Poker Web Watch / Dave Allan / 07 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

The World Poker Tour is visiting Europe this week for the 2009 WPT Merit Cyprus Championship, a $10,300 buy-in event held at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino in Northern Cyprus.

With a 40,000 starting stack and blinds starting at just 50/100 it is no wonder some of the biggest names in poker have turned up for this event including Betfair sponsored pros John Tabatabai and Sorel Mizzi.

Mizzi started the day with his usual aggressive style as being 400 big blinds deep he could afford to see lots of flops. He was the aggressor on the early streets of a Th7c8h5c board but slowed down and check-called a 3,500 bet from his opponent when the 3s fell on the river. His opponent showed KcQh for total air whilst Mizzi scooped the pot as his Js8s had made a pair of eights.

One player at Mizzi's tabled gasped, "Wow! I really thought you had Queens!" prompting Antonio Estfandiari to pipe up from the next table, "He's the best" talking about his friend Mizzi, "The Mizzi-nator. Plays eights like they're aces!"

Not to be outdone by his Betfair team mate, John Tabatabai was also quickly adding to his stack. After seeing four limpers in front of him, Tabatabai made it 1,400 to go on the button. Amazingly, all the limpers made the call creating a pot of 7,300! Three players checked the TdJd4d flop but the cut-off moved all-in for around 12,000.

This prompted Tabatabai to move all-in behind him for approximately 30,000 whilst 2009 WSOP Player of the Year, Jeff Lisandro moved his 32,000 stack in! The player in the cut-off showed Ad5s for a naked flush draw, Lisandro had a pair of black fours for bottom set but Tabatabai had JcJh for top set. The turn and river came Ah and 2h busting the cut-off, crippling Lisandro and boosting Tabatabai close to 80,000 in chips.

Meanwhile Sorel Mizzi was three and four betting himself towards the top of the leaderboard, rapidly approaching an 80,000 stack himself but a huge hand developed that would see Tabatabai catapulted into first position.

The young Brit found himself in a preflop raising war with Fatih Ozpolat which resulted in all their chips going into the middle on a board reading Tc3h8cQh. Ozpolat had turned a straight with Jd9s whilst Tabatabai held a set of tens. The dealer burned a card then dealt the river, the Queen of Clubs which improved Tabatabai's hand to a full house and took him to 164,000 chips. Ozpolat sucked air through his teeth after the beat before turning around and asking a friend, "What could I do?"

By the end of play, the 91 entrants on Day 1a had been reduced to 63 with John tabatabai leading the way with 178,275, almost four times his starting stack. Hot on his tail are Ludovic Lacey (140,780), Tommy Vedes (122,125), Antonio Estfandiari (119,900) and Layne Flack (109,855). Also in touch with the leading pack is Sorel Mizzi who with 86,975 chips to play with going into Day 2, finds himself in 13th place.

Day 1b has already started and sees Annette Obrestad take to the felt, hoping to share the same good fortune of her fellow Betfair pros.

Message from John in sunny Cyprus

I just love being a Betfair pro, travelling the world and living the dream!

I love traveling, experiencing new cultures, new foods, meeting new people. It truly is enlightening and just a great experience. When I was told that I had the option of playing a WPT event in Cyprus I was over the moon. Firstly, I had never played a WPT event before and secondly I love both Greece and Turkey and had never been to Cyprus.

After a 2 hour delay I finally got in for day 1a on around level 2 (90min clock, 40k starting stack) and ran pretty sweet. Looks like I am learning from Annette. Ty girl!

The whole table limped for 200 (blinds 100-200), I picked up JJ on the button and knew no one would believe me, so I made it 1400 and much to my surprise, once Jeff Lissandro called the raise from under the gun the another 4 people decided to call too!!!

Marv! The flop dropped a scary J-10-4, all diamonds and before it got checked fully to me, an inexperienced (presumably Greek) player went all in for around 12k into the 9k pot. I then went all in for my 40k chips and to my surprise Lissandro without hesitating went all in too. The others folded and I was happy to see that Lissandro (between whom we would have had a big side pot, so the most important) was drawing nearly dead as he had 444 and the other player had A5 with the Ace of diamonds. Luckily, my hand held, and I was up to around 80-90k and from there on I played as you guys have seen me play on the cash tables on Betfair. 1 gear; punish :-)

I ended the day chip leader with around 180,000 and I just hope I continue to play well and run good. Would be amazing if I could final table and even win the first WPT I play. COME ON !!!!!!

Message from Sorel

I ended the day with 85,000... I love being here with team Betfair, we're staying in a really cool hotel 15 minutes from the casino that John hooked up. We all have rooms next to each other because we love each other. My first hand of tournament I had to make a decision for half my stack and made the right call and everything just went uphill from there :)

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