After 5 days of play at the Aussie Millions, the first Gold Ring of 2013 was awarded to Ruper Elder. The British poker pro, who won the 2011 EPT San Remo Main Event, bested a field of 1,338 entries in the $1,100 Opening Event and had to overcame 1 former EPT champion and the defending champion in this event, Aussie Brendon Ruble, on the final table. It was a well-deserved win by Elder who now adds $250,000 to a resume that already features over $1.5 million in tournament winnings!
The final table of EPT San Remo ended up being a very thrilling one, and it ended up being Andrey Pateychuck from Russia and Dimitar Danchev from Bulgaria who played heads-up for the title. Both players made a deal (winner would get €680k and the runner-up €600k) and started what turned into an almost 3 hour long heads-up with some sick hands. The heads-up was extremely swingy and it was impossible to say who would walk away with the trophy.
After 5 days of play, the EPT San Remo main event field has been narrowed down from 837 to 8 players. These 8 players will in a few hours time return to the theatre of Casino San Remo and fight for a first prize worth €800,000. Daniel Nielson, from Australia, will bring the largest stack to the final table. With 6,7 million chips Nielson has about a 2,3 million lead over Dimitar Danchev, from Russia, in second place.
Christopher McClung, from Canada, arrived as chip leader when Day 4 of EPT San Remo kicked off yesterday. When the day had come to an end, McClung had boosted his 1,2 million stack to an amazing 3,1 million - most of those chips came from a hand when he knocked out Joseph Cheong with flush vs set of kings. McClung's 3,1 million stack gives him a 1.1 million lead over Daniel Neilson in 2nd place.
Just as planned, the Day 4 field was played down to 24 players who will return to the poker room today and play it down to a final table, which will take place tomorrow with live stream. Among the players who still have chips left one can find quite a few interesting names. Just to mention a few: Barny Boatman with 1,25 million, Johnny Lodden with 1,2 million, Lex Veldhuis with 877k, and Elio Fox with 377k.
Today 64 players will return to the tables and play Day 4 of PokerStars EPT San Remo Main Event. All of the remaining players are guaranteed €12,000 each and today the field will be played down to 24 players before going on a break until tomorrow. Christopher McClung, from Canada, is in a pretty big lead with about 1,2 million chips. Then there are 7 players with 750,000 - 850,000 chips, so day 4 will be very interesting to follow.
Joseph Cheong, the 2010 WSOP main event finalist who lead the pack into Day 3, has dropped 3 positions and will return with 833,000 chips today. A few other notables in the top of the remaining field of players: Alessio Isaia (winner of this year's WPT Venice) in 5th place with 818k, Johnny Lodden (classic high stakes player during the Prima Poker era) in 6th place with 793k, and Lex Veldhuis (the winner of WSOP Europe last week) in 11th place with 652k.
In case you missed it: The EPT San Remo Main Event started a couple of days ago. A massive field of 837 players signed up for the tournament and now, 3 days later, 145 players have chips left to gamble with. Chip leader is Joseph Cheong, from USA, with 632,000. Cheong has about $4,5 million in career winnings - $4,1 million from the 3rd place finish at the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
Three notable players with plenty of chips left: William Thorson in 4th place with 508k, Vanessa Selbst in 6th place with 497k, and Johnny Lodden in 20th place with 287k. Anyhow, the tournament bubble bursts when there are 128 players left. The winner of the tournament will take home stunning €800,000 while the runner-up will get €480k.
It ended up being the Englishman Rupert Elder who took down the EPT San Remo Main Event and laid hands on the first prize of €930,000, a place in the Champion of Champions event, and a gold bracelet worth €16,200.
Elder arrived at the final table with just about 8 million chips and had a small lead over Max Heinzelmann. Both of them continued playing fantastic poker on the final table and they remained in the top until they were the last 2 men standing. Both players had an easy, genuine respect towards each other, having shared dinner several times during the week in San Remo.
After 6 days of play, the EPT San Remo final table is finally set! Below are the 8 finalist who will battle it out today in order to make it all the way to the title and the first place prize of €930,000.
Day 5 of the EPT San Remo Main Event is over. 24 players out of 987 are still in the game and all of them are guaranteed at least €25k each. Chip leader at the moment is Nicolas Yunis, from Chile, with a 2.281.000 stack, and in second place is Rupert Elder, from United Kingdom, with 1.894.000 chips.
The two most notable players in the remaining field of players are the Pokerstars pros Max Lykov from Russia (4th place with 1.722.000 chips) and the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada from USA (5th place with 1.619.000 chips).
The final table will be played tomorrow (May 3rd). Let's hope that both Lykov and Cada will be on it! As soon as the final table kicks off, we will put up a link so you can watch it live. Stay tuned!
Day 1 a & b are now in the books and we're only hours away from Day 2. Team PokerStars Pro Ruben Visser, from Netherlands, leads the field with a 251,500 stack, and in second place is Nicolas Chority, a PokerStars qualifier, with 233,400 chips.
There are many familiar faces in the remaining player-field. However, three players (all of them Team PokerStars Pros) to keep an extra eye on during Day 2 are Viktor Ramadin in 5th place with 190,500, Vanessa Selbst in 13th place with 161,500, and Joe Cada in 23rd place with 135,500 chips.
Day 1a of the EPT San Remo Main Event is over. 225 out of 438 players survived the first starting day and they will now rest 1 day before it's time for Day 2. In the lead is Leonid Bilokur, from Russian, with a 187,000 stack, closely followed by Aleksey Zharko, from Ukraine, with 178,400 chips.
Things didn't go so well for the Swedish Team PokerStars Pro Viktor "Isildur1" Blom as he was sent packing during the early stages of the day. However, this time, he was quite unlucky. Blom had Q 9 and the flop came J 8 10 (nut straight). The turn card gave Blom a flush draw as well and he decided to move all-in. His opponent called with J 8 (two pairs) and only had 4 outs. The poker gods must have turned against Blom as an 8 fell on the river and gave his opponent a full house.
Liv Boeree is probably the "hottest" female poker player at the moment. Yesterday, she took down the Main Event of EPT San Remo (the biggest ever EPT in Europe) and became a euro millionaire. Even though this is her first major tournament win, she's definitely not a new face in the poker world. Liv has been around for quite some time and been interviewed many, many times.
So, Liv is a successful poker player, millionaire, model, TV presenter, guitar player and seems to a be a fun and interesting person to hangout with. The dream girlfriend, some would say. Well, if you're good at dancing you can try to impress her - just like Daniel Negreanu did at a PokerStars party 1 year ago. :)
A big congratulations to Liv Boeree, a poker player, model, guitarist and TV presenter from UK, who took home the Main Event of EPT San Remo yesterday. I must say that I'm very, very impressed how good she played at the final table. She had been quite anonymous until the final table started (probably for a reason?), but then she showed the guys her poker skills! It came to be Jacob Carlsson, who had a big chip lead in the beginning of the day, and Boeree who were the last 2 "men" standing.
Even though Jacob had such a big lead in the beginning of the day, it was Liv Boeree who had the big chip lead when they started playing heads up. Liv continued playing fantastic poker throughout the heads up and she ended it all with a great read on the swede.
Day 5 of the EPT San Remo Main Event is over. It was a big surprise to many (also disappointing) that EPT Snowfest winner Allan Bække, who had a big chip lead in the begin of the day, went out already in 12th place. Jakob Carlsson (picture), a young unknown swede who was in the lead after Day 3, had a fantastic flow in his game during Day 5 and he's now in a huge lead with a monster stack of 13,525,000 chips.
If he play his cards right at the final table today, then I think he will make it all the way. Well, anything can happen in poker and it will for sure be a very interesting final table to watch, even if Carlsson is first out! Lots of money is up for grabs! May the best man win!
It took less than 6 hours of play before Day 4 of EPT San Remo came to an end. The final three tables are now set, and there are 24 players left in the tournament. Allan Baekke, EPT Snowfest winner, played fantastic poker during day 4 and he's now in a big lead with 3,483,000 chips. In second and third place are Dermot Blain (2,568,000) and Dmitry Stelmak (2,284,000). Yesterday, we were writing that many swedes had been doing extremely well in the tournament.
Well, they are still doing well, even though neither of them are in the very top anymore. Anyhow, 4 of 5 who started the day still have a good chance of making it to tomorrow's final table. However, I really doubt that anyone of them will win the tournament if the top 3 players (Allan Baekke, Dermot Blain, Dmitry Stelmak) at the moment continue playing this well. I think one of them will take down the tournament.
As expected, the main event of EPT San Remo attracted a lot of players this time as well. Not less than 1240 signed up for the tournament and created a massive prize pool of €6,014,000. After 3 days of play, 64 players have survived and will return today to play Day 4 of the tournament. Among these 64 players we find EPT Snowfest champ Allan Bække, Joe Serock, PCA champ Harrison Gimbel and a few other notable players.
Many Swedish players have been doing extremely well in the tournament so far. Not less than 5 swedes still have the chance of reaching the final table. In fact, all of them are in the top of the field, and I would be really surprised if not at least 1-2 of them make it to the final table.
1. Jakob Karlsson, 1 800 000 5. Jens Thorson, 1 300 000 6. Per Albin Linde, 1 193 000 9. Alexander Roumeliotis, 887 000 12. Erik Tamm, 840 000
Many big names were sent packing during the first starting day of the EPT San Remo Main Event - Erick Lindgren, Chad Brown and many more. In the end of the day, 299 out of 585 players made it through to Day 2. Among these 299 players we, unfortunately, don't find many notable players at all in the top of the field. Far down in the field we can find a few notables however, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri, as well as former winner Arnaud Mattern.
Day 1b of EPT San Remo kicks off in a few hours time. Lets hope that the second starting day will be more interesting to follow than Day 1a. In other words, we want to see more big names in the top of the field.
Today it's finally time for European Poker Tour in San Remo. San Remo is one of the most popular stops on the tour and it always attracts many big names in the poker world. The buy-in for the main event is 5000 euro and there are seats for 1100 players! Day 1 of the main event will be divided in 2 starting days, Day 1a (Thursday) and Day 1b (Friday). The final table will played next Wednesday, April 21, and it will be broadcasted by PokerStars, so you wont miss on the action when it starts getting really interesting!
The Croatian poker pro, Dragan Galic has been dominating since the very beginning when the tournament started last Saturday. Now he writes history as well as he's the first player ever in EPT to hold the chip lead every single day of the tournament.
Dragan Galic was a massive chip leader after Day 2. But he never relaxed and stopped gambling, and thanks to that he's still number 1 and now has over 500,000 more in chips than his nearest rival Steve Silverman.
It seems like no one in the big starting field of 1,178 players in EPT San Remo can keep up with Dragan Galic who has a massive chip lead as day 3 starts. Galic has a massive 500,000 stack and its seems like he has no plans on slowing down as he is heading for the first prize of €1,5 million.
