EPT COPENHAGEN: O'DWYER TAKES CONTROL OF DAY 1 IN DENMARK

SOURCE: POKERSTARS.com

Steve O'Dwyer is looking to pickup where he left off at the end of last season as he came oh so close to capturing the 2011 PTPR Tournament Poker Player of the Year crown - finishing second at WPT Venice.

Now back on the EPT circuit, O'Dwyer is the chip leader after Day 1 play at EPT Copenhagen, presented by PokerStars.com, where O'Dwyer and 298 other players have congregated for a shot at EPT Gold!

O'Dwyer (2011 PTPR Rank: 3rd) won the Bellagio Cup and one of the Epic Poker League Pro/Am events last season. O'Dwyer will bring a 25K chip lead over his closest opponent on Day 2 Wednesday.

Another PTPR Top 10 player from last season finds himself with a top chip stack. Roberto Romanello (2011 PTPR Rank: 9th) is fifth in chips after Day 1 while Finnish legend Juha Helppi (2011 PTPR Rank: 152nd) and PTPR sensation Marcel Bjerkmann (2011 PTPR Rank: NR) also hold top stacks.

NOTABLE CHIP COUNTS (MIN. 40K CHIPS)
Steve O’Dwyer 190,975
Mads Wissing 127,575
Roberto Romanello 115,475
Juha Helppi 105,425
Marcel Bjerkmann 100,925
Kevin Iacofano 96,150
Ben Vinson 80,675
Melanie Weisner 78,900
Johnny Lodden 77,400
Vojtech Ruzicka 72,950
Anton Wigg 65,700
Mickey Petersen 57,075
Simon Ravnsbæk 56,725
Theo Jorgensen 55,450
Michael Tureniec 53,750
Sam Chartier 53,200
Martins Adeniya 47,075
Luca Pagano 44,225
Allan Baekke 41,150

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EPT COPENHAGEN PAYOUTS (DKK) 1- 2,515,000 2- 1,600,000 3- 1,000,000 4- 740,000 5- 490,000 6- 390,000 7- 290,000 8- 191,400 9,10- 140,000 11,12- 110,000 13,14- 90,000 15,16- 75,000 17 to 24- 70,000 25 to 32- 65,000 33 to 40- 60,000 41 to 48- 55,000 RELATED POSTS >> TURENIEC CONQUERS COPENHAGEN >> KURSEVICH WINS DEAUVILLE >> O'DWYER O SO CLOSE DEFENDING CHAMPION Michael Tureniec 2011 PTPR Ranking: 112th

PTPR PREMIER EVENT PokerStars.com EPT Copenhagen EPT Copenhagen NLH Main Event February 20-25, 2012 Casino Copenhagen | Denmark Buy-in: $6,635 | Prizepool: $1,789,625 Entries: 299 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st place 127 2nd place 77 3rd place 47 4th place 37 5th place 32 6-7th place 27 8-11th place 12 12-15th place 10 16-18th place 7 NEXT TOUR STOP EPT Madrid March 12-17, 2012 EVENT COVERAGE >> POKERSTARS BLOG

NAME PLAYERS SHINE AT EPT MADRID SIDE EVENTS

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Two EPT Madrid events wrapped up earlier this week.

The NLH 8-Max 5K Euro buy-in event brought in a hole heep of name players to the table. Pim de Goede scored his first major tournament win, defeating Juha Helppi heads up.

Helppi is on a good run lately. He scores 61 PTPR Points for his third PTPR Score of the year. Those 61 points put him past the century mark for the season, he joins WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel in 34th place on the 2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Race.

Ninth place finisher Maxim Lykov (pictured) continues his impressive 2011 - collecting his fifth PTPR Score of the season. Lykov now sits with 121 PTPR Points, 12 shy of the PTPR Top 15 Leaderboard. The five PTPR Scores is tops in 2011. Alessio Isaia and Taylor Von Kriegenbergh (who sit 2nd and 3rd on the PTPR Leaderboard) both have four PTPR Scores this season.

Swede Nichlas Mattsson collected his third PTPR Score of year while Diego Arbuello and J.P. Kelly both scored for the second time this year.


Meanwhile, Canadian Jeffrey Chu won No Limit Holdem Event 17. Rob Akery, Andrew Chen and Ana Marquez also scored in the event, their second PTPR Scores of the year. Yorane Kerignard, Erik Haik and Roger Hairabedian are other notables in the Top 9.


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
European Poker Tour Madrid Grand Final
8-Max NLH Event
May 9-10, 2011

Casino Gran Madrid
Madrid, ESP

Buy-in: $7,410
Prizepool: $867,765
Entries: 123

FINAL RESULTS
PIM de GOEDE 101
JUHA HELPPI 61
JEAN PHILLIPE ROHR 36
DIEGO ARBUELLO 26
CARL DANIEL CARLSSON 19
J.P. KELLY 11
NICHLAS MATTSSON 9
JEFFREY WILLIAMS 6
MAXIM LYKOV 6


PTPR PRELIM EVENT
European Poker Tour Madrid Grand Final
Event 17 - NLH
May 10-11, 2011

Casino Gran Madrid
Madrid, ESP

Buy-in: $3,030
Prizepool: $603,910
Entries: 214

FINAL RESULTS
JEFFREY CHU 75
ROB AKERY 40
JACQUES TORBEY 25
YORANE KERIGNARD 15
ERIC HAIK 10
JENS THORSON 8
ROGER HAIRABEDIAN 5
ANDREW CHEN 5
ANA MARQUEZ 5

EPT MADRID HIGH ROLLERS: FAST FIVE - ElkY WINS MADRID HIGH ROLLERS IN A SPRINT

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Looks like ElkY and the rest of the High Rollers at EPT Madrid had somewhere to be today - maybe they wanted to prepare for Day 1B of the EPT Grand Final? The reason I bring this up? It took about 5 hours to find our EPT Madrid High Rollers Champion - welcome Bertrand Grospellier a.k.a. ElkY to the 2011 scoreboard.

That's right, ElkY has captured the EPT Madrid High Rollers, oh, and €525,000, for his first points of the 2011 PTPR Season. ElkY defeated Benny Spindler heads up.

Spindler was the talk of the Final Table earlier in the day when he clashed with fellow big stack (and the chip leader heading into today's play) Galen Hall. Spindler outlasted Hall in a hand to eliminate the defending PCA Champ.

Hall was very disapointed with his quick exit, he has this to say on his Twitter feed ( @galenhall ) - minutes after elimination:

god im the f+++ing worst out 7th because i am terrible

At that point, ElkY was the short stack at the table!

Another short stack who posted a good comeback was Vanessa Rousso. With little chips, Russo was able to grind it and capture €100,000 for her fifth place finish.

High Stakes regular Juha Helppi is always a threat - and he was rolling until ElkY doubled through him - crippling Helppi along the way.

Here are the Final Table payouts:
1 ElkY, France, €525,000
2 Benny Spindler, Germany, €316,000
3 Juha Helppi, Finland, €185,000
4 David Sands, USA, €135,000
5 Vanessa Rousso, USA, €100,000
6 Alex Repik, Russia, €72,000
7 Galen Hall, USA, €57,500
8 Peter Jetten, Canada ,€45,000


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
European Poker Tour Madrid Grand Final
EPT Madrid Grand Final High Rollers
May 5-7, 2011

Casino Gran Madrid
Madrid, ESP

Buy-in: $35,835
Prizepool: $2,057,790
Entries: 58

Defending Champion: Tobias Reinkemeir

FINAL RESULTS
BERTRAND GROSPELLIER "ElkY" 100
BENJAMIN SPINDLER 60
JUHA HELPPI 35
DAVID SANDS 25
VANESSA ROUSSO 18
ALEX REPIK 10
GALEN HALL 8
PETER JETTEN 5

TURENIEC CONQUERS COPENHAGEN

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com

Michael Tureniec has conquered EPT Copenhagen! The 2010 EPT Barcelona prelim winner defeated a game Per Linde heads up.

John Eames fought a good fight, but had to settle for third place. Surprisingly, Juha Helppi, who headed into final table play as the hottest player in the tournament, was first one out today.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
European Poker Tour Copenhagen
EPT Main Event
February 21-26, 2011

Casino Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark

Buy-in: $6,825
Prizepool: $2,895,906
Entries: 449

FINAL RESULTS
MICHAEL TURENIEC 129
PER LINDE 79
JOHN EAMES 49
KEVIN IACOFANO 39
NIKOLAS LIAKOS 34
MUDASSAR KHAN 29
ANDREA DALLE MOLLE 29
JUHA HELPPI 14
JOEL NORDKVIST 14
SIMON HANNINGER 14
JENS LAURIDSEN 14
SIMEN JOHANNESSEN 12
JOHNNY JENSEN 12
LARS KROGH 12
DANIEL JOHANSSON 12
IVAN FREITEZ 9
HELGE RAHBEK 9
JAN SORENSEN 9

EPT FINAL TABLE SET - HELPPI BATTLES BACK AT EPT COPENHAGEN

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Per Linde (pictured) has taken control of EPT Copenhagen. He had the chip lead going into today's session and he still owns the chip lead going into Final Table play.

And it's a very impressive chip lead. The lead is over 2:1 on second place Kevin Iacofano.

Even more impressive? How about the day Juha Helppi had? The former WPT and EPT High Roller champ built an impressive chip stack during today's play. In fact, he grew his stack 10 times from where he started on Friday. Helppi was last in chips and now, he sits 4th with a 1+ million chip stack.

Final table play should be exciting with the likes of Michael Tureniec and John Eames joining Linde and Helppi and the rest of the Final 8.

Seating assignments for Final Table play

Seat 1: Andrea Dalle Molle - 417,000
Seat 2: Per Linde - 4,980,000
Seat 3: Nikolas Liakos - 1,493,000
Seat 4: Mudassar Khan - 823,000
Seat 5: Kevin Iacofano - 1,844,000
Seat 6: John Eames - 1,060,000
Seat 7: Michael Tureniec - 1,310,000
Seat 8: Juha Helppi - 1,470,000


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
European Poker Tour Copenhagen
EPT Main Event
February 21-26, 2011

Casino Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark

Buy-in: $6,825
Prizepool: $2,895,906
Entries: 449

POINTS AT STAKE
1st position 129
2nd position 79
3rd position 49
4th position 39
5th position 34
6th position 29
7th position 29
8th position 14
JOEL NORDKVIST 14
SIMON HANNINGER 14
JENS LAURIDSEN 14
SIMEN JOHANNESSEN 12
JOHNNY JENSEN 12
LARS KROGH 12
DANIEL JOHANSSON 12
IVAN FREITEZ 9
HELGE RAHBEK 9
JAN SORENSEN 9