On Sunday night, the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event premiered on ESPN2. The show, which began at 10:00pm ET and ran head-to-head with the last half of the Grammy Awards on CBS, spanned two hours and featured commentary from Norman Chad and Lon McEachern.
After a review of past champions of the tournament, McEachern revealed that the 2010 WSOP Main Event started with 346 entrants. Coverage on ESPN2 began on Day 4, when 22 runners remained, and most of the first hour focused on Full Tilt Poker front man Phil Ivey, who already won his eighth career bracelet across “The Pond” in Las Vegas during the 2010 WSOP.
Greg “FBT” Mueller was the first one to go after running A-Q into Brian Powell’s A-K. Then, Ivey spiked a set of fours on the river to send Finnish poker player Jani Sointula into the London night. Sointula flopped top pair, but Ivey hit a two-outer after risking one-third of his stack.
PokerStars pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom drew out on France’s Thomas Bichon with K-Q against A-Q to send Bichon away in 20th. Blom hit a king on the flop and that was all she wrote. Trending in the same direction as “Isildur1” was live poker Triple Crown winner Roland de Wolfe, who survived an all-in with A-8 against pocket tens after flopping an ace.
Ivey’s witching hour came after running A-10 into Ronald Lee’s A-K. The flop and turn ran out 9-3-4-K and Ivey was drawing dead to the river. His elimination came complete with a rare interview and Ivey lamented, “I’m very disappointed. I wasn’t too happy with my performance. There were a few missteps along the way and hopefully next year I’ll do better.” Just like that, the darling of ESPN’s reporting was finished.
New York’s Anthony Newman came out on the short end of a race with pocket jacks against A-Q for his tournament life to exit the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event in 18th place. Bojan Gledovic followed suit in 17th at the hands of Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman.
Blom’s elimination ended the first hour of coverage. He also lost a race, this time with pocket eights against Powell’s K-Q. On the Swede, Chad quipped, “Is it possible there’s only one barber in all of Scandinavia?” Blom was rocking an Armani baseball cap.
The second hour of action aired at 11:00pm ET and 15 players remained when it began. DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins was the first to go after his A-Q could not suck out on the pocket kings belonging to Monaco’s Fabrizio Baldassari. Corkins survived to see 15th place.
The pot of the night belonged to de Wolfe, who sent Hendon Mob member Barny Boatman and poker pro Clint Coffee to the rail with pocket aces. Boatman held A-K and Coffee tabled A-J, which were no match when the board came K-4-10-9-8. The pot was worth 1.1 million and de Wolfe registered the double knockout.
The U.K.’s Arnaud Mattern bowed out in 12th place after his K-10 of diamonds could not snap Powell’s K-J. Then, Canada’s Andrew Pantling called Danny Steinberg’s all-in, which came after a 4bet, holding pocket queens. Steinberg showed pocket sixes and promptly flopped a set, which turned into a boat after the turn. Pantling took second in the WSOP Europe’s Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event for £105,000 earlier in the London series.
The Final Table Bubble Boy was David “Davidp18” Peters, whose A-7 could not fend off de Wolfe’s A-5 of spades. The window card was a five and Peters was eliminated in 10th place to set up the final table. Fleyshman, the youngest CEO ever of a publicly traded company, will be its chip leader when play resumes.
You can catch the next new episodes of the 2010 WSOP Europe on ESPN2 beginning at 10:00pm ET this Sunday.
I was watching the 10 oclock central time WSOP europe and the the very first hand I saw Fleyshman fold the 3C and 3S steinberg reaised to 27k with pocket 8’s 8D 8C, Levi calls with 2S 2C. The flop comes 3C 6C 5C what tyoe of deck do they play with in Europe that has 2 three of clucs in it.