ContiGroup of St Petersburg held it's "White Nights" Festival of poker at the Olympia Casino from 24th to 30th June, 2002. Seven events were completed, a large international contingent arrived to participate from Australia, Great Britain, Finland, France, USA, Armenia & Sweden. Players also came up from Moscow.

Prizemoney exceeded expectations & most events had over 50 participants. The organization was highly professional, the hospitality extended to visitors was simply marvellous & a great time was had by all. Sightseeing tours were organized , so that players were able to combine the poker with some very interesting sights of the City.

RESULTS

Thursday, 27 June 5pm
€ 250 Pot Limit Holdem
Unlimited Rebuys + Add On 90 Minutes
61 Entries
Prizepool : Euro 50,000

1st: Oleg Volchkov E 16,005	2nd: Seppo Parkkinen (Finland) E 10,185
3rd: Arseny Mesheryakov E 6790	4th: Valery Ilikian (Armenia) E 4850
5th: Andrey Mitropolski E 3395	6th: Sergey Varentsov E 2183
7th: Andrey Martsev E 1940	8th: Andrey Diagterenko E 1698
9th: Alex Dovzhenko E 1455

Friday, 28 June
€ 250 Pot Limit Omaha
Unlimited Rebuys + Add On 90 Minutes
53 Entries
Rebuys Add-ons Prizepool Euro 45,750

1st : Ivan Gannitsky E 14645	2nd : Mihail Zharkov E 9319
3rd : Kirill Gerasimov E 6213	4th : Kaspery Pitkakangus (Finland) E 4438
5th : Sergey Varentsov E 3106	6th : Alybina Sukman (Finland) E 1997
7th : Vitaly Itkin E 1775	8th : Andrey Martsev E 1553
9th : Craig Grant (UK) E 1331

Saturday, 29 June
€ 600 No Limit Holdem
1 Rebuy + 1 Add On Entries: 45 Re-buys: 10 Add-ons: 39
Prizepool Euro 56,400

1st : S.Sokolov E 18,054	2nd : V.Priporov E 11,489
3rd : Mihail Tulchinsky E 7659	4th : Emile Elias (France) E 5471
5th : Valery Ilikian (Armenia) E 3830	6th : A.Kravchenko E 2462
7th : Jacob Horowitz (Australia) E 2188	8th : Craig Grant (UK) E 1915
9th: Jac Arama (UK) E 1641

REPORT: Chips in play: 670,000

In a truly international final, players from Australia, UK, Armenia & France tried, but failed to take the cash out of Russia. The first 4 places went to Russians.

Jac Arama & Craig Grant, both of the UK were first to fall, followed by Horowitz who watched in horror after Kravchenko called his re-raise with AT only to see AA on the flop & no J on board. Away went Horowitz.

Alex Kravchenko was a big chip leader when he came up against another big chip stack. Alex's AA were no match for Tulchinsky's AK suited when four of the suit appeared on the board. Clearly on tilt now, Kravchenko proceeded to put himself all-in several hands in a row until he was finally picked off to finish 6th.

Tulchinsky now had over 70% of the chips, & he proceeded to terrorise the table, constantly putting the smaller stacks under pressure.

Illikian was next to go when his A9 suited wasn't good enough against Tulchinsky's J5. Tulchinsky was on a steal & Ilikian put himself all-in for 53,000.

Down to 4 players, blinds at 3000-6000 & 500 ante, Elias(small blind)with 67 went in against Sokolov's 56 . Flop 47K - turn card a 3, & Elias' pair of 7's were suddenly worthless as Sokolov made a straight.

With 3 players left the chip position was : Tulchinsky 370,000 Sokolov 100,000 & Priporov 200,000. Blinds now were 4000-8000 with a 500 ante. Sokolov then won a 400,000 pot with AJ against Tulchinsky's JJ, last 2 cards AA. Sokolov was now a big chip leader. Tulchinsky was eliminated 3rd when his 96 suited made no impression on Priporov's QQ.

The final hand saw AQ hold up against A6, & Sokolov was the winner of the main event, collecting over 18,000 Euro.

Sunday, 30 June
€ 150 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Unlimited Rebuys + Add On 90 Minutes
Entries:45, Re-buys:69, Add-ons: 39
Prizepool Euro 26,262

1st : Sergey Pevzner E 7126	2nd : Jac Arama(UK) E 4535
3rd : Alex Dovzhenko E 3023	4th : Bill Marczak (Australia) E 2159
5th : Sergey Varentsov E 1512	6th : Ernest Shakarian (Armenia) E972
7th : Ivan Gannitsky E 864	8th : Mihail Tulchinsky E 756
9th : Valery Masunov E 648

REPORT:

Sergey Pevzner of St Petersburg survived the "Jac Attack" to win the Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event. Englishman Jac Arama went to the final table a huge chip leader & proceeded to eliminate one player after the other utilising the little known "group 7" strategy.

Jac was putting players all-in with hands like 389Q, 88KK, 469J & opponents were left to rue the reality of trying to beat Jac with hands like AhJh62, AA57 & AKQ2 .

However, when it got to heads-up with Jac a huge chip leader, things started to turn. Sergey Pevzner, a very shrewd poker player who can really mix up his game, started pouring chips into the pots using the even lesser known "group 8" strategy. Hands like 22TT & 579Q were coming up trumps, & to which the "Jac Attack" could find no reply.

POKER & 5-Card Stud - Analysis

I was playing in a pot limit Hold'em game recently & after about an hour I noticed that 2 players who obviously knew each other, were involved in a personal betting war.

On 2 occasions player A had bet at the pot & player B raised. On each occasion A folded & player B showed a bluff. Did player B know something about player A's game, perhaps a tell? I decided that the next time this happened I would come over the top. Sure enough both players folded. But I also now had available the strategy of bluff-raising player A, even when player B was not in the pot.

Acting on one players knowledge of another player:

Sometimes it's useful to observe how particular players, who seem to know each other well, play against each other. Each may have some special knowledge about the other that you have not had time to establish for yourself.

Bill Marczak

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