Barny Boatman has X-ray vision — and leads the EPT Paris Main Event
After a sensational hero call late on Day 4, British poker veteran Barny Boatman took over the chip lead at EPT Paris
In some ways it was a lack of technology that helped Barny Boatman to the chip lead of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Paris.
Early yesterday, Day 4 of this enormous €5,300 buy-in tournament, Boatman was early to the tournament room and happy to chat about his run to that point. He said he had been fielding messages from his many friends across the poker world, congratulating him on his progress.
“There’s still such a long way to go, though,” Boatman said, adding that he felt the tournament still had at least a third of it to play. At that point, they were just about to start Level 22, 57 players still remained, and Boatman was placed 38th.
Boatman was happy to be there, however, and talked through a hand he’d played the day before. He had been card dead, picked up ace-ten suited, and raised, picking up only one caller. Then on a nine-nine-seven flop, Boatman continued and then faced a raise.
“He wanted to know where he was, so I told him where he was,” Boatman said. “I three-bet. He folded.”
Boatman was delighted to find out when he watched the footage later that he had managed to get his opponent, up-and-coming British star Lewis Spencer, to fold pocket jacks. But he said that he had always based his game on an old adage: “You don’t play your hand, you play your opponent’s.” And Boatman had been representing an even bigger pocket pair. Spencer got the message.
Beautiful play from @barnyboatman 👇
— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) February 23, 2024
He's heading to the #EPTParis feature table, along with Anton Wigg.
Follow the action at https://t.co/SB357usSaR or https://t.co/ZarB0RN21O pic.twitter.com/1HlMUzTRaV
SKILLS HONED BEFORE HOLE CARD CAMS
Boatman went on to discuss his many hours spent in the commentary booths of poker streams and edited shows, back in the early days of televised poker. In those days, it used to be far more common that the announcers couldn’t see players’ hole cards.
The expert summarisers, of whom Boatman was among the most popular, had to work out what all the players had based on betting patterns, live reads and their own experience.
“I used to get it right a lot,” Boatman said. “They [fellow commentators] used to be amazed.”
It wasn’t that TV streams wouldn’t have liked to show the hole cards. It’s just that the technology didn’t exist at the time to maintain security and give third parties a peek at the cards. So the broadcasts needed someone like Boatman in the booth with the metaphorical x-ray specs of a very well seasoned poker pro.
Barny Boatman stacking chips
A STAR OF MANY YEARS STANDING
In case you didn’t know, Boatman has been one of UK poker’s best-known players for decades. He is an original member of the The Hendon Mob with his brother, Ross, and fellow pros Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani.
Although The Hendon Mob name remains very well known in the industry as the go-to database for tournament poker results, it used to refer specifically to this quartet of travelling pros. They were some of the first poker players ever to land sponsorship deals. They were at the forefront of early poker broadcasting. And they could play.
Barny has two WSOP bracelets, earned in 2013 and 2015, which is one more than the likes of fellow Brits Ben Heath, Niall Farrell or even Stephen Chidwick have managed. In fact, Benny Glaser is the only British player with more.
Boatman’s incredible hand-reading skills came to the fore at the end of Day 4 in Paris and vaulted him into the overall chip lead with 18 players left. This hand was another absolute doozy, stunning everyone watching on the live stream — as well as the commentators who could see exactly what everyone had.
There were only about 10 minutes left on another long day when the big-stacked Eric Afriat put in a standard raise from the cutoff with K♦ Q♦ . Hans Erlandsson called on the button with pocket fives and Boatman, in the big blind, called with J♠9♠.
(The big blind was 60,000 and Afiat raised to 130,000.)
Eric Afriat tried to bluff the wrong man
A HERO CALL FOR THE AGES
The dealer put the 8♦ 3♣ J♦ on the flop and Boatman, with top pair, checked. Afriat continued for 250,000 and Erlandsson folded. Boatman called.
The turn was the 2♣ and Boatman check-called again, this time a bet of 750,000. Afriat was looking for a diamond, a queen or a king, but the 2♠river was a blank.
Boatman checked again and Afriat went for it. He shoved for more than 4 million, putting Boatman’s entire 2.5 million stack at risk. Boatman, who had not used a single time bank card to that point, took only a little longer than 30 seconds before making a spectacular hero call.
“That is the biggest pot of the tournament so far!” said a breathless James Hartigan in the booth. “We have a new chip leader, UK poker legend, Barny Boatman!”
Hartigan added: “What a call, what a hand, what a result!”
Afriat was gracious in defeat (at least at first) as Boatman said he was not going to pay off diamonds, if the flush had come, but might have paid off a queen. However, his spidy-senses, developed over all those years looking at poker hands only face down, paid enormous dividends.
Heading into Day 5, Boatman is now aiming for the second EPT Main Event final table of his career and, potentially, his biggest ever haul. In that conversation yesterday morning, he also said that he actually disliked sitting on the feature table as, when he on the outer tables, people tend to look at him and think he’s “just some old guy”.
After his incredible showing yesterday, in clips that are still going viral across the internet, no one will be writing off this old guy ever again.
MORE ABOUT THE EPT
EPT official site
EPT Paris coverage hub
Latest Articles
