There they are - the 'united colors' of @European Poker Tour Seasons 10 and 11 Main Event winners in 2014! Here is why the poker communities in their respective countries of origin all had reasons to celebrate and be inspired by their champs!
German poker proudly boasts TWO consecutive Main Event winners: @Andre Lettau and @Sebastian Pauli won the titles in Barcelona (August) and London (October)!
Three players made history as ther countries' first-ever EPT champions - @Dominik Panka for Poland, @Sotirios Koutoupas for Greece, and @Alexey Khoroshenin for Ukraine!
The biggest cash went to Italy and the EPT10 Grand Final Champion, @Antonio Buonanno, with $1,715,439.
One American - @Stephen Graner - took the last EPT title of the year home across the Atlantic, making up for the European domination at this year's WSOP November Nine final table :)
Finally, the honors must go to the UK's single lady among the 2014 Main Event winners and first and only two-time EPT champion in history: @Victoria Coren Mitchell!
PCA 2014, Dominik Panka, $1,423,096
EPT10 Deauville, Sotirios Koutoupas, $839,670
EPT10 Vienna, Alexey Khoroshenin, $799,483
EPT10 Sanremo, Vicky Coren, $657,613
EPT10 Grand Final Monte Carlo, Antonio Buonanno, $1,715,439
EPT11 Barcelona, Andre Lettau, $1,057,376
EPT11 London, Sebastian Pauli, $803,014
EPT11 Prague, Stephen Graner, $1,199,564
Mentions
Ina Rkh 19 Dec 2014
Congrats all !!! You showed great skills and power ! 
William Calder 19 Dec 2014
been an amazing year for poker can't wait for next hopefully get the americans back online an poker will continue to flourish HAVE A GREAT END TO YOUR YEAR EVERYONE
2014: The Year of the Beard or the Year of Women in Poker?
How will RankingHeroes remember 2014? Thanks for taking this 10-second survey :)
And because your opinion really, really matters, here's the link to the survey about our website, in case you missed it in your mailbox. Thanks for helping us get better!
MOB G 19 Dec 2014
Done ;)
Action Hero Mission Round 4
Your #ActionHero mission: make the right decisions!
We are revealing step by step a real hand from 2008 EPT Sanremo. After each of our Mystery Hero’s moves, it will be up to you to choose the best course of action.
Sanremo 2008. It’s the end of Day 1 and the blinds are at 75/150. You are at your starting stack of 15,000 chips. Everyone passes to you on the button. The players in the blinds are two Italians - big-time gamblers, but hard to read.
Your starting hand: K♦ 3♥ . You decide to raise to 300 and the small blind, with a stack of 11,000, calls. The pot is now 750.
The Flop is Q♠ 9♥ 3♦, villain checks.
Hero bets 400.
Opponent snap calls.
The Turn is 6♥, half-hearted check by villain.
Round 3:
Hero bets 700.
The Italian takes his time, appears to hesitate, and is giving you glaring looks. Then he curtly calls.
The River is 10♠. Villain snap checks and is staring you down.
Mystery Hero's move in Round 3: bet 1300.
Round 4:
Mystery Hero bets 1300.
The Italian immediately announces a raise to 3500. His leg is fidgeting under the table and he's avoiding your eyes.
Hand recreated on pokerhandreplays.com - available now in the editor for sharing your hands on RankingHero!
TWO questions for you in this final round:
1. What hand are you putting him on at this point?
2. What's your move?
Post your answers in the comments below this post by Thursday, Dec 18th, 11:00 UK time! On Friday our Hero will be here to recap the hand, reveal his/her identity, and reward the best answers!
Click HERE to score an additional point by guessing the identity of our Mystery Hero and Judge!
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Ben 'Machine' Smith 18 Dec 2014
Once again we start with villains range before we bet the river which is- TT-66,33,ATs-A9s,A6s,K9s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T8s+,98s,ATo-A9o,A6o,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o then take away the hands that have enough showdown value and dont need to turn their hand into a bluff.
That leaves us with TT-66,33,A9s,A6s,KJs,K9s,QTs-Q9s,J9s-J8s,T9s,98s,A9o,A6o,KJo,K9o,QTo-Q9o,J9o,T9o that either could turn the hand into a bluff or has a hand that could c/r the river for value.
The thing here is that we cant even beat any of the range that turns itself into a bluff which means the only way we could win this would be to B3B the river and raise his c/r(i dont believe this line has any pure bluffs in it)
That puts 113 hand combos in his river c/r and even if we was to re-raise again i think 53 combos call TT-99,66,33,KJs,QTs-Q9s,J8s,T9s,KJo,QTo-Q9o,T9o so he calls 47% which would mean we would have to make it a ridiculous size which we just arent deep enough to do. So to conclude we cant call, we cant raise so we have to fold.
As far as the questions go
1)The most likely hands for this play are hands that hit the turn or the river so- TT,66,KJs,QTs,J8s,T9s,KJo,QTo,T9o. I dont think a bluff would take this line as we can check behind soo much and he has had 3 chances.
2) There is no other move in my opinion other than fold.
Queen B 18 Dec 2014
FOLD
Annie RKH 19 Dec 2014
See how it played out while waiting for our Mystery Hero to reveal himself and hand out the prizes :)
Action Hero Bonus Question: Who Is the Mystery Player?
Our #ActionHero bonus question: which of these RankingHero ambassadors is the Mystery Hero who keeps betting with K3 offsuit on Day 1 in a major tournament?...
Score an additional point with the judge (none other than the Mystery Hero her/himself) by guessing his/her identity right :)
Explore the profiles and the EPT8 Sanremo results page to make a better-informed guess in the comments below this post.
The answer is coming in the final hand review on Friday and tomorrow we are moving on to Round 4!
Meanwhile you have until tomorrow 11:00 UK time to PLAY ROUND 3!
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Maybe 
Peter Fishel 17 Dec 2014
Adrien Bacchi 17 Dec 2014
William Calder 19 Dec 2014
bruno fitoussi then i guess
Action Hero Mission Round 3: The River
Your #ActionHero mission: make the right decisions!
We are revealing step by step a real hand from 2008 EPT Sanremo. After each of our Mystery Hero’s moves, it will be up to you to choose the best course of action.
Sanremo 2008. It’s the end of Day 1 and the blinds are at 75/150. You are at your starting stack of 15,000 chips. Everyone passes to you on the button. The players in the blinds are two Italians - big-time gamblers, but hard to read.
Your starting hand: K♦ 3♥. You decide to raise to 300 and the small blind, with a stack of 11,000, calls. The pot is now 750.
The Flop is Q♠ 9♥ 3♦, villain checks.
Hero bets 400.
Opponent snap calls.
The Turn is 6♥, half-hearted check by villain.
Hand recreated on pokerhandreplays.com - available now in the editor for sharing your hands on RankingHero!
Mystery Hero's move in Round 2: bet 700
Round 3:
Hero bets 700.
The Italian takes his time, appears to hesitate, and is giving you glaring looks. Then he curtly calls.
The River is 10♠. Villain snap checks and is staring you down.
Pot is 2,950. It’s your turn, what’s your play?
Post your answers in the comments below before Wednesday, Dec 17th, 11:00 GMT, when our Hero’s next move will be revealed!
Click HERE for mission schedule and prizes!
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Beantown 16 Dec 2014
Check
Ben 'Machine' Smith 17 Dec 2014
Once again we start with his range of cards. If we go by my previous post and adjust the range for his call.
His range was- TT-22,AJs-A2s,K9s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T8s+,98s,AJo-A5o,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o but we can now expect after our turn bet it will look like-88-77,ATs-A9s,A6s,KQs,KTs-K9s,Q7s+,J9s+,T8s+,98s,ATo-A9o,A6o,KQo,KTo-K9o,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o
Obviously nearly every draw hit the river here, i would expect most straights to bet so i have taken them along with sets out but notice all gutshots hit a pair now.
So we are losing to this range horribly. We do have to ask, what part of his range will fold to a 3rd barrell? As it stands he has 150 combos of hands in his range roughly. I would expect 6x to fold, 88+77 to fold, but thats about it since a bad villain will find a way to think your bluffing so we can fold out 24 combos or 24/150 or 16% of his range.
So if we bet here we will be called 84% in my estimation but even when we add in some random 9x hands or other trash to fold here i still expect a call over 70% of the time.
Thus we cant bet here since it doesnt achieve anything once again. So i check behind.
Weekly RankingHero Highlights
Short of Xmas gift ideas? Can't tear yourself from poker to go shopping? We come to your rescue in these stressful pre-holiday times! TPTK (from Top Pair Top Kicker:) is a brand which is very hard to top when it comes to poker-themed T-shirts and accessories and thanks to RankingHero, you can win some of their best-selling items by doing what you like most - talking poker strategy (right, ok, what you like most next to winning at the tables, of course)!
Right now there are two strategy missions on RankingHero - one for the Francophones and one for the English-speaking members! In both, we ask you to put yourself in the place of the Mystery Hero and make a decision in each betting round as we gradually reveal the hands.
Don't miss out on the fun and PLAY NOW in the ActionHero Mission or Coup mystère, presented by @Sylvain "Sylverass" Cailleteau!
Next week, we will be rooting for our AspersCastle Mission winner @Mark Duguid in the Christmas Cracker at @Aspers Casino - Westfield Stratford City! Congrats once again to Mark and welcome to william @Chris McPhee and all of Mark's supporters and Ace High Poker group members who joined our community and have been sharing poker moments with us :)
In other poker news, we brought you two articles about poker pro and TV quiz show millionaire @Sebastian Langrock (see if you can answer his 1 million euro question) and about Miss Finland 2012, who drove the pros crazy with her bluffs in the latest Shark Cage episode :)
How Good Table Manners Can Take You to Premier League Tables in Poker
A Beauty Queen of Many Talents
Congrats to the many members who cashed in WPTN Paris and whose results are now up (and a special GG to @Yehoram Houri and my own favorite, @Nathalie Schaeffer ;) Well-done @Scott Demoulin (US) - our winner of the week took down last Monday's Nightly Tournament at @ARIA Resort & Casino!
Finally, please give a warm welcome to new members @Jan-Thomas Micheel @TZ O'Ishi @Alessandro Tomasin @Jocelyn Aubert @Paul Dunne and the many others who joined us from all parts of the poker world :)
Good luck to @Alessio Bianchi @Adam Piotrowski and all our other Action Heroes who will be trying to impress the judge with their moves&reasoning!
Yours truly,
Action Hero Mission Round 2: The Turn
Your #ActionHero mission: make the right decisions!
We are revealing step by step a real hand from 2008 EPT Sanremo. After each of our Mystery Hero’s moves, it will be up to you to choose the best course of action.
Sanremo 2008. It’s the end of Day 1 and the blinds are at 75/150. You are at your starting stack of 15,000 chips. Everyone passes to you on the button. The players in the blinds are two Italians - big-time gamblers, but hard to read.
Your starting hand: K♦ 3♥. You decide to raise to 300 and the small blind, with a stack of 11,000, calls. The pot is now 750.
The Flop is Q♠ 9♥ 3♦, villain checks.
Mystery Hero’s Move in Mission Round 1: bet 400
Round 2:
Hero bets 400.
Opponent snap calls.
The Turn is 6♥, half-hearted check by villain.
Pot is now 1,550. What's your play?
Post your answers in the comments below before Monday, Dec 15th, 11:00 GMT, when our Hero’s next move will be revealed!
Click HERE for mission schedule and prizes!
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#ActionHero
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Nicolas Levi 14 Dec 2014
*searching the archives *
Ben 'Machine' Smith 15 Dec 2014
Once again we have to put villain on a range of hands for calling our flop bet, although we expected him to c/r alot of draws these are still possible along with any pair and Ace highs so it looks like this- TT-22,AJs-A2s,K9s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T8s+,98s,AJo-A5o,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o So we can see his range has hardly changed.
We now have less than 46% equity vs this range although i expect we have fold equity vs his lower pairs and he prob folds bare Ax hands. So although this bet is prob EV+ if we knew for sure he would fold 22,44,55,77,88,Ax(non paired) we A) dont know he for sure will fold these hands B) dont know how often he turns random hands into bluffs and C) we are just building a bigger pot for him to donk into us on the river.
Also by betting again we arent value betting we are bluffing. Why is that important? Well we are running a multi street bluff vs an unpredictable gambler which is for sure -EV.
So to conclude, we have a marginal hand with showdown value and by nature we just want to get to showdown. I check behind here as betting achieves nothing, once again with the thought of calling certain river bets depending on texture and sizing.
Annie RKH 15 Dec 2014
Round 2 is now closed. Hero bet 700 and villain called.
Time to readjust your strategy again and make your next decision! (You may want to keep Adrien's EPT link for tomorrow's bonus question about the identity of our Mystery Hero :)
Action Hero Mission Part 1
Your #ActionHero mission: make the right decisions!
We will reveal step by step a real hand from the 2008 EPT Sanremo. After each of our Mystery Hero’s moves, it will be up to you to choose the best course of action.
Sanremo 2008. It’s the end of Day 1 and the blinds are at 75/150. You are at your starting stack of 15,000 chips. Everyone passes to you on the button. The players in the blinds are two Italians - big-time gamblers, but hard to read.
Your starting hand: K♦ 3♥ . You decide to raise to 300 and the small blind, with a stack of 11,000, calls. The pot is now 750.
The Flop is Q♠ 9♥ 3♦ , villain checks.
It’s up to you now: do you bet and if yes, how much?
Post your answers in the comments below before Saturday, Dec 13th, 11:00 UK time, when our Hero’s next move will be revealed!
Click HERE for mission schedule and prizes!
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#foldpre
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#foldpre
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sincere 12 Dec 2014
I would bet the pot to see where I'm @ I have a pair and an over to the board. I may take it down right there. Or he calls I see a turn card or he raises and I fold
William Calder 13 Dec 2014
check behindwhen villain bets snap all in shove then do your best roberto (rubber toe ) joke an put the loudmouth flashy big betting italians in their place then when they snap call with qq just flip the table over and retire forever lol in all realness check fold SIMPLE #ActionHero #foldpre
Be Our Action Hero and Make the Right Moves!
RankingHero welcomes all of our non French speaking members to the #ActionHero Mission! This time it's all about strategy and decision making!
Click to play Round 4!
Step by step, we will reveal a real tournament hand from 2008 EPT Sanremo.
Put yourself in the place of our Mystery Hero. Decide your course of action
Become our #ActionHero !
Explain each move you make. At the end of the mission, FIVE contributors will be rewarded by our special judge - the Mystery Hero! There will be a bonus question about his/her identity, so watch out for any clues we might give in the mission posts :)
We are happy to be joined by @TPTK - the hot brand for poker-themed T-shirts and accessories - in the #ActionHero Mission and the authors of the best answers will be even happier when they get their great prizes!
Mission Schedule and Prizes:
1st stage: Thursday, Dec 11
2nd stage: Saturday, Dec 13
3rd stage: Monday, Dec 15
4th stage: Wednesday, Dec 17
Conclusion: Friday, Dec 19
The Judge will reveal his/her identity,
review the full hand & reward the best answers!
NB! Post your answers in the comments below each Mission post.
The Judge will only consider your first answer and no editing is allowed!
TPTK Prizes
(click on each item to see it in the TPTK online store)
| Two €120 lots | |
| Two €90 lots - 1 Backpack | |
| One €80 lot: |
Happy strategizing, everyone!
PLAY NOW, ROUND 4
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Probably me 11 Dec 2014
great news ok... I'm going for that !
Wilfred Wolf 11 Dec 2014
Adrien Bacchi 11 Dec 2014
Mission Accomplished! RankingHero Members Have Chosen the AspersCastle Winner!
Big thank you to everyone who participated in #AspersCastle - from the 'architects' of the most complex houses of cards and chip towers, to those who liked, shared and commented on the entries by others. Now we know there is no such thing as 'mission impossible' on RankingHero!
Here is the final ranking (click on the likes to see the entry):
@Sylvain "Sylverass" Cailleteau 6 likes
Judging by all the cards&chips in the photos, there must be lots of home games going on :) One person who will NOT be at home on December 19th, though, is our winner, @Mark Duguid !
He will be playing in the Christmas Cracker at @Aspers Casino - Westfield Stratford City where more surprises and gifts from the generous hosts await the players! In adition to the £200 buy-in, Mark also won £300 towards expenses so he might decide to invite runner-up and fellow member of Ace High Poker @Chris McPhee :)
And to all of you already looking forward to the next challenge, make sure you check in tomorrow, when TWO new missions will be announced - one for the French community on RankingHero, and another one for non-French speakers. This time we will put your poker strategy skills to the test so be prepared to make some careful analysis & good decisions!..
