August 28 2011, Marc Convey

The tournament room at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona was full Sunday because 465 players turned up with the hope of scooping the whopping “850,000 first-place prize. The field totaled out at 811 players, creating a prize pool of “4,055,000. The man at the top of the chip counts is Guillaume Darcourt, who bagged up 195,300 chips and will lead the field coming back for Day 2.

Darcourt amassed his stack by running a huge multi-street bluff with on a board. His river shove finally got his opponent off his hand. The Frenchman showed and then utilized this image to build his stack all the way to the end of the day. He has a history of using a big stack well, including his 35th place finish at this year’s WSOP Main Event and a WPT title are.

He’ll have to be on top of his game though because the chasing pack from today’s field has formidable talent including Eugene Katchalov (153,100), Leo Fernadez (148,600) Vytautas Milvydas (172,400) Marvin Rettenmaier (114,200), Matthias De Meulder (110,000) and James Mitchell (84,000).

Those remaining from Team PokerStars Pro, apart from the three above, are Ivan Demidov (36,600), Jason Mercier (25,500), Arnaud Mattern (21,400) and Victor Ramdin (21,400). And we can’t forget Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker who seemed to have a very enjoyable knockabout with Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier en route to building a 47,500 stack.

The talent on show Sunday confirmed what we thought Saturday; EPT Season 8 is well and truly alive and kicking. Those who came but failed to progress included: Chris Moneymaker (coolered), John Duthie (queens never good), Viktor Blom (sophisticated bluff fail), Roberto Romanello (stuck in the blocks), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (Beckered), Daniel Negreanu (missed the world) and Liv Boeree (three-outered). The list goes on. The omens for the live tournament scene in Europe this coming year look very good indeed.

The remaining 228 players will combine with the 179 survivors from Day 1a, meaning 407 players will return at 1200 CEST (0300 PDT). Only 120 on those will walk away with a payday. The min-cash will net them “8,000 and if you make the final table the money starts at “73,000 and rapidly increases in ever bigger jumps. Of course there is always the chance for stardom as well tomorrow since the TV set is built and ready to go for the feature table that will be in action until the sweet end of the tournament on Thursday.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

August 28 2011, Josh Bell

The 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Queenstown Main Event has finally come to its gripping conclusion, with Marcel Schreiner becoming the newest Asia Pacific Poker Tour champion.

This event marked the first time an APPT event was held in Queenstown. The field created the largest prize pool ever recorded in the city. While taking in any share of the NZD$342,900 prize pool would be an impressive feat, it was the NZD$94,300 first-place prize that all the returning players were vying for.

After almost 12 hours of tough play at the final table, including almost four of grueling heads-up play, it was Germany’s Marcel Schreiner and New Zealand local Matt Yates who went toe-to-toe for the title.

Schreiner managed to hold a chip lead at the end of Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, and at the final table he produced a dominating display to become the eventual champion.

The final table began with some of the finest players from the region taking to the felt. This included the likes of Jonathan Karamalikis, Hugh Cohen and Tom Grigg. By the time all those players had hit the rail in ninth place, eighth place and sixth place respectively, we were already several hours into the final table.

When heads-up play commenced, the two players had similar sized stacks but after a couple of hours, Schreiner showed his domination in the match, and managed to take down a huge majority of the pots to sit with a nice chip lead.

The two players went on to fight it out for over 180 hands and for the majority of them, Schreiner held the chip lead. The exception to this was when the biggest hand of the night occurred. Schreiner and Yates got all of their chips in the middle on a board showing . Yates held against Schreiner’s . The higher kicker for Yates made all the difference since the river bricked out and a big chip lead was finally in the hands of Yates.

The lead didn’t last long though, because Schreiner managed to chip away at Yates and slowly work his way back to a lead before managing to have Yates all-in holding against his own . When the flop hit the felt, Schreiner’s full house had Yates drawing dead and sent him home in second place.

Final Table Results

With Schreiner crowned the first ever APPT Queenstown champion, the sentiment around the event is that it may be set to become one of the most popular on the tour, with not only a great poker event on offer, but with the beautiful city of Queenstown something to marvel at while away from the felt.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.