LAPT Playa Conchal: Bergren takes huge lead into
final table

Envy isn't a productive emotion and we try to avoid it as often as we can. That said, after talking with Sol Bergren, we're finding it hard to cage the green monster. Bergren is young, relaxed, leading the life of many people's dreams, and holds the chip lead going into the LAPT Playa Conchal final table.

The 29-year-old won a monster three-way all-in with eleven players remaining to shove his stack to the 1.2 million mark with nine players remaining. By the end of the night, he was sitting on 1,327,000, good for almost a 2-1 chip lead on second place.

Bergren refuses to describe himself as a poker pro, preferring instead to describe himself, in so many words, as a travel bum. He's spent the last couple of months, in his words, "bumming around," in Aruba and Costa Rica. We've seen him in the past on a PokerStars tour. His last big finish was in the December 2007 APPT Melbourne event where he made a final table. Now, he leads the final table of LAPT Playa Conchal. That's the type of thing he does when he takes a break from the tough life of world pleasure travel.

Day 3 of the main event here was a rock-and-fire affair that started with Brazilian Team PokerStars Pros Alex Gomes and Maria Mayrinck fighting for the final table. It ended quickly for Gomes after he rivered two pair against an opponent who rivered a straight. Mayrinck suffered the losing end of a coinflip, her ace-queen failing to outrun a pair of jacks.

Though those two stars would fall, eight people emerged from the day with another day ahead of them. The biggest hand of the evening came when Bergren busted Daniel Mar Palsson and Steven Merrifield on the same hand.

Bergren opened for 35,000 from the button and Merrifield reraised to 108,000 from the small blind. Then Palsson moved all-in for 127,000 from the big blind. Both Bergren and Merrifield called and the flop came down [8h][7s][4h]. Merrifield and Bergren both checked to see the [ts] on the turn. That's when Merrifield moved all-in for 268,000. Bergren dwelled then called for almost all his remaining stack. He turned up [ks][js] for the second-nut flush draw and two overs. He was up against Merrfield [as][6s] and Palsson's jack-ten.

The river that fell river elicited some pretty foul language and one pair of broken sunglasses. It was understandable. The [Kd] gave every one of the chips in the pot to Bergren.

After a protracted sparring match with nine players, we finally found the final table. The players will come back in about 15 hours to determine the champion. Here's how they stack up against each other.

Sol Bergren (Canada) PokerStars player -- 1,327,000
Eric Levesque (Canada) PokerStars qualifier -- 694,000
Rogelio Pardo (Costa Rica) -- 685,000
Amer Sulaiman (Canada) PokerStars player -- 604,000
Darren Keyes (Canada) -- 572,000
Francis-Nicolas Bouchard (Canada) PokerStars player -- 564,000
Carlos Giron (Guatemala) -- 400,000
Patrick De Koster (Netherlands) PokerStars qualifier -- 340,000

You'll notice something there. More than half of the final table hails from the great white north of Canada. With another player from the Netherlands, it will be up to Rogelio Pardo or Carlos Giron to claim the title for Latin America.

You can see a full list of people who have cashed so far on our LAPT Playa Conchal winners page. So see the same thing but in much better Spanish and Portuguese, be sure to head over to PokerStarsBlog.la and PokerStarsBlog/br.

If you'd like to read how we got to this point, we've listed all of our previous coverage links below.

Previous coverage: Day 1 wrap | Levels 9 and 10 | Levels 11 and 12 | Levels 13 and 14 | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 and 16 | Levels 17 and 18 | Levels 19 and 20 | Levels 21 and 22

We'll be back with final table action Sunday at noon CT. Until then, enjoy your weekend.

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LAPT Playa Conchal: Level 21 and 22 updates

Updates from levels 21 and 22 of LAPT Playa Conchal, brought to you by Brad Willis and Change100.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The LAPT tournament structure can be found on the LAPT tournament structure page. The full payout structure is on the prize pool and winners page.

Previous coverage: Day 1 wrap | Levels 9 and 10 | Levels 11 and 12 | Levels 13 and 14 | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 and 16 | Levels 17 and 18 | Levels 19 and 20

Blinds: 8,000/16,000/2,000

6:36pm: Bergren scores a double KO, eliminating Merrifield and Palsson
Well, that was dramatic.

Sol Bergren opened for 35,000 from the button. Steve Merrifield reraised to 108,000 from the small blind, only to watch Daniel Mar Palsson move all-in for 127,000 from the big blind. With the action back on Bergren, he asked tournament director Greg Pappas if Merrifield would be permitted to reraise should he make the call. Pappas told him that he wouldn't, and Bergren put in the call. Merrifield called the additional 19,000 and we went to the flop, which came down [8h][7s][4h].

Merrifield checked and Bergren checked behind, but when the [Ts] hit the turn, Merrifield moved all-in for his remaining 268,000. Bergren let out a long sigh, removed his headphones and stood up from his chair. The call would cost him most of his chips.

Bergren sat down, looking like he was about to fold, but surprisingly he called, tabling [Ks][Js] for the second-nut flush draw and two overs.

"I've got 20 outs" said Merrifield as he revealed [As][6s] for a double-gutshot straight draw, one over, and the nut flush draw. Bergren looked like he wanted to die.

That is, until the [Kd] miraculously spiked on the river. Wow. Just...wow.

Let's not forget about Palsson, who was also all-in. He showed [Jc][Tc] and actually led on the turn until Bergren hit his gin card.

Palsson exited in 11th place and Merrifield, who started the hand with more chips, took 10th. As for Bergren, he is now the far and away chip leader with over 1.2 million.

Sol Bergren

6:30pm: Level up
We've now moved on to Level 22 with Eric Levesque as our likely chip leader.

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LAPT Playa Conchal: Level 19 and 20 updates

Updates from levels 19 and 20 of LAPT Playa Conchal, brought to you by Brad Willis and Change100.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The LAPT tournament structure can be found on the LAPT tournament structure page. The full payout structure is on the prize pool and winners page.

Previous coverage: Day 1 wrap | Levels 9 and 10 | Levels 11 and 12 | Levels 13 and 14 | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 and 16 | Updates from levels 17 and 18 of LAPT Playa Conchal, brought to you by Brad Willis and Change100.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The LAPT tournament structure can be found on the LAPT tournament structure page. The full payout structure is on the prize pool and winners page.

Previous coverage: Day 1 wrap | Levels 9 and 10 | Levels 11 and 12 | Levels 13 and 14 | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 and 16 | Updates from levels 17 and 18 of LAPT Playa Conchal, brought to you by Brad Willis and Change100.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The LAPT tournament structure can be found on the LAPT tournament structure page. The full payout structure is on the prize pool and winners page.

Previous coverage: Day 1 wrap | Levels 9 and 10 | Levels 11 and 12 | Levels 13 and 14 | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 and 16 | Levels 17 and 18

Blinds: 5,000/10,000/1,000

3:53pm: Time for a news level
Players are getting rid of the unnecessary 500 chips now. The blinds move up to 5,000/10,000/1,000.

While we wait for the players to sit back down, here's a photo of the sharks on sale for Humberto Brenes' Save the Sharks charity effort.

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EPT Vilamoura: Matias heads the home charge and
takes lead to final table

Day four of the inaugural EPT event in Vilamoura was not for the faint-hearted. This year's tournament structure is one of the best in the world, but remarkably even a stack of more than a million chips going into the penultimate day doesn't guarantee a thing.

Just ask Antony Lellouche.

The massive overnight leader, and seasoned EPT veteran, was one of the first fallers on a day of huge hands and shocking bust-outs. At the end of it, the Portuguese player Antonio Matias is the leader going to the final table. He held most of the monsters and was behind most of those bust-outs, with the full result of all this carnage a final table line-up that looks like this:

Antonio Matias, Portugal, 3,003,000
Jeff Sarwer, Canada, 1,983,000
Ryan Franklin, United States, 1,047,000
Pierre Neuville, Belgium, 1,027,000
Jan Skampa, Czech Republic, 926,000
Joao Silva, Portugal, 780,000
Michel Abecassis, France, 488,000
Andrei Vlasenko, Russia, 371,000

Antonio Matias

Matias's charge into the lead really gathered steam when he knocked out Lellouche in two huge pots. On the second of those, Lellouche bluff-shoved all in with a busted draw that Matias snapped off with trip twos.

Matias sat with more than 1.5 million at that point, it grew beyond 2 million as the day progressed, and with 3,003,000 at day's close he is going to be a huge threat at tomorrow's final table.

The same applies to Jeff Sarwer. "Make me the villain," Sarwer quipped last night, when we joked that we were getting tired of writing about him on PokerStars Blog and had now run out of things to say. But it's tough to make a villain out of a player who is rapidly becoming the story of season six.

Jeff Sarwer

He's been chip-leader or thereabouts on at least five days we've had to write these wrap-up reports. A relatively recent convert to poker from chess, he's clearly doing something very right indeed - and now he is second in chips going to his first final table. The ride continues.

Of course to get to those eight, we had to lose 16 others. Among them were the PokerStars qualifier - and official Friend of PokerStars Blog - Matt Johns, who ran kings into aces and then sevens into more aces, all within the first orbit. That's no way to end what had been a terrific first appearance on the EPT from Johns. As a self-professed impoverished student, the ?10,151 is going to help, but he'll probably be ruing what might have been. Next time, Matt.

Matt Johns

He was joined on the rail by the likes of Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy and another online phenom, Ruben Visser, whose big overnight stack followed the example set by Lellouche's (ie, it vanished).

Ruben Visser

Visser's Team PokerStars Pro colleague Jude Ainsworth deserves special mention too. Although he went out in 13th, that's a cash on his EPT debut since joining the Team. Plenty more are sure to follow.

Jude Ainsworth

The full list of prizewinners so far is on the prizewinners page, where you'll also see the target for all those remaining eight, namely the ?404,793 first prize.

As we drift off into the Algarve night, there's still plenty for you to keep you entertained. The LAPT Playa Conchal is under way, so check out all the updates from Costa Rica. You can watch all kinds of televisual entertainment over on PokerStars.tv. When you've done all that - and not before - you can check out all the action from today with our level-by-level updates:

Level 18 updates
Level 19 updates
Level 20 updates
Level 21 updates
Level 22 updates

Join us tomorrow for this showdown. There's the online phenomenon in Ryan "HITTHEPANDA" Franklin, there's the chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer. There's the EPT veterans Pierre Neuville and Michel Abecassis and there's the eastern European dark horses Jan Skampa and Andrei Vlasenko. Then there's the home hopes Joao Silva and our leader, Antonio Matias.

It should be fun. Until then, goodnight.

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LAPT Playa Conchal: Level 17 and 18 updates

Updates from levels 17 and 18 of LAPT Playa Conchal, brought to you by Brad Willis and Change100.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The LAPT tournament structure can be found on the LAPT tournament structure page. The full payout structure is on the prize pool and winners page.

Previous coverage: Day 1 wrap | Levels 9 and 10 | Levels 11 and 12 | Levels 13 and 14 | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 and 16

Blinds: 3,000-6,000 (500 ante)

1:50pm: The Eric Levesque speech
Eric Levesque ha a sort of script he uses when making a decision against an all-in player This is it, almost verbatim:

Now you have to deal with me, because I don't think you have much. You look like you want to die. You should not have done that. I think you'll have a customer. You have 30 seconds to convince me to fold. Do you not want a customer? I don't believe you."

We've now heard the speech a few times and could recite it ourselves. This time, it ended with him calling Edgar Cruz's all-in bet on the river on a board [ts][4h][8c][ad][js]. Cruz sort of slow-rolled his pocket eights for the set and racked up about 250,000 in chips.

1:33pm: Francis Kemper Cagney eliminated in 20th place
All-in pre-flop with pocket fours against [As][Ts], Cagney couldn't win the race, an ace hitting the flop to take him out in 20th place.

1:29pm: Eric Levesque takes out Don Stockwell in 22nd, Gonzalez out in 21st
Eric Levesque opened for 14,000 from under-the-gun, Edgar Cruz flat-called from the small blind and Don Stockwell moved all in for an additional 34,000. Levesque called but after a few minutes in the tank, Cruz elected to fold. Although Stockwell's [Ad][Jc] had Levesque in bad shape with [Ah][3h], Levesque rivered a flush, the board running out [2h][6h][5d][7c][9h] to eliminate Stockwell in 22nd place.

Almost simultaneously, Alejandro Gonzalez Mata met his tournament end, exiting in 21st place.

1:27pm: New level, new blinds
After an hour of play, we're now moving up in blinds. And a bustout report is coming!

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EPT Vilamoura: Day 4, level 22 updates

Updates from level 22 of EPT Vilamoura, brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey and Howard Swains.

Selected approximate chip counts, updated throughout the day, are available on the chip counts page. The EPT tournament structure can be found on the EPT tournament structure page. The full payout structure and prizewinners to date are on the payout structure page.

Previous coverage: Day 1a | Day 1b | Day 2 | Day 3 | Level 18 updates | Level 19 updates | Level 20 updates | Level 21 updates

Blinds: 10,000-20,000 (2,000 ante)

6.50pm: No takers
First hand back after the break and Andrei Vlasenko shoved, getting no takers. Second hand back from the break Vlasenko shoved again, still no takers. Joao Silva was trying the same on the other table and you guessed it, no takers.

6.45pm: All in action
The action started with an under-the-gun 48,000 raise from Ryan Franklin before Gino Gabriel three-bet to 170,000 and Santiago Terrazas moved all in. Franklin folded but Gabriel called with [js][jh]. Terrazas opened [ks][kc] and the board ran [ah][5h][3h][5c][3s] to more than double-up the Spanish player.

6.40pm: Hidden talents
With Jude Ainsworth's elimination in the last level, Team PokerStars Pro took their leave of EPT Vilamoura. That gives them more time to work on their hidden talents, showcased in this video blog:

Watch EPT Vilamoura PokerStars Pro Hidden Talents on PokerStars.tv

6.35pm: We're back
Play has resumed in Vilamoura. Just 12 players remain and we play on until that figure is down to eight. Check out the latest scores on the now updated chip count page. Missing someone? You might find them here on the prize winners and payout page.

Pierre Neuville


Read The Full Article:
http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/ept/2009/ept-vilamoura-day-4-level-22-updates-06153
4.html

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