World Series Of Poker Euro Update: Day 7

Day seven saw the start of the $1,500 no-limit hold’em six-handed event and $2,500 Omaha / seven-card-stud high-low events, while the winners of the $1,000 no-limit with rebuys, $1,500 Omaha high-low split eight-or-better, and $10,000 World Championship Mixed events were announced. The field in the $2,000 no-limit hold’em has also been narrowed down to the final nine.

Englishman Peter Gould called an all-in twice holding pocket fives against Jeff Williams at the final table of the $1,000 no-limit with rebuys. Beaten by Williams’ A9, Gould returned the favour three hands later, when his fives withstood Williams’ K4. Gould’s dreams were dashed when Michael Banducci raised to 100,000 preflop and Gould reraised to 480,000. Banducci moved all in with 77 and Gould made the all-in call with 1010. The board came J9725 and Gould was eliminated in third place, taking home $245,993 in prize money.

Banducci went on to beat Williams in the final heads-up earning his first gold bracelet and $636,736 in prize money.

In the Omaha high-low split eight-or-better event, Thang Luu scooped the top prize of $243,356 after beating Englishman Spencer Lawrence heads-up in the final. Luu had taken a 3-1 chip lead on Lawrence. Lawrence was not catching anything on any flop, and as a result was forced to commit the rest of his stack with a marginal holding. On the final hand, Luu raised preflop and Lawrence made the call. The flop came down K87 and Luu bet once again. After Lawrence raised, Luu put him all in and Lawrence made the call showing 9655 for a diamond and wrap draw. Unfortunately, his diamonds were dead when Luu showed K743. The turn and river came 8K and Luu made a full house to take the pot, the title, the bracelet, and $243,356.

There was a lot of action at level 13 of the $2,000 no-limit hold’em event when Sammy Farha went all in on three seperate occasions. With his chip count increasing, he then eliminated Marcel Luske and Mike Sexton. Despite a strong start, Kai Danilo Paulsen was eliminated at level 17. This left short-stacked Chris Bjorin and — at the opposite end of the chip spectrum — Romanian Mihai Manole to challenge America and Canada for the prize. The final nine now await their fate.

Hopes dwindled for Europeans taking part in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed event a few hours in when Ram Vaswani, Marco Traniello, Dario Minieri, and Andy Black were eliminated. Later on, Alex Kravchenko, Marcel Luske, and Nikolay Evdakov were also sent to the rail.

Gus Hansen held on despite some attacks made on his chips. At level 16, on a board of 8772, Hansen and Eli Elezra began a raising war. Hansen finally broke and just called Eli’s final raise. On the T river, Hansen checked to Elezra who fired another bet into the pot. Hansen paused for a moment and said, "I’ve got a bad feeling about this." He tossed a call across the line and Elezra turned over AK33. Hansen mucked his cards upon seeing Elezra’s hand. "Wow, boys, I just took a more than 90,000 dollar pot from Gus," said Elezra. Hansen continued to plummet with a loss to Tom Dwan, and was afterwards heard to remark that he had been the chip leader eight hands ago and was now fearing elimination.

In the last hand of stud eight-or-better, Hansen crippled Lee Watkinson leaving him with only one lonely pink 5,000 chip. This generated Eli Elezra to remark, "A chip and a chair, Lee." The next round was no-limit hold’em, and after paying the 1,500 and posting his 2,500 small blind, Watkinson was left with one orange 1,000 chip. Hansen raised to 17,500 from early position, Watkinson called all-in, and Sam Farha called from the big blind. The flop came QT3 and Farha checked. Hansen’s bet of 23,000 prompted Farha to fold, and Watkinson flipped over the AJ. Hansen flipped over the 9 to show that he had diamond outs, but eventually revealed his other hole card: the 7 . The 6 turn gave Hansen additional outs with an inside straight draw, which the 8 river delivered. Hansen went on to be eliminated in tenth place. Later, Anthony Rivera took out James Mackey for the top prize of $483,688 and his first gold bracelet.

Day one of the $1,500 no-limit hold’em six-handed event saw Peter Dalhuijsen , Neil Channing and Peter Granlund doing well early in the session. Other Europeans holding their own were Michael Brummelhuis and Jan Von Halle.

The highlight however was Irishman Peter “pmarrsouth” Marr’s battle up the ranks. At level 6 he took on well-stacked Tom “titantom32” Branband twice to win one hand and muck another. At level 8, he beat seat 1’s J6 all-in on the river when he made a flush with his Q3. His run continued at level 10 when he called a short stack’s all-in and showed A10. He was trailing his opponent’s AK until the board came out 108210Q giving Marr the best hand and eliminating the player. A few hands later Marr took part in a coin flip when he called another player’s all-in. He showed 77 and his opponenet showed A-Q. The board came out J-8-7-4-6 and Marr sent another victim to the rail.

The tenth event of the series — $2,500 Omaha / seven-card-stud high-low — began today. Among the Europeans taking part were Alex Kravchenko and Marco Traniello. German George Danzer ran into some bad luck and was eliminated at level 7.

Roland de Wolfe representing the UK was making waves earlier on in the session when, with the the board showing 3K8KJ, he raised his opponents bet after calling on the flop and turn. His opponent knew he was beat but eventually made the call. De Wolfe flipped over JJA4 for a full house on the river. As he flipped over his cards two players at the table burst into laughter.

Events taking place tomorrow are the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout and the $1,500 limit hold’em tournaments. In the meantime, the field will continue to narrow down in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em six-handed and the $2,500 Omaha / seven-card-stud high-low events.

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