Courtesy of www.pokerstarsblog.com
It's day two in Copenhagen, Thursday in layman's terms, and time for a customary weather report: it's cold and snowy.
Now that's out the way, what else is new? Well, not much, folks, not much. But this is the kind of familiarity that breeds respect rather than contempt.
Today, the remaining players from the two day one flights combine as a whole. There are 243 of them to cram into the tournament room, and we'll be ten handed for the opening exchanges.
Near the top of the overnight leaderboard are some exceptionally well-known names. The Team PokerStars Pro duo of Sebastian Ruthenberg and Peter Eastgate are among the top five, while Ilkka Koskinen, twice a champion of the Finnish Open (where it really doesn't come much tougher) is also in the leading pack.
Top of all the pops is the PokerStars qualifier Andrew Pantling, originally from Canada but based in Las Vegas. His bludgeoning of day 1a makes him the player to catch.
You don't have to look too far down the list of players from Day 1A or Day 1B to see some other irresistible forces lurking with intent. ElkY, Luca Pagano, Juha Helppi, Ramzi Jelassi, Jan Skampa, Arnaud Mattern, Stefan Mattsson, Dario Minieri, Annette Obrestad, Sami Kelopuro, Ruben Visser, Johan Van Til, Lars Hougaard, Johnny Lodden, Freddy Deeb, Ricky Fohrenbach and last year's winner Jens Kyllonen have bags of day two experience, and at least a handful of those will still be involved when the cheques are being handed out.