€10,300 High Roller
Day 1 Completed
2014 PokerStars.it EPT Sanremo
€10,300 High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2014 PokerStars.it EPT Sanremo
Buy-in
€10,000
Prize Pool
€1,029,000
Entries
105
Level
23
Blinds
15,000 / 30,000
Ante
4,000
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
While the 2014 PokerStars.it European Poker Tour Sanremo Main Event was busy playing down to the final 16 on one side of the room at Casino Sanremo, the €10,300 High Roller – the last with that buy-in in Season 10 – was just kicking off on the other.
Everyone was curious to see what the stop could pull, and the 103 entries (88 unique/15 reentries) that turned out surpassed most expectations. What’s more, that number could go up as players are allowed to register and reenter up until the start of Day 2.
After ten one-hour levels of play on Day 1, the field was whittled down to 47 players with Alexander Kopylkov and his stack of 331,400 leading the way. Not too far behind is Jason Lavallee with 308,400. If you recall, Lavallee defeated a field of 157 entries to win the EPT10 London High Roller for €357,700 earlier this season.
Lavallee got a good portion of his chips courtesy of David “MissOracle” Yan. It happened in Level 8 (500/1,000/100) when, after a raise to 2,300 and a call, Lavallee three-bet to 7,800 in the small blind and Yan four-bet to 17,000 in the big blind. The other two opponents folded and Lavallee five-bet to 29,800, which Yan called.
On the 
flop, Lavallee continued for 18,000 and Yan called. The 
on the turn saw Lavallee continue for another 32,000 and Yan moved all in for just above 50,000. Lavallee made the call with the 
and Yan turned over the 
. The 
river sent Yan to the rail, though he wouldn’t be gone for long.
You see, the EPT10 Sanremo High Roller featured a single reentry option, and quite a few players exercised it. Unfortunately that decision didn’t pay off for some. Among those to fire two bullets and miss were the aforementioned Yan (who was eliminated by Lavallee for a second time), Nick Maimone, Adrian Mateos, Sorel Mizzi, Aleksandr Denisov, and Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel.
Of course not everyone misfired their second bullet. Among those to bust, reenter, and then make it through to Day 2 were Jose Carlos Garcia (130,200), Tamer Kamel (101,900), and Jean-Noel Thorel (76,000). Meanwhile, some players had luck on their first bullet including Ognjen Sekularac (232,400), Carl Carlsson (214,600), Artem Litvinov (111,000), Yann Dion (109,500), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (73,200), Mickey Petersen (47,700), Ami Barer (38,500), and current EPT10 Player of the Year leader Ole Schemion (170,300).
On the flip side, some players who busted Day 1 and chose not to reenter – at least not yet – were Olivier Busquet, Davidi Kitai, Dominik Panka, Chris Oliver, Michael Kanaan, Joni Jouhkinmainen, and Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, who is currently second on the EPT10 POY leaderboard.
Selbst got off to a hot start by winning a big pot against Mizzi, and she talked to PokerNews on a break about the hand as well as the POY race against Schemion. Give it a listen:
Unfortunately Selbst would fall late in the evening to Griffen Benger, which you can read about by clicking here.
Day 2 action is set to kick off at 12 p.m. local time, which is when registration will close. The the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand in Sanremo to bring you updates from the High Roller as well as the Main Event, which will be playing down from 16 to the final eight.
Join us then, but while you wait be sure to check out this video featuring pizza making in Sanremo:
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
331,400 | |
|
308,400 | |
|
245,500
65,500
|
65,500 |
|
240,900 | |
|
232,400
32,400
|
32,400 |
|
214,600
600
|
600 |
|
207,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
|
180,300
122,300
|
122,300 |
|
173,400
58,400
|
58,400 |
|
170,300 | |
|
160,700
103,700
|
103,700 |
|
157,000 | |
|
138,300
18,300
|
18,300 |
|
130,200
50,200
|
50,200 |
|
117,000
42,500
|
42,500 |
|
||
|
111,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
|
109,500 | |
|
106,600
56,600
|
56,600 |
|
101,900
-53,100
|
-53,100 |
|
94,600
-15,400
|
-15,400 |
|
||
|
93,600
-21,400
|
-21,400 |
|
90,700
30,700
|
30,700 |
|
88,400
45,400
|
45,400 |
|
||
|
83,200 | |
|
80,800
800
|
800 |
|
||
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
Within the last hands for the day, we saw the double up of Martin Finger and the elimination of Robin Ylitalo. Finger got his stack in with the 
against the 
of Max Greenwood. The 
board was scary but the German won the flip.
Only moments later we saw Robin Ylitalo move all in on the 
turn with 
. He started the hand with 30,000 in chips and Alexander Kopylkov snapped him off with the 
. No card could save the EPT10 London Main Event champion and he will have to reenter before the start of Day 2 if he wants to make profit in this High Roller.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
331,400 | |
|
70,000 | |
|
|
||
|
Busted | |
|
|
||
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
The tournament staff just announced that the remaining players will play four more hands before bagging and tagging for the night.
We're headed out to capture any last-minute action and to compile some chips counts. Stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 1 action.
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
A big pot just went down that resulted in the elimination of Govert Metaal.
It began when Martin Jacobson opened for 1,600 under the gun and Sylvain Loosli shoved all in for 13,100. Ognjen Sekularac was next to act and called, which inspired Metaal to four-bet to 29,8000 from the big blind.
Jacobson got out of the way, Sekularac moved all in, and Metaal snap-called off for around 85,000 total.
Sekularac: 
Metaal: 
Loosli: 
Metaal threw up his arms as if to say, "What can you do?" Meanwhile, the short-stacked Loosli seemed thrilled that his ace was live.
The 
flop was no help to anyone, but the turn did pair Loosli, though he would need more on the river to stay alive. Wouldn't you know it, the 
peeled off to give him two pair and the triple. However, the side pot is where the big money was, and that was pushed Sekularac's way.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
200,000
90,000
|
90,000 |
|
50,000
36,900
|
36,900 |
|
||
|
Busted | |
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
There was a preflop raising war and with Simon Ravnsbaek all in Artem Litvinov had a bit of a think about it before making the call. Ravnsbaek tabled 
and, much to the amusement of Dominik Nitsche, Litvinov showed the 
.
“Here it comes.” Nitsche said.
The cards ran out 
and there it did indeed come. Ravnsbaek slunk off empty handed while a gleeful Litvinov was on his feet giving a shoulder massage to the obliging dealer. She soon put a stop to that and he was required to return to his seat to stack his chips.
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
Griffin Benger raised to 3,400 and Vanessa Selbst in the big blind made it 7,100. Selbst had a great start in the tournament with an early double up but since then it has gone downhill.
With that last three-bet she induced an all in to get her last 25 big blinds into the middle of the table before the end of play. Of course she had the reentry option in her back pocket.
Benger, also known as "Flush Entity" online, did her the favor and moved all in with the 
. Selbst made the call with the 
and the board sent her to the rail. She then asked the floor until what time she can reenter before exiting the tournament area.
The answer is up until the start of Day 2. Given her urge to earn so POY points, we've no doubt that she'll be back.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
192,000
39,000
|
39,000 |
|
Busted | |
|
|
||
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
Alexander Denisov had raised to 13,500 and Jean-Noel Thorel had 3,500 in front of him. There had been a bit of a mix up and the floor was called.
The dealer told the floor that she had explained clearly what the bet was but Thorel said, in English, that he spoke French and it was not clear to him.
The dealer reiterated that she had explained it to him and the bet was in front of Denisov so the floor ruled that the 3,500 must remain in the pot, but the dealer then insisted that when she had explained the bet to Thorel he said, “OK I call.”
The other players around the table were equally adamant that the words “Call” had not passed Thorels lips. The floor’s final ruling was that he would take the version that the dealer had outlined and that Thorel must put in 13,500 chips and that is what he did.
After all that the flop was dealt and much to the amusement of some of the players Thorel now declared he was all in. Flummoxed and with not really enough to fold, Denisov made the call.
Denisov tabled 
but unfortunately Thorel had hit top pauir with his .
The turn and didn’t help Denisov and Thorel offered an apology as he left the tournament.
Level 10
: 800/1,600, 200 ante
Philip Sternheimer reentered and just helped himself to a middle sized pot. Ihar Soika was the preflop raiser and two other players as well as Sternheimer called to see the 
flop. The first three community cards were check-raised from 5,600 to 12,200 and only Zoika and Sternheimer remained active.
On the turn both players checked and Zoika then bet the river for 17,200. Sternheimer tank called with and was good versus the 
of his opponent.