25 September 2010
Viktor Blom wins three in a row to top 500,000
We can officially say that, Isildur1 or not (he is), Viktor Blom is a sick, sick individual. Today we’ve seen him overbet five rivers, receiving four folds (he showed a bluff three times) and one call (he had it). Railing his table for just eight minutes, Matt Perry saw him take down three pots in a row:
Ivey and/or Blom still leading the way with 300,000+ stacks
We’re down to almost a third of the field here at The Empire in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. There are but 119 players left in contention including the big stacks of Irish Open champion James Mitchell; Swedish online legend Viktor Blom; WSOP bracelet-winner Antonio Esfandiari and of course, Phil Ivey.
Break time - level nine complete, 126 players remain.
The 500/1,000/100 level has concluded and the remaining 126 players will return from their 20-minute break shortly. It’s been a really exciting ninety minutes at The Empire with some big hands and at least two 6-bet bluffs and a couple of 7-bet value shoves. I remember joking about pre-flop 6-bets becoming the norm back in 2007 – it’s happened.
Ivey still leads, Isildur1 still chases, Bansi and Krost double
Personally, if I were in a big tournament and I heard that Ivey was the chip leader by over a hundred big blinds, I’d just rack up my chips and give them to him. Saves everyone the time and effort; they’d wind up as his eventually.
Phil Ivey takes huge lead at WSOPE; Viktor "Isildur1" Blom second
Typical – you walk downstairs from railing Mike the Mouth and find Phil Ivey scooping in a huge pot (three arm scoops worth of chips) with T-T face-up in front of him and a K-T-6-J-2 board. He has what looks like thirty 5,000 chips; fifty-odd 1,000s and more 500s/100s than any mortal man can count visually.
Level nine beginning, blinds 500/1,000/100 with 148 players remaining.
We're just settling down after our second break of the day to play the 500/1,000 level. The average stack is just over 70,000 and despite heavy losses there are some star players making big comebacks.
Jason Mercier hits the rail; Chris Moorman makes a comeback.
Since our last update we’ve managed to have even more players hit the rail including tournament dominator Jason Mercier, who won’t be bettering his fourth-place finish in this event last year. He held K-Q on a K-Q-J board but Arnaud Mattern flipped A-T and Mercier’s former stack increased his own to 140,000.
Ivey's mad skillz and Mitchell's mad stack
With so many potentially exciting tables to choose from it’s difficult to decide which is the most suitable for railbirding. Somewhat predictably, I wound up watching Phil Ivey for ten minutes. He was silent with trademark oversized headphones, getting a massage from one of the gorgeous Ibiza Angels.
WSOPE Main Event Day 2 - we're back; Mitchell still leads
We’re now entering the eighth blind level of the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event and blinds will be 400/800/100. The green 25 chips have been taken away and players have to pay 2,100 each orbit. With an average stack of about 60,000 that’s 28 table orbits so we’re still very deep.
More big names at WSOPE Day 2 - Laak loves badminton.
We went to the three-table area under the stairs, behind the main bar, to find Phil Laak discussing badminton with Tony Cousineau: “Badminton? Is that the game where you hit it [mimes serve] and it goes all fast like whooooooooaaaash [mimes fast shuttlecock] and then all like phwoooooooooaaaarm [mimes shuttlecock slowing down]? You hit the little bird? Yeah, I LOVE badminton!”