There’s some intriguing stuff going on on Table 19, where Paul Berende sits with Ludovic Geilich and yet there’s only one beer in play between them.
“If we’re still here together in the last level, I’m going to drink a last beer with you,” Berende, drinkless, said to Geilich. “It’s just a shame to see you drinking alone.”
In truth, it’s kind of surprising to see Geilich still here at all. He lost almost all of his stack soon after his late arrival and was seen fiddling with only 5,200 chips and checking flights on his smartphone.
But Geilich, who is known for either having a huge stack or no stack, ground it back to more than 25,000 by the dinner break, even if it’s slipped back down to about 13,000 now. Berende is surely well aware of Geilich’s tendencies and the “if” in his offer of a last level drink made clear he’s not totally convinced it will come to fruition.
While the conversation on that table is primarily coming from Berende, Geilich, Alfie Adam and Miguel Use, the unusual stuff is coming from the silent Zoran Jovanovic and Carlos Mora, sitting to Geilich’s immediate left.
Those two have been limping a lot pre-flop from all positions, which is a strategy rarely employed on the European Poker Tour. The thing is, it seems to be slightly unsettling the tournament regs.
“You didn’t see him limp, did you,” Geilich said to Use after a hand that developed into a pre-flop raising battle between Use and Luciano Santos De Hollanda.
“I didn’t,” Use said, before going on to admit that he was startled to see that Jovanovic still had cards after Santos de Hollanda had three bet from the button. Unseen, Jovanovic had limped from under the gun plus one and Use raised to 1,025 from the cut off. (Blinds are 250-500.) Santos de Hollanda made it 2,600 from the button and that’s when Jovanovic folded.
Use four bet to 6,500 but then folded when Santos de Hollanda made it 11,000. “I knew you didn’t see the limp when you raised so small,” Geilich said.
Conversation continued into the next hand, primarily focused on what Santos de Hollanda had been holding to force the five bet.
“Aces?” Berende said.
“Yeah, aces,” Santos de Hollanda said.
“You should have called, man,” Berende said.
“Yeah, I should have just called.”
Geilich was in the big blind on the next hand and Jovanovic, this time under the gun, limped again. So did Mora, one seat around. This time, everybody had noticed their involvement, and Adam raised to 1,800. It was folded to Geilich in the big blind, who thought for a moment before sliding his tower of chips into the middle.
Jovanovic and Mora both pushed their cards away, but Adams asked for a count and was told it was something like 13,000. Eventually he folded, with the chatter starting again.
“Ace jack?” Geilich said.
“Nah, Hollywood,” Berende said.
“No, he had a hand,” Geilich said. “He had a hand for sure.”
Geilich was still agitated, supping away at his beer, but he didn’t have to wait too long to win the sizeable pot he was seeking. Sitting under the gun on the next hand, he made a queen high flush with Q♦ J♦ to win about 20,000 from Berende and Ihar Soika, the latter losing the most.
It may just cost Berende a beer, however, as Geilich lives to battle into the last level.
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