Venice curtain call

Von nzvr4poker, 20.05.2009, 4665 Aufrufe, 57 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

Friday brought about Day 2 in the action of the WPT (World Poker Tour) Venice main event. Some of my friends were still in the remaining 152 players attempting to win the first prize of nearly 400,000 Euros and the coveted bracelet that comes with winning a WPT tournament. 19 year old Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald was leading the charge and he had notably been the first player to 100,000 chips. He was duly awarded 500 Euros for this accolade. Canadians Matt ‘Choppy’ Kay, Ryan ‘Sirin-22’ Hurst (who I had met at the opening party) and Samuel Chartier were also in contention. Fellow North American online phenomenon Kevin ‘ImALuckSac’ Macphee was poised for another good showing. Both the Neil’s (Mcfayden and Stewart) still had chips but were the short stacks amongst my friends.

I took some photos of the boys in between playing some cash games and sit n go’s online as I waited to find out who would make the top 36 and live to fight on into Day 3. I have also posted a picture of the innovative live updates from the tournament featuring on tv screens around the tournament area.

The scoreboard kept us all updated on the progress of the tournament frontrunners.

Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald

Matt ‘Choppy’ Kay

Ryan ‘Sirin-22′ Hurst

Kevin ‘ImALuckSac’ Macphee

Neil ‘Puggy82′ Stewart

With the fast blind structure it was not long before we approached the money bubble at 45 players following the dinner break. Mike McDonald and Kevin Macphee both had big stacks and Samuel Chartier was still alive but only just. Unfortunately for the others it wasn’t to be and I waited with interest to see who would make Day 3. After losing some big pots with aggressive play at inopportune moments, Kevin’s dream of winning a WPT bracelet came to an end and he had to settle for 39^th place and 7,600 Euros. Canadian sensations Mike and Samuel made Day 3 and I was hoping I would be able to commentate about both of them on the final table.

Saturday had arrived in Venice and this meant that the penultimate day of the tournament was to unfold. Day 3 saw 36 players return to the felt and the plan was to play down to the final table of six players at the end of the day’s proceedings. The action was thick and fast with players including my buddy Samuel Chartier in 20th position (9,880 Euros) falling by the wayside left, right and centre and by the time the closing party started at 8 pm, there was only about a dozen players remaining.

The closing party was a lavish affair with each person attending having three redeemable drink cards for spirits of their choice in addition to the free food, beer and wine on offer. As usual the New Zealand boys made their presence felt with Richard Grace and Shaun ‘goldensbush’ Goldsbury fresh off his famous canal jump, ready to make their mark on another social function.

In a novel idea one of the group from England who was playing in his first live event had a pack of cards and was getting players and staff to sign a card that they selected. After drinking and socialising with the boys for a couple of hours I excused myself and said goodbyes as I headed back up to the media room. My good buddy Jerome gave me the lowdown on the remaining eight players as I started to compile a dossier about each of the remaining participants.

The eliminations were slowing down as the average chip stack allowed for a lot of play between the final eight hopefuls. When Surinder Sunar was eliminated in eighth place and the last seven players appeared to be a way off busting the final table bubble, I made the decision to call it a night. I had compiled some good research on the players that were still playing that would help me call the final table. Sadly Italian poker star Dario Minieri was the final table bubble boy going home in seventh place with 48,680 Euros. I had been looking forward to his potential battle with fellow young gun Mike McDonald who was still in the running.

After some final preparation with the friendly production team from Germany, and consultation with my fellow host Alexandra, I was at least partially ready for the onslaught that faced me. Eliminated final table players would join me in the makeshift booth in a backroom to help call the action. Time passed so quickly and before I knew it I was on air and addressing the audience who had tuned in online to follow the action.

Things went smoothly and the final table was set to begin. Ragnar Astrom from Sweden was the chip leader with a little over two million in chips. However both Mike McDonald and Martin Jacobsen were lurking in the chasing pack and had crucial experience, boasting an impressive array of results that would serve them well in their quest to capture the title.

The very first hand of the day was an all-in with short-stacked Mario Adinolfi from Italy running his pocket queens into the pocket kings of Sweden’s Martin Jacobsen. After Mario was eliminated receiving 66,940 Euros for his efforts, he joined me in the booth.  It wasn’t long before we saw fellow Italian Michele Slama eliminated in fifth place (86,720 Euros) when his pair of sixes was no match for chief assassin Martin Jacobsen’s pocket pair of tens.

The quick succession of final table eliminations continued when perennial tournament favourite Mike McDonald called an all-in re-raise of Martin Jacobsen on the turn. The board was showing and when the hands were turned over Mike was in the lead with . He was in front of Martin’s for just a pair and a flush draw. However the on the river gave Martin two pair and sent McDonald to the rail in fourth place. Mike collected 109,540 Euros for his efforts to add to his extensive list of cashes including an EPT (European Poker Tour) main event title in Dortmund last year, that has so far netted him nearly $2 million US.

Freeroll qualifier Vincent Pasdeloup from France had already managed to guarantee himself 159,740 Euros. However his patient, tight play saw his chip stack dwindle and when he shoved all-in with Q5o he was quickly called and dominated by Ragnar’s AQo. After no improvement for Vincent an ace fell on the river for overkill, however Vincent will no doubt be better off for his amazing experience.

Ragnar Astrom took some 4.4 million chips into the heads up battle with fellow Swede Martin Jacobsen who only had 1.5 million chips. Both opponents seem to respect each other’s styles and the battle was a slow, but gradual one. After taking the ascendency Ragnar finally got his man when he rivered a full house with up against Martin’s nut flush of , after the board was reading . It was interesting to interview both players after the end of the tournament. The contrasting emotions between the winner and runner-up were evident, however both players could reflect on an excellent performance where they won 397,960 and 238,840Euros respectively. I guess for Ragnar there was a lot of prestige associated with being the owner of a brand new WPT bracelet.

After reflecting on a job well done on the commentary I decided to relax as it was Monday and I had a full day to see some sights of Venice before heading off by train to Ljubljana, Slovenia, later that night. After taking a gondola ride and some photos of St. Mark’s Square, I bought a few souvenirs before I bumped into Ralph, Tim and the others from the production team. They invited me to have lunch with them. After having the staple Italian dish of pizza for lunch we located some beer garden’s where we had some more drinks and chatted our time away. It was a pleasure to work with all of you and I hope we will have a chance to re-acquaint ourselves in the future. We exchanged pleasantries and went our separate ways before I took the train to Slovenia. I was looking forward to the next phase of my trip.

Here are the photos I took of the Venetian landmarks that I saw during my stay in Venice.

Pictures of the bell tower (campinale) in St. Mark’s Square.

The gondola I got a ride in.

The interesting looking horse symbol on the side of the gondola.

The view towards the city entrance from the gondola.

Marco Polo’s residence.

The world famous Rialto Bridge.

An amusing but novel way that the Italian’s dry their clothes.

Some pictures of the mayor’s (doge’s) palace.

Majestic San Giorgio Degli Schiavoni Church.

Some pictures of monuments in famous St. Mark’s Square.