Marvin Rettenmaier, about an hour into a relaxing table massage, opened from early position for 2,600 and was called by Michael Friedrich and Georgii Bandura. David Vamplew was in the small blind and raised it up to 9,600. The big blind folded as did Rettenmaier after a pause and Friedrich. Bandura decided to see a flop in position and called. They saw a flop of and both checked. A on the turn and Vamplew bet 10,000. Bandura checked his cards again. There sure were a lot of spades out there. He folded and Vamplew chipped up a bit more.
The European Poker Tour Season 10 Player of the Year race is on, and as you know players will be able to accumulate points in all events throughout Season 10, regardless of the buy-in level. In addition, all of the Festival Events (Estrellas, UKIPT, Eureka, FPS, IPT) that combine with an EPT tour stop will be eligible for Player of the Year points. The winner of this season’s award will walk away with €50,000 in Main Event buy-ins, good for any PokerStars or Full Tilt sponsored event.
The Global Poker Index (GPI) points formula, which will be used to determine the EPT10 POY, is a bit complicated, but you can read about all the details here.
Here are the current top ten on the EPT10 POY Leaderboard:
Thomas Muhlocker
Place
Player
Points
1
Thomas Muhlocker
350.68 pts
2
David Benefield
321.18 pts
3
Ole Schemion
311.62 pts
4
Jeff Rossiter
258.92 pts
5
Joao Barbosa
257.14 pts
6
Kenny Hallaert
253.87 pts
7
Nicolau Pacheco Villa-Lobos
251.08 pts
8
Jonathan Duhamel
243.35 pts
9
Timothy Adams
222.31 pts
10
Frederik Brink Jensen
209.90 pts
We'll be bringing you daily updates on the Player of the Year race, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.
Ioannis Fronimakis, a PokerStars qualifier from Greece, had been patient all day and saw his stack dwindling away. Under the Gun he had found a hand to make a stand and moved all-in for his last 23,100. David Williams made the call from his big stack and it was heads up as no one else wanted to tangle. Fronimakis tabled versus the of Williams and saw a very encouraging flop of , as good as he could wish for without hitting his set. The turn was though and a brick sent Fronimakis home.
EPT Berlin winner Kevin Macphee really has to hang on to his chips now, he's getting shorter and shorter. Just now he bet 3,800 from the big blind on after checks from all three players on the flop and turn. MacPhee's bet on the river made the cutoff fold but the small blind made the call. MacPhee mucked, indicating he had nothing of value. The small blind followed his lead and mucked too, but he did get the chips.
In Holland there's a saying "A bit stupid", a sentence once said by then queen to be Máxima Zorreguieta about Prince Willem-Alexander der Nederlanden. It's pretty much as self explanatory as it can get, but is used in Holland when someone makes a big misstep.
Dutch poker player Thomas Brader described his own play in one hand as "A bit stupid" just now. Brader had squeezed from the button with suited and had received a call from the cutoff. Brader continued with a bet on and received a call once more. The turn brought another to the table and Brader fired one more bullet, a bet big enough to make it look like he was committed. His opponent snap shoved all in though and Brader had to fold.
Brader is set back to 20,000 because of that move, work to do for the Dutchman.
Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov had called a bet on the flop of from Victor Podofedenko, a PokerStars player from Russia who had position on him. They both checked a turn and when the came on the river Katchalov bombed a big pile of blue T5000 chips, enough to put Podofedenko all in. He instantly called and Katchalov’s face showed that he had misread the situation as his opponent turned over .
The chip leader at the start of the day was Amir Lehavot and although he's increased his stack of 239,300 to 292,000 he's got little hope of catching Sebastian Saffari (440,000) right now. That's because Lehavot is on a table where everyone bar one other player has a below average stack.
The only stack that poses any danger to Lehavot belongs to Daniel Tighe and he can't event cut Lehavot in half, given that he has 130,000. Also at his table is Tobias Garp (24,000), Tomas Fucik (27,000), Ilan Suloman (85,000) and Sam Chartier. Whilst I was observing Lehavot two of the short stacks got involved in a hand.
From under-the-gun Fucik opened to 2,400 with pocket fives, Gustavo Lopez Garcia three-bet all-in for 6,300 with pocket jacks, Fucik called the extra and the knaves held on the board.
We joined the table as Elfad Mammadov faced an all-in river shove from Bela Toth on a board reading . It was over pot sized and would cost Mammadov the rest of his chips to call so no wonder he was taking a long time to think about it. “Do you have it?” Mammadov asked the stock still Toth. A couple of minutes ticked by and the clock was called. The floor gave him a minutes warning and Mammadov gave it one last hard stare. Before the minute was up Mammadov made the call. His opponent turned over the “Straight flush.” Said the dealer as a sick looking Mammadov turned over his and staggered from the table. He had it alright.
On day one the trickle in from one direction, while on day two they flood out in another. The PokerStars Blog reports from the floor as play starts and the eliminations begin.
and both checked. A 
on the turn and Vamplew bet 10,000. Bandura checked his cards again. There sure were a lot of spades out there. He folded and Vamplew chipped up a bit more.
versus the 
of Williams and saw a very encouraging flop of 
, as good as he could wish for without hitting his set. The turn was 
though and a brick 
sent Fronimakis home.
suited and had received a call from the cutoff. Brader continued with a bet on 
and received a call once more. The turn brought another 
from Victor Podofedenko, a PokerStars player from Russia who had position on him. They both checked a turn 
and when the 
came on the river Katchalov bombed a big pile of blue T5000 chips, enough to put Podofedenko all in. He instantly called and Katchalov’s face showed that he had misread the situation as his opponent turned over 
.
board.
. It was over pot sized and would cost Mammadov the rest of his chips to call so no wonder he was taking a long time to think about it. “Do you have it?” Mammadov asked the stock still Toth. A couple of minutes ticked by and the clock was called. The floor gave him a minutes warning and Mammadov gave it one last hard stare. Before the minute was up Mammadov made the call. His opponent turned over the 
“Straight flush.” Said the dealer as a sick looking Mammadov turned over his