August 23 2012, Chad Holloway
Last week, Season 9 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour kicked off in Barcelona. The spotlight has been focused on the premiere events, the “50,000 Super High Roller and “5,000 Main Event, but plenty of other events have been taking place at the Casino Barcelona.
Even though the PokerNews Live Reporting Team may only be reporting the two aforementioned tournaments and the “10,000 High Roller, we thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at some of the more interesting stories that have come out of the side events.
One of those side events was a Media Event, which is where the above picture of PokerNews‘ Kristy Arnett, Lynn Gilmartin and Krisztina Polgár came from. Unfortunately none of those ladies won the event. Those honors went to blogger Howard Swains and photographer Neil Stoddart.
Olympic Skier Petter Northug Cashes in Event #11: “2,000 NLHE Turbo
It’s no secret that Olympians love competition and there are few activities that are more competitive than poker. Michael Phelps, who has 18 gold medals to his name, learned this long ago and has been known to enjoy poker, as has two-time Olympic gold medalist and Norwegian skier Petter Northug.
The summer Olympics just concluded in London, which means it’ll two years before the winter ones roll around in Sochi, Russia, so Northug has turned to poker to stay busy. The 26-year-old and his younger brother, Tomas, 22, who is the Junior World Champion in cross-country skiing and enjoying his first year on the Norwegian national ski team, were both in Barcelona to test their skills on the felt.
The elder Northug has played on the EPT before and even has a World Series of Poker min-cash to his name but notched his first EPT cash in Event #11: “2,000 NLHE Turbo.
Interestingly, Northug went on to finish 136th in the Main Event for “8,400 and his second EPT cash.
Dmitry Grishin Wins Estrellas High Roller
On Sunday night, Russia’s Dmitry Grishin conquered a field of 215 in the Estrellas “2,000 High Roller event. Although it’s not an EPT event per se, the finale of Season 3 of the Estrellas Poker Tour was held concurrently to create the Barcelona Poker Festival.
Grishin, who finished 41st at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final last April, was awarded “77,210 for his win. He defeated a stacked final table, which included Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen, who finished fifth for “22,400, and EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee, who came in sixth. With that said, the final four players did cut a deal as the tournament dragged into the early morning hours so that they could all play Day 1b of the EPT Barcelona Main Event.
Dmitry Grishin
Estrellas “2,000 High Roller Final Table
| 1st | Dmitry Grishin | Russia | “77,210 |
| 2nd | Christopher Andler | Sweden | “62,000 |
| 3rd | Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | “56,000 |
| 4th | Fabrice Maltez | France | “39,000 |
| 5th | Angel Guillen | Mexico | ” 22,400 |
| 6th | Kevin MacPhee | USA | “17,750 |
| 7th | Zoltan Szabo | Hungary | “13,500 |
| 8th | Jonathan Karamalikis | Australia | “10,030 |
Gerasimova Captures Ladies Event; Eliminates Heinz in Main Event
The winners of big buy-in events tend to garner the headlines at any circuit stop, but someone else managed to make some noise at EPT Barcelona – Liya Gerasimova. The girlfriend of Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov, Gerasimova took down the EPT Barcelona Ladies Event in dramatic fashion.
After navigating a tough field of 63, which included Claudia “dasultanz” Csongei and Jan “jamjars69” Combes, Gerasimova made it to three-handed play, though with less than one big blind remaining. According to the PokerStars Blog, “Liya was forced to go all-in blind, so [Darya] Hulyk and Lucia Martinez called to check the hand down. As the last card was dealt Liya finally turned over her cards. She found aces.” She went on to double two more times in a row and was right back in contention.
After Hulyk was felled by Martinez, it took just minutes for a winner to be determined. In the the last hand, Gerasimova reraised all in on a 
board with 
and was up against the 
flopped full house of Martinez. Amazingly, the 
spiked on the river to snatch victory from Martinez and gave it to Gerasimova with a higher full house.
As if winning the Ladies title wasn’t enough, Gerasimova went on to play the Main Event. There she knocked out 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Champ Pius Heinz. Here’s the hand as reported in the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog:
Action folded to Heinz in the hijack and he raise to 3,400, which Liya Gerasimova, who is PokerStars Team Pro Ivan Demidov’s girlfriend and the winner of the ladies event here at the EPT Barcelona, called from the big blind.
Gerasimova led out for 4,200 on the
flop, Heinz raise dto 10,800, Gerasimova moved all in, and Heinz quickly called off for around 50,000.
Showdown
The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event winner had an over pair with an open-ended straight draw, but it was way behind the flopped nuts of Gerasimova. Neither the
turn nor
river help Heinz, who was eliminated from the EPT Barcelona Main Event in Level 12.
Gerasimova went on to make Day 3 of the Main Event but fell just short of the money.
Martynenko Wins His Way Into EPT Barcelona
Prior to EPT Barcelona, PokerStars held a contest asking fans to put together a video offering advice to Rafa Nadal on how to best learn poker. Approximately 800 players submitted videos, but the winner ended up being Sergey Martynenko.
“[I made it] Just for fun,” Martynenko told the PokerStars Blog. “It wasn’t my profession; it’s just interesting for me. Sometimes I’ve got some ideas and I find it funny.”
Here’s a look at Martynenko’s winning video:
For his winning submission, Martynenko was awarded a package to the EPT Barcelona. “I’ve been playing poker for about two years on PokerStars and my limits are low,” he said in an interview with the PokerStars Blog. “I’m trying to get higher but this is the biggest tournament I’ve ever (played). It’s very difficult. The play is very aggressive. I tried to concentrate and to remember all the things I know. Sometimes it helps me.”
Unfortunately, Martynenko EPT Barcelona dreams came to an end early on Day 2.
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February 01 2012, Marty Derbyshire
On Day 1b of the 2012 PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event, 550 players turned out, meaning the total number of entrants was just two fewer than the record 891 who came to play last year.
Once registration closed and the final numbers were released, the news came down that 889 players had signed up for this incarnation of EPT Deauville, creating a “4,267,200 prize pool that will pay 128 spots with “875,000 reserved for first – just “5,000 less than Lucien Cohen’s take from 2011.
The Day 1b field was heavily French but still featured some of the biggest stars in the game. 1998 WSOP Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen turned up, as did Cohen and a host of Team PokerStars Pros, including Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Liv Boeree, Vanessa Rousso, Eugene Katchalov and more.
But as the masses fell by the wayside, leaving 325 survivors, the day truly belonged to Frenchman Amir Salhani, who grabbed the top spot late and held on heading into Thursday’s Day 2 with 191,100 in chips and the overall chip lead.
Cohen was eliminated in the final 15 minutes of the day, ensuring there will be a new champion this year as the likes Blom, Katchalov, Vanessa Selbst, Dario Minieri, Fabrice Soulier, and Jude Ainsworth joined him on the rail.
Several notables will go on to Day 2 from the Day 1b group, however, including Rousso, Shannon Shorr, Ari Engel, Nacho Barbero, Ludovic Lacay and Team PokerStars SportsStar and Olympic gold medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo.
Adding the Day 1b survivors to the 221 through from Day 1a means 546 players will begin play at 1200 CET (0300 PST) in Deauville on Thursday.
To follow all the action live tune into PokerNews’ EPT Live Updates page, and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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