Archive for the ‘Staff Blogs’ category

Half way through – Level 9 0

Saturday October 17th, 2009 at 3:11 am

Blinds 400/800, ante 100. Average stack 41,600 and 200 players left. I would say this tournament is fairly quick. We have two levels more before the end of Day 1 and we have already said goodbye to 216 players.4small_MG_1362_sjpg_176_132_1_70_1_50_50

Neverthless, a lot of big names have gone to enjoy the night life of Marrakech since there was nothing else to do for them in the tournament room. Will this one be the non famous revenge?

Roger Hairabedian, Sorel Mizzi, Antonio Esfandiari will certainly not be here tomorrow for Day 2 and maybe some others will join them as I can see a lot of troubled faces and short stacks.

Not that troubled appears our Diva Liz Lieu, playing at the same table of Fabrice Soulier, who has now a pretty big stack.

Fabsoul

Fabsoul

Popularity: 18% [?]

Main Event, Staff Blogs

I Vamos Espagna!!! 0

Saturday October 17th, 2009 at 2:35 am
Gerardx

Gerardx

Claro que si. It just occured to me that I didnt speak at all about Gerardx.

He is one of our online players from Spain. He plays with Chilipoker almost every day. It was a pleasure for me to meet him for the first time here in Marrakech. He is very passionate about poker and has a site of his own: www.gerardx.com

Coming back to the table, I went to him quite a few times to have a chipcount: he has been up and down since the beginning, due to cards that couldnt be played ;-(
Everytime I was there I could see him stealing blinds but that was all, no action, no flop to be seen.

Untill two minutes ago! I simply said come on! give me a nice hand! and this time was the right one.SANY0165

All action pre flop: Gerardx simply went all in and I saw an immediate call on his left.
No wonder…he showed against in Gerard hands.

First two cards on the flop…. …

Guess what the third one was?, yes another :-)

Geradx doubled up and I was very satisfied when a player said: “next time please come to me and ask the very same thing!”

SANY0166

Popularity: 17% [?]

Staff Blogs

After the first Break 0

Friday October 16th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

Antonio Esfandriari

After the first break we can now say officially that the players participating at this event were 416.

Yes I lost my bet but still there are 66 players more than it was expected.

Blinds are now 75/150 with an  average stack of 21,723. 383 players left. The Director has announced the official Prizepool: an amaizing 18,720.000 MAD (around 1,800,000 €), with 40 places paid and the first Prize to be 4,305,600 MAD (around 430,000 €).

Right before the break we have lost two valuable players: Bertrand Grospellier AKA Elky and Pascal Perrault. in the very same hand. Elky was very happy to see that after three all in he had a flush of hearts against Pascal but his happiness lasted only 3 seconds when he saw the other player showing a higher flush :-(

Elky

Elky

Popularity: 22% [?]

Main Event, Staff Blogs

Looking for Pros and Chilipoker Familiar Faces :-) 0

Friday October 16th, 2009 at 5:43 pm

Lellouche (2)

So far, So Good.

Players are getting to know each other and they all hope that they will have enough time to understand the opponents betting patterns, like our qualified chilipoker player Julien Meyer who is currently writing everything he can on his notebook.

Liz Lieu10 players busted and were suddenly replaced by some on the waiting list. I am having a walk around the 40 tables to spot as many familiar faces as possible! I see our Chipoker on line playes playing togheter with our Liz  Lieu, Antonio Esfandriari or Annette Obrestad.

The new level of 50/100 has just started and the prizepool and first prize are getting bigger and bigger. I bet we will reach 430 players…who’s taking my bet???

Popularity: 19% [?]

Online Poker, Staff Blogs

Button in Seat 3, Good luck players…shuffle up and deal! 0

Friday October 16th, 2009 at 4:28 pm

SANY0099

And it has started. Perfectly on time. Everything has gone according to plan and the room is now filled with 400 players waiting to have their forst hand dealt.SANY0092

Yes, 400. The turnament has been such a succes that the Casino has found space for 50 more players to join and the Tournament Director has just explained that there is also a waiting list of players outside anxious to come in and play. For the first two levels and during the first break, there will be a possibility for them to take the place of some unlucky player who did not start the tournament under a good star.

Starting chips 20,000, level of 60 minutes, blinds 25/50.

Amaizing prizepool with the winner to take home around  450,000 €.

News Update: Just after 3 minutes we have our first player down, AK against AA, all in but no luck for the King as the Aces found their twin on the flop :-)

SANY0100SANY0095

Popularity: 21% [?]

Staff Blogs

What a wonderful night! 3

Friday October 16th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

We are all here ready for The Main Event to start. In order to make it memorable, yesterday after the press conference with our CEO Alexandre Dreyfus, all journalists and Chilipoker qualified players were invited to a Gala’ Dinner where everybody enjoyed traditional Maroccan food (Slurp…Coucous…) and listened to traditional music.

It was a really great time. We even had Belly Dancers all around and some of the poker PRO danced with them (It was amaizing to see Tony G dancing with girls instead of playing with cards :-) ).

After the Gala’ dinner journalists were all invited to a press tournament with a 1000 $ prizepoool for the one who not only writes about poker but plays and wins as well. In the meantime we were all busy setting up the VIP Longue in the Casino Club.

Yes because yesterday there was a need of a Big Party! Chilipoker invited everyone to join the atmosphere and the magic world of Clubbing in Marrakech. The party was huge and went on untill morning.

In other words It was the perfect preparation for today’s Main Event, just about to start.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Staff Blogs

Interview with Astic Rémy of Spank Poker 4

Wednesday October 14th, 2009 at 8:51 pm

A.k.A Alfman26

A.k.A Alfman26

Spank Poker Club have really been a dominating force during some of the minor events here at the WPTMarrakech, “alfman26“ for example was certainly excited when he busted out two pro players to win a bounty during the Pro-AM event, he then continued his run and finished in second place, both an excellent result and a super experience for this upcoming poker player.

I also had a moment in between events to interview Astic Rémy and Secretary of the Spank Poker Club, who has just qualified for the main event via a Super Satellite that was played during the early hours of yesterday morning. Rémy started playing poker back in January of 2008, at the time he was playing two popular trick taking French card games Belote and Tarot. A friend of his from Paris suggested Poker and introduced him to the club. Since then he has been a regular at the club and is now in the the Club Secretary. One of his main roles is to help organize one of the 4 club tournaments that Spank have every year.

I asked him what the club is like, and he said its a really fantastic club because of the social events, everyone is in good spirits and are ready to have fun and enjoy good times. Besides that he said the members of the club are really competitive especially with the rake and raking races that they have going on. ” It’s not about the money , winning is a matter of pride!” Rémy tells me.

spank1I asked him about his strategy during the satellite tournament that won him a ticket to the Main Event.

113 players played, there were 28 re-buys and 10 add-ons. 17 people qualified. He suggested that since it was a full table tournament in the beginning of the tournament he waited for only good cards, while watching the other players. He noted some players making strange moves so he decided to play simple ABC poker. With 38 players left it seemed like everyone was tighter because it was almost bubble time. His stack at this stage was 49,000 and the average was 33,000. With only 23 players left Rémy manged to jump his stack to 60,000 and now it was time to wait. Waiting lasted 2-3 hours until it was down to 18 players and he had won his seat to the main event!!

I also asked him what made the difference and he said he built up a strong image with the following hand, blinds are 200/400 and player raises 1650 in early position, big blind calls, Rémy suggest he either had a big hand or he was making a move. So he just calls with pocket tens 1010. Flop comes down Qs 10s 7c big blind folds and the other player check raises Rémy 3000 bet up to 9000. Rémy looks down at his stack of 11,000 and goes all in. Committed his opponent calls  and shows 8 5 for a pure bluff. From then on people noticed that Rémy was sponsored  by Chilipoker and the other players seemed afraid to play a hand with him.

spank2“What about your strategy for the main event” I asked, he agreed it would be a very difficult field so he would be keeping his expectations in check. Over the past few days he has been watching videos and is taking the time to study his competition. The structure is nice for the Main Event, so the pro players will have an edge over the armatures he says.

We with him and Spank the best of luck!
(especially our friend alfman26 who will attempt to qualify for the main event tonight)

Stay focused, enjoy the game and may all your hands hold up.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Staff Blogs, WPT Marrakech

News from the High Roller Final Table – 7th and 6th place 0

Wednesday October 14th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

roger

The High Roller Final table is now made of 5 players.

The first one to go was Roger Hairabedian against Dominik Nitsche.

His A10 made him go All IN but they couldnt fight Dominik AJ. No surprises on the flop, river or turn and Roger decided to go and start playing the 1,800 Side Event. Bubble boy will get revenge this time as the 10 didnt come on the river.

After a short while we had our first paid player as Nagib Bemmis was busted against Ross Boatman.

His KQ made him go ALL IN and this time Ross showed the same (this time lucky) hand as Roger before A10.

The flop and turn were a perfect present for Ross who made trips with A-J-2-A. Nagib’s prayers for a ten were not listened and Ross Boatman became the new chip Leader with more than 450,000 chips.

Nagib Takes home more or less € 16,000 (162,000 DH)

Popularity: 25% [?]

High Roller Event, Staff Blogs

€ 1,800 Side Event just started 0

Wednesday October 14th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

SANY0054

While the High Roller players are about to be seated, another Event has started in the Main Tournament Room. It is the Highest Buy In Side Event of this WPT Edition in Marrakech.

213 players bought in with 1,800 €. There are some interesting come backs as we can see a lot of players who played the past events of this week and who want to give their skills another chance. Among them Roger Hairabedian, who just busted from the High Roller finale table (unlucky bubble boy), Fabrice Soulier, Annette Obrestad, Tristan Clemencon.

Not to forget our Chilipker players: The Chilipoker winner of the € 500SANY0055 NLHE Freezout of last Sunday, Jean Christophe Rigal, our Spanish player Gerard Rodriguez and one of our online qualified players Gwenael Gosch who will also play the Main Event on Friday . Our Liz Lieu is at Table 2, Seat 9.

Total Prizepool is around 383,400 Euro. Top 30 Places paid.
Blinds are now 75/150 with 25 minutes level. Average stack has grown to 10,812 as 16 players left (197 players still in).

Let me go check out the High Rikker Final table as I am hearing it has more empty seats!

Popularity: 39% [?]

Staff Blogs, €1800 Side Event

High Roller Event Final Table 1

Wednesday October 14th, 2009 at 1:55 am

Final tableWe had a quite interesting hand which led to Montgomery being busted.

Scott was in position and raised to 4,200 pre flop. On his left there was Boatman who after a lot of thoughts went ALL IN and Montgomery called. He showed his pair of Sixes against pair of Queens.
The cards running on the table were A-Q-8-8-J and this costed Montgomery almost all his stack.

The next hand in fact he was suddenly out, having to go ALL In against Lellouche.
Lellouche showed his Q-10 against A-9. He paired his Queen and his 10, while Scott was left with no chips and only an Ace.final table

As soon as Scott left there was another player out at the second table: Tore Lager lost all his chips against Thomas Bichon. He went all in when the river was already dealt just to find out that his straight was not enough to beat a Full House. Regrettably Lager showed his 8-9 while Bichon happily held his J-7. The cards on the table were 7-J-7-6-10.

This was really unespected as Lager had a stack of almost 150.000 and now Bichon is the offical Chip Leader.

Players down to 10 :-) We have our Final Table with Blinds now 800/1600 with 200 ante. Average stack 135,000.

Popularity: 47% [?]

High Roller Event, Online Poker, Staff Blogs