Day 1 - June 13: It's getting hot this year!

Let's say that you're a young fella, who makes his living from grinding things out in the money games, and who right now is going through one of the biggest rushes ever. Let's say that you're also someone who doesn't really like to travel, who usually just likes to stay at home with his girlfriend and a with his regular poker game available just around the corner. Let's say that you are also a huge soccer fan, and that right now the European Championships have just gotten under way. If you were him, would you accept the offer to write a daily update on a poker event in Barcelona, meaning that you will have to leave both your girlfriend (because she cannot join) and your poker game, knowing that you will have to work hard not just at daytime - when the weather outside is fantastic - but in the evenings as well, exactly when all the great soccer matches take place. If you were him, would you accept this offer?

Well, I am him, and for me it was not difficult at all - there was no way I wanted to miss out on this great event. After the successful World Heads Up 2003 in Vienna - the first time for me to report on any event other than the annual Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam - after this event there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to participate again. Even more so because this year's Championships will be the biggest ever. The buy-in has been raised from 1000 to 2000 Euros, there will be no re-entries as in last year's event, and we've got a sold-out field of 128 entrants, meaning that the winner will take home a clean 100,000.

It is all these big poker stars that make this tournament so attractive to watch, and just like last year we've got a star-studded field. On this first day, not all players have been in action yet, but a short selection of the people I have seen over here makes for an impressive list of names. All three former winners of this event are here: Bruno Fitoussi, France (2001), Kirill Gerasimov, Russia (2002) and Miami John Cernuto, U.S.A (2003). My hometown Holland has two major trumps in Rob Hollink and Marcel Lüske, Austria has three top favorites in Pepe Klinger, Peter Karall and Markus Golser, we have a former world champion in Carlos Mortensen who is back on Spanish home ground, Sweden's "King of Ding" Erik Sagström is present, and over from the U.S. we've got Casey Kastle, Paul Phillips and Barbara Enright to battle for the dough. And then I haven't even mentioned the impressive list of British candidates for the title: Dave Ulliott, Tony Bloom, Surinder Sunar, Joe Beevers, Steve Vladar, John Kabbaj, Ram Vaswani, Dave Colclough, Simon Trumper and the Boatman brothers, to name but a few. All in all, a pretty strong field I would say, especially when you take into account some of the strong Russians and Australians that I haven't mentioned yet, and the fact that most others are not exactly pushovers, either.

Anyway, my reports will appear on a daily basis on both www.pokerineurope.com and www.worldheadsuppoker.com; reports of last year's event are available in the "Tournament Reports" section of my own site www.acespeaks.cjb.net.

The tournament's structure

The structure of the event is rather simple. The 128 contestants are divided into four brackets, just like in major tennis events. The winners of every round 1 match will play against another round 1 winner from their bracket, or to be more precise they will play against the person who is standing immediately above or below them in the schedule. For example, in bracket 1 the winner of the match Michael Keiner - Rob Hollink will play against the winner of the match that is scheduled immediately below them, between Daniel Holm and Dave Colclough. What comes from this is that just as in tennis events, some people feel that they may have gotten a slightly lucky or unlucky draw, not just because their first match is tough but also, and especially, because other stars may be waiting for them even if they succeed in going through to the second round. For instance, the second half of bracket 3 has the potential of quite a bit of firework with (among others) Pepe Klinger, Marcel Lüske, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Kirill Gerasimov, Joe Beevers, Markus Golser, Billy the Croc from Australia and Poker Million winner John Duthie in it. So, some cracking matches can be expected in this part of the schedule.

All participating players get 5,000 in tournament chips, with the blinds starting at 50-100. After one hour of play, the blinds will become 75-150, and after two hours they will be 100-200. There will be no more blind increases after that, to make this tournament a "true test of skill".

Bracket 1

Some of the top favorites had very little trouble in getting through. One even had no trouble at all: Last year's winner Miami John Cernuto didn't even have to get in action, as opponent Alison Graham couldn't make it to the event. Another former winner, Bruno Fitoussi, had an easy match at the televised table: he was never in any kind of trouble, and in just over an hour he was through. (He didn't even need to get talkative to proceed, that is: he could do without his usual coffeehousing. So, it must have been a truly easy match for him.) Dave Colclough booked a solid win, Alex Kravchenko had no problems whatsoever, Ross Boatman fought hard and played well to get through and both Angelo Yu and Rob Hollink managed to defeat good opponents to go through. The only real upset in this bracket was the early exit by Ram Vaswani. Right from the beginning he was in trouble against David Chavda and he couldn't recover. In fact, he had the questionable honor to be the first person to bust out. After only fourteen minutes of play, his middle pair (97 of hearts on the flop Th 9c 3c) couldn't hold up against David's QJ. The turn was a jack that, even though it propelled David into the lead, still gave Ram some backdoor flush opportunities, but a ten came on the river to bust out the Crazy Horse.

Results + key hands bracket 1

David Hansson - David Mehrmand * (1h23)
Mehrmand got through against Multipoker.com Internet qualifier David Hansson. (Those of you who don't know, multipoker.com is the sponsor of this event.) On the final hand, Mehrmand held 88 on the flop TT7. The eight that came on the turn gave Hansson a straight, but Mehrmand a full, so there was no way that the young man could avoid defeat.

Lee Nelson - Ross Boatman * (3h15)
A great match. Ross was up significantly three or four times, but Lee Nelson fought back every time. At the start it was Lee who had the lead though (7,000 to 3,000), but he lost that when he couldn't call a relatively small all-in bet on the turn by Ross - there was about 4,000 in the pot - against a board that had many possibilities: 8732 with two hearts and two diamonds. Ross gained a monster 9,300-700 chip lead when he had his opponent drawing dead on the turn (Ross KJ, Lee KT on a board KJ22), so it seemed just a formality for Ross to end this match. But it was nothing like that! On the immediate next hand, Lee doubled up when he made the nut flush against Boatman's A6 for top pair + lower flush draw. Lee crawled back slowly to level the match, but Ross regained the lead when he called a small check-raise by Lee with a gutshot (KT on an AQ6 board). He was able to slow down his opponent who held a queen only, so he could see the river card for free and caught a king there. But again Lee fought back, though he got into trouble again when he bet 800 on the board As 7h Qs Kc and then couldn't call his opponent's all-in check-raise. Lee fought back once more and after 2 hours and 40 minutes of play, they had even stacks again. Ross regained the lead when he held a king that matched the KK99 board perfectly, won another pot with 88 against the scary board JT493, and finished off his opponent when he induced a bluff by check-calling Nelson's all-in bet (Ross held 75 for middle pair on a K74 board, with his opponent holding a jack-three only). Both players had played some great poker, but in the end it was the Hendon Mob member who went through.

Bruno Fitoussi * - Jorge Planes Villegas (0h54)

Mike Ivin - Jose Roldan * (4h19)
In a marathon match, nothing much happened for a very long time. Both players didn't want to give away anything, but in the end it was Jose who won the match. He called Mike's semi-bluff with bottom pair / good kicker (K3 against the board T83, Mike had QJ for a gutshot + overcards) and caught a king on the turn for kings up.

Stuart Fox - Rumit Sumaiya * (1h51)
I had played with Rumit in a pot-limit Omaha cash game the day before, where he bought in for the minimum, 250 Euros. More than an hour later, he still had 235 Euros left and he hadn't played a hand yet, so I was eager to see how he would perform in this event, when he couldn't afford to keep throwing away his cards. Well, I certainly did like what I saw today! After getting lucky with Q8 all-in against QJ, where an eight on the river doubled him up to 1,600, he fought his way back into the match. He doubled up from 1,000 to 2,000 when he held top full on the turn with a queen-seven and got his opponent to pay him off, and then he won another pot when he made a very scary check-call against the board Q88. (Stuart must have felt this too, because he backed down on the turn and then folded on the river.) And then Rumit doubled up again when his two pair on the turn held up against Stuart's top pair (J5 vs. Q7 on a J85Q board), and yet again in an all-in before the flop, holding AQ against Stuart's AJ. Stuart now only had 200 left and he lost that too, all-in with AJ against KQ only to see a king flop. Kudos to Rumit who pulled a hell of a stunt coming back from an 800-9,200 chip deficit to clinch the match.

Santiago Terrazas Ambite - Alexander Kravchenko * (0h23)
No problems for Alex, who had a slight chip lead when he and his opponent got all the money in on the flop Ad Jd 3h. Santiago had top two pair, aces and jacks, but the young Russian had king-queen of diamonds for a premium draw that got there.

Peter Davidson * - Allan White (0h50)
The money went in on the turn, the board J753 with three hearts. Peter had a pair + flush draw (Qd 7h), Allan held KQ with the king of hearts for a higher flush draw. A queen on the river seemed to have helped Allan because it gave him top pair, but it also gave the Dane queens up and Peter was through.

David Chavda * - Ram Vaswani (0h13)

Alan Gall - Robert Binelli * (2h30)
Robert took the lead in this match immediately. His first attempt to finish off Alan failed (holding AJ vs. JJ, only to see a jack flop), but the second attempt he won with QT against 44, all-in before the flop, by making the nut straight.

Michael Keiner - Rob Hollink * (2h06)
A cracking match between one of my personal favorites, fellow countryman Rob Hollink, and the highly capable Michael Keiner. After a start where both players didn't want to give away anything, Rob finally turned up the heat a little to put the German under a lot of pressure. Rob picked up a lot of small pots, but sometimes had to release when his opponent played back at him. Even though Michael managed to win a few pots this way, the pressure of the Chief was simply too much. Rob got his opponent all-in twice (both times with the German holding the best hand; first KJ vs. JT and then A9 vs. K4), but because Michael was short-stacked he knew that he couldn't afford to lose when Rob could. Well, Rob could - but he didn't. On the second attempt the Dutchman's K4 and the AQ454 board matched perfectly, to win with three of a kind against aces up.

Daniel Holm - Dave Colclough * (0h44)
Dave made an excellent showing today. He had gotten an early 7,200-2,800 chip lead when the following hand developed. Dave made a preflop raise to 300 with Daniel calling. Flop: 8h 7s 4s. Dave checked, Daniel bet 600, Dave check-raised to 2,500 and Daniel decided to go all-in for a bit more than that. Daniel had the deuce-trey of spades for a mini flush draw and Dave had J8 for top pair. No surprises, and one of the top favorites this year is through - facing another top favorite in the next round: Rob Hollink.

Angel Blanco Puras * - Jose Talens Forcada (1h00)
After his first attempt failed (losing with A7 against Q5), on the second attempt Angel won this all-Spanish affair. Going all-in before the flop with king-queen against queen-nine, the best hand held up.

Steve Vladar - Angelo Yu Zuoping * (2h07)
An interesting match. Former Master Classics Main Event winner Angelo Yu gained an early 7,800-2,200 chip lead, but twenty minutes later he was down 2,700-7,300. But Angelo showed character, regained the lead and finished off 'Smokin' Steve with king-jack versus king-nine.

Danut Arama * - Lu Zhang (1h22)
Danut Arama took the lead against his dangerous opponent when he flopped top set with QQ against Lu's pocket rockets. He clinched the match when his two pair, nines and fours, held up against Zhang's flush draw, the money going in on the flop. I decided to approach Danut to as him where his remarkable name came from, if maybe he was a relative of the famous Jac Arama. Well, it turned out that Danut is a Rumanian fella who has no connection to Jac Attack whatsoever - in fact, he had never even heard of a person called Jac Arama! Funny, I would say… funny.

Matthias Kellermann * - Cem Tassalan (0h29)
Intertops qualifier Matthias went through by winning a coin flip, when his ace-jack of diamonds won all-in preflop against pocket fives.

Bracket 2

Some excellent matches in this part of the schedule too. We had two beautiful ladies coming close to winning but just not making it (Nic's daughter Kate Szeremeta and "King of Ding" Erik Sagström's girlfriend Josefin Karlsson), and there was the somewhat eccentric Paul Phillips who busted out against Mickey Wernick. (Yeah, exactly, the same Mickey Wernick who last year also busted champions like Sigi Stockinger, Angelo Yu, Marcel Lüske and Padraig Parkinson, only to lose to the eventual winner Miami John Cernuto.) We had a cracking match at the televised table, where 2001 WSOP winner Carlos Mortensen beat the excellent John Kabbaj from England. (Not only does John play excellent, he is also married to the beautiful and intelligent Olessya Lopatko from Russia, a well-known face in the international poker community.) Other favorites to go through were Simon Trumper and the King of Ding himself.

Results + key hands bracket 2

Kate Szeremeta - Simon Trumper * (3h02)
Despite the massive crowd support for Kate (most of all from her father who was screaming for all kinds of miracle cards), Simon "Aces" held his nerves, kept the pressure on and in the end finished off his opponent rather easily.

Alison Graham - Miami John Cernuto * (0h00, no-show by Alison)

Josefin Karlsson - Morten Sembach * (1h27)
In an all-Scandinavian affair, Morten kept his cool despite facing "the most beautiful player he had ever played". After having gotten a substantial chip lead, the bald-faced Morten finished off Josefin when his AK held up against his opponent's KQ, all-in before the flop.

Alex Levin * - Jared Davis (2h39)
Young Jared was very unlucky to lose his match against his Russian opponent. Alex stayed alive twice only by catching a lucky river card. First he was dead in the water with Q9 against Jared's A9, but a king on the river gave the Russian a straight to double his stack to 4,000. And when his stack had once again gone down to 2,000, he doubled up again despite holding a dominated hand. Holding A7 vs. Jared's AK, Alex caught a seven on the river to stay alive once more. And in the end, he even managed to win it all. Holding a premium draw with the ten-seven of diamonds (the board being 654 with two diamonds), he improved over Jared's pocket queens not by making a straight or flush, but by catching runner-runner two pair, tens and sevens.

Cheng Guosem * - Noah Boeken (1h25)
Noah was in trouble right from the beginning against his tricky opponent. And just when the young Dutchman had finally fought his way back into the match, it was all over for him. First, he called a rather large bet on the river with second pair / top kicker, only to get shown a small full house by his Chinese opponent. And then, trailing 3,000 to 7,000, he went all-in with pocket sevens against Cheng's pocket nines, and received no help.

Liu Daguahg * - Richard Barnes (5h11)
Way after the dinner break, this match was still going. Liu had the lead most of the time, but Richard came back with some well-executed bluffs (that he showed to the public, simply because tournament director Keith Sloan asked. Keith rewarded this friendliness with the excellent "Well you see Richard, fortune favors the bold."). In the end, it was Liu who was the fortunate one. Going all-in with aces against Richard's nine-six of hearts, his rockets held up.

Neil Haugerud - Wai Hong Choi * (1h22)
No problems for Wai, who went all-in before the flop holding ace-king versus ace-deuce, only to see the best hand hold up.

Paul Phillips - Mickey Wernick * (0h20)
Mickey beat yet another famous player in Paul Phillips, who has been quite successful recently in the major American tournaments. Mickey had his opponent by the balls though when he had aces full on the board 445A, and Paul had a hand that he couldn't possibly get way from (queen-four for three of a kind / good kicker).

Erik Sagström * - Gu Rong Ging (0h21)
No problems for Erik. He already had a full, nines over eights, and was happy to let his opponent catch up to make a second-best hand.

Gerry Ivor Hertzberg - Zachary Rubin * (2h08)

Ed Giddins - Ivo Donev * (1h13)
Ed was trailing right from the start against the tricky Ivo. He was able to double through his opponent once (from 1,000 to 2,000, holding AQ vs. 98), but on the very next hand it was over. Ed was happy to call Ivo's all-in raise, holding ace-king against Ivo's ace-five, but he was not so happy anymore when the chess master caught a five on the river.

Daniel Larsson - Henric Oleander * (1h48)
In another all-Scandinavian affair, it was Henric who came out on top. In a funny match, watched by a large group of Scandinavians, young Henric was a little stronger today than his - also still young - opponent.

Patrick Eccles - Ivanov Evgeny * (2h32)
Evgeny had his opponent under pressure the entire match, but Patrick stayed alive by catching a nut-flush and by beating the Russian's kings with aces. But in the end, Evgeny's pressure was simply too much. Holding top two pair on the flop, he checked to let his opponent catch a smaller two pair on the turn, and when the smoke cleared he had finally done the job after all.

John Kabbaj - Carlos Mortensen * (2h02)
A highly interesting match in the Televised Table Room. John fought hard to get back into this match, but was short on chips basically all of the time. He got a little ammunition when he had two pair, kings and deuces, and got Carlos to pay off his small raise on the river, but even after that he still couldn't take the lead. On the final hand, Carlos raised to 300, with John calling. On the flop QT8, Mortensen came out betting 500, and John moved in for 2,000 more. John had KJ for an open-ended straight draw, but Carlos called him for top pair / good kicker, and that held up. Carlos, who was born in Ecuador but lived in Spain for 15 years, is back on home ground and playing the way he played today, he will be one of the favorites to win this year's title.

Pete Haslam - Antony Lellouche * (0h01)
The fastest match of this day, as it lasted only one hand! Antony has a five-three of hearts. With a board K 4 7h 6h, he had a straight and a possible straight flush draw. His opponent had K7 for top two pair, and the match was over before it had even started. If Antony keeps playing like this every match, it might take him not much more than a minute or seven to capture the trophy…

Jesus Ventura Romero * - Guan Ping Hung (0h40)
In a short match, Jesus from Spain was through when his open-ended straight draw (98 on a flop 776) got there on the river.

Some final words

We have seen some exciting action today, with many of the top favorites living up to their reputation. But we lost a few as well, and I expect some more casualties tomorrow. Most of all, I am looking forward to the absolute cracker Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott against Kirill Gerasimov; I will tell you that I don't want to miss anything that goes on in this match. Assuming you guys feel the same, I will see you all tomorrow. It's getting hot this year!