For the first time, poker’s elite compete in three different disciplines of poker to find the most complete poker champion. The second group features Sorel Mizzi, Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and the WPT Player of the Year, Andy Frankenberger. Jesse May and Luke Schwartz commentate.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Here at PartyPoker we’re always pushing the envelope as such when it comes to the innovation and the design of our products. So you’ll be glad to know that our famous No Download Poker client has had something of a face-lift to bring it into 2012. Not noticed it yet? Well you’ll be happy to hear that some of our new features include:

• Lobby Itunes view
• Table filtering
• Take seat from lobby
• Modern tables with player avatars
• New tournament lobby
• Embedded account and cashier pages
• Email reminders for registered tournaments
• Blackjack and Roulette for side games

We hope you enjoy these new features please note they are currently available in English and German. What are your thoughts on our updates? Something else you’d like to see?

I’ve been invited to join the panel of judges for the European Poker Awards in Paris in January, held at the absolutely gorgeous Aviation Club de France. It’s a real honour and I was definitely surprised and happy to be asked. It feels like a big responsibility, so I’ll be considering the possible candidates carefully and trying to make the best possible decision. There are so many fantastic people up for awards that there won’t be any easy decisions!

I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in Paris in January as Party Poker are putting me into some of the Euro Finals of Poker events to help me hit the ground running playing a new year of poker tournaments. My new poker season all starts on the 5th of January though, with WPT Dublin and I’ve already had a lot of people arranging times to meet up and drink whiskey and guinness. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m going there to play a serious poker tournament. It’s an easy venue to lose track of that fact!

I hope you’re all having a fab Holiday season and that you’re 2011 ends with lots of my three favourite things: Food, laughter and poker!

Andrey Pateychuk has become the World Poker Tour Prague Main Event champion after outlasting a star-studded, record-breaking field of 571 competitors.

Pateychuk flew under the radar for the vast majority of the tournament, in fact the only time he came to our attention was when he turned up for Day 3 more than three hours late, his 120,000 starting stack being blinded away slowly but surely. But he eventually turned up and did what he does best, accumulate chips.

The Russian, who finished 15th in the World Series of Poker Main Event this summer and recently won the EPT San Remo Main Event, started the day third in chips but after Russell Carson, Sugurd Eskeland and Benjamin Pollak were eliminated there was never any real doubt he was going to add a WPT gong to his name.

The man who started the day as chip leader, Stanislaw Kretz, bled chips all day long and when he was busted out after around 6.5 hours of play it left Pateychuk and Adria Balageur to battle it out heads-up for the the title and the not so shabby first place prize of €468,200.

The one-on-one battle lasted close to three hours and the chip lead swung violently from one competitors to another, both coming back from the death a couple of times. But it was Pateychuk who refused to lay down, he was like a Marvel superhero! He trailed Balageur 15:1 in chip at one point but still came back to win!

The final hand was the fitting for the match because it was typical Pateychuk. Down to 13bb Balageur moved all in with and Pateychuk, supported by an army of Russian fans on the rail, called with . The flop gave him a flush draw whilst the turn gifted him a straight draw too. The inevitable made him a straight and with that WPT Prague had been completed and Pateychuk became the champion.

• 1st: Andrey Pateychuk: €468,200
• 2nd: Adria Bagaleur: €238,000
• 3rd: Stanislaw Kretz: €158,000
• 4th: Benjamin Pollak: €104,000
• 5th: Sigurd Eskeland: €80,000
• 6th: Russell Carson: €63,000

Day 1a of the WPT Prague Main Event has been entered into the history books and it is the unknown Jan Remik who sits proudly atop the chip counts having turned his 30,000 starting stack into a more than impressive 209,300.

By the time registration closed after Level 4 of play, there were 231 players registered for the Main Event amongst those a total of 19 PartyPoker qualifiers, each of them entering the tournament with legitimate hopes of progressing through to Day 1 of WPT Prague and once there anything would be possible.

Our heroes suffered mixed fortunes during the duration of the ten one-hour levels with only five of them making it through relatively unscathed. There quintet are:

• Grayson Ramage: 128,300
• Tobias Reinkemeier: 109,700
• Florian Schleps: 89,100
• Russell Carson: 46,200
• Thomas Muehloecker: 28,100

These five will return on Saturday at 1400CET hoping to progress to Day 3 and beyond. Can they do it? Tune in Saturday to find out.

02:45

Day 1b Completed: Casey King Of The Kastle

Thanks to the monster pot right at the end of Day 1b Casey Kastle is the overwhelming chip leader having bagged and tagged a colossal 356,800 chips, an extra 104,700 more than anyone else in the field. Although Kastle has played in major poker tournaments since 1998, he is yet to even cash in one held in Prague but sure that will all change this week now he has around 200 big blinds!

Kastle’s nearest rivals are Karen Sarkisyan with 252,100 chips and Steve O’Dwyer who will return to the felt tomorrow armed with 241,000.

A total of 125 players survived Day 1b and they will join up with the 93 from Day 1a meaning 218 players will take their seats in the King’s Casino for Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Prague Main Event. The plan for tomorrow is to play eight 60-minute levels and the floor staff have their fingers crossed that we will get down to somewhere near the bubble.

Join us again from 1400CET for all the action from Day 2. Until then, we are going for some much needed shut eye. Good night!

02:33

Kastle Wins Biggest Pot Of The Tournament!

Wow! Casey Kastle has been amongst the chip leader for the past couple of hours, as has Michael Tureniec so imagine what would happen if they both picked up big pairs and got their stacks into the middle! Well that just happened. Kastle was all in with against Tureniec’s and when no queen appeared on the board, Kastle was catapulted to 350,000 chips and Tureniec was left with 100,000, still a large stack.

02:20

Martins Adeniya Doubles At The Death

Martins Adeniya has passed the 200,000 chip mark right with mere minutes to go in this tournament. We saw Adeniya stacking his new stash with in front of him and the board reading .

02:00

Weisner Busted

Earlier we had Team PartyPoker Pro Giovanni Rizzo being busted out with pocket kings when the board gave his opponent an unlikely straight, now it was Melanie Weisner’s turn to suffer the same fate.

Petr Jelinek opened the betting from early position to 2,300 and one player folded Weisner moved all in for 16,900. The action then folded to Florian Pandilica who waited for a couple of minutes before making the call. Jelinek folded and the hands were revealed.

Weisner:
Pandilica:

Weisner is a huge favourite to double up and the is as safe as it can get in these situations. The lands on the turn and the on the river to send the American to the rail un the most unfortunate of circumstances.

01:46

Thomsen Wins Massive Three-Way All In Pot

The big chip stacks are like magnets here in the last level of play. Steve Thomsen has just found and two players willing to go broke. The first player held and the second player held . The board ran out and Thomsen now has 190,000 little discs in front of him.

01:33

There Are Some Tired Players Out There

Looking around the tournament area leads one to discover a number of very tired looking poker players who seem more interested in going to bed than making it through to Day 2. Remember, some of these players played for up to ten hours yesterday and we have now been playing today for 9.5 hours.

01:22

Timex Wins 30,000 Chip Pot

Joining the action on a board and with around 22,000 chips in the pot. Mike “Timex” McDonald is seated in the cutoff seat and he makes what seems to be a rather small 7,300 chip bet. His opponent is the button and he is sitting with his right hand over his mouth, a position he adopts for a minute or so before he picks up his cards and places them in the muck.

01:10

Perfect Time To Find Aces

There is never really a bad time to pick up aces but it is always great to look down and find in the hole when someone has shoved all in in front of, just like what happened to Daniel Erlandsson. His opponent, Jefri Islam, held .

The board ran out and Islam was eliminated. We are now down to 150 runners in Day 1b of the Main Event.

00:53

Tureniec Takes On Gulyy

Since finding himself with a healthy stack of chips Michael Tureniec has upped his aggression and is playing more pots than usual, hence the number of Tureniec related posts in the last hour or so!

From under the gun Tureniec raised to 1,800 and when two players folded Yury Gulyy three-bet to 4,500. Tureniec placed his sunglasses over his eyes and made the call.

Flop: - Tureniec checked to Gulyy, who then bet 5,100 and Tureniec called.

Turn: – Tureniec checked again but Gulyy did not take his foot off the gas, instead he increased his bet to 11,000 and Tureniec got the message and folded his hand.

00:42

Giovanni Rizzo Sent Down The River

Team PartyPoker Pro Giovanni Rizzo’s surname translates in English to “river” and he has just been sold down it in a cruel, cruel exit hand. Finding himself with a pair of kings on a flop, Rizzo bet, his opponent raised then called when Rizzo moved all in with his . His opponent called with and Rizzo was in great shape to double up but the on the turn gave him a sweat and the on the river completed one of the most unlikely straights and Rizzo is not a happy bunny at all.

00:30

Freitez Frazzled

The news of Ivan Freitez’s demise will no doubt please around 99.999% of the poker world after his antics at the EPT Grand Final. If you have to ask then simply search “Freitez Angle Shoot” and you will quickly understand why so many people will be delighted he is no longer in this tournament.

Jean Marie Vandeborne was Freitez’s executioner having been at each others throats all day. Vandeborne finally settled the argument in the following hand.

There is a raise under the gun and Jean Marie Vandeborne cold calls in the next seat. The action folds around to Ivan Freitez in late position and he moves all-in for 16,000. The initial raiser folds and Vanderborne makes the call. Freitez turns over pocket threes and Vanderborne has pocket sixes. The board made no difference to the outcome and Freitez is eliminated.

We cannot say we are sad.

Vanderborne ~ 60,000

00:15

Have A Look At The Party Downstairs Whilst The Players Go On Their Last Break

23:55

Two Tureniec Hands

Hand 1: Athanasios Polychronopoulos opened the betting to 1,400 from late position and when the action was on Michael Tureniec, in the cutoff, three-bet to 4,000. Polychronopoulos called and the dealer put out the flop. Polychronopoulos checked to his dangerous opponent and he made a continuation bet of 3,500. Polychronopoulos called and the turn card was the and again Polychronopoulos checked. Tureniec bet again, increasing the amount to 8,500 and again Polychronopoulos called.

The river brought the into the equations and Polychronopoulos checked for a third time but instead of betting like on previous street Tureniec tapped the table and checked behind.

Polychronopoulos showed and Tureniec mucked.

Hand 2: From the hijack Tureniec made it 1,400 to go and then called when Robert Castoire three-bet to 3,700. The players checked down the and again on the turn but on the river the action went Castoire check, Tureniec bet 6,600 and Castoire called.

Tureniec turned over and his opponent mucked.

23:26

Toby Lewis Eliminated

Toby Lewis’ dreams of WPT glory will have to wait for a couple of weeks when WPT Venice takes place because he is no longer in this tournament. We caught up with Dan Carter, the man who was responsible for crippling the stack of his fellow countryman, and he explained the hand.

According to Mr Carter the big blind at his table folded out of turn and this prompted Lewis to raise it up to 1,200 from UTG+1. However, a ruling went in the favour of the big blind and he was allowed to retrieve his hand from the muck! The action then folded to Carter in the small blind and he raised to 3,300. The big blind folded but Lewis made it 5,500 and Carter opted to flat-call this bet.

The flop came down with two hearts and Carter checked. Lewis bet 6,000 only to see Carter move all in (he was playing from a 30,000 stack at the start of the hand). Lewis called and showed and was in a whole world of trouble against the of Carter. The turn and river missed Lewis and he was left nursing a short stack that went into the middle shortly after and the rest as they say is history.

23:17

Tureniec Doubles Up And Is Back In Business

Josef Gulas opens the betting with a raise to 1,100 from late position. The action folds to Michael Tureniec on the button and he three-bets to 2,800. Gulas then takes back most of his original bet and replaces it with 6,500 worth of chips, four-betting the Swede.

Tureneic pauses for a few moments before moving all in an Gulas says, in rather a resigned tone, “OK. I call” and turns over which is in a coinflip against the of Tureniec. The flop keeps the sixes in front and the extends Tureniec’s lead further. The on the river is safe for the sixes and Tureniec doubles to 60,000 and is back in contention in this tournament.

23:00

It’s Not Over Until It’s Actually Over!

A hand just took place over on Table 2 that demonstrates why you should always keep hold of your hand until it is impossible for you to win.

A preflop raising war between Per Linde (BTN), Eirc Afriat (SB) and Viacheslav Igin resulted in Afriat being all in and at risk of elimination, though losing would badly damage the stacks of the other two players as well. The hands were turned over and each of them held pairs.

Linde:
Afriat:
Igin:

When Igin sees his hand is crushed he inexplicably mucks his hand! His reward? A flop! The turn and river are the and respectively and Afriat triples up though he should be heading to the sidelines.

22:47

Radomski Smells A Rat

Karol Radomski, one of our surviving PartyPoker qualifiers, opens the betting from late position but Josef Goulas to his immediate left three-bets to just 2,300 leaving himself 6,150 behind. The aciton folds back to Radomski and he folds with a puzzled luck on his face.

22:38

Lewis Attempts To Break Into Kastle

On a flop that reads Toby Lewis is in the small blind and it is his turn to act. He waits for a solid minute before moving all in for just over 17,000. This is an overbet but at least it will stop him from being re-raised. Kastle waits for 30 seconds before mucking his hand.

22:26

Prizepool Announced

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, here is what you are playing for in the WPT Prague Main Event:

• 1st. €450,000
• 2nd. €238,000
• 3rd. €158,000
• 4th. €104,000
• 5th. €80,000
• 6th. €63,000
• 7th.€48,000
• 8th. 33,000
• 9th.€25,000
• 10th-12th. €20,151
• 13th-15th. €16,830
• 16th-18th. €14,472
• 19th-27th. €12,272
• 28th-36th. €10,155
• 37th-45th. €8,400
• 46th-54th. €7,200
• 55th-63rd. €6,400

22:22

Slight Delay For Some Czech Stars

The players were sent on a rather impromptu break so that they could go into the hotel lobby for some free drinks and meet some Czech stars such as singer Karel Gott, former NHL stars Martin Rucinksy and Martin Straka and Miss Czech Republic Jitka Valkova.

They are back in there seats now and normal service will resume momentarily.

21:30

Let Sleeping Slovenians Lie

Fresh from doubling up Casey Kastle has assumed a familiar position at the table, he is asleep, head nodding and everything. WAKE UP CASEY!

21:20

Darcourt No More

We did not see the hand but we heard a dealer shout “Seat open, Table 14″ and the pink-haired Guillaume Darcourt collecting his belongings and heading to the rail. Florian Desgouttes was busy stacking up chips and it appears he is Darcourt’s executioner.

21:12

Ebanks On The Rise

PartyPoker qualifier Joe Ebanks has just added an extra 15,000 chips to his stack after sending Ognjen Sekularac to the rail.

The latter opened the betting with a raise to 1,025 from middle position and after checking his cards Ebanks sat motionless for a few moments before reaching for chips. When he had finished picking up the precious clay circles he had made a raise of his own, making it 2,350 to play. The action folded back around to Sekularac and he moved all in for 14,300 and Ebanks snapped him off.

Ebanks:
Sekularac:

The board ran out and Ebanks wins the pot with a set of jacks.

21:00

Rizzo Takes On Polychronopoulos

The action folded to Athanasios Polychronopoulos in the cutoff seat and he made it 900 to play. The button and both blinds folded but PartyPoker Pro Giovanni Rizzo three-bet to 2,300 from the big blind. Polychronopoulos made the call and it was off the the flop.

Rizzo kept his foot firmly on the gas and bet 3,100, a bet that Polychronopoulos instantly called but when the landed on the turn and Rizzo bet 6,500 Polychronopoulos was not so quick to act, taking 30 seconds or so to fold.

20:46

A Career In Blogging Beckons For Eames

John Eames played Day 1a of the WPT Prague so has been pottering around the tournament area all day long eager to get into the blogging world. We sent him out, notebook in hand, to find us a hand to write about and he did not disappoint.

On his travels he saw Casey Kastle opens the action up with a raise and the big blind three-bets to 3,500. Kastle makes the call and the pair of them share a flop of .

Kastle’s opponent fires out a bet of 8,000, Kastle moves all-in and his opponent calls. Kastle turns over a pair of fours for the flopped set and the big blind had pocket kings. The turn and river stayed clean for Kastle and he moves up to 80,000.

Eames is a natural to take over his father’s empire once Tony G decides to take a back seat from the business side of things.

20:33

Cecilia Pescaglini Exit Hand

Cecilia Pescaglini divided the poker world on whether she was a fish or was in fact a genius poker player thanks to her unusual, that’s the best way to describe it, style of play. Unfortunately the jury is still out because he has been eliminated from the tournament. Here is a video of her last hand at WPT Prague.

20:26

Korotkikh Shows Relentless Aggression

On a flop that reads Maxim Panyak checks then takes a sip of his whiskey. Mikhail Korotkikh bets 1,300 which folds out Guillaume Darcourt but Panyak comes along for the ride.

The turn is the and Panyak checks again then calls when his opponent makes it 4,000 to play. This takes the hand to the river and Panyak checks once again. Korotkikh cranes his neck to get a better view of Panyak’s stack then bets 7,000. Panyak takes another sip of whiskey then folds his hand.

20:10

Marcin Doliwa Caught Bluffing

From under the gun Marcin Doliwa raises to 650 and his only customer is Tobias Heinsdorf in the small blind. The dealer puts out the flop, Heinsdorf checks, then calls when Doliwa, a PartyPoker qualifier, bets 700. The turn is the and again Heinsdorf check-calls, this time a 1,400 bet from the aggressive Doliwa.

The river is the and for the third time Heinsdorf checks and we discover he was setting a trap because when Doliwa checked behind Heinsdorf showed and had hit a full house on the river.

19:55

Greenwood And Lange Tangle

On a board reading , Sven Lange in early position looks at his opponent and then checks. Max Greenwood, the aforementioned opponent bets what turns out to be 1,300 from the cutoff position and Lange quickly calls.

The final card of the hand is the and Lange checks again but Greenwood has done enough betting and he checks behind.

Greenwood:
Lange: muckety muck

19:50

Cater Chipping Up

Dan Carter may have two tough opponents in the shape of Byron Kaverman and Toby Lewis on his table but he is playing well, staying out of their way and targeting the easy money.

Natan Lecht raised from the hijack and then called when Carter three-bet to 2,100. The flop came down , Lecht checked, Carter bet 2,000 and Lecht folded. As simple as that.

19:49

Cuello Restarts Aggressively

The players are back from a dinner break but having a full stomach has not dampened the spirits of Jorge Cuello. He saw Ilan Boujenah open to 600 from early position and decided to three-bet to 1,600 on the button. The blinds and Boujenah fold and the PartyPoker qualifier picks up the first pot since the restart.

18:10

Dinner Dinner Dinner Batman

The players are on a 75-minute dinner break. We will be back soon with full bellies.

18:00

Joe Ebanks Talks To PartyPoker

17:52

Adinolfi Wins Strange Pot

PartyPoker pro Giovanni Rizzo folds under the gun and after one fold Marvin Rettenmaier raises to 500. Mario Adinolfi calls but Xavier Detournel makes a strange sized squeeze to 1,100. Both players call and the dealer puts out the flop.

Each of the three players quickly check and the appears on the turn. Rettenmaier checks again, Adinolfi bets 1,800 and both opponents quickly fold.

A strange hand all round I am sure you will agree.

17:40

Roberto Romanello Talks

Roberto Romanello has a great record in Prague and is hoping to get a result in the WPT Prague Main Event this week.

17:30

Busquet Busted

Olivier Busquet has been eliminated from the tournament in dramatic fashion. He entered a preflop raising war with an opponent and all of Busquet’s chips went into the middle with him being a massive favourite holding to his opponent’s .

The kings took an unlikely lead on the and the kept them ahead. Any hopes of a re-suck were ended when the landed on the turn gifting the unknown player quad kings!

17:22

A Selection Of Pros Talk About The Re-Entry Structure

17:12

Carter Gifted Double Up

British pro Dan Carter has been gifted a double up and is now sat with around 60,000 chips. We missed the hand but the Cheltenham lad recalled how a player he described a player he described as “a complete moron” raised to 500 from the hijack and then called when Carter three-bet to 1,500 on the button. The flop came down with two spades and the hijack check-called a continuation bet from Carter.

The turn brought the into play and again the hijack check-called, this time a bet of 4,400. The river was the and once more the hijack refused to bet. Carter then bet 12,500, which was the hijack’s complete stack and he instantly called slamming his stack over the line.

Carter recalled how he thought he had “value-towned” himself but was amazed to see his opponent called off his stack with just .

17:04

Timex Called Down

The board reads and the small blind, blonde hair in a parting to the right, taps the table and checks. To his direct left is Mike “Timex” McDonald and he bets 925, a bet that is quickly called. The on the turn sees the small blind check again and McDonald fires another bullet, doubling his previous bet to 1,950 and is instantly called.

McDonald shows and is beaten by the of his opponent.

16:49

Svensson Loses Out

The board reads and the big blind has just bet 1,925 into Christian Svensson. He sits bolt upright, stretches his arms behind his head before removing his sunglasses and studying the community cards.

He ponders his options for a good minute before tossing in two yellow 1,000 and making the call.

“Yeah,” says the big man as he sees his opponent turn over , mucking his hand as he does so.

16:44

Giovanni Rizzo Flying High

PartyPoker Team Pro Giovanni Rizzo is flying high and has around 64,000 chips right now. After three-betting the hijack’s open and winning the pot without contest he got involved in a multiway pot with a small pair.

The player under the gun raised to 500 and next to act raised it up to 1,250. This folded out everyone except Rizzo who called in the hijack and the under the gun player tossed in the extra chips and made the call.

Flop: – The players checked to Rizzo and he bet 1,700, folding out the under the gun raiser but the green hoodie wearing player called.

Turn: – The action goes check, check.

River: – Again the action goes check, check.

Rizzo reveals a pair of threes but his opponent turns over and his sevens are good.

16:31

Chalendard Loses Some Ground

Marie Chalendard has begun playing an unusual style in that she is continually limping into pots instead of the standard play of opening with a raise and so far it does not seem to be working out too well for her.

From under the gun she open-limps and then calls when the player two to her left makes it 525 to play. The flop comes down and she check-calls a 525 continuation bet. The turn is another five, the , and once again she checks but when her opponent bets 1,300 she quickly lets go of her hand.

16:22

Lange Wins First Pot After The Break

PartyPoker qualifier Sven Lange has just returned from break and won the first pot back after retaking his seat. A player in early position raised to 525 but then quickly folded when Lange three-bet to 2,000.

16:00

Timex Wins Pot Just Before Break

Another top player who has re-entered the Main Event is Canadian Mike “Timex” McDonald and he has just helped himself to a nice little pot just before the break.

The player under the gun made it 375 to play, McDonald called on the button and the big blind came along for the ride. The flop is checked around by all three players and the on the turn is checked by the big blind, bet by the initial raiser and only McDonald called. Both players check the on the river.

UTG Player:
McDonald: and the pot.

15:45

Roberto Romanello In The House

Welshman Roberto Romanello has entered WPT Prague hoping to emulate his own success in the EPT equivalent of this event. Last year Romanello took down EPT Prague and it kick-started his live career and sparked a string of impressive results including taking down WPT Bratislava.

He appears in confident mood which cannot be good for his opponents.

15:32

Record Breakers!

Ladies and Gentlemen we have a little announcement to make. The WPT Prague Main Event is the best attended European-based WPT in history! We have 328 entries so far for Day 1b which means a combined total of 559 and there are still two hours left to register!

15:25

Lewis Re-Enters And Means Business

Toby Lewis qualified for Day 1a on PartyPoker but unfortunately the talented Brit could not make it safely through the day. However, he re-entered for Day 1b and has got straight down to business.

Joining the action on a flop and with around 6,000 chips already in the pot, Lewis leads into his opponent with a 4,000 bet from the small blind which really gives him something to think about. He eventually folds and smiles to himself when Lewis turns over the .

15:14

Radomski Takes On Tureniec

He may have one of the most impressive poker CV’s in Europe but that has not stopped Karol Radomski from going head to head with Michael Tureniec. The is checked by both players but the on the river sees Tureniec lead into Radomski with a 3,600 bet but he is not buying the Swede’s story and he announces in a gruff voice, “Nine thousand” before placing two red 5,000 chips into the pot.

Tureniec, who is wearing some massive headphones, quickly folds.

15:08

Frankenberger Wins Battle Of The Sunglasses

The action folds to Andy Frankenberger, who has re-entered the WPT Prague Main Event, and from behind his Prada sunglasses he makes it 350 to play from late position. The next player to act folds but the cutoff, who is sporting the biggest, oversized shades I have ever seen, three-bets to 900. Neither the butotn or blinds are prepared to pay 900 and they fold.

Frankenberger takes a second peek at his cards and puts in a four-bet, making it 2,600 to play. The giant glasses make the call, or at the least the person hiding behind them does and it is off to the flop. As the dealer is putting out the first three community cards Frankenberger’s opponent wraps as scarf around his face and stares at the reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year and is still staring at him when he bets 3,500 and is still staring when he mucks his hand.

14:51

Doliwa Folds To Three-Bet

The PartyPoker qualifier Marcin Doliwa looks like he could be one to watch as he seems to love splashing around in pots. Just now the action folded around to him in the small blind and he decided that he wanted to add the blinds to his stack and raised to 300. His opponent in the big blind, hood over his head and sunglasses hanging from the zipper, peeled back his own holecards, glanced at Doliwa before three0betting to 900.

Doliwa must have been at it because he quickly let his hand slide into the muck.

14:43

Did Linde Flop The Nuts

The board reads and the dark blue hoodie sporting youngster who has a look of Tom “durrrr” Dwan about him checks putting the action onto his only opponent in the hand, Sweden’s Per Linde. He paused for a few moments before moving all in for 20,075.

This puzzles “Dwan” and he screws his face up whilst rocking on his chair. He sits considering all of his options before realising that Linde probably has him beat here and he mucks.

As he does Linde says “Dwan” can see one card. He chooses the one on the right and it is the .

14:30

Will We Break The Attendance Record?

The record attendance for the Europe-based World Poker Tour Main Event stands at 555, set in Vienna last year and we are rapidly approaching that number. Yesterday 231 players took to their seats and already we have 290 registered to play today meaning a combined total of 526.

Tell your mates, your enemies even your grandma to head down to the King’s Casino in the Corinthia Towers Hotel and register for the WPT Prague Main Event and be part of history! You can register until the end of Level 4, or around 1800 CET. Go on, you know you want to.

14:24

Doliwa Stacking Chips

Marcin Doliwa has got off to a flyer and looks to have at least 35,000, putting him at the top of the PartyPoker qualifier tree! In a hand just now he was contesting the pot three handed wit the small blind and the guy UTG+1 on a board reading board.

The small blind checked, UTG+1 bet 400, Doliwa called and the small blind folded. The river brought the into play and against Mr UTG+1 bet, increasing the amount to 800 and Doliwa instantly called.

Doliwa:
UTG+1:

14:17

Joe Ebanks In The House

Arguably the highest profile PartyPoker flag flyer today is Joe Ebanks from the United States of America. Mr Ebanks won his first World Series of Poker bracelet this summer when he took down the $10,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em event, defeating Britain’s Chris Moorman heads-up.

Can he add a World Poker Tour title to his name here in Prague?

14:14

Chalendard Off To A Good Start

Joining the action on a board, the action is on the gentleman in the under the gun seat and he decides to tap the table and check but our female PartyPoker qualifier Marie Chalendard seizes the opportunity to take the pot down and she bets 1,250.

It works and she rakes in one of the first pots of the day.

14:05

Shuffle Up And Deal

The cards are in the air and Day 1b is under way.

14:02

Team PartyPoker

Like yesterday we have a total of 19 players flying the PartyPoker flag, 18 online qualifiers and Team Pro Giovanni Rizzo. The 18 online qualifiers are:

• Andras Kovacs
• Artem Khudaverdiev
• Bart Verbanck
• Carine Leroy
• Gergely Laszak
• Jonnie Sonelin
• Jorge Cuello
• Julien Jamet
• Karol Radomski
• Lenards Dambis
• Marcin Doliwa
• Marie Chalendard
• Niels Meibom Larsen
• Robin Tlitalo
• Scott O’Reilly
• Sven Lange
• Joe Ebanks
• Yaroslav Oleynik

Let’s follow them and see how they get along!

13:10

Welcome back gentle reader to the PartyPoker blog where at 1400 CET we will bring you live coverage from Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Prague Main Event. If word on the shop floor is accurate then today we should see close to 300 entrants, which would make Prague one of the biggest Europe-based WPT Main Events in history and would see a first place prize of around €400,000!

Along with the scores of new faces who will be exchanging €3,500 for 30,000 tournament chips will be a splattering of those unfortunate souls who played on Day 1a but busted out before the curtain came down on the day’s proceedings.

We expect the likes of Marvin Rettenmaier, Melanie Weisner, Toby Lewis, Per Linde and Chris Moorman to re-enter for Day 1b along with a whole host of familiar names and faces.

So make sure you join us from 1400 CET for all the action from the King’s Casino.

The first heat of Group A has been completed and it is James “Flushy” Dempsey who has taken it down and thanks to using his double up card he has soared into an almost unassailable lead with 16 points.

Dempsey played a solid, aggressive style of poker for most of the evening and was a deserved winner in my book, although his heads-up opponent, Matt Giannetti, may bed to differ. Dempsey was on the ropes and trailing by almost two-to-one in chips but he got very fortunate when he three-bet shoved with and was snapped off by the November Nine member who held a dominating . However, the board ran out to completely turn the tie on its head.

A few hands later and it was all over, Giannetti raised on the button with and then called when Dempsey put him all in with his . Again Dempsey flopped a pair this time on a flop and when the turn and river were the and respectively it was game over for Giannetti and Dempsey picked up 16 valuable points and is odds on for progressing to the final table later this week.

Jennifer Tilly will be hoping for a better showing in the Pot Limit Omaha event on Monday evening as she busted out in sixth place and picked up no points. Tony G also needs a result because he only managed to win two points and he used his valuable double up card too. As did Luke Schwartz who picked up four points but Max Pescatori (three points) and Giannetti (six points) both have their double up card to play.

The six stars will return to the exclusive Playboy Club London in Mayfair on Monday evening for the Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Will four cards be better than two for those who desperately need points even in the early stages.

Points After Heat 1

• James Dempsey: 16
• Matt Giannetti: 6
• Luke Schwartz: 4
• Max Pescatori: 3
• Tony G: 2
• Jennifer Tilly: 0

WPT Amneville Main Event: Day 3 Live Updates

20:53

Day 3: Completed and Official Chip Counts.

Day 3 has come to an end with 19 players remaining. Here are the official chip counts of those players. For a recap of the action click this little link here.

• Thibaud Guenegou: 980,000
• Michel Konieczny: 408,000
• Jordane Ouin: 273,000
• Nicolas Dervaux: 235,000
• Arnaud Mattern: 596,000
• Joseph Cheong: 937,000
• Jean-Philippe Rohr: 113,000
• Arnaud Morel: 279,000
• Guillaume Marechal: 858,000
• Sandiep Khosa: 227,000
• Adrien Allain: 610,000
• Ovi Balaj: 148,000
• Jerome Brion: 377,000
• Nesrine Kourdourli: 916,000
• Scott Baumstein: 1,820,000
• Anders Bisgaard: 1,167,000
• Arnaud Trouer: 462,000
• Rony Halimi: 242,000
• Tony Blanchandin: 705,000

20:23

Five More Hands

The tournament director has paused the clock with 13 minutes left on the clock and has announced they are going to play five more hands.

20:01

Check It Down

Adrien Allain raises on the button to 13,000 and his only customer is Sandiep Khosa in the big blind.

“I am going to check anyway so I might as well check now,” says Khosa and he checks in the dark.

Flop: – Check, check

Turn: – Check, check

River: – Check, check

Allain turns over and Khosa says, “That’s good,” and mucks his hand.

19:53

Konieczny Doubles Through Dyregrov

A raising war breaks out between Michel Konieczny and Kyrre Dyregrov that sees the former all in and at risk with and he was up against the of Dyregrov.

Konieczny completely smashes into the , flopping top set and leaving Dyregrov drawing thinner than a size zero model. The left Dyregrov drawing dead and the meaningless lands on the river and sends the 420,000 pot to Konieczny and reducing Dyregrov to 111,000.

19:45

Simon Vitali Busted, Baumstein Overwhelming Chipleader

Scott Baumstein raises to 14,000 from middle position and nobody wants to tangle with him, that is until it folds around to Nesrine Kourdourli and she makes the call. Simon Vitali is in the big blind and he waits for 30 seconds before squeezing to 46,000.

Baumstein immediately asks how many chips Vitali has behind and the answer is “around 460.” With that information Baumstein announces, “call” and counts out the necessary chips. Whilst he is doing so Kourdourli folds her hand.

Our dealer burns a card and puts out, what turns out to be a fatal, flop. Vitali checks, Baumstein fires a bet of 70,000 and Vitali calls. The turn is the and Vitali moves all in and Baumstein instantly calls.

Baumstein:
Vitali:

A real cooler of a hand but it is not over yet as Vitali can still win if the board board. The dealer does not answer Vitali’s or his rail’s pleas and puts out the on the river, busting Vitali and boosting Baumstein to around 1,500,000 chips.

19:34

Subaru Takeshite Dumped Out In 25th

Subaru Takeshita was not quick enough to get away from Thibaud Guenegou!

The man from Japan has been largely ineffective today and moved his last 70,000 into the middle against Guenegou. Guenegou continued his hot streak by finding while Takeshita held . The board could not find a combination of clubs or aces and Subaru Takeshita zoomed out of here!

19:18

Babel Gone in 27th

Anders Rasmussen raises to 15,000 before Adrien Allain comes into the mixer with a three-bet. A few folds down the line and Nicolas Babel finds two cards good enough to ship 150,000 into the equation. Rasmussen folds and Allain calls.

Allain:
Babel:

Board:

Jean Phillipe Rohr mentioned something in French which I believe when translated means, ” do not flip with Adrien Allain!” Babel meanwhile leaves the table as our latest casualty.

Allain – 580,000

19:14

Mattern Takes Fight To Cheong

Michael Konieczny opens the betting with a raise to 15,000 from under the gun. The next few players fold to Joseph Cheong in late position and a third player, Arnaud Mattern, calls from the hijack.

Flop: – Konieczny checks, Cheong makes it 21,000 to play and Mattern is more than prepared to pay this amount, in fact he is preapred to raise to 65,000. Konieczny gets out of the way and when Cheong checks his cards one more time he decides to fold.

19:05

Cheong Takes Mattern’s Blind

The first hand back from the break saw the action fold to Joseph Cheong on the button and he wasted no time in making it 13,00 to play. Both blinds folded, including Arnaud Mattern. No fireworks as yet.

18:50

Final Break

Level 17 has ended and the players are on their final break of the day.

18:47

Keep An Eye On Table 3

The break is seconds away and Joseph Cheong’s table has just broken. He has been moved to Table 1 Seat 1 which means he has Arnaud Mattern in his big blind, which could and should make things rather interesting.

18:39

New 10,000 Chip In Play

The floor staff are going to race off the blue 500 chips during the upcoming break and will also introduce a yellow 10,000 chip. A full stack of those babies will be worth 200,000.

18:30

De Araujo Giesteira Eliminated, Commentators Thankful

Jesse May is the commentator on the final table live stream and he will be delighted that Jose De Araujo Giesteira has just been sent to the rail. He raised preflop from late position only to see Arnaud Trouer come over the top with a three-bet. When the action folded back to the man with the very long name, he moved all in and Trouer, who had him covered, instantly called.

De Araujo Giesteira:
Trouer:

The final five community cards read and with that De Araujo Giesteira became the 30th place finisher.

18:20

Nadot Finally Eliminated

Anders Bisgaard raises to 15,000 from the hijack, Adrien Allain calls next to act and Stephane Nadot moves all in for a 25,500 in total. Both players call and the dealer puts out the flop. Both active players check, which is exactly what they do when the hits the turn and the on the river.

Nadot, who was terribly short-stacked on the bubble, shows but he is eliminated when Allain turns over . Bisgaard mucks and we are down to 31 players.

18:16

POP! Goes The Bubble

The bubble has burst here in the WPT Amneville Main Event.

There are a myriad of ways to play the bubble but no matter how many times we see the way Jean Bernard Bros decided to play it the outcome is always the same!

For one hour Jean Bernard Bros ran the pace of the play at WPT Amneville. He refused to play a single hand and even missed one hand after wandering away from his table. The rest of the players could see the precarious situation he was putting himself in and so they all decided to wait as well. The resulting situation was hardly any action and plenty of folding.

In the end Jean Bernard Bros was forced to ante up his final chip (one blue 500 chip). Pierre-Yves Bodeux limped in from the small blind and Nesrine Kourdourli checked in the big blind.

Flop:

Bodeux checks and Kourdourli bets 7,000 and the whole room sounded of a murmur of disapproval including Bodeux himself but he did make the call.

Turn:

Bodeux checks and Kourdourli must have been listening to the crowd because she checks back.

River:

Both players check and Bodeux shows and Bros stood up and left the room.

18:00

Bisgaard And Khosa Continue To Clash

Anders Bisgaard and Sandiep Khosa continue to clash as they battle for control of the table. Just now on a flop , Khosa bet 18,000 and Bisgaard called. The on the turn was checked by both players and Khosa checked again when the landed on the turn. Bisagaard then bet 25,000 and Khosa snapped his hand off.

Bisgaard turned over and Khosa said “so sick” said Khosa as he turned over . It is starting to become a very interesting dynamic.

17:30

Durand Doubles Through Cheong

There is never a bad time to pick up pocket kings but imagine how great it must feel to look down at your holecards, see staring right back at you and having the aggressive Joseph Cheong raise in front of you. Durand was short stacked with around 57,000 chips and he shipped them into the middle and Cheong made the call with .

The board ran out and Durand doubled up but Cheong still has plenty of chip left, close to 650,000.

17:16

Bisgaard Leads The Way

Anders Bisgaard, who we have been referring to as his middle name Rasmussen (sorry), is the man to catch here in Amneville as he finds himself with around 1,200,000 chips. He told us about a hand he won just before the break where he raises, Giuseppe Zarbo three-bet, Bisgaard four-bet, Zarbo five-bet and Bisgaard six-bet shoved and Zarbo found a fold. That pushed him over the million chips barrier and left Zarbo nursing a pretty short stack.

He won a significant pot earlier in the day as you can see here;

17:00

Break Time

Level 16 has ended and the 37 surviving players are on a 15-minute break.

16:49

Cheong And Babel Split Pot On The Bubble

The flop reads , Joseph Cheong bets 12,000 from middle position and Nicolas Babel, on the button, calls. The makes an appearance on the turn and Cheong does not slow down, instead he increases his bet to 26,000 and again Babel calls. The on the river sees Cheong bet but we do not see the amount as Babel snap-calls and shows which splits the pot because Cheong holds and both players take their bets back and split the pot.

16:36

Cagey Play

As you would expect the play has been very cagey, and it is not being helped by the fact there are two players with 10-12 big blind stacks left.

16:29

Peyroles Eight-Kicker Comes Into Play

The action folds to Nicolas Babel in the small blind and he raises to 12,000. Arnaud Peyroles defends his big blind and makes the call. A flop reading sees a bet of 12,500 from Babel and a quick call from Peyroles. The on the turn is checked by both players, and the action is the same when the lands on the river.

Babel:
Peyroles:

16:25

Hand For Hand

A flurry of eliminations has seen the TV screens around the tournament area display 37 players remaining meaning we are on the bubble and play is no hand-for-hand.

15:54

Mattern Uses Stack To Apply Pressure

Thibaud Guenegou raises to 10,000 from under the gun and after one player fold Kyree Dyregrov three-bets to 26,000. The action then folds to Arnaud Mattern who questions the size of the raise and when the dealer confirms “26,000″ he four-bets to 72,500. Guenegou quickly fold but Dyregrov takes a little longer before releasing his hand.

15:49

Rettenmaier Is No More

Marvin Rettenmaier has been eliminated. We do not have the details of his exit hand but judging by th efact he his stood around talking to the Royal Flush Girls suggests he is out of chips.

15:43

Baumstein Becomes A Millionaire

Ladies and Gentlemen we have our first millionaire in this tournament, Scott Baumstein now has more than one million chips after winning a huge pot against the man who crippled Marvin Rettenmaier, Rony Halimi.

Joining the hand on a board reading , Baumstein checked to Halimi who took almost three minutes to bet 65,000. Within moments of betting, Halimi called the clock on Baumstein but the floor ruled in favour of the American.

Baumstein said, “I know you’re bluffing. What do you have? Queen-jack? Ace-jack?”. Moments later he called with for a flush and Halimi turned over for not very much at all.

“If you moved all in I would have folded. Ship it in my friend,” informed Baumstein.

15:34

Rasmussen Hits Full House Against Cheong

Our cameraman Francesco Rizzo snapped this great picture showing Anders Rasmussen getting a full house paid off from Joseph Cheong.

15:16

Break Time

Level 15 has come to an end and the players are now on a 15-minute break. When they return the blinds and antes will be 2,000/4,000/500a.

Forty-five players remain and only 36 will make it to the money.

15:13

Rettenmaier Crippled

Joining the action on a board reading , Rony Halimi checks to Marvin Rettenmaier who waits for close to a minute before betting 16,500. Halimi is not as patient as his German opponent and he quickly check-raises to 40,000. Rettenmaier asks to see Halimi’s stack (~110,000) and shortly afterwards he moves all in. Halimi snaps him off and Rettenmaier acknowledges he is beaten.

Rettenmaier:
Halimi:

The on the turn and river were no help to Rettenmaier and he becomes one of the shortest stacks at the table, whilst Halimi now finds himself armed with 340,000 chips.

15:05

Khosa Back In Contention

PartyPoker Qualifier Sandiep Khosa has been on a real rollercoaster of a ride today, being as low as 30,000 at one point but now he looks a little more happy with his 270,000 stack.

He told us that he bluffed a lot of his stack off in the first couple of levels saying the bluffs were good bluffs but that it “is so hard to bluff these guys,” but he has since, in his one words, “got lucky with sevens and then nine and then I just had a good run of cards.”

The good run continued just now when Adrien Allain raised to 7,000 from middle position, Mesbah Guerfi moved all in for his last 49,000 from the cutoff and Khosa cold-called and the button. The blinds and Allain folded and the cards were revealed.

Guerfi:
Khosa:

The final board ran out and with that Guerfi was eliminated and Khosa climbed to 270,000.

14:59

Chips To The Left

As promised, here are the chip counts from the left of the room.

• Paul Ribaud 240,000
• Idris Ambraisse 110,000
• Ovidiu Balaj 185,000
• Mesbah Guerfi 68,000
• Arnaud Trouer 250,000
• Cedric Masson 110,000
• Nesrine Kourdourli 685,000
• Paul Berende 165,000
• Jean Phillipe Rohr 200,000
• Michel Konieczny 145,000
• Jean Bernard Bros 65,000
• Jordane Ouin 180,000
• Jean Luc Pascaud 130,000
• Joseph Cheong 730,000
• Stephane Nadot 115,000
• Sundeep Sandhu 110,000
• Tony Blanchandin 230,000
• Arnaud Morel 190,000
• Gerard Zeitoun 180,000
• Gregory Bolognini 110,000
• Anders Rasmussen 450,000

14:54

Party Poker Qualifier Anders Rasmussen Talks About a Great Call He Made Today

Anders Rasmussen qualified for the WPT Amneville Main Event for just $46. Here he talks about a great call he made earlier today.

Here is another hand he has just played just moments ago.

Gerard Zeitoun raises to 7,000 from middle position and Anders Rasmussen three-bets to 18,500 in late position. Players fold like envelopes before Zeitoun picks up a pile of brown 5k chips and dumps them over the line. Zeitoun didn’t count the pile before making his move but the dealer told Rasmussen it was 62,000. Strong play, but it didn’t deter our PartyPoker online qualifier who moves all-in. Zeitoun pushes his remaining loose change into the middle and we have a showdown.

Rasmussen:
Zeitoun:

Rasmussen is in a world of hurt.

Flop:

Rasmussen now has a backdraw flush draw to add to his outs.

Turn:

No change

River:

There is a few seconds of awkward silence that is eventually broken by the whispering voice of Rasmussen.

“Sorry,” whispers Rasmussen.

Rasmussen – 650,000

14:30

The Joseph Cheong Show

We have just watched Joseph Cheong for an entire orbit and the man is a beast! Here is what we saw.

Chip count at start: 680,000

Hand 1: Sundeep Sandhu raised to 7,500 from UTG+1 and the action folded around to Gregory Bolognini on the button and he called. Cheong is in the big blind and he pumps it up to 23,000 and both his opponents fold.

Hand 2: Arnaud Morel opens to 8,000 from middle position and only Cheong calls from the small blind. The flop comes down , Cheong checked, Morel made a 13,000 continuation bet and Cheong folded.

Hand 3: Tony Blanchandin raised to 6,500 from under the gun, Anders Rasmussen called in the cutoff and Cheong folded his button.

Hand 4: The action folded around to Cheong in the cutoff and he raised to 6,500 and his only customer was Sandhu in the small blind. The flop came down , Sandhu checked and Cheong checked behind. The turn brought the into play and Sandhu check-called a bet of 10,000 from Cheong. The river was the , Sandhu checked, Cheong bet 26,000 and Sandhu mucked showing .

Hand 5: Cheong folded from middle position.

Hand 6: Cheong folded from under the gun.

Chip count at end: 730,000.

Cheong is in complete control of his table and this tournament right now. He looks in the zone and that is a horrible proposition for the 51 other players still in the WPT Amneville Main Event.

14:10

Chip Counts From One Half of The Room

Here are the chip counts from all the players on the right side of the room.

• Kyrre Dyregrov: 240,000
• Marc Inizan: 435,000
• Marvin Rettenmaier: 355,000
• Johan Guilbert: 76,000
• Pierre-Yves Bodeux: 75,000
• Nicolas Dervaux: 93,000
• Suburu Takeshita: 160,000
• Jose Dearaujogiesteira: 255,000
• Urs Kohler: 40,000
• Jerome Brion: 180,000
• Sandiep Khosa: 54,000
• Thomas Gardin: 107,500
• Bruno Fitoussi: 54,000
• Adrien Allain: 360,000
• Jean-Francois Schwartz: 98,500
• Enver Kilinc: 43,000
• Giuseppe Zarbo: 116500
• Alexis Chevassu: 74,500
• Scott Baumstein: 620,000
• Patrick Gastaldi: 53,000
• Rony Halimi: 229,000
• Erik Von Buxhoeveden: 243,000
• Simon Vitali: 501,000
• Paul Testud: 242,000
• Levent Mercan: 127,000
• Steven Van Zadelhoff: 45,000
• Edouard Sadoun: 161,000
• Herve Wiszkowksi: 127,000
• Marcus Naalden: 135,000
• Riad Mounir: 290,000
• Thibaud Guenegou: 136,000
• Arnaud Mattern: 470,000
• Guillaume Marchal: 250,000

Kourdourli Eliminates MunchenHB Before The Break

We got world that Mikael Telker had been eliminated by Nesrine Kourdourli just before the break. Here is what we discovered from our friends at the WPT.

Telker had only just moved to his new table when he opens up with from the hijack making it 5,500 to play. The cutoff folds and Nesrine Kourdourli three-bets to 15,500. Telker decides to call and they see a flop of . Telker bets 28,000 and Kourdourli makes a small re-raise. Telker who started the hand with 260,000 moves all-in and Kourdourli snap-calls with pocket aces. The turn and brick offer no salvation for our online phenom and he was eliminated.

Kourdourli – 600,000

Our video team caught up with him shortly after his bust out.

Break Time

The remaining 60 players are now on a 15-minute break.

13:28

Busto

Here is a list of recent eliminations:

• Francois Luiggi
• Mokrane Boukedim
• Loic Thepaut
• Davidi Kitai
• Dorian Riospavon
• Gwendoline Janot
• Antonio Guerrero
• Mikael Oestreicher
• Philip Meulyzer
• Pierre Canali
• Teddy Fois
• Kamal Benadouda

13:20

Strong Move From Sadoun

Edouard Sadoun raises to 5,200, in middle position, and Riad Mounir calls in the small blind before Arnaud Mattern squeezes out the three-bet from the big blind. The price was 22,200 and Sadoun decided he wanted to increase the ante by moving all-in for 100,000 and both players snap-folded.

13:13

Matthieu Lamagnere Busts

Matthieu Lamagnere has been eliminated at the hands of Steve Van Zadelhoff. We did not see the hand take place but we saw Lamagnere all in at risk with against the of Van Zadelhoff.

The board ran out .

13:07

Inizan And Rettenmaier Clash

The action is on Marc Inizan in the cutoff seat and he raises to 5,200. Marvin Rettenmaier calls in the small blind and Johan Guilbert in the big blind, sat with his hood over his head, looks like he is about to raise but instead of picking up chips he flicks his cards into the muck.

Flop: – Rettenmaier checks, Inizan makes a continuation bet of 6,600 and Rettenmaier calls.

Turn: – Rettenmaier checks and Inizan checks behind.

River: – Rettenmaier checks again, Inizan now bets quite large, 18,800 is the bet, and after one minute the German calls.

Inizan:
Rettenmaier: mucks

Rettenmaier drops to 360,000 which is also how many chips Inizan has.

13:00

Its a Strange Game Sometimes

Levent Mercan had just moved his short stack of 33,000 into the middle and everyone folded. In the very next hand Mercan just open limped and everyone eyed him with suspicion. Despite this everyone just called and as they did Mercan intimated to everyone that they should have moved in because his stack was short!

Flop:

All four players check.

Turn:

Pierre Canali moves all-in from the small blind for 27,000 and everyone folds.

Canali – 36,000
Mercan – 30,000

12:50

Khosa Saves 5,000 chips

The action folds to Sandiep Khosa on the button and he raises to 5,500. Next to act is Jerome Brion and he makes the call. From the big blind Thomas Gardin thinks about his options and chooses to min-raise to 11,000 and unsurprisingly both opponents call.

The flop comes down , Brion checks, Gardin bets 10,000, Khosa raises to 25,000 and Brion folds. Gardin shapes to put in a raise of his own but he ultimately calls.

The turn brings the into play and both players tap the table and check. The final community card is the and Gardin squirms in his seat for a few seconds, counts his chips (of which he has around 40,000) and bets a solitary 5,000 chip.

Khosa smiles and mucks his hand to be shown , which he says beat him and he is happy to have saved 5,000 chips.

12:43

Mounir Adds To Stack

Calling a three-bet out of position, even against a fish, is not the greatest spot to put yourself in during a game of poker. During WPT Amneville Riad Mounir has built quite an impressive chip stack using this method. How long will his luck will continue? Only time will tell….

Riad Mounir raises in early position making it 5,700 to play and Maxim Fedorou three-bets in late position making it 16,500. The action folds back to Mounir and he calls. The flop is and Mounir check-calls a 18,000 c-bet. The turn of follows the same pattern with the only difference being the bet size, 38,000 this time. The river is the and both players quickly check. Mounir won the pot with and Fedorou mucks his hand.

12:35

Meulyzer Sent Packing

Philip Meulyzer’s tournament is over after he ran into the run-good of Marvin Rettenmaier. It turns out Rettenmaier opened from under the gun with and then called when Meulyzer three-bet shoved for around 40,000 chips with .

The final board ran out and Meulyzer headed for the rail.

12:30

How To Play Fish, with Arnaud Mattern

Arnaud Mattern lets us all know how to play against fish.

12:24

Telker Takes Blinds and Antes

Mikael Telker raises to 5,600 from the cotoff seat and he picks up the blinds and antes. Maybe he woulod not have gotten this much respect if they realised that he an extremely aggressive player who is currently ranked eighth in the world for online poker tournaments.

12:15

Paging Dearaujogiesteira

There is an empty chair over on Table 9 where Jose Dearaujogiesteira should be sat. If anyone knows him could you please give him a call and let him know he is being blinded off!

12:09

Rettenmaier Gets Respect

Marvin Rettenmaier raises from under the gun and makes it 5,200 to play. His raise gains respect, everyone folds and he picks up the blinds and antes.

12:07

Suburu Runs Over Meulyzer

Over on Table 7 the action folds around to Philip Meulyzer in the hijack and he makes it 5,200 to play. Nicolas Dervaux folds the cutoff but Suburu Takeshita calls on the button. Both blinds get out of the way and it is heads up to the .

Meulyzer continues with a 5,700 bet only to see Takeshita instantly move all in. Whether he had the goods or was playing on Meulyzer’s reputation will never be known because the Belgian snap-folded his hand. Meulyzer is down to 45,000 with blinds at 1,200/2,400/400a so expect him to start shoving sooner rather than later.

12:05

Shuffle Up and Deal

Day 3 of the WPT Amneville Main Event is under way.

Welcome back gentle reader to the Seven Casino for Day 3 of the WPT Amneville Main Event.

In less than an hour’s time 76 poker players will return to their seats knowing that 40 of them will be going home empty handed with nothing but memories of their tournament. By the time we have played five 90-minute levels each player with chips in front of them will be guaranteed no less than €8,518 for their efforts so far and they will be one step close to that massive €310,633 (plus a $25,500 seat to the WPT World Championship) first place prize.

The man to catch when play resumes at around 1200CET is Urs Kohler, a Swiss national who finished 32nd in this event last year and is on course to beat that this time around. He will start the day armed with 498,000 chips. Hot on his heels is Scott Baumstein on 481,300 chips and just behind them is the dangerous “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier with a 454,800 stack.

There should be some fascinating play today because there is the perfect blend of professional and amateur players. Some of the bigger names still in the hunt include Joseph Cheong, Marc Inizan, Nesrine Kourdourli, Adrien Allain, Arnaud Mattern, and Paul Berrande.

Also, there are still three PartyPoker qualifiers in the field in the shape of the last Brit standing Sandiep Khosa, Anders Rasmussen, Jordane Ouin, and Erik Von Buxhoeveden.

Rejoin us from 1200CET for full coverage of the WPT Amneville Main Event.

We started the day with eight hopeful souls all hoping to become the World Poker Tour (WPT) Malta Season X Champion. The Portomaso casino has been an amazing venue and one that players will continue flocking to in the future and the final table set looked stunning. Unfortunately, only six players would be gracing it meaning that our first task of the day was to eliminate two players. The first to be eliminated was Mats Karlson who fell victim to the pocket nines of Tristan Clemencon. Then the final table bubble boy was WPT Bratislava Season IX final tablist Christofer Williamson, Williamson becoming another one of Cecilia Pescaglini’s many casualties of this tournament.

So we had our final six players and leading them was our Golden girl Cecilia Pescaglini with 2,245,000 chips. Pescaglini had been giving Fabien Sartoris a torrid time all day and eventually it was Sartoris who was eliminated in 6th place after Simon Trumper called his short stack shove with pocket fives. Next to be eliminated was the man who started the day as the chip leader. Tristan Clemencon must have thought his chances of holding aloft that trophy were good but they were dashed by the woman on the amazing run. Clemencon had set a perfect trap for Cecilia Pescaglini but her triumphed over his when she rivered the .

Cecilia Pescaglini was on course to be the first ever-female WPT Champion in its ten-year history. She seemed to have all of the momentum and so it was the case when she eliminated Simon Trumper in fourth place. Once again Pescaglini took a chance and once again she hit her cards to send the experienced UK pro back to England €53,430 the richer.

Then the competition hit a bit of a stale patch when it went three-handed. The pace was almost pedestrian at times with only Pescaglini trying to push the pace. Then it looked like Matt Giannetti would be the finishing third when he found himself short stacked and all-in with pocket sevens against the pocket kings of Pescaglini. But just when it seemed as though he was a goner he spiked a full house on the turn and he was back in the game. Then after five hours of play Filippo Bianchini was eliminated by Matt Giannetti, but not after having most of his chips stolen away from him by the young Italian woman.

Going into the heads-up confrontation and Pescaglini had a slight chip advantage and in fact won the first five hands. But any chances of being the first ever-female WPT Champion were dashed after she called an all-in holding on a board. Giannetti was holding for the open ended straight draw and the on the river sent Giannetti into exultation and Pescaglini into floods of tears.

Congratulations to Matt Giannetti who wins a €200,000 first prize and consolation to Cecilia Pescaglini who won €116,700.

Here are the live updates for the final day

As soon as Matt Savage announced that Day Two of WPT Malta would play down to the money, everyone knew it was going to be a long day. Trimming 154 players down to 27 is not an easy task and after playing eight 90-minute levels of poker we had still not reached 27 players. Common sense prevailed and at 04.30 the dealers stopped shuffling and 30 players had made it through to Day Three.

The tournament area was filled with tired people, but there was one person who did not want the night to end. That person was our chip leader Cecilia Pescaglini who was on the heater of her young poker life. Pescaglini was our chip leader from start to finish and simply destroyed anyone she went to showdown with. The recipe for Pescaglini was simple: play a lot of huge pots and win them all! If WPT Malta was a bounty tournament Pescaglini would have won an absolute fortune. The first person she eliminated was Aleksandr Konstantinov after hitting the flush on the turn after being all-in on the flop. Next to go was Georges Georgiou and again she had to come from behind as her out turned the of her opponent. Next was Thomas Brauner, but this time Pescaglini was never in danger of losing the hand as she hit whilst holding with Brauner moving all-in on the flop. Then she moved to Tony G’s table and just went from strength to strength including eliminating Julian Herold with her mighty in a four-bet pot (Herold had aces) after flopping . Then in the very last hand of the night she very nearly capitulated and the benefactor could have been Marvin Rettenmaeir. On a board of in a pot against 2nd place Marvin Rettenmaier she moved all-in over his 72,500 turn value bet holding forcing the German to lay down in the process! She later admitted on video that she thought she had the best hand.

Pescaglini finished the day with 976,000 chips and is on course to become our first ever-female WPT champion. Other notable names into the hat for Day three include Tony G (183,000), Marvin Rettenmaier (415,000), Matt Giannetti (370,000), Justin Bonomo (157,000) and Isaac Haxton (221,500). One notable name not in the hat is Phil Hellmuth. The great man seemed a little under the weather today and crashed out towards the end of the day after bluffing most off his stack to Salvatore Bianco.

It’s time to get to bed for a little bit of sleep because in10-hours time (That’s 14:30 CET Friday) we will start this nonsense all over again. The first milestone will be to hit the bubble of 27-players and then we will play down to the final table of six.

Day Three Seat Draw

Table 1

Seat 1: Michael Finderup – 136,000
Seat 2: Mark Norman – 102,000
Seat 3: Filippo Bianchi – 249,500
Seat 4: Giovanni Rizzo – 59,500
Seat 5: Fabio Montanari – 169,500
Seat 6: Christofer Williamson – 305,500
Seat 7: Fabien Sartoris – 177,000
Seat 9: Justin Bonomo – 157,000

Table 2

Seat 1: Nesrine Kourdourli – 109,500
Seat 2: Vitalii Minakov – 78,500
Seat 5: Matt Giannetti – 370,000
Seat 6: Marvin Rettenmaier – 415,000
Seat 7: Cecilia Pescaglini – 976,000
Seat 8: Simon Trumper – 367,500
Seat 9: Tony G – 183,000

Table 3

Seat 2: Pierre Milan – 221,500
Seat 3: Nassir Bennacer – 226,000
Seat 4: Tristan Clemencon – 157,500
Seat 5: Andras Fekete – 131,000
Seat 6: Salvatore Bianco – 275,000
Seat 7: Armando Graziano – 324,500
Seat 8: Manfred Sierke – 383,000
Seat 9: Zsolt Vizsnyiczai – 312,500

Table 4

Seat 1: Mats Karlson – 250,000
Seat 3: Antonio Agnello 96,000
Seat 5: Jean Marie Vanderborne – 196,500
Seat 6: Isaac Haxton – 221,500
Seat 7: Fortunato D’Amico – 237,500
Seat 8: Frederico Cipollini – 98,000
Seat 9: Viktors Vorobjovs – 231,000

For the Full Update Read the Day Two Reports Here.