Inaugural EPT Media tourney

The first online EPT Media tourney took place last night with only a modicum of violence and some first-class poker on show. Kicking off with 54 players (which beats the "live" record in Dortmund a couple of weeks ago by 10), the tournament included a huge number of top international celebrities such as Pauly "Tao of Poker" McGrupp, Mick McCLoskey, Rick "Big Blind" Dacey, Ms Kara Scott and both Siktilters.

I mysteriously found myself on the TV table - ie the one dominated by people from Sunset+Vine including our esteemed director Daniel Hudson and top cameraman Liam MacLeod. I knew from experience this gave me a fighting chance. Dan was obviously terrified of me (or possibly Kara) and immediately "disconnected" at the slightest sign of a raise.

This gave rise to substantial debate on the sidelines as to what was happening in the Hudson household.



With major names falling by the wayside - including Lina Olofsson, Dr Pauly, Tom Parker-Bowles, Alex Pinkett, Filipe Pacheco, Rury Mason, Martin Derbyshire and Al Laycock, I thought we were heading for another Dortmund situation .. ie despite playing really badly, I come 2nd.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes on MSN, Conrad and Benjo were providing their own insightful comments to keep up my morale. Con thought it helpful to write "tick tick tick" and then hit re-send every two minutes as my blinds got eaten away. Benjo just sent straightforward insults.



Nevertheless, as is my wont, I hung on grimly.



The chat livened up with detailed discussions about the highly-prized PokerStars PCA black velour tracksuit and the Canadians had a gripping conversation about how far away they all live from the nearest point of civilisation. An attempt was made from the rail to fuel an England v Scotland falling-out but luckily Liamski refused to be drawn in.

On other tables, identity was becoming an issue. Some players wanted to keep their user IDs free of blemish and barracking and were refusing to reveal who they were. I accidentally outed a few of those (sorry guys!) while others got outed by their colleagues. In my mind, playing without saying who you were, though, slightly ruined the fun.

The #1 mystery person was Ginsberg who silently and stealthily inched his way towards the final table. Rumours abounded as to Ginsberg's identity. Several people thought it must be Alex Van der Weyer, the mastermind behind EPT coverage who sits beside God/Dan Hudson in the TV truck and predicts what players are going to do with their hands. I tried to start a rumour that it was Conrad - playing illegally on PokerStars (staff can't play on PS except for play money) and only doing as well as he was because he could see all the cards.

Ginsberg remained stonily silent however and during the entire tournament only made one comment as below.

"!"

Unfortunately this wasn't enough to identify him.

At the end, it was Frenchman $kai, Ginsberg and Ricardo "Cacopt" Pinto from Portugal fighting it out. Ginsberg seemed sure to take it but the final hand saw a fabulous suck-out from Cacopt to take the $324 first prize and coveted PokerStars player bag. Cacopt had K4 against Ginsberg's AK. Flop K72. Ginsberg checks, Cacopt bets 3600, Ginsberg calls. Turn 9 - Ginsberg all in. Cacopt calls and hits 4 on river for two pairs.

Full results below and thanks all for playing.

1 Cacopt Porto Portugal $324.
2 Ginsberg london United Kingdom $216.
3 $kaï New York France $129.60
4 liamski glasgow United Kingdom $108.
5 Dashiell London United Kingdom $86.40
6 EPTLogger London United Kingdom $70.20
7 youngjezebel Charlottetown PE $59.40
8 Elgeekay London United Kingdom $48.60
9 robinse Hamburg Germany $37.80
10 Davina Darr Hannover Germany - Bubble girl – player bag!!