Ivo Donev, Toni Ojala, Joe Hachem, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, J-P Jachtmann, Juha Helppi, Xi Lieu, yeah you name it! The beautiful poker room is full of stars! All here to win the gigantic first price, which is not yet official how much it will be.

Ivo has started the day good as he won a big pot already in the second hand, he now got 34.000 (remember that the start stack is 30.000). Toni hasn’t been in any action yet, so he is still around start stack. These first hours usually doesn’t contain that much action, but you can only find out by reading this blog!

Don’t forget to answer the quizz that was in my last blog post, if you are very skilled you have a chance to win 500 usd! Freeroll is soon coming up as well..

Day 1a didn’t become what we wanted it to become, Ramzi went out with just an hour left to play, but today is a new day and new opportunities. These opportunities is called Toni Ojala and Ivo Donev, so the chances are not bad!

Toni who went home to Finland directly after busting early in EPT San Remo, is now back with newly charged batteries and with this new structure he is a big shark, watch out fishes!

Ivo who drove here from Austria is also feeling that he is on the top of his poker at the moment and also he prefers the structure here in Monte Carlo, so what will be able to top them? Old guys with a lot of luck? Maybe, but probably not!

Of course we will have a new quiz for you readers today, here it is:
Who out of Toni and Ivo will finish in the best position in the EPT Monte Carlo pokerstars.com Main Event?
Who of the two will have the biggest chip stacks after day 1 and how much will that be?

The answers has to be done by posting to THIS post together with your RedKings username! I will also add the prices, three happy players will go away with a $20 gift voucher to their RedKings account. I will also spice it up a little, if someone can make an exact guess on question 2 on how much chips they will have after day 1b, we will reward you with $500! Remember that this guy also has to be the guy that has most chips of the two..

A freeroll is coming later on as well!

Good Luck Team RedKings and good luck readers!

It was only 50 minutes left of the day when Ramzi got involved in another pot with the old guy (also probably rich). Ramzi raised pre flop and he calls. Flop comes out 568 of hearts, Ramzi checks, old guy bets out 5k, and Ramzi puts in 15k. The old guy calls after a short while of thinking. The turn shows a K of diamond and Ramzi goes all in with the 2600 he has left. The old guy thinks it is 26000 and takes up 26000 in his hand to make the call and then he realizes that it is only 2600, and says “You need the chips more than I do”. Ramzi shows A of hearts and 10 of clubs, old grayhaired man shows A8 with a pair of 8s. Ramzi needs a heart or an 10 to double up to about 45.000. The river gives a boring 3 of spades and Ramzi is out. The old guy builds his stack up to about 120.000, and that guy has been lucky, puhhh.

So only 30 minutes left to play of day 1a, and 251 players left right now, the ones who goes through will hopefully meet Ivo Donev and Toni Ojala on day 2. Those two guys is who we are going to follow closely tomorrow fron 12:00 CEST.

There will be more action tomorrow together with quizzes and passwords!

Ps. Because of technical problems we haven’t been able to provide you with any pictures. Hopefully we will sort it out later this week.

Ramzi limped UTG (first player after the Big Blind), one player raised to 1200, another called that bet and then one player re raises to 4600. Ramzi doesn’t think for a long time until he puts all his 17.500 into the pot, first player folds, so does the second and also after a while of thinking the 3rd player folds. Two of his opponents say they had AK and ramzi just gives them the tilting comment “Really? Wow you are so tight”.

After this he took home a fairly big pot on the flop and he has now steadily climbed up to 25.000. This is going the right way..

Only two hours left until the blog freeroll starts! Time to register..

We have today 396 starting players on day 1A, all paying the buy-in of €10.300, the prize pool is going to be huge again!

As the structure is a bit changed and the players has more chips it goes a bit slower to get the field down, after 4 hours of play we have still 355 players in.

Ramzi has started the mission of building his stack back, and he has started it good. He now has about 18.000 chips and he likes his table so hopefully we will soon see him on the usual Ramzi heights..

Now don’t forget to answer the quiz in the “Team RedKings enters the tournament” post, maybe it will be easier with this info you got. Also don’t miss tonights freeroll at 20:00 CEST, the password is monaco

Ramzi is at the same table as the 3rd place finisher in EPT Budapest, the Swede Martin Jacobsson. There have been a few battles between these two and Ramzi hasn’t had the luck to win any of them yet.

A very interesting hand that played out was when Ramzi raised pre flop an got re raised by a loose old man. This didn’t scare Ramzi so he made another re raise and the grayhaired old man called. The flop came out Q97 with one spade. Ramzi bet 2000 got re raised to 6000 and called. The turn showed the 3 of spades, Ramzi checks, old guy checks behind. River shows 5 of spades and Ramzi bets out 5000 and the old guy re raises to 15000.
Ramzi says “this is so sick”, old man goes “if you fold you are going to save some money”, Ramzi says he’s got kings and folds. Old guy shows Q10 of spades, for a runner runner flush.
I agree with Ramzi, that was sick, also a proof to that there are bad players in a tournament with €10000 in buy-in. Ramzi now has about 16000 in chips.

So time for the first blog Freeroll, you will have the chance to take part of this 250 USD Freeroll at RedKings.com, you only need this password to register: monaco it starts at 20:00 CEST.

Good Luck!

Ramzi Jelassi, Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Andy Black, Luca Pagano, Allen Cunningham, Michael Tureniec, it never ends. This tournament is filled with the top top pokerstars in the world.

Ramzi has been playing for about an hour now and has about 27.000 in chips, starting stack of 30.000. No major hands, just some smaller pots won, and some smaller losses. He said “This is going to be a day filled of action” and gave me that smile that only Ramzi can give you.

For you readers there is also a lot of action, you have the quiz in my last post and you have a freeroll coming up tonight!

Stay tuned for all Ramzi action….

The EPT season is coming to an end, and what a season we have seen. The EPT has become bigger than ever, which we really got a proof on just last week in San Remo when we had 1178 players starting! There is also one team who has grown in the same speed as the EPT tour, Team RedKings. The team officially started for about 8-9 months ago and is now already one of the most famous and biggest teams on the tour with players like Ramzi Jelassi, Toni Ojala, Jonas “Molle” Molander, Ivo Donev and Christian Heich. It is just a question of time when one of our stars gets to win something big, and why not already here in Monte Carlo?

Because of some circumstances the team is not in the same size as it usually is, but that doesn’t mean they are not as good as they use to be. It is our three superstars Toni Ojala, Ramzi Jelassi and Ivo Donev who is going to represent us here in Monte Carlo, that is not a trio I would like to meet either in a dark winter night or on a poker table. Ramzi the aggressive, Toni the almighty and Ivo the strategic, WOW.

Monte Carlo is probably the town with most money per citizen in the world, and now when all the rich and not rich poker players has come by for a week it is a funny mix of people going around. We have the poker players who is going around in exactly what they had on while they were in bed playing online the other night, and then we have the people with amazing cars and suits worth more than a lifetime savings of a blogger, sad but true.

The blog is going to be slightly different this time, you will actually be able to follow the players even closer than before as I will stand right behind them and blogging from my phone, todays technology is just amazing. You will be able to follow every interesting hand that will be played, of course mixed with quizzes and the freeroll passwords that I know you like!

It all starts today at 12:00 CEST, so keep your eyes open for the first quiz and for some Ramzi action! (Ramzi playing Day 1a, Toni and Ivo day 1b). What is interesting in this EPT is that it will have a brand new structure and the rumors is that this is the structure that will be used for the whole next EPT season. The players will now start with the massive stack of 30.000! The blind levels will be an hour as usual on day 1, then they will go over to be 75 minutes on day 2, this gives more space for the skilled players, which means a bigger chance of winning for Team RedKings!

If you took the time to read this post, I am going to award you for it with a small quiz where you can win a $20 voucher to your RedKings account:
How many players do you think will start in EPT Monte Carlo? (Question will be open during whole day 1a, and your answer will only count if you post your answer to this post together with your RK username. If you answer before day 1a starts and win, your prize will be doubled!)

Here is all the correct answers and winners of the quizzes:
Quiz 1:
1. (The obvious question) How many of the 7 RK players will go through to day 2?
Correct answer: 4

2. (The sad question) Who will be the unlucky guy of the RK players to leave the tournament first?
Correct answer: Toni Ojala

3. (The impossible question) How many chips will the RedKings players have all together after day 1b?
Correct answer: 102900

And the 3 lucky winners of a $20+$2 tournament ticket is:
Lars Peter Pedersen (lapiw), Luigi_Milan, pooLdicA232

Congratulations to you!

Next quiz was:
1. How many Team RedKings players goes on to day 3? (Maximum answer is 4)
Correct answer: 2

2. Who gets unlucky and goes out first of our magic 4?
Correct answer: Ivo Donev

3. What will be the total chip count for those RedKings players that you think will go through to day 3?
Correct answer: 179.100

And the winners of a $20+$2 Tournament ticket is:
Ragzzplay, –n74er and NSleegers

Next quiz was:
-How many chips will Ramzi Jelassi end the day with? (You can’t answer 0, IF Ramzi would be bad beated and go out there will be a draw between everybody that answers the question!)
This went into a draw, and the lucky winner of the draw is:
fortuneteller, congratulations to a $20 gift voucher at RedKings!

And the last quiz question:
Who will have the biggest stack of the Team RedKings players in the €2000 side event at the end of the day? (Will be a draw between those who answer the same name)
Correct answer: Ivo Donev
And the winner is: Wolowitz, congratulations to you as well!

All the prices will be paid out within the next 48 hours!

For you who didn’t win, don’t worry just a couple of days until day 1 of EPT Monte Carlo starts, and of course a lots of new quizzes!

See you soon..