Dublin EPT - Early Departure

Saturday 3rd November was the final day of the Pokerstars.com Dublin EPT but as well as the final table of the main event, there was also a charity tournament hosted by Padraig Parkinson. It was a €300 freezeout in aid of the Simon Community, a charity that helps the homeless. Having won a single table satellite on Friday, I was also going to be playing in the event. It was a relaxed and good humoured affair, with regular breaks in play so that ringmaster Mad Marty Wilson could auction of various items of sporting memorabilia. Rory Liffey paid €500 for a snooker cue signed by Ken Doherty and Steve Davis. Blue Square donated a cue signed by Ronnie O’Sullivan and there were signed Eric Cantona and Wayne Rooney photographs up for grabs as well.

Meanwhile in the final of the main event Annette Obrestad was ruling the roost, playing mother hen to all the chickens as she slowly but steadily dispatched her opponents and built up a seemingly insurmountable chip lead. Nevertheless, proving that the luck element is still packing a punch in the game of poker, she was unable to kick on to the ultimate victory and finished in a disappointing (for her) 2nd place as she was pipped to the post by Peter Reubens, an online qualifier from America.

Back in the charity event, over 160 took part and I was languishing amongst the chip losers when I got a disturbing phone call. A family emergency at home, so I threw in the rest of my chips and headed straight for the airport, departing a day earlier than I had anticipated. It was not the end to the Dublin EPT that I had hoped for. This week I am going to Amsterdam where the Blue Square trio of Mickey Wernick, Praz Bansi and Karl Mahrenholz are hoping to do just a little better than they did in Ireland.

Jonathan Raab
Monday 5th November

Dublin EPT Day 3 – Blink and You’ll Miss It

With just twenty-four players left after the second day of the Pokerstars.com Dublin EPT the third day was never going to be a long one. When overnight chip leader Andy Black was knocked out in 10th place just before the scheduled dinner break, it proved to be a very short one indeed. This was much welcomed by everyone in the pressroom as it meant we had a chance to play another sit and go tournament. I had played in the one we staged last night and was doing well until Adam ‘Snoopy’ Goulding hit the case ace to send my pocket jacks packing.

There were just two Brits left in the main event today, but both of them were knocked out once the field had been reduced to two tables. European number one Ash Hussain went in 16th place while Martin Green took the 15th spot. Both received just over €15,000 in prize money. With no British players left in, it is fair to say that my interest in the tournament waned, but 19-year old Norwegian prodigy Annette Obrestad was still in and amongst the chip leaders. It would be a remarkable feat if the WSOPE champion could follow up that victory with another major one here in Dublin. While Andy Black’s challenge for the Dublin EPT title eventually receded, Annette is now in a strong position as the chip leader going into the final.

Now, a few words about Andy Black himself. For someone who is a practicing Buddhist, he doesn’t really have a very karmic attitude. He is constantly rude to people, he is irritable and shows a great deal of impatience towards his fellow man (or woman). I’m not sure how he reconciles this behaviour with his religious practices. He is the antithesis of every other Buddhist I have ever met and I think I speak for many when I say that I am glad he didn’t make the final table. Without his presence, the last table will have a little less conversation, but with Annette there and riding high, a little more action is surely on the way.

Today there is a charity tournament hosted by Padraig Parkinson, which is a €300 event in aid of the Simon Community, which works to help and promote greater understanding of the homeless. €100 of the buy in goes directly to the charity. Having won a winner takes all €110 single table tournament yesterday, I have invested some of my winnings to play in it. There are also a couple of Blue Square’s online qualifiers taking part. Although there has been a distinct lack of atmosphere so far at the Dublin EPT, today’s final table and this charity event should go some way to re-addressing this.

Jonathan Raab
Saturday 3rd November

Dublin EPT – 14th Time Unlucky

122 players returned yesterday for the second day of the Pokerstars.com Dublin EPT and although all the Blue Square bods had already been ruled out of contention, there were still several GUKPT regulars holding their own. Even though the blinds were still running at a relatively lowly 300-600 (75 running ante) at the start of play, almost anyone with a less than average chip stack became compelled to get It all in as quickly as possible. As a result, almost 40 players were culled during the first two levels of play. The carnage continued at an unabated pace and by the dinner break there were fewer than 50 left.

Dave Colclough had returned with a good-sized stack and managed to maintain this for the first few levels of play. Ash Hussain also managed to keep his head above water during this first part of the day. Martin Green, who had come back as one of the short stacks went on a veritable roller coaster ride for much of the day. His 9,000 chips soon became 30,000 and at one point he had climbed to 110,000 before losing most of it to return his stack to around the 12,000 mark. However, before too long he had built up to over 100,000 again. With 24 players left the rate of attrition slowed down during the seconds half of the day and all three of the Brits I have mention were still there as the bubble approached. The prize money goes down to 24th place and when ‘Irishman‘ Tony Cascarino was taken out in 26th, the tournament was played hand for hand. At this point the two shortest stacks left were those of Ash Hussain and Dave Colclough. The only other remaining Brit was Martin Green, who had an average sized chip stack. The chip leader was Irishman Andy Black while the Norwegian pair of Johnny Lodden and WSOPE winner Annette Obrestrad were also in commanding positions.

Dave Colclough has played in a total of 14 EPT events over the last few years, but has never made the prize money. He had also been taken out on the bubble on two previous occasions and unfortunately for him, this was to be his third near miss. Holding top pair on an 8-5-3 board with K-8, he was called by an opponent holding 10-7 but needing just one more spade to make a flush. The turn card did indeed bring that fifth spade and Dave was left to make a lonely walk out of the building and past the hi-fiving players who were all celebrating reaching the prize money. Today they will play down to the final table, but there is also a €1,000 freezeout taking place this afternoon so all those who did not make it far enough in the main event have a second crack at taking home some spoils.

Jonathan Raab
Friday 2nd November

EPT Dublin Diary – The Domino Effect

With three of Blue Square's sponsored player playing in the Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour event in Dublin, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to tag along, follow their progress and keep up their morale as they do battle for the astronomical first prize on offer. Having said that, the first prize, at €532,600 is not nearly as high as most would have expected, due to the comparatively low turnout. Last year there were 389 players contesting this event, but this year their number is just a 221. The reason for this is due to a massive increase in the cost to play as last year's €5,000 buy in has now been raised to €8,000. There has been much criticism of the decision to raise it so much, not least from myself, but surely now the organisers must take heed and have a rethink. It makes it increasingly difficult for sponsors to enter their players into these tournaments at this price and I have already told our sponsored players that Blue Square are less likely to be funding them to play in them from now on unless the cost to play is reduced to a more sensible level.

At Heathrow airport I bumped into Richard Ashby, who made the final of the recently screened Manchester leg of the GUKPT and once we got to Dublin we shared a taxi to the Royal Dublin Society, where the EPT is taking place. The room the tournament is being held in is large, like an aircraft hanger with at least 40 poker tables set out, maybe event more. It's a pity not all of them are being utilised. I arrived just 30-minutes before the off and discovered that Pokerstars' Press Room manager Mad Harper was trying to adopt a chip counting procedure similar to that which we pioneered at the GUKPT. The idea is that players are given ID cards to display next to their chip stacks and during each scheduled break the dealers count everyone's chips and record who they belong to. Naturally I offered to help and although it was a last minute decision to try and do it, we just about managed to get it organised before tournament director Thomas Kremser announced that it was time to 'shuffle up and deal.' It seemed to work reasonably well and for the first time on the EPT, the press were provided with comprehensive and accurate chip counts throughout the day. It also makes it easier for the press to identify players they do not instantly recognise and lends itself to better reporting. Live updates are now less likely to refer to someone as 'the unknown player' or 'mateyboy.' I think that if you have paid €8,000 to enter a tournament like this, you deserve to be mentioned by name when you make a great play or bust out spectacularly.

So how did the Blue Square trio of Mickey Wernick, Praz Bansi and Karl Mahrenholz fair? Well, not too well as it happens. It all occurred during the fourth level of the day. First of all Praz Bansi got extremely unlucky – when holding pocket tens and hitting another one on the flop he got it all in, only for his opponent to hit an unlikely runner-runner straight. Not long afterwards Mickey Wernick was declared missing in action and before I had even found out what had happened to the 2005 European Number One, Karl Mahrenholz was all in with pocket queens preflop against an opponent holding pocket kings. A further king on the flop sealed his fate. As both Praz and Karl were consoling themselves with their recent departures Mickey reappeared to tell of his demise – he had held K-4 and had made two pairs on the turn, but his vanquisher had made trip eights to end his push for another prize money finish. So within the space of 20-minutes or so all the Blue Square players had, like dominos, been knocked over.

Nevertheless, I'm here in Dublin, the Internet connection is good and there is still a top class tournament going on. There are plenty of GUKPT regulars taking part, so I will switch the focus of this diary to how well they do. Richard Ashby made it through the day, as did double GUKPT final tablist Jonothon Butters. Manchester winner Dave Colclough is also in good shape, ending his first day with just fewer than 60,000 chips. Other tour regulars still in contention include Ian Cox, Surnider Sunar, Martin Green, Ash Hussain, Paul Gourlay and Ian Woodley. Lets hope they do a bit better today than the Blue Square boys did yesterday.

Jonathan Raab
Thursday 1st November


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