Catarina Santos Eliminated

Catarina has a short and not so sweet story of her string of hands that recently sent her to the rail:

Her Q-Q lost.

Her K-K won.

Her A-A went up against Q-T on an unfortunate flop of T-T-x. This proved to be to much and ultimately led to her elimination.

Catarina, who is also a lawyer in Portugal, will have to try her case in the next WSOP event she plays.

Otto Out!

Our wild-animal-dressed Otto Fabius might have done too good a job of acting like hunted prey, as he was just ousted from the $1000 NL with the following hand:

Facing a raisebefore him to $300 with blinds $75-150, Otto moves all-in for $2150 total holding A-J.

His opponent went into the tank for some time before finally calling the bet with the lowly 8-9 of spades.

The flop came down J-T-x, giving Otto top-top pair but giving his opponent a big straight draw.

The turn gave his opponent a pair when an 8 hit, and sadly the river Q put a straight into the hands of Otto's opponent, and a gorilla is released from the cage of the $1k as Otto is no longer with us.

Hands from Various Tables in the $1k

Marco Schardt from Germany:

After Level 2 Marco Schardt from Germany is down to $1,000 chips after taking what most would describe as a bad beat. He had pocket aces and his opponent called off a bunch of chips with K-Q, drawing towards a flush. Unfortunately, his opponent completed a straight flush on the river and Marco lost the pot.

Marco is surprised about the hands appearing at his table: ”We had one Royal Flush and two Straight Flushes in the first 2 levels on our table. I’ve never experienced anything like this in a tournament before.”

Mirko Kratochvila from Switzerland:

Our new Team Everest Poker Switzerland member started today. After the first 2 levels he let us know that he’s at a tight table, but with one player who is collecting pot over pot by getting very lucky. In level 2, Mirko was down to $2,700 chips, so the plan was to make an early move after the break and do some re-steals. He thought his chances to get away with this strategy were quite good as he now has a tight image at the table.

After level 4 however, he lost almost all of his chips with J-J against a player holding T-T hitting another Ten on the board.

After being left with some change – 150 chips – he got QQ in his hands thought this might be the first of many double ups; sadly, his opponent paired his King on the board an this was it for Mirko.

Everest Chip Counts ($1000 NL)

Here are some chip counts from around the room after break 1:

Ismael Arribas Munoz, Spanish friend of Everest Poker, $10,000
Yori Epskamp, Netherlands Qualifier, Busted
Antoine Saout, Team Everest Pro, France, $5,500
Otto Fabius, Netherlands Qualifier, $3,500
Catarina Santos, Sponsored from Portugal, $3,000
Csaba Toth, Hungary Qualifier, Busted
Mark Van Der Voorden, Netherlands Qualifier, $675
Marine Gessat Recchia, France Qualifier, $4,200
Osada Masahiro, Japan Qualifier, $7,500

Marine Gessat Recchia

Osada Masahiro

Ismael Arribas Munoz

Catarina Santos Induces a Bluff!

Everest Portugal Sponsored player Catarina Santos had an interesting hand come down where she was able to induce one of her opponents to make a bluff!

Here's the details:

Blinds $25-50;

Catarina raises the stakes holding the A-Q of spades in early position, and is met with 3 callers preflop.

The flop comes down K-8s-5s giving her the nut flush draw. Catarina bets out $150, and the button calls.

The turn is gin for Catarina; the 3s, completing her flush! Catarina slyly checks, and the button decides on a bet of $400. Catarina calls.

The river comes a blank. Catarina checks, the button bets out a large $1500, and Catarina moves all in begging for a call. Her opponent sadly folded.

When our staff showed up to report on the hand, the opponent she beat was still complaining about it, proclaiming, "she made me do it, she forced me to bet...I can't believe she made me do it!" as Catarina flashed a smile.

Everest Qualifier: Yori Epskamp

Everest Qualifier Yori Epskamp, whom we profiled on the blog here yesterday, has unfortunately hit the rail earlier than anticipated today.

Here's how it went down:

With blinds at $25-25;

Under the gun player limps. The button calls, and Yori check in the big blind.

Flop comes down Q-9-4 rainbow. Yori checks, Under the gun player bets out $50, and the Button folds. Yori Raises to $150 and the under the gun player calls.

Turn is a black 5. Yori bets out $275, Under the gun makes it $550, Yori Re-raises all-in, and the Under the gun player snap-called with pocket 5's for a turned set.

The river came a King and Yori will have to wait until next time to be in the hunt for WSOP gold.

Moving on to Day 2!

A few Everest players are moving on to Day 2 of the $1000 NL event, and before we start the Day 1b reporting, we thought we'd point out some notable chip stacks from yesterday:

Belgium player Leandro Gaone will be representing Everest on Day 2 finishing yesterday with $30,650.

Swedish card shark Mikael Johansson will cruiseinto Day 2 after finishing in 7th place yesterday with $58,875.

Nicolas Poloniato from France will also carry over his chips to day two after finishing an impressive 10th on the day with $55,750.

As we kick off today's coverage, be sure and follow all the interactive activities taking place at EVPVegas.com

Sijbrand Maal Standing Tall as our 3rd Final Tablist!!!!

Sijbrand Maal just advanced in the Event #53 $1500 Limit Holdem Shootout moments ago. He defeated Brian Aleksa heads up and moves on to compete at the final table for the WSOP Bracelet tomorrow at 3pm PST (23:00 GMT).

This will be Everest Poker's 3rd final table of the WSOP and 2nd in less than 24 hours!

Here are the hands that led up to his victory:

Hand 1 (via PokerNews):
From the button, Brian Aleksa raised it up. Sijbrand Maal made the call.

The flop rolled out . Maal slid out a bet only to have Aleksa put in a raise. Mall reraised and Aleksa made the call. The turn brought the . Maal bet and Aleksa called.

On the river Maal check-called Aleksa's bet. Maal turned over to take the pot.

Hand 2 (via PokerNews):
Brian Aleksa went all-in pre-flop with vs. Sijbrand Maal's . Aleksa was the player at risk.

The flop came down . Aleksa was still ahead with his pair and now had a straight draw, but Maal was also looking at a straight draw. The hit the turn, however, pairing Maal's queen and the that fell on the river was no help to Aleksa, and his hopes for a gold bracelet in Event #53 were dashed.

Fabrice Soulier has it his way in PLO

Fabrice Soulier has been quietly building his chip stack in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship today.

Starting with $30,000 in chips, he is sitting comfortably on around $65,000 as we write this post.

He had Aces earlier on, and got a bunch of chips in the middle. In PLO, we know Aces alone is not always going to make it to showdown as a winner, so when the cards were about to be turned over, Fabrice prepared to muck...to his shock however, the aces were good and his opponent instantly mucked his hand.

Hand Review with Jeremy Dosseul

With blinds at $75-$150:

Jeremy Dosseul started hand with the big blind raising to $450. Jeremy calls the big blinds raise.

The flop comes Q-T-A. Dosseul checks the flop, while big blind bets 1/3rd of the pot. Dosseul calls the bet.

Turn comes a 4. Both Players check.

River comes a K. Both players check the river.

Dosseul turns over A-K while his opponent turns over Aces, thus losing to his opponents set of Aces.

Pics from Around the Rio

Vincent Hamlin

Maria Maceiras

A Hand Review with Nicolas Poloniato

Here is a hand Nicolas played today:

Blinds $100-$200

Nicolas started the hand under the gun raising to $500. The cut off three bets to make it $1,200. Poloniato calls.

Flop comes K-7-5 with two hearts showing. Both players check.

Turn comes the 4 of hearts. Nicolas checks with the opponent betting $3,600. Nicolas calls the opponents bet.

River comes a black 2. Nicolas checks, his opponent shoves for $8,000 and Nicolas snap calls.

His opponent shows 7 - 4 off-suit giving the pot to Nicolas with an Ace-high heart flush

Christiano Played Power Poker Today

An amusing twitter that came through the stream today on EVPVegas.com:

Be sure to follow all his tournament updates and views of the world via Twitter.com/CristianoBlanco

Living Dreams and Qualifying

Our Live the Dream players and Everest Qualifiers are enjoying their time at the tables today, here are a few quotes our reporting staff picked up throughout the room today:

Armjim Meijer, Everest Dutch Qualifier (On his chips stack of $5500 in the $1000 NL):"Level 4, haha, I've never made it that far!"

Jochum Weenink, Everest Dutch Qualifier (On the quality of play at his table):"8 fishies at my table!"

Sigurd Eskeland, Everest Live the Dream player and newly crowned bracelet winner from Norway (On players strategy against him prior to his bustout earlier today):"I got a lot of respect at my table today because of the bracelet I won, that is FUNNY!"

Leo Truche, Everest Live the Dream Player from France (On why he is wearing a bathrobe at the table today, as seen below):"I will become a 'slave' to my friend I made the bet with if I dare take it off"

So as you can see, our players are having fun across the board. Follow all the action here and on our sister site covering everything from streaming live feeds to interview videos at EVPVegas.com