EPT BERLIN HIGH ROLLERS: ElkY DEFEATS MOORMAN, WINS BATTLE OF FRANCE v. ENGLAND

PHOTO: POKERNEWS

It was an epic duel heads up in the EPT Berlin High Rollers Championship. Two of the top poker players in the world, one representing France, the other representing Mother England.

In the end, the Frenchman won it. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-35th) captures yet another poker tournament title, defeating Chris Moorman (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-93rd) in what was a duel that neither play seemed to want to end, almost four hours of heads up madness between two of the kings of poker.

ElkY had finished in fourth place in this same event last season.

German pro Marvin Rettenmaier - who finished third - collected his second PTPR Score of 2012. Rettenmaier (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-131st) had collected a small score at a Aussie Millions side event back in January.

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EVENT PAYOUTS (EURO) €231,000 - Bertrand Grospellier €145,200 - Chris Moorman €85,800 - Marvin Rettenmaier €62,700 – David Peters €46,200 – Tobias Reinkemeier €33,000 - Oleh Okhotskyi €29,700 – Viktor Blom €26,400 – Martin Jacobson DEFENDING CHAMPION Daniel Drescher 2012 Rank: NR NEXT TOUR STOP EPT Grand Final Casino Monte Carlo, Monaco April 25-May 1, 2012

PTPR PREMIER EVENT European Poker Tour Berlin EPT Berlin NLH High Rollers April 20-21, 2012 Grand Hyatt Berlin | Berlin, Germany Buy-in: $13,610 | Prizepool: $872,190 Entries: 66 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION BERTRAND GROSPELLIER "ElkY" 100 CHRIS MOORMAN 60 MARVIN RETTENMAIER 35 DAVID PETERS 25 TOBIAS REINKEMEIER 18 OLEH OKHOTSKYI 10 VIKTOR BLOM "ISULDUR1" 8 MARTIN JACOBSON 5

EPT BERLIN: BRAVE BLUFFS AND COURAGEOUS CALLS - DAVIDI KATIA ENTERS TRIPLE CROWN CLUB

PHOTO: POKERNEWS

Welcome to the Triple Crown Club, Mr. Davidi Kitai. After a Pot Limit Hold'em Bracelet victory at the 2008 WSOP and a 2011 WPT Invitational victory, Kitai has just wrapped won EPT Berlin, becoming the first Belgian poker player to win a EPT event.

Kitai and Canadian Andrew Chen had quite the duel. Both players bluffed and semi-bluffed as as they exchanged the chip lead. But it's a monster call by Kitai that had the twitter world - especially fellow poker pros.


It's a big win for Kitai and a big win for Belgium. Kitai joins Kevin Vandersmissen with recent major tournament victories.

Both Kitai (2012 PTPR Rank: 10th) and Chen (2012 PTPR Rank: 4th) enter the 2012 QuadJacks Poker Player of the Year Top 10 with their Berlin performances. For Chen, it's a return to the Top 10.

Mario Puccini was fourth in the event, Cesar Garcia sixth, Vladimir Geshkenbein was 10th while Anton Wigg finished 14th in Berlin.

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FT PAYOUTS (EURO) Davidi Kitai €712,000 Andrew Chen €613,000 Andre Morath €290,000 Mario Puccini €220,000 Bahadir Kilickeser €172,000 Cesar Garcia €133,000 Marc Wright €97,000 Pratyush Buddiga €72,000 DEFENDING CHAMPION Ben Wilinofsky (Eliminated) NEXT TOUR STOP EPT Grand Final Casino Monte Carlo, Monaco April 25-May 1, 2012

PTPR PREMIER EVENT European Poker Tour Berlin EPT Berlin NLH Main Event April 16-21, 2012 Grand Hyatt Berlin | Berlin, Germany Buy-in: $6,955 | Prizepool: $4,889,435 Entries: 745 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION DAVIDI KITAI 132 ANDREW CHEN 82 ANDRE MORATH 52 MARIO PUCCINI 42 BAHADIR KILICKESER 37 CESAR GARCIA 32 MARC WRIGHT 32 PRATYUSH BUDDIGA 17 JORDI RIBA CORRONS 17 VLADIMIR GESHKENBEIN 17 ERIC VUISSOZ 17 TOMAS CIBAK 15 HEINZ KAMUTZKI 15 ANTON WIGG 15 FLORIAN DOHNERT 15 DMITRY GRINENKO 12 DANIEL PIDUN 12 JASPER WETERMANS 12

@PTPRPOKER IN THE MEDIA! POKER EH! WITH LAURENCE GRONDIN AND MATTHEW MARAFIOTI

PICTURE: QUADJACKS






Poker EH! Canadian Poker Radio feat Laurence Grondin and Matthew Marafioti | QuadJacks Poker Radio Network April 19 2012

Laurence Grondin and many poker players have a beef with a recent newspaper article and Matthew Marafioti tells us about how he and Daniel Negreanu went from bitter rivals to partnering up in an attempt to take the poker world by storm – Canada style!


Laurence Grondin refuses to stay quiet when she feels wrong has been done to her or the game she loves so much. Grondin, the EspaceJeux poker pro was visibly upset last week when an article came out in French newspaper Le Journal de Montreal – the article indicated how bad EspaceJeux was doing and talked about the problems associated with the site and why it shouldn’t be in existence.

One problem – what should have been an editorial was an actual article, one-sided, without rebuttal – plus, the article contained tons of half-truths and false information.

Take this for example; the article states that the EspaceJeux platform was not up to par with rival “International” sites … stating that you cannot play multiple tables on the site. Well, as Laurence was getting ready to join us to talk, she was just wrapping up a session on EsapceJeux – where SHE WAS 11-TABLING!!!

We all understand that poker (and all forms of gambling) carries a certain stigma, that some cannot control themselves and Laurence agrees that help needs to be offered to those people. But, people have been gambling from Day 1 … remember that Aristotle was rolling dice back in 320 BC!

I also asked Laurence about the upcoming One Drop 25K qualifier at the Casino du Lac Leamy in Gatineau and we talked about Daniel Negreanu’s latest blog and the state of females in the world of poker – she gives fantastic answers, as only Laurence can!

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A less than 100% Matt Marafioti rocked our collective ear drums with some incredible answers and stories.

“My girlfriend wanted to try to crab bisque”

Word to the wise; don’t go for cream-based soups at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida … then again, the problem might be Marafioti’s stomach not being able to handle said soups, as his father has told him time and time again that his stomach doesn’t do bisques!

At the tender young age of 24, Matt Marafioti already refers to some select poker players as “kids”, that’s because Marafioti has been kicking asses and taking names for a while now, both online and live. Marafioti has been on a fantastic run on the live tournament circuit since late last year – he recently finished second to Phil Collins at the Palms’ Heartland Poker Tour Main Event.

Marafioti talks about an article written in a Toronto-bases magazine from a few months ago and explains why Poker Eh! host Eric describes him as the Ric Flair of poker!

Finally, Matt talks about what was up with his rift with fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu and how the two ended up burying the hatchet and becoming friends.

It’s another great episode of Poker Eh! for your listening enjoyment!

WPT HARD ROCK: IF YOU SMELL WHAT SEROCK IS COOKING - SEROCK, DOLAN HEADLINE DAY 3

PICTURE:WORLD POKER TOUR

Joe Serock (2012 PTPR Rank: 104th) and John Dolan (2012 PTPR Rank: 29th) stole the show at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Main Event on Friday.

Both players have had an impressive score this season. For Serock (pictured), it was at Bay 101, where he finished third in the WPT Shooting Star. For Dolan, it was a win in the Million Dollar Heater at Beau Rivage.

Tommy Vedes (2012 PTPR Rank: NR), who owns a WPT title, came into Friday play with the second biggest stack. Didn't go Vedes' way - the good news is that Vedes still has chips, but it's a smaller stack than he started with, which is never a good thing.

We said goodbye to many star players today, including Quad Matts. WPT Lucky Hearts winner Matt Juttelstad, November Niner and WPT Malta champ Matt Gianetti, WPT Rendez-Vous a Paris winner Matt Waxman and Matt Marafioti - fresh off his HPT Palms second place finish ... and his interview with myself on Poker EH! on QuadJacks Radio ... were all ousted during Day 3 play.

NOTABLE CHIP COUNTS
Bill Brown 772,500 (Day 3 chip leader)
Joe Serock 702,000
John Dolan 685,500
Allie Prescott 337,500
Clyde Hinton 313,000 (Day 2 chip leader)
Jason Koon 254,500
David Paredes 157,000
Tommy Vedes 140,500
Jimmy Tran 125,000
Sharon Levin 96,000
Ashton Griffin 34,500

NOTABLE DAY 3 ELIMINATIONS
Matt Juttelstad, Matt Gianetti, Matt Waxman, Micah Raskin, Matt Marafioti, Keith Ferrera, Lee Markholt, Lauren Kling, Mike Beasley, Tristan Wade, Tuan Le, William Reynolds, Thayer Rasmussen, Steve Brecher, Byron Kaverman, Chad Brown, Corey Burbick, Abbey Daniels, Alex Outhred, Andrew Lichtenberger, Dan O'Brien, John DiBella, Joseph Elpayaa, Jonathan Little, Doc Sands, Ebony Kenney and Hoyt Corkins.

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TOP 10 PAYOUTS (USD) 1st 779,520 2nd 459,360 3rd 306,240 4th 212,976 5th 158,688 6th 122,496 7th 94,956 8th 69,600 9th 50,112 10th 38,976 DEFENDING CHAMPION Taylor von Kriegenbergh 2012 Rank: NR EVENT COVERAGE WPT UPDATES NEXT TOUR STOP WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open Jacksonville, Florida April 27-May 2, 2012

PTPR PREMIER EVENT World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown WPT Seminole NLH Main Event April 18-23, 2012 Seminole Hard Rock Hotel | Florida Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $2,784,000 Entries: 290 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