to finish with a final hand of 3-3-10-9-5. Mojocha caught a queen, nine and three to make a J-9-7-3-A. Then there were seven.

Two hands later mojocha did it again, this time with the best of it the whole way. MUSTAFABET was all in on 3rd street with 4-10 / 6. Mojocha showed 4-9 / 5 and improved by the river to 9-7-5-4-2. MUSTAFABET, like NoNaLoKa before, finished with a pair, 6-6-10-8-4, and was gone in 7th place.

Another two hands led to yet another elimination. With the game having switched to Stud Hi/Lo, Psixiatr was all in on 3rd street with split kings. goleafsgoeh started with three small cards, [ad] [2h] [8c]. Psixiatr's hand never improved, but goleafsgoeh caught an ace on 6th street to make a pair of aces. With neither player making a qualifying low, goleafsgoeh dragged the whole pot and eliminated Psixiatr.

It was three whole hands before the 5th-place bust-out. The hand made it to 5th street before stige2 was AI:

RSS readers click through to see replay.

The pot that resulted in the 4th-place elimination was played heads-up on all streets between mojocha and goleafsgoeh. goleafsgoeh raised on 3rd street, then led every street until going all in on 6tt street. with [tc][kc] / [th] [ad] [td] [4c], trip tens. mojocha was already filled up, [6h][6c] / [5h][3s][5s][5d]. With no low draw, goleafsgoeh needed to fill up on the river, but blanked out to finish in 4th.

Not even 10 minutes had passed before the final table was down to just three players. mojocha had the lead:

Seat 1: mojocha (796300 in chips)
Seat 2: FONBET_RULIT (73524 in chips)
Seat 5: slammedfire (440176 in chips)

Somehow the players played ten hands without an elimination, speeding through the Stud round and bringing the game back to 40k / 80k razz. That's when mojocha took a big bite out of slammedfire. mojocha led every street to the river and slammedfire called the whole way, showing a board of X-X / T-5-8-J / X. The action checking down on the river. mojocha showed down 9-8 / 5-4-9-7 / A, an 8-7, to collect the pot and move to more than a million in chips.

The next hand FONBET_RULIT was all in on third street with J-2 / 9. slammedfire was slightly behind with Q-7 / A and improved to a 7-6-4-2-A by the river. FONBET_RULIT could only muster a 9 and was bounced out of the tournament in 3rd place.

At the start of heads-up play, with the limits still at 40k / 80k, mojocha had 1,034,300 in chips versus slammedfire's 275,700. Heads-up play lasted all of seven hands. On the 7thh hand, mojocha started 4-A / 3, while slammedfired was dealt 2-A / 10. The chips were in on fifth street with mojocha already having made a 7, 4-A / 3-J-7-2. slammedfire had a draw to a 6, 2-A / 10-6-J-5, but paired on the river to complete the final table in a speedy 17 minutes.

For surviving the break-neck pace of the final table, mojocha is a SCOOP champion.

2011 SCOOP Event 18-Medium $215 Triple Stud [Turbo] results:

1st: mojocha ($10,218.00)
2nd: slammedfire ($7,598.00)
3rd: FONBET_RULIT ($5,764.00)
4th: goleafsgoeh ($4,192.00)
5th: stige2 ($2,882.00)
6th: Psixiatr ($2,096.00)
7th: MUSTAFABET ($1,572.00)
8th: NoNaLoKa ($1,310.00)

Check out what else is going on during SCOOP by visiting the SCOOP homepage.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/scoop/2011/scoop-mojocha-runs-over-final-table-in-e
-081380.html

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SCOOP: Team Pro Ruthenberg races to title in
Triple Stud Turbo (18-H, $2,100)

Sticking only with the last three H.O.R.S.E. games -- razz (R), seven-card stud (S), and seven-card stud eight-or-better (E) -- and spending just five minutes on each game with the stakes rapidly increasing, turbo-style, meant the three versions of Event #18 were all destined to conclude in a flash. And with the necessarily small field that would come out for the event's "High" version (with a $2,100 buy-in), that meant the tourney would be decided even more quickly.

Indeed, you could say in this case R.S.E. stood for Really Speedy Event.

It took just over two-and-a-half hours for Sebastian Ruthenberg of Team PokerStars U.K. to grab the first SCOOP watch of 2011 for Team PokerStars. In fact, to be more precise, it really only took Ruthenberg a little over an hour-and-a-half, really, as he was one of the very last to register before the doors closed at the one-hour mark!

Having slowed the action down enough from the breakneck blur which it rushed past, we are now prepared to share highlights from Ruthenberg's fast and furious feat.

Shuffle Up and Deal... Congratulations! You have reached the final table

The stacks were deep enough that almost everyone made it through the first hour of play. By first-hour break -- when registration closed -- of the 48 players who had bought in only BEGEMOTIK3 was already sitting on the rail. That field created a $96,000 total prize pool (besting the tourney's $50K guarantee). Only the top five finishers would get paid, with $38,400 due the one finishing with all the chips.

Once they returned from the first break, many players' stacks had already reached the danger zone, and the eliminations started to come quickly. In just 30 minutes the field was trimmed to 15, with the casualties including such recognizable names as Matthew "MUSTAFABET" Ashton (44th), villepn (42nd), Fabrizio "SixthSenSe19" Gonzalez (37th), McMang (35th), red-hot Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn (31st), ozenc (26th), Sergey "gipsy74" Rybachenko (25th), Team PokerStars Pros Jose "Nacho" Barbero (24th) and Jonathan Duhamel (19th), SCOOP #10-High winner Hernán "HN Kakaroto" Novick (18th), SCOOP #14-H winner Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko (17th), and EDWARDHOPPER (16th).

At that point, to0dey and ColoBushKa were at the top of the counts with more than 30,000 chips, with ricestud, Noah "Exclusive" Boeken of Team PokerStars Netherlands, and Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen closing in on the two leaders. Two other PS pros -- Ruthenberg (U.K.) and George Danzer (Germany) -- were still alive with below average stacks as well.

It would take less than 15 minutes for six more players to go, with Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer going out in 10th. Then came simultaneous eliminations during razz hands on the two remaining tables, with ColoBushKa knocking out cal42688 in ninth on one and Ruthenburg knocking out bliiz in eighth on the other.

That meant there were only seven players left to read the Dealer's traditional congratulatory welcome message.

Seat 1: turataika -- 46,722
Seat 2: Team PokerStars Pro Noah "Exclusive" Boeken -- 33,275
Seat 4: ricestud -- 17,950
Seat 5: ColoBushKa -- 47,486
Seat 6: mement_mori -- 27,435
Seat 7: Team PokerStars Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg -- 30,136
Seat 8: to0dey -- 36,996

After a half-dozen hands the game had changed to stud hi/lo (3,000/6,000), when a hand developed between Ruthenberg and ricestud in which the latter led the betting throughout, finally running out of chips on fifth street.

When their down cards were shown, Ruthenberg held ([3h])([Ac])[2c][Jd][5s] for a wheel draw while ricestud had ([4c])([7c])[5c][Kh][7d] for a pair of sevens. ricestud wouldn't improve, drawing [2h][Td], but Ruthenberg picked up [6c][4s], that four on the end giving him the wheel and both the high and low.

RSS readers click through to see replay

Soon the two-hour break arrived, and just six remained, with turataika the leader with over 97,000 and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken the severe short-stack with less than 6,400.

Boeken would double-up once, then survive after being all in by fourth street in a three-way pot the Dutchman described afterwards as "epic." Indeed, by seventh turataika would show [8][6][4][3][2], ColoBushKa [7][5][4][2][A], and Boeken [6][5][4][2][A]!

Mickey "memento_mori" Petersen then became the table's short stack, and himself survived an all-in situation on a stud hi/lo hand against to0dey in which neither made a low, but Petersen's aces and queens bettered to0dey's tens and fives.

Unfortunately for to0dey, he'd soon end up being the cash bubble boy. Still in stud hi/lo, to0dey was all in on third street against both Ruthenberg and Boeken. The hand got checked down to the end, where neither of the Team PokerStars Pros had made a low hand, while Ruthenberg had the best high with two pair, aces and tens. to0dey mucked, eliminated in sixth.

The remaining five fought for about 10 minutes, then next three eliminations happened in rapid-fire fashion.

First, in a razz hand (10,000/20,000), Ruthenberg and turataika capped the betting on third with the Team Pro showing a [4] and turataika an ace. Ruthenberg then led the betting on both fourth and fifth, by which point turataika was all in, showing ([6])([7])[A][T][7] versus Ruthenberg's ([5])([3])[4][7][A]. turataika drew two face cards on sixth and seventh -- not that he could've caught up to Ruthenberg's 7-5-low, anyway -- and was out in fifth.

Three hands later the game was stud hi/lo (12,000/24,000), and Boeken was all in by fifth street against fellow Team PokerStars Pro Ruthenberg. By the end Boeken held ([4c])([3h])[2h][Js][As][7c]([4h]) for a pair of fours (high) and a 7-low. But Ruthenberg had ([Ac])([4s])[9c][Kd][3s][2c][([5h]), hitting another final table wheel to scoop and knock "Exclusive" out in fourth place.

Team PokerStars Pro Noah "Exclusive" Boeken

Afterwards, Ruthenberg and Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen shared some table chat:

S.Ruthenberg: wow
mement_mori: decent life :)
S.Ruthenberg: runner runner runner runner runner

"Runner" was the word of the hour for Ruthenberg, who appeared poised to run his way through this final table in short order, suddenly up over 174,000 while Petersen and ColoBushKa sat with less than 35,000 each.

On the very next hand, Mickey "memento_mori" got into a raising war with ColoBushKa on third street, with the latter all in before the betting could be capped. After each received his seven cards, ColoBushKa ended with ([5d])([7s])[8c][3h][8d][3d]([7d]) for eights and sevens with no low hand, while Petersen drew ([Qd])([3s])[Qh][4c][Ac][Qc]([9d]) for trip queens, knocking out ColoBushKa in third.

Heads-up play began with Ruthenberg still well out in front with 172,354 to mement_mori's 67,646. More table talk between the two ensued.

mement_mori: gl bro
S. Ruthenberg: u2 !
S. Ruthenberg: happy times
S. Ruthenberg: i lateregged last min

As mentioned, Ruthenberg had in fact been one of the last of the 48 to register. And now he was on the verge of binking the sucker!

A few hands later the stacks were nearly the same when the tourney was paused to discuss a deal. While Petersen and Ruthenberg chatted about whether or not they might have played against each other in an EPT event before, the "chip chop" numbers were produced. Both immediately agreed -- a little over $34,100 for Ruthenberg, $29,200-plus for Petersen, and $1,000 and the watch left to play for -- and play quickly resumed.

After a dozen hands during which no major chip swings occurred, then the final hand came.

It was straight stud (16,000/32,000). The pair reraised each other to cap it on third, then Petersen was all in on fourth.

S.Ruthenberg ([7d])([7c])[2h][Tc] -- a pair of sevens
mement_mori ([7s])([8d])[Ks][Jc] -- overcards and backdoor draws

Ruthenberg would pick up [2d][9d][8h] to make two pair, but mement_mori didn't improve at all, picking up [Ah][5s][4s]. Just two hours and 36 minutes after it had begun -- and not even 100 minutes after Ruthenberg had registered, the U.K. pro had won.

RSS readers click through to see replay

Congratulations to Sebastian Ruthenberg for claiming the first SCOOP watch of 2011 for Team PokerStars in Event #18-High!

Team PokerStars Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg, 2011 SCOOP #18-High Champion

SCOOP Event #18-High, $2,100 Triple Stud, Results (*reflects two-way deal):

1st: Team PokerStars Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg ($5,106.87)*
2nd: mement_mori ($29,213.13)
3rd: ColoBushKa ($14,400)
4th: Noah "Exclusive" Boeken ($9,600)
5th: turataika ($7,680)

By the way, if you haven't yet seen "Inside SCOOP," the daily web-based show hosted by Joe Stapleton and Nick Wealthall, click over there right now and get yourself caught up. The show reports results, goes over interesting hands, features interviews with players, and more.

In other words, lots of info. And lots of grins, too! Check it out!

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/scoop/2011/scoop-team-pro-ruthenberg-races-to-title
-081381.html

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Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Day 2, level 17 &
18 updates (blinds 3,000-6,000, ante 500)

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 3,000-6,000, ante 500

0.45am: Mitch Johnson eliminated in 20th place
He opened with [As][Qs] off a stack of 110,000 and called Simon Todorov's shove of 90,000, the latter's pocket threes held up. With just 20,000 left and in the big blind the next hand Johnson had little choice but to go with he [6][3] but lost out to [A][8].

0.40am: Plamen Todorov doubles up
He opened for 12,500 from middle position and then from the big blind Simon Andrei three-bet to 32,500, Todorov then moved all-in for 118,000 and Andrei called.

Todorov: [As][Ac]
Andrei: [Ad][Qc]

The flop of [3s][7s][5s] had Andrei drawing semi-dead and although Andrei had some chop outs when the [4d] turned, the river was the [Qh] and Todorov doubled, whilst Andrei slipped to 95,000.

0.35am: Chip leader
Viliyan Petleshkov is the current chip leader with around 360,000.

0.30am: Pots in brief
Action is pretty thin on the ground here's three hands one from each of the remaining tables to illustrate that:

Hand One: From under-the-gun Igor Loncar limped and next to act Mitch Johnson made it 17,500 to play. It folded back to Loncar who folded [Ks][Jh] face up.

Hand Two: Daniel Todorov made it 11,500 to go and was three-bet to 34,000 by Dorde Jovanovic. After a bit of Holywooding Todorov folded.

Hand Three: Tadeas Kozdon made it 11,500 to play and both blinds called. On a flop of [9h][Kh][8d] small blind Libor Behro led out for 23,000 and that was enough to win the pot.

0.15am: No knockouts just yet
There's been no eliminations in the opening 20 minutes of Level 17, in fact there hasn't even been an all-in, call and double up. Dieguez Rodriguez seems to be vying for the chip lead, as he's also on 260,000. That could mean valuable leaderboard points and ultimately a years worth of Sunday Million tickets.

11.55pm: 20 into eight won't go, or will it?
There are 20 players left currently and the plan for tonight is to play down to eight players. I've been told that play will stop after another two levels and it's going to be a close run thing as to whether the tournament reaches the final table tonight. Leading the way right now are Daniel Todorov and Dorde Jovanovic who both have around 260,000.

Dorde Jovanovic

Daniel Todorov

PokerStars Blog reporting team at Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Nick Wright. Photos courtesy of Manuel Kovsca.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/eureka_poker_tour/2011/eureka-poker-tour-nova-goric
a-day-2-leve-2-081379.html

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Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Day 2, level 17
updates (blinds 2,500-5,000, ante 500)

11.55pm: 20 into eight won't go, or will it?
There are 20 players left currently and the plan for tonight is to play down to eight players. I've been told that play will stop after another two levels and it's going to be a close run thing as to whether the tournament reaches the final table tonight. Leading the way right now are Daniel Todorov and Dorde Jovanovic who both have around 260,000.

Dorde Jovanovic

Daniel Todorov

PokerStars Blog reporting team at Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Nick Wright. Photos courtesy of Manuel Kovsca.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/eureka_poker_tour/2011/eureka-poker-tour-nova-goric
a-day-2-leve-2-081379.html

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SCOOP - 13-M $162 NL Ante Up: JustSaba's just
desserts earns over $31k

Event 13 of the PokerStars SCOOP tournament series is an "Ante Up" event. Put simply, the blinds remain at 5/5 throughout the tournament, but the antes go up each level. This event was at the medium $162 buy-in as a field of 1,243 entries created a $186,450 prize pool divided amongst the final 162 players with the winner earning a payday of over $31,000.

Team Canada PokerStars Pro Greg Debora led the five members of Team PokerStars who scooped up some cash, finishing in 24th place. He was followed by Team PokerStars: Online players Anders "Donald" Berg (45th), Andre "acoimbra" Coimbra (52nd), Team Asia Pro Bryan Huang (99th) and Team Czech Republic Pro Martin "AABenjaminAA" Hrubý (125th).

The fast-paced action of the Ante Up event meant the final table bubble would take place during Day 1 action, as each player put in 4,500 chips giving players plenty of incentive to take down hands. The action started with kmichael14 raising from UTG to 8,545 followed by Bananajones1 shoving for their remaining 232,033 chips with [ad][4d]. Babeklu woke up with [ah][ks] and made the four-bet shove for 483,638 to isolate as kmichael14 got out of the way. Bananajones1's tournament life was at stake as the flop revealed to all [3c] [9h] [Kh], now needing a lot of help to slip past babeklu. The [6s] left Bananajones1 drawing dead and the [qd] finished the results, earning $1,640.76 and setting up our final table. Here's the final table situation when play resumed:

Seat 1: OU THE NICK (1,454,742 in chips)
Seat 2: as1025 (1,071,420 in chips)
Seat 3: jokkee_apart (1,081,822 in chips)
Seat 4: JustSaba (360,431 in chips)
Seat 5: tigreayu23 (147,406 in chips)
Seat 6: LiroLa (649,294 in chips)
Seat 7: EDWARDHOPPER (557,617 in chips)
Seat 8: babeklu (746,926 in chips)
Seat 9: kmichael14 (145,342 in chips)

Day 1 final table action

One level remained in the schedule for day 1 as the tournament continued with players kicking in a 5,000-chip ante. The all-in confrontations kicked into gear as tigreayu23 doubled through jokkee_apart twice (QQ v A4 and KK v Q9). However the player whose stack was affected the most in the last level was as1025, tumbling from third in chips to the short stack at the end of level 33 in the last four hands. In the first hand, as1025 raised to 20,000 holding [qc][jd]. JustSaba found [ad][ks] worthy of a three-bet to 53,250 as as1025 four-bet shoved and JustSaba snap-called. The board ran out [2s] [6h] [3d] [8c] [8s] as ace-high held up. Most of as1025's remaining chips went into EDWARDHOPPER's stack, this time the dominating hand wasn't as fortunate:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Here's how the stacks looked when play resumed on Saturday, with the antes now at 6,000 per player and a table redraw switches up the seat assignments:

Seat 1: LiroLa (773779 in chips)
Seat 2: JustSaba (625596 in chips)
Seat 3: tigreayu23 (531614 in chips)
Seat 4: babeklu (735782 in chips)
Seat 5: EDWARDHOPPER (607944 in chips)
Seat 6: as1025 (157047 in chips)
Seat 7: OU THE NICK (1661237 in chips)
Seat 8: jokkee_apart (924274 in chips)
Seat 9: kmichael14 (197727 in chips)

as1025 falls fast, first

Just seven hands into Saturday's play, the rest of as1025's chips were gone. EDWARDHOPPER kicked off the action with a raise to 2,850 followed by as1025 making the three-bet shove for 115,022 chips with [ac][7c]. OU The NICK folded, but jokkee_apart called with [th][td] as the rest of the table folded. The board ran out [8d] [5s] [Kd] [Tc] [6d], sending as1025 to the rail, picking up 9th place winnings of $2,013.66.

Babeklu triples, busts kmichael14

Two hands later, jokkee_apart looked to eliminate two players as babeklu and kmichael14 were the players at risk. Here's how that hand played out:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The elimination of kmichael14 in 8th place was good for $3,635.77.

jokkee_apart straightened out

Eight handed, jokkee_apart was 2nd in chips, but after tripling up babeklu, the downward slide continued. Players were now adding 7,000 each hand to the pot as jokkee_apart opened with a raise to 20,810 from UTG. Only two players called, babeklu and OU THE NICK as the trio saw the [8h] [Ts] [7c] flop. OU THE NICK and jokkee_apart checked as babeklu bet 50,145 and only jokkee_apart called leaving two to see the [6h] on the turn. Jokkee_apart check-called the bet of 95,276 as the river brought the [9c]. A river shove by jokkee_apart for 303,689 was quickly called by babeklu and when the cards were revealed, it was easy to see why. Jokkee_apart made a straight on the river, turning over [6c][5c] for the bottom end of the straight. That was easily topped by babeklu, turning over the [qs][js] for a higher straight, no jokkee. The Norwegian left with $5,500.27 as six players remained.

The eye of the tigreayu23 closed

Argentina's hopes of a 4th SCOOP title were dashed when tigreayu23's tournament ended in 6th place, collecting $7,364.77. The antes were bumped up to 9,000 as EDWARDHOPPER limped, OU THE NICK re-raised to 26,545, LiroLa flatted and tigreayu23 four-bet shipped for 221,193. EDWARDHOPPER decided to pass, OU THE NICK five-bet shoved for 1,240,772 as LiroLa passed. Cards were on their backs as OU THE NICK revealed [ad][kd] as tigreayu23 held the lead with [8h][8s]. The first three cards that would decide the tournament future of tigreayu23 were [Jd] [9s] [Qs], giving OU THE NICK the gutshot straight draw to go with their two overcards. The prettiest card in the deck [as] gave OU THE NICK the lead and held on when the [3d] hit the river.

EDWARDHOPPER bounced

The stack of EDWARDHOPPER experienced the most fluctuation among the five players remaining, doubling up a short stack or doubled through one of the bigger stacks. The antes were now 10,000 a player as JustSaba limped, babeklu re-raised to 22,755 and when EDWARDHOPPER found [js][jh] on the button and moved in for 526,742, poised to double once again. However, LiroLa was next to act and found [qc][qd] worthy of a four-bet shove for over 2,000,000 chips as JustSaba and babeklu moved out of the way. The board runs out [5h] [8c] [Ad] [6d] [Td] giving LiroLa the chip lead as EDWARDHOPPER cashes in for $9,229.27 but still had chips in the High event, eventually finishing 2nd for almost $40,000 more.

Babe, I'm gonna leave klu

LiroLa continued to add to the chip lead until running into a cooler by JustSaba to double up the Dutch player when LiroLa's pocket jacks ran into pocket kings in a pot worth over 3.6 million chips to take a commanding chip lead.

LiroLa would get some of the chips back after eliminated babeklu in 4th place, good for $12,678.60. The antes were now at 15,000 a person as LiroLa raised to 25,500 with [9h][9s]. Babeklu looked down at [6c][6h] and shoved for 560,892 as LiroLa called. The situation had not changed after the board came down [Qc] [7s] [Ts] [Qd] [Kd] as three players remained.

THE NICK gets nicked in 3rd

One level later heads-up play would take place after the elimination of OU THE NICK in 3rd place, picking up winnings of $17,694.10. Antes were now at 17,500 as LiroLa opened the action with a raise to 22,025. OU THE NICK found [qh}[tc] in the big blind and shipped it for 751,944 total, a development the Brazilian appreciated as they held [jd][jh] and called. Another queen was not in the works this hand as the board runs out [8s] [5h] [8h] [5s] [As] as JustSaba started heads-up play with a 3.8m to 2.3m chip lead.

All JustSaba does is win

Heads-up play consisted of JustSaba grinding down the stack of LiroLa, eventually holding a 5-1 chip lead. The antes were now at 25,000 when JustSaba checked, LiroLa re-raised to 38,800, followed by a three-bet by JustSaba to 98,000, then a four-bet shove by LiroLa for 980,736 total as JustSaba called. JustSaba held the lead, revealing [ks][kc] while LiroLa was dominated with [9d][9c], hoping for one of the next five cards to be one of the remaining nines. The [8d] [Qd] [2s] changed nothing, but the [jh] on the turn gave LiroLa four additional outs. Unfortunately, the board paired for LiroLa as the [qh] on the river gave JustSaba the checkmark, a SCOOP victory for $31,696.84 and a Movado watch. LiroLa picks up a nice payday for $23,306.25 for coming in second.

SCOOP Event 13-M: $162 NL Holdem, Ante-Up Final Table Results:

1st: JustSaba - $31,696.84
2nd:LiroLa - $23,306.25
3rd: OU THE NICK - $17,694.10
4th: babeklu - $12,678.60
5th: EDWARDHOPPER - $9,229.27
6th: tigreayu23 - $7,364.77
7th: jokkee_apart - $5,500.27
8th: kmichael14 - $3,636.77
9th: as1025 - $2,013.66

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/scoop/2011_2/2011/scoop---13-m-162-nl-ante-up-justs
abas-ju-081378.html

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Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Day 2, level 13,
14, 15 & 16 updates (blinds 2,000-4,000, ante 400)

10.55pm: The bubble has burst
As expected it was Zjelko Adzaga who is the unfortunate 25th place finisher, [Ah][10d] was good enough for him to get his last 8,000 in with but Igor Loncar (previously reported as Ioncar) found pocket aces. And Adzaga was drawing dead by the river on a [5c][Ks][4d][6s][Kc] board.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 2,000-4,000, ante 400

10.35pm: The bubble continues
There's yet to be a single all-in showdown during the 50 minutes that the bubble has been going on for. The shortest stack is Zeljko Adzaga who has just 8,000 left, but he's got seven hands before the big blind comes round to him.

But Alain Medesan has provided some light entertainment by building an amazing chip structure that is pictured below.

Er, how many chips do you have?

10.10pm: Still on the bubble
The bubble is yet to burst here in Nova Gorica. There's been a couple of all-ins from short stacks but no calls as of yet. Something's got to give soon as there are a few stacks in the 10-20 big blind range.

9.45pm: On the bubble
We're down to 25 players here, Marius Zuber has just exited and the players are now playing hand for hand.

9.35pm: Back from the break
Cards are back in the air and the clock informs me that 27 players remain, Visraeliyan Petleshkov with around 250,000 is still the man to catch.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,500-3,000, ante 300

8.35pm: Dinner break
The remaining players are now on a one hour dinner break.

8.20pm: Chip counts
Here's a few chip counts for some of the 29 remaining players:

Igor Ioncar - 152,000
Filip Bedzinski - 63,000
Tadeas Kozdon - 110,000
Mitch Johnson - 97.000
Miha Staric - 160,000
Pavel Berka - 105,000
Luca Formisano - 142,000
Dorde Jovanovic - 154,000
Alain Medesan - 167,000

29 players remain, average stack is 109, 137.

8.05pm: Spaniard scoops with a straight
Dieguez Rodriguez was the runner up in the inaugural Eureka Poker Tour event in Prague and he's just done his chances of making back to back final tables, let alone cashes, the world of good.

In the hand in question it folded round to Alain Medesan on the button and he raised just over the minimum to 4,900 total. Both Marius Zuba (small blind) and Rodriguez (big blind) made the call.

The flop fell [Qd][8c][Js] and Zuba led out for 7,500, only Rodriquez called. The turn was the [Ad] and Zuba checked to Rodriguez who bet 9,000, call from Zuba. The [Kc] completed the board and Zuba checked again to Rodriguez who bet 24,000 and this time after a longer dwell Zuba called, Rodriguez showed [Kd][10h] for a straight and Zuba mucked. The Spaniard is now up to around 180,000.

Rodriguez - representing for Spain again

7.55pm: Bulgarians leading the way
Visraeliyan Petleshkov from Bulgaria is now the new chip leader with around 290,000 winning a pot with just ace high apparently.

Petleshkov - wins with the ace high

7.45pm: Will the bubble burst before the break?
There are currently 32 players left and 24 will get paid. There's 50 minutes left before the players go on a one hour dinner break. It's going to be a close run thing but I suspect they'll be a few player sweating through dinner as I reckon they'll be 26 or 27 left at the end of this level.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,200-2,400, ante 300

7.30pm: Korodi takes a chunk for former chip leader
Dalibor Korodi just took a nice pot from Dorde Jovanovic. The latter raised to 5,300 from under-the-gun and Korodi (big blind) was the only caller. The flop was [2d][10c][6c] and Korodi check-called a bet of 10,000. The turn was the [6h] and again Korodi check-called a bet of 10,000. The river was the [10h] and Korodi led for 25,500 and Jovanovic made the call but mucked when Korodi showed pocket queens.

7.20pm: Huge pot
The action was started by Daniel Todorov who raised to 5,300 from the cut-off, Alexandru Popovici then three-bet to 14,500 from the button. It folded back to Todorov and he made the call.

The flop was [6d][3c][5s] and Todorov check-called a bet of 14,500. Both players checked the [2d] turn to see the [Ah] fall on the river. Once again Todorov checked and Popovici then moved all-in for 59,000 total. This sent Todorov deep into the tank and he stood up to consider his action, cut out the call, thought some more and then eventually called.

Popovici: [Kd][Jc] for king high
Todorov: [Ac][Kd] for top pair

Todorov had Popovici covered and is now the chip leader with around 250,000.

New chip leader Daniel Todorov

7.05pm: Down to four tables
Sasa Stancic is the latest casualty and with his exit, 36 players remain and are spread out over four tables of nine.

6.55pm: Dorde still out in front
During the break the dealers did chip counts and what that tells us is that Dorde Jovanovic (188,000) is still leading the way, Libor Behro (161,300) is second and Igor Ioncar (159,000) is in third. Hot on their heels in the chasing pack are players such as Alain Medesan (144,000) and Miha Staric (130,000).

Staric - part of the chasing pack

6.30pm: Level 13 Underway
The remaining 43 players are back in their seats at the five tables still in use. Below is Libor Behro he has 161,300 and is amongst the chip leaders.

Behro - building a stack

PokerStars Blog reporting team at Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Nick Wright. Photos courtesy of Manuel Kovsca.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/eureka_poker_tour/2011/eureka-poker-tour-nova-goric
a-day-2-leve-1-081373.html

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SCOOP: JIZOINT turns the joint winning $55K in
Event #13-H

5,000 chips and blinds that stay at 5/5?!?! A thousand big blinds for pros of this caliber may cause the tournament to last until a Holiday Inn is built on Mars or my beloved Minnesota Vikings to finally win a Super Bowl (actually that will probably never happen). While the blinds may stay the same, they were not the driver for nearly the whole field to miss day 2 today. Antes started on the first hand gradually increased with every blind level.

Twenty-three levels, 171 players ponying up $1,575.00 to create a $200,000 guarantee breaking $256,500.00 prize pool and only eight were good enough to continue the journey to day two of SCOOP Event #13-H. UhhMee who has been hot this tournament (and currently leads the Player of the Series standings) series with two final tables in Event #10-Medium and Event #9-High took home "Gigli" honors (hat tip to Dr. Pauly) as the first one out last night.

Team PokerStars pros were out in full force trying to notch their first SCOOP watch of the tournament series with week one in almost in the books. Greg DeBora unfortunately exited the stage right after UhhMee, and Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth also could not add a second SCOOP watch after taking down the Main Event-High in 2009 finishing in 124th place. George Danzer was probably more interested in his final table battle in Event #14's LO8 $5,200 buy-in tourney eventually taking 4th for $14K , but finishing in 99th here and was followed by Polish pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki in 95th place.

A little further up the board we found JP Kelly in 64th place but we would have to look past the money bubble to find our remaining three red spade holders. After Event #6-High champion supa4real busted in 28th place on the money bubble, SCOOP 2011 destroyer Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn notched yet another cash. With an astounding three runner-ups in Event #10, Event #11 and while this tourney was running, Event #14, Kostritsyn would settle for 24th place here ($2,565.00). Another player at that Event #14 final table, Team Online's Anders "Donald" Berg (finishing 3rd for $21K) added to his run at the Player of the Series award with a 13th place ($3,847.50) finish.

Anders "Donald" Berg: 13th place

Just behind Berg was Team PokerStars pro Leo Fernandez in 14th place, but one player with the red spade sitting next to his name still has chips in his stack as shown below:

Seat 1: 444446 (107464 in chips)
Seat 2: Zoutechamp (32359 in chips)
Seat 3: JIZOINT (191429 in chips)
Seat 4: EDWARDHOPPER (125014 in chips)
Seat 5: PKaiser (45058 in chips)
Seat 7: McMang (128528 in chips)
Seat 8: d0r1t0s (133647 in chips)
Seat 9: cheezees (91501 in chips)

Team PokerStars pro Pierre "Zoutechamp" Neuville would start off the day on the short stack with just 32,359 chips as the static blinds of 5/5 are not what pushes the aggression in this ante up styled tournament, but the sizable antes that change every 30 minutes. As play starts the players will deposit 1,000 chips in middle every hand making steals very lucrative and giving odds to a variety of hands preflop. nestegg1who made the final table but busted before the close of the night, received $5,130.00 in ninth place.

Kaiser rolled

Neuville held on to that short stack long enough to see an unfortunate cooler for PKaiser just 10 minutes into day 2. With the ante at 1,000 chips EDWARDHOPPER opened to 3,465 as PKaiser re-popped on his immediate left to 8,500. Folded back around to EDWARDHOPPER who liked his cards enough to four-bet to 24,150. Holding [Qc][As] PKaiser made the final raise all-in for 39,486 chips. EDWARDHOPPER snap called with big slick [Ad][Ks] and carried the domination through the [4s] [4h] [6c] [Ac] [2c] board knocking out PKaiser in eighth place ($7,695.00).

Team PokerStars Pro Pierre "Zoutechamp" Neuville eliminated in seventh place

The short stack finally succumbed to the seven thousand chips put in every lap around the oval, one hand after all seven players managed to take a flop (something this blogger has never seen in a different tournament) we would say good bye to our last remaining red spade pro. Neuville may have held 3,624 big blinds but had only 18 antes while making a play for the 7,010 chips sitting the middle. He would open all-in for 17,117 chips holding [Kc][Js] but EDWARDHOPPER was there holding another premium hand, pocket kings [Kh][Ks] this time, making the call. Pierre would give a little sweat as the turn [6h] [8s] [9h] [Qd] opened up a gutshot straight draw but the [9s] river ended the Belgian pro's tournament in seventh place ($10,260.00).

HOP, skip, and another one jumps from the ship

EDWARDHOPPER was responsible for the first two eliminations; watch below as he takes on McMang in a sizable 263,855 chip pot for the tournament chip lead:

RSS readers please click through to view video

d0r1t0s opened the pot to 3,456 as it folded to the blinds as EDWARDHOPPER made the call from the small blind but McMang wanted all those loose chips to himself and three-bet to 13,456. d0r1t0s needed something from the pantry and folded as EDWARDHOPPER went looking for another scalp and shoved covering McMang's stack. With big slick [As][Kh] McMang made the call to start up the race against EDWARDHOPPER's black jacks [Js][Jc]. Jack on the flop [6h] [Jd] [3s] put this race away early as the turned [9s] shipped the huge pot to EDWARDHOPPER and McMang became his third straight victim in sixth place ($12,825.00) and actually earned more than his earlier fifth place finish in Event #10-High that only paid out three places.

Nice call sir (no, really, nice call)

Usually a throw-away comment after someone sucks out by making a call they had no business making but with the antes moved up to $1,250 EDWARDHOPPER's chip lead was taking some hits from the aggressive play and sincere "nice call" was in order. Giving up 60,184 chips in a game of preflop chicken with d0r1t0s and just before the hourly break JIZOINT showed some fortitude to claim a huge pot shortly after. With 115,500 chips already in the pot and [9c] [5d] [5c] [4h] [7d] showing on the board, EDWARDHOPPER led out for 63,525chips. Nearly half the chips in JIZOINT's stack to make the call, and call he did after using around two minutes on his time bank holding top pair top kicker [Ac][9d]. The call was a good one as EDWARDHOPPER rolled over [Ah][Tc] for the bluff and 242,550 chips along with the chip lead moved over to JIZOINT.

Unrewarded

Taking time off the time bank to ponder a call some work through all the possible hand holdings, others may take a long sip of beer to center themselves before making a decision that could cost them (or make them) thousands of dollars. Watch below as 444446 took the time to make the call for the remainder of those tournament chips:

RSS readers please click through to view video

Right call, wrong result.

After trading raises with JIZOINT, 444446 faced a final raise that would cost him his remaining 66,379 chips. A sizable stack for 444446 considering the 1,500 chip antes and near non-existent blinds, and after some soul searching holding [Ac][Js] the answer was "call". JIZOINT still had 258,656 if he lost this 178,356 chip pot holding the dominated [Ah][8d] but an eight on the flop would hold up [4d] [2s] [8c] [Ks] [7s] booting 444446 unwarranted to the curb in fifth place ($15,390.00).

Upset that someone else eliminated a player?

The very next hand EDWARDHOPPER, who may have sat aghast that someone would try to bust another player without the chips sliding to his stack, corrected this minor error immediately. Antes still at $1,500 cheezees would find himself in the same position as our eighth place finisher PKaiser, all-in holding [Ah][Qh] hoping for a small reversal against the big slick [As][Ks] of EDWARDHOPPER. Similar to PKaiser's fate, the board could only produce one heart and no queens [9h] [4s] [Td] [3d] [8c] giving cheezees an appetizer platter worth $22,443.75 in fourth place.

Team Online's Kristian "CharismA3" Martin got to flex his hosting duties as our final three want to see the chop numbers shown below:

d0r1t0s $36,678.89
JIZOINT $44,820.79
EDWARDHOPPER $39,544.08

Unfortunately, due to everyone wanting more money we would play on without a chop in place.

As the antes moved to $1,750 the chip stacks flattened out a bit. See below how deep-stacked the play was after two hours and fifteen minutes today (we won't mention the 60,000 big blinds apiece held by d0r1t0s and EDWARDHOPPER):

d0r1t0s: Antes: 173
JIZOINT: Antes: 135
EDWARDHOPPER: Antes: 174

d0r1t0s served with clubs

We would play three handed for over an hour due to the excellent deep structure that allowed for raises, three-bets, and even four-bets preflop along with post flop play without the players feeling the need to shove every hand. d0r1t0s fell to relative short-stack status and with the antes at $2,500 holding he would not back down on his aggressive game. After raising to 3,333 from the button, d0r1t0s faced a three-bet from EDWARDHOPPER in the big blind for 12,855 total. d0r1t0s made the call as an all-club flop hit the board [3c] [7c] [9c]. EDWARDHOPPER followed-through with a 14,946 chip bet as d0r1t0s tried to seize the pumped up pot with a shove for 77,667 chips holding top pair [Th][9h]. But EDWARDHOPPER's pocket jacks [Jc][Js] with a redraw to a flush made the call. Club on the turn [5c] closed the bag on d0r1t0s as the Supernova collected $30,138.75 in third place and his second final table of the 2011 SCOOP series (4th place in Event #9).

UK vs. Denmark

Despite EDWARDHOPPER eliminating nearly everyone from the table, UK's JIZOINT would carry the chip lead 520,284 to 334,716 into heads-up play for the SCOOP championship watch and $55,147.50 first prize.

Rolled over by a wheel

Despite the rise in antes to 3,000 both players still held enough chips to make this heads-up battle last the remainder of the afternoon. But, watch below as a very unlucky turn card hits for EDWARDHOPPER:

RSS readers please click through to view video

Holding a 491,630 to 363,370 chip lead, JIZOINT would raise to 3,665 from the button as EDWARDHOPPER made the call. The flop peeled out [4h] [Qs] [3s] and EDWARDHOPPER check-called a 7,855 bet from JIZOINT to see the fateful [2c] hit the turn. EDWARDHOPPER checked again as JIZOINT led out for 16,855 but this time EDWARDHOPPER check-raised to 42,254. JIZOINT was not done and three-bet to 88,655 as EDWARDHOPPER held 260,195 chips back after deciding just to call. [Jd] on the river and JIZOINT pushed out a big 135,655 chip bet as EDWARDHOPPER made a slight pause for check-raising all-in holding a wheel [As][5c] as JIZOINT snap called with the nuts [6c][5d]! The final 726,740 chips moved into JIZOINT's stack giving the UK player a second huge score at this year's SCOOP tournament series after chopping up Event #8-high for $82K. However this time JIZOINT would walk away with more than the cash as the Event #13-H champion!

Be sure to keep coming back daily for the Inside SCOOP show for a video recap of yesterday's action. Or if the printed word is more your speed, Brad "Otis" Willis is here to help with a daily SCOOP recap.

SCOOP Event #13-H $200,000 Guarantee NLHE Ante Up! Results (05/14/11):
1. JIZOINT (United Kingdom) $55,147.50
2. EDWARDHOPPER (Denmark) $39,757.50
3. d0r1t0s (Canada) $30,138.75
4. cheezees (United Kingdom) $22,443.75
5. 444446 (Lebanon) $15,390.00
6. McMang (Sweden) $12,825.00
7. Team PokerStars Pro Pierre "Zoutechamp" Neuville (Belgium) $10,260.00
8. PKaiser (Chile) $7,695.00
9. nestegg1 (Saint Kitts and Nevis) $5,130.00

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/scoop/2011/scoop-jizoint-turns-the-joint-winning-55
-081377.html

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Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Day 2, level 13,
14 and 15 updates (blinds 1,500-3,000, ante 300)

9.45pm: On the bubble
We're down to 25 players here, Marius Zuber has just exited and the players are now playing hand for hand.

9.35pm: Back from the break
Cards are back in the air and the clock informs me that 27 players remain, Visraeliyan Petleshkov with around 250,000 is still the man to catch.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,500-3,000, ante 300

8.35pm: Dinner break
The remaining players are now on a one hour dinner break.

8.20pm: Chip counts
Here's a few chip counts for some of the 29 remaining players:

Igor Ioncar - 152,000
Filip Bedzinski - 63,000
Tadeas Kozdon - 110,000
Mitch Johnson - 97.000
Miha Staric - 160,000
Pavel Berka - 105,000
Luca Formisano - 142,000
Dorde Jovanovic - 154,000
Alain Medesan - 167,000

29 players remain, average stack is 109, 137.

8.05pm: Spaniard scoops with a straight
Dieguez Rodriguez was the runner up in the inaugural Eureka Poker Tour event in Prague and he's just done his chances of making back to back final tables, let alone cashes, the world of good.

In the hand in question it folded round to Alain Medesan on the button and he raised just over the minimum to 4,900 total. Both Marius Zuba (small blind) and Rodriguez (big blind) made the call.

The flop fell [Qd][8c][Js] and Zuba led out for 7,500, only Rodriquez called. The turn was the [Ad] and Zuba checked to Rodriguez who bet 9,000, call from Zuba. The [Kc] completed the board and Zuba checked again to Rodriguez who bet 24,000 and this time after a longer dwell Zuba called, Rodriguez showed [Kd][10h] for a straight and Zuba mucked. The Spaniard is now up to around 180,000.

Rodriguez - representing for Spain again

7.55pm: Bulgarians leading the way
Visraeliyan Petleshkov from Bulgaria is now the new chip leader with around 290,000 winning a pot with just ace high apparently.

Petleshkov - wins with the ace high

7.45pm: Will the bubble burst before the break?
There are currently 32 players left and 24 will get paid. There's 50 minutes left before the players go on a one hour dinner break. It's going to be a close run thing but I suspect they'll be a few player sweating through dinner as I reckon they'll be 26 or 27 left at the end of this level.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 1,200-2,400, ante 300

7.30pm: Korodi takes a chunk for former chip leader
Dalibor Korodi just took a nice pot from Dorde Jovanovic. The latter raised to 5,300 from under-the-gun and Korodi (big blind) was the only caller. The flop was [2d][10c][6c] and Korodi check-called a bet of 10,000. The turn was the [6h] and again Korodi check-called a bet of 10,000. The river was the [10h] and Korodi led for 25,500 and Jovanovic made the call but mucked when Korodi showed pocket queens.

7.20pm: Huge pot
The action was started by Daniel Todorov who raised to 5,300 from the cut-off, Alexandru Popovici then three-bet to 14,500 from the button. It folded back to Todorov and he made the call.

The flop was [6d][3c][5s] and Todorov check-called a bet of 14,500. Both players checked the [2d] turn to see the [Ah] fall on the river. Once again Todorov checked and Popovici then moved all-in for 59,000 total. This sent Todorov deep into the tank and he stood up to consider his action, cut out the call, thought some more and then eventually called.

Popovici: [Kd][Jc] for king high
Todorov: [Ac][Kd] for top pair

Todorov had Popovici covered and is now the chip leader with around 250,000.

New chip leader Daniel Todorov

7.05pm: Down to four tables
Sasa Stancic is the latest casualty and with his exit, 36 players remain and are spread out over four tables of nine.

6.55pm: Dorde still out in front
During the break the dealers did chip counts and what that tells us is that Dorde Jovanovic (188,000) is still leading the way, Libor Behro (161,300) is second and Igor Ioncar (159,000) is in third. Hot on their heels in the chasing pack are players such as Alain Medesan (144,000) and Miha Staric (130,000).

Staric - part of the chasing pack

6.30pm: Level 13 Underway
The remaining 43 players are back in their seats at the five tables still in use. Below is Libor Behro he has 161,300 and is amongst the chip leaders.

Behro - building a stack

PokerStars Blog reporting team at Eureka Poker Tour Nova Gorica: Nick Wright. Photos courtesy of Manuel Kovsca.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/eureka_poker_tour/2011/eureka-poker-tour-nova-goric
a-day-2-leve-1-081373.html

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Sportsbetting Podcasts: Trap Games, Blackjack
Fallacies, Conquering Risk, and Syndicate Betting

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA


I listen to a bunch of spotsbetting podcasts, but these days I'm enjoying the gang at PreGame.com the best. They recorded several last week that touched on topics ranging from blackjack, to the Kelly Criterion, to the UIEGA, and of course my favorite topic -- what really goes behind the scenes in the sportsbetting world.

RJ Bell and his crew have been doing a kick ass job at PreGame, so I wanted to give them props for their hard work by mentioning a few gems to you that I enjoyed recently.....

Betting Dork: Interviewing Elihu Feustel, the author of "Conquering Risk: Attacking Vegas and Wall Street" with Gil and Elihu Feustel

Betting Dork: Interviewing Jeffrey Ma from the original MIT Blackjack team with Gil and Jeffrey Ma

This Week in Sports Betting: Anatomy of a Trap Game with RJ Bell and Vegas Runner

This Week in Sports Betting: Syndicate Betting with RJ Bell and Philly Godfather

The first podcast with author Elihu Feustel was amazing because he shared a few juicy stories about a couple of hairy situations with sportsbooks, like the time Pinnacle canceled his multi-team teaser on a card of NFL pre-season games, and how he butted heads with several sportsbooks at Harrah's properties. Gil and Elihu also chatted a bit about the UIGEA toward the end of the Betting Dork episode.

The second podcast with Jeffrey Ma had a few enlightening moments, especially when he dispelled the myths about blackjack and his interesting take on the sports betting market.

My favorite podcasts with RJ Bell are the ones when wiseguys (like Philly Godfather and Vegas Runner) come on and give you a real and honest glimpse on the vagaries of the sportsbetting world. This week they shared some insight on the shadowy, yet sophisticated underworld of syndicate betting and how to avoid trap games (black holes for sports bettors). And yeah, I love the Ice Cube intro music... It Was A Good Day. Fitting anthem for sportsbettors in the postmodern era.

Oh, and just in case you missed it, check out Change100's This Week in Sportsbetting episode she recorded last month. I was invited by RJ to chat about Black Friday, but I was visiting Machu Picchu and couldn't make it so my better half, Change100, filled in for me as a guest and did a better job than I could explaining Black Friday fallout.

Original content provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only...Support indie writers by buying Pauly's book Lost Vegas.

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http://taopoker.blogspot.com/2011/05/sportsbetting-podcasts-trap-games.html

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