$$ Cash 4 Seat $$

It was an event at which money could not buy a seat for just anybody. Invitation-only was the phrase of the day. No doubt, anybody here would’ve taken a seat in a shot. The prize pool for the single table tournament was a whopping $100,000. First place would get half the cash.

The line-up was among the toughest you’ll see. Daniel Negreanu, Katja Thater, Dario Minieri, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, John Duthie, Vicky Coren, Noah Boeken, Barry Greenstein, and PokerStars Supernova Elite Joe “bigjoe2003″ Michael, who won a Supernova Elite satellite to the event.

Over the course of seven hours, the players battled tooth and nail under TV lights and in front of the cameras. While the PokerStars EPT Grand Final players fought in the ballroom, these players sat on stage. The prize money was significant. The pride of beating each other and taking the first Stars of Poker title was just as great.

The first bust-out was a tough one. Daniel Negreanu went out set-under-set to EPT creator John Duthie. Boeken went out next shortly after getting crippled by ElkY in a battle of top-pair top kicker versus overpair. Minieri busted out after failing to win a race with AK. Vicky Coren suffered among the worst defeats, getting AK in against AK but losing to a four-flush on board. Michael went out in fifth place after losing with JJ versus AA. ElkY went out in fourth place after having his AK ourtun by AJ.

The three remaining players were all in the money. Again, though, it was clear they would savor the victory more. Katja Thater fought long and hard, but eventually went out on a blind steal gone wrong. For third place, she earned $20,000.

The heads up battle was intense, but didn’t last for an eternity. After jousting for a bit, Greenstein managed a key double-up versus Duthie. After that, it was just a matter of time before the chips went in. Greenstein, holding AsKs managed to get Duthie all-in with 8h9h. Duthie flopped a pair, but Greenstein made his flush on the river. Duthie earned $30,000 for his runner-up finish. Greenstein pocketed $50,000 and the first Stars of Poker title.

Congratulations, Barry.

For the past several days, there has been a quiet rumor of a special event starting up here at the EPT Grand Final. We’ve finally confirmed the details of what’s being called the Stars of Poker tournament.

Coming soon to a tournament room near you…a $100,000 prize pool for a single table tournament featuring the likes of EPT creator John Duthie, Vicky Coren, and Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri, Barry Greenstein, ElkY, Noah Boeken, and other folks who will be named later.

There is one special seat remaining in this one-of-a-kind event. That seat will go to one fortunate PokerStars VIP Club Supernova Elite.

Just moments ago, two tables of Elites sat down across from each other, many for the first time in a live setting. Just a quick glance across the two tables, and I spot Jason Mercier, Spencer Cossette, BigJoe2003, DCalZone, and Dr. Fells.

Lee Jones and Scotty from the VIP Club are overseeing this satellite. Late tonight, one of those Supernovas will get a free entry into the big event. First place looks to pay $50,000 to the winner, $30,000 to 2nd place, and $20 to 3rd.

Every level of the PokerStars VIP Club offers pretty cool stuff and opportunties to the players. As you might expect, though, the Elite level is just crazy sometimes. Not only do they get free buy-ins to events like the EPT Grand Final, they get stuff like this, too.

The word on the street is the Stars of Poker event is going to be taped for later broadcast on TV. If you don’t want to wait to watch it, we’ll have coverage here, as well.

For now, it’s up to the Supernova Elites to figure out who is going to represent them at the table. As competitive as they are, this satellite could go on all night.

Luca Pagano is a man of trademarks. He has a trademark Italia jacket, a trademark wink, and a trademark smile. Emotional yet composed, friendly yet fierce, and confident yet humble–Pagano defines them all. In an age when many parents have been forced to come to grips with having poker players as children, the young Italian gives mothers and fathers hope.

Luca Pagano — © Neil Stoddart

Once a computer programming student, Pagano bought into the online poker boom just a few years ago. The deposit was small (less than $100). In the amount of time it takes most people of his age to start a career, Pagano has climbed to the top of his. A long-time member of Team PokerStars Pro, Pagano as developed, refined, and re-refined his game over his time on the live poker circuit. In the past several years, Pagano has made two European Poker Tour final tables and amassed 20 live tournament cashes.

Most recently, Pagano has been seen playing a dual role as both player and tournament organizer. He and his father hosted the EPT event in San Remo last week. Now, here at the EPT Grand Final, Luca has jumped out to an early Day 2 lead. He sits with more than 170,000 chips.

Luca Pagano

It’s clear Luca’s father, Claudio, has more than accepted Luca’s role in the game. He’s joined him. Claudio Pagano started today with a better-than-average stack.

Claudio Pagano

Luca Pagano’s fortune here at the Grand Final is still in flux. However, if his life to this point is any indication, the smiling young Italian may just be in for something good here this week.

The mission as I devised it was to peek in on PokerStars Passport holder Dustin Mele. I didn’t know what I was getting into. Immediately upon my arrival, I was accosted by two security guards. They spoke in rapid-fire French, using the words, “Non, non, non!” as often as they could.

I grabbed for my all-access badge, the one that I believe would give me the ability to rule Monaco for a day if I really wanted. I flashed it in their face, as politely as I could. “Oui?” I said. Of course, it was more of a question than answer.

“Non, non, non!”

How, I wondered, was it possible that I, a friendly blogger with an all-access badge, could be denied a place next to Mele’s table. What was so special about the very spot I chose to stand?

I looked around, pretending to be oblivious to security’s demands. It then became clear. I had entered the Trinity of Champions.

On one side of the triangle sat 2005 World Series Champion Joe Hachem, up on a riser and behind a rail. On another sat Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series Champion. On the final side sat Boris Becker, the tennis world’s uber-champion. I now understood. Security wasn’t worried I’d get in the way. They were worried I’d disappear into some black hole in the middle of a sort of Bermuda Triangle of competitiveness.

Joe Hachem — © Neil Stoddart

I maintained my position, however. Despite the inherent danger, I was determined to see what kind of stuff the PokerStars Passort holder had in his bag of tricks. If you’re not familiar, Mele won a Tournament Leader Board competition at PokerStars that gave him the ability to travel the world on PokerStars’ dime and enter ten big buy-in events.

Within minutes, I watched as Mele called a cut-off raise on the button. The flop came down ace-high and it went check-check. The turn was a blank and Mele’s opponent put out a bet. Again, just a call from Mele. The river, again, a blank. This time, his opponenet checked and Mele counted out a bet. In it went.

Dustin Mele

After a short period of thought, Mele got the call.

“That’s all you’ve got, huh?” his foe said.

On the table was a set of aces that had just taken someone for a short ride to Value Town.

With that, I escaped the Trinity of Champions and hopped off to a place where security personnel are more friendly to my wily ways.

Oui!

For more on one of those champions, check out this PokerStars Video Blog profile of Joe Hachem.

Gavin Griffin was sick. Literally. His nose sniffled, his eyes were red, and his every breath seemed to be full of real effort. Even the frivolousness of his pink hair couldn’t offset the clarity of Griffin’s head cold. Yet, there was a determination in his eye that no one could deny.

A couple of seats down the table, Canadian pro Marc Karam sat with steel in his eyes. It had been just a year since Karam had made the final table of the PokerStars EPT Grand Final. That year, he’d watched American college student Jeff Williams go on to win the title. Now, Karam was heads up with Griffin, a man most famous then for once being the youngest person to ever win a World Series bracelet.

It was a heads-up match that promised and delivered a battle suited for the history books.

The final hand, as reported here at the PokerStars Blog, played out like this:

Gavin made it 150,000 to go pre-flop and Marc re-raised to 400,000. Gavin called. The flop came 3-2-4. Marc pushed out a bet of 500,000. Gavin thought for just a few seconds before raising to 2 million. The room suddenly felt like it does just before a huge electrical storm in the American Midwest. The skies opened when Marc announced, “All-in.”

Gavin, still with the sniffles, looked like he was in pain. He had Marc covered by only about 500,000. After about two minutes of thought, he said, “You have the best hand.”

“You’re calling,” Marc asked. We couldn’t tell if he was incredulous or happy.

“Yeah, I call,” Gavin said.

Marc forcefully put his 4-7 on the table. Top pair, seven kicker. Gavin showed K-5. He may not have thought he was in such good shape. With fourteen outs twice, he was in good shape. The turn, though, suddenly didn’t look as good for the pink-haired pro. It was a three. The river seemed to come down slow. But just by looking at the boy’s faces, it was clear what had happened. The river was a king, and just like that, Gavin Griffin had won the EPT Grand Final. Marc Karam, who everyone agrees played a stellar game here, finished in second place for €1,061,820.

The bridesmaid position is not one at which to sneeze, but it does not suit Karam well. He is among that group of poker players who not only love to win, but also hate to lose. Two Grand Final final tables in two years and no title to call his own. In the months that followed, Griffin’s star only rose. He won a World Poker Tour event, became the first and only player to claim poker’s unofficial Triple Crown, and was subsequently signed to the elite Team PokerStars Pro.

That, though, is the stuff of history, right?

Yes and no.

Here on Day 1B, Griffin and Karam share the room. Griffin is back to defend his title and Karam is here looking for his first EPT crown. They are several tables apart at the moment, but if yesterday’s clever poker fates return today (the kind that put father and son at the same table) there is the chance we could see Griffin and Karam face off again.

One look at their faces makes clear their intentions for the day.

We’ll keep an eye on both as the day progresses. In a field this large (we’re hearing reports the field has eclipsed the 800-player mark), there is rarely hope of history repeating itself. However, we’ve seen stranger things happen and that’s why we keep watching.

Greg “Fossilman” Raymer isn’t much for coffeehousing. We learned that back in 2004 when he didn’t bite on Mike Matusow’s cojone bait. With that understood, that doesn’t mean Raymer sits quietly at the table. To the contrary, Raymer has a story for just about every occasion. He enjoys his time at the table and gets to know about everybody.

Early in the day, someone at the table asked about the order of the table-breaks. The tournament director advised, “You’ll be here all day.”

With that in mind, the players at Raymer’s table have become rather friendly throughout the past seven hours. Many know each other’s names. Now back from dinner, though, Raymer has taken an interest in the young man in the eight-seat. He inquired about his name. “I don’t want to keep saying, ‘hey, mister,” he explained.

The guy didn’t say much. He mumbled a bit about not wanting people to know his screen name.

&copy Neil Stoddart

Raymer, though he is well-known by his own screen name, prefers to call people by their real names. “I don’t care what your screen name is,” he said.

The young gentlemen stole a look at Sorel Mizzi and another online pro at the table. “Yeah, but he might know it. And he might know it.” he said.

That is the new poker. In the old days, poker players were known by their face and the name their mama gave them. Now, they enjoy a bit of anonymity.

After a bit more prodding, the online player spoke up. “My real name is Max,” he said.

These kinds of things are important, if only for the psychological aspect of the game. In just the past few hours, the man known only as Max has worked his way up from a starting stack to the biggest stack at Table de Raymer.

Just now, Raymer called across the table, “So, what did you have for dinner, Max? Did you eat with Sorel?”

No matter what he munched on for dinner, Max wasn’t biting now. There isn’t any way to turn off chat at a live table. He shook his head and stared at the table.

This much we know: His real name is Max and his real stack sits at 50,000.

If Max keeps it up at this pace, everybody is bound to know his name–nay, names–very soon.

At the first half of the dinner break (it’s staggered in two groups tonight) Freddy Deeb stepped up to Blogger Central with a simple request. The man may be flush with cash and traveling the world to play in poker tournaments. Alas, he had no iPod charger. Fortunately, we did. For the loan, Deeb said, “You can listen to my music if you want.”

Naturally curious, I asked, “And what kind of music is that?”

“Lebanese,” he said, then quickly added as if it was necessary, “not Japanese.”

With Deeb gone, we turned our focus to the half of the field that had to wait to eat. Among them was Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater who, unfortunately, will get to take dinner break earlier than the rest of her fellow players. The word on the street says Thater flopped top pair with big slick but ran into someone else who had two pair.

Others on the Team are faring better. Bad news for Julian Thew is great news for Andre Akkari. It was Thew’s kings versus Akkari’s aces that sent Thew to the rail. Tuan Lam has also worked his stack up to nearly 40,000 by the dinner break. A cursory look at the tables makes it appear as though Johnny Lodden has stepped up to the chip lead. Despite losing with aces vs. AK (all-in preflop), he still has nearly 60,000 chips.

For a complete look back at coverage from the first half of play today, check out the following links.

Fortunes by the Sea
Picture perefect on the Cote D’Azure
The party before the poker
The Hunt for the Title Begins
Titans clash
Never too soon for some
Profile: Andre Akkari
Greg Raymer: All clammed up
The Negreanu guarantee?
The Stolzmann Crown
Flashing lights and sparkle on table Isabelle
PokerStars Player Lounge

Finally, just in the Blogger Central, a look at last night’s PokerStars Welcome Party. It’s about the cloest thing you’ll get to being there, without having to directly confront your childhood fear of men in masks. Confused? Just watch.

There’s exclusive and then there is really exclusive.

Getting to Monte Carlo to play in the PokerStars EPT Grand Final is an accomplishment in itself. The buy-in alone is enough to make this tournament among the most exclusive in the world. Here, though, among the elite players in the field, there is a certain place only a select group can go.

The PokerStars Player Lounge is open only to those folks who have made their way here through PokerStars. A quick walk though the room (outfitted with cold drinks, plasma TVs, cames, and soft leather seats) is a bit surreal.

In the corner, Daniel Negreanu is beseeching his Wii controller.

“Why won’t it get over?” he shouts as his Wii bowling ball misses a strike by seven pins. Within seconds, he blames himself. “It’s me,” he admits.

Just a few feet away, Joe Hachem sits heads up in a Battleship Poker match. Just beyond that, Chis Moneymaker is tense and he battles all comers in a fooseball match.

If you’re a PokerStars player here in Monte Carlo, feel free to come on down for a cold drink or a chat with a member of Team PokerStars Pro. You’ll be greeted by these lovely ladies, Pip and Beatrice.

For more of a look around Monte Carlo and a few words from Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Rahme, check out the latest video blog.

Back at the PokerStars.com EPT San Remo Johannes Strassmann scribbled his way through day one, day two and was the last player eliminated on day three in ninth place, a fly’s wing distance from his second final table of season four. The notes, he told me, were because he wants to keep improving on his 23rd here in Monte Carlo last year, his sixth place at EPT Dortmund and ninth in San Remo.

It seems the notes are working then and he’s doing the same here. It’s no piece of scrap paper or back of a napkin. This thing is a leather bound folio… and a nice pen.

Today he sits opposite Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle Mercier, fingers loaded with sparkling rings, decked as she is in black clothes and black cap emblazoned with the word “Faith”, blond hair flowing from it.

She’s in a hand when I pass by, a board fully dealt that shows four diamonds. Isabelle made it 2,500 on the turn with the player to her immediate left to act. He called. When a fourth diamond came on the river, she checked and waited, a Blue Gin (the name of the bar at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel) plastic ice cube as her card protector flashing blue lights in front of her.

There’s a bet now from her opponent now, a single 5,000 white chip on the felt. Her foe quietly annouces his bet, putting the focus back on Isabelle. But Isabelle is a top player and knows her options are limited. Her opponent cas committed himself to the pot. She folds, looks up into the rafters for a second and mouths a few words to herself, with 10k or so left in front of her.

A few tables away the words “Ivey’s done “pretty much sum up Phil Ivey’s day. A few minutes earlier he’d been getting a massage, now he was settling the bill, picking up his coat and leaving the tournament room.
Johannes makes a bet pre-flop bet, gets called by the player in seat nine and they see a flop of 7-4-T. Johannes makes it 1,200, called, and both check the king on the turn.

Johannes stays still through all this, each time he places his chips in the pot he leaves his hand there for a while. Then he makes it 2,200 after the river brings a nine. Again no movement and his hand stays in front of him, half in, half out of the pot.

“Call.”

Johannes shows his pocket queens and watches his opponent for some sign of victory or defeat. He knows the longer that takes the more likely this hand to have a happy ending. It does, he back up to 14k and has a few more lines for the notebook.

As mentioned here earlier, there is a large contingent of Team PokerStars Pros in the field today. Some members of the Team, however, have one more day of rest before launching into a marathon week of poker.

Among those with the day off is Daniel Negreanu. Well-rested and feeling good, Negreanu is already predicting he could “do some damage” in this event.

For a look at the PokerSttars EPT Grand Final through Kid Poker’s eyes, check out the video blog below.