Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona: Day 1A - At A Glance

[NoflopsHomer]

Welcome to Barcelona for the start of Season 4 of the EPT. Play begins here at 5pm (4pm UK time). I believe the structure has been modified slightly, and now includes the 500/1000 level just to make it even more sick. An additional day has also been added so that the final table will get a full day to itself. The tournament is capped at 600 runners and it looks as though we'll probably reach that number.

If there's anyone you wish us to follow, please let us know on the interactive thread.

[Djinn]

Well, we're set up in the bar/press room which was the scene of our update last year, perched on some kind of sofa using a succession of small, round coffee tables as desks.  It looks like an hour in advance just isn't enough to bag a proper table - I didn't think it was possible for the press to become more numerous, but multiply they have, and the pretty much guaranteed-sellout crowd is going to be thronged by comparable numbers of media.  That won't, of course, be a problem until three days from now - expect each Day One to have around 300 runners wedged into it.  And hidden in there are probably way more players we know than we suspect currently...as soon as any kind of list shows up, you'll get it.

Spotted (but not necessarily playing today):
Isabelle Mercier
John Shipley
Blondeite 'doobs'
Sverre Sundbo
Rolf Slotboom
Mark Vos
ActionJeff

Er... there were more at the Pokerstars Party, I think, but I can't really recall.  I can tell you that the sea is nice and warm at 1am.  The weather in Barcelona is textbook sunny, and the 5pm starts daily mean that we may even get a chance to see some of the beautiful city, missed spectacularly last year but lurking gloriously for whenever we crawl out of bed.

Play is due to start in under 20 minutes, but we're not holding our breath.

[Djinn]

And while the Day 1a Runners List is still being processed by the casino and has yet to make its way into Mad Harper's hands, here's another list, with which she rightly assumed we'd all be pacified: a list of qualifiers, buyers-in via Stars and sponsored players.

Andre   Akkari
Karkus   Andras
Isaac   Baron
Pascal   Barrau
Lukas   Benkovic
Noah   Boeken
Daniel   Bokesch
Martin   Clemmensen
Gregory   Dyer
Tim   Flanders
Philippa   Flanders
Jimmy   Fricke
Carlos   Frontelo
Gentili   Gianluca
Jose   Giner
Bertrand   Grospellier
Randy   Haddox
Pham   Hai
Eric   Hardt
Rakita   Heijnen
Anders   Henriksson
William   Hill
Mats   Iremark
Nikolaus   Jedlicka
Janne   Juutilainen
Matt   Kay
Cort   Kibler-Melby
Samuel   Laborde
Florian   Langmann
Ville   Laukkanen
Jens   Lundgren
Lee   McCreery
Sorel   Mizzi
Clayton   Mozdzen
Philippe   Narboni
Rayan   Nathan
Ketul   Nathwani
Patrik   Neckelmann
Haby   Nicolas
Morten   Nielsen
Walter   Oaquim
Annette   Obrestad
David   Robinson
Alexander   Roumeliotis
Sebastian   Ruthenberg
Charlotta   Sjödin
Benjamin   Sriqui
Philip   Starrs
Stephane   Subrenat
Sverre   Sundbo
Kovacs   Tamas
Stuart   Taylor
Katja   Thater
Peter   Toefting
Jon   Turner
Ville   Wahlbeck
Michael   Watson
Michael   Wong
Roman   Yitzhaki
Winfred   Yu
Andrey   Zaichenko
Jacques   Zaicik
Abraham   Rosenkrantz
Adam   Junglen
Aditya   Agarwal
Alexander   Jung
Anton   Smolyanskiy
Benjamin   Freeman
Brian   Green
Bryn   Kenney
Champie   Douglas
Chris   Bush
Clinton   Herring
Dag   Mikkelsen
Daniel   Negreanu
Daniel   Stern
Dario   Minieri
David   Anderson
Dennis   Plejdrup
Geir   Haugland
Geoffrey   Sanford
Gordon   Vayo
Greg   Raymer
Guilherme   Soares
Humberto   Brenes
Isabelle   Mercier
Jakob   Paulsen
Robert   Binelli
Jeff   Gray
Jeffrey   Garza
Joakim   Olsson
Joep   van den Bijgaart
Johan   Hermans
John   Shipley
Jorge   Correia
Jørgen   Kjerkol
Joris   Jaspers
Josh   Egan
Keven   Stammen
Konstantinos   Nanos
Leo   Wolpert
Lex   Veldhuis
Luca   Pagano
Marcel   Luske
Matthew   Graham
Ognyan   Ivanov
Olvedo   Heinze
Pascal   Choquet
Peter   Gelencser
Petri   Pietilä
Phillipe   D'Auteuil
Richard   Guttmann
Ryan   Jones
Sebastian   Zink
Simon   Wolf
Sonni   Petersen
Stefan   Jedlicka
Stephen   Devlin
Terrence   Chan
Thierry   van den Berg
Thomas   Tollund
Thomas   Bentham
Tommi   Mourujärvi
Vesa   Leikos
Ville   Salmi

[Djinn]

Now another list - this time of actual players, actually playing right now (they Shuffled Up and Dealt about 10 minutes ago):

Tim Flanders
Mickey Wernick
Annette Obrestad
Elky
Sebastian Riviere
Pippa Flanders
Katja Thater
Nicky Jedlicka
William Thorsson
Richard Ashby
Julian Thew
Johnny Lodden
Ram Vaswani
Dan Carter
Ramzi Jelassi
Roland de Wolfe
Rayan Nathan
Peter Gould
Patric Matensson

And sharing tables we have:
   
Jimmy Fricke
Rob Hollink
Jani Sointula

Johan Storakers
Michael Greco
Noah Boeken

Sverre Sundbo
Alan Smurfit
Sorel Mizzi
Stuart Fox

[Djinn]

The first casualty has been announced, over the tannoy, no less:

From what I could gather, a three way all-in with our hero the exiter holding K-9 against A-K and A-K, with a flop of A-K-9... the guy could just have repeated the winning hand, but you get the idea.  So the remaining players of EPT Barcelona can now rest easy knowing they are not going to finish in last place. 

[NoflopsHomer]

Early Roland news, he just scooped a fairly decent pot, 6k or 7k, on a board showing .

Julian was down to 6k, but just had Aces against Kings and is now back up to 12k.

Mark Vos was moved to his table and raised his blind to 150, Julian called.

Flop:



Check check.

Turn:



Julian fires out 200 and it's enough to take it down.


Michael Westerlund vs Dan Carter

board, Dan check/calls a 1.1k bet. Both check the river and Dan's is good enough to take it down.

[Djinn]

There have been a few large pots kicking today off, with one being won by this guy pictured.  The betting ended on the flop, which was .  It looked like he bet out, a good couple of thousand, and Matey raised all-in.  He called pretty fast with, and Matey already looked disappointed as he flipped , only to see the against him.  The turn brought the and the river a definitive , eliminating another player at the beginning of the second level (50/100).

[NoflopsHomer]

Dan Carter, who I might rename Sir Gigglesalot due to the fair amount of embarrassed laughter that was heard during the tale he told me of how he got to 22k.

Michael Westerlund had, he said been raising around 50% of the hands. He raised to 300 and received 4 callers, Dan was in the blind with erm... 6-2o. He re-raised to 1,900 and Westerlund called. The flop came K-J-4 and Dan led out for 2,500. Michael called leaving himself 4,000 back, the turn was a 6. Dan checked now and Michael checked too. A miracle 2 appeared on the river and Dan set Michael in to eliminate him.

Ram Vaswani is OUT we believe. No details.

Mickey Wernick is short after bluffing the turn and river of a river with 1,200 and 3,500 bets. His opponent called with and Wernick mucked sharpish.

Stuart Fox won a 5k pot with against on a board despite his opponent trying a minimum check/raise on the turn.

[Djinn]

John Kabbaj is OUT - previously looking relaxed by early massage, he was dented chipwise by Len Collin, who told us he'd "done a lot of fishing, caught a straight and took most of his [Kabbaj's] chips.  Should have put him all in, he would have called (with two pair) but there was a flush on board."

Kabbaj's actual last hand was T-6, which he ran into a flopped set of Nines.  Outs for the flush apparently came in, but so did his eliminator's house...

[Djinn]

Dusk Til Dawn Count:

So far it looks like Richard Ashby (6,075) and Michael Greco (9,600) are the only DTD-ers here today...both pictured below.





Other counts:

Annette Obrestad  9,300
Bertrand Grospellier  28,500
Sebastian Riviere  6,100
Katja Thater  10,000 (having been whittled to 4,500 but just now doubling back up)
Jimmy Fricke  9,000
Rob Hollink  8,400
Jani Sointula  13,350
Johan Storakers  10,150
Noah Boeken  16,200 (who is now gracing wall-hanging sized Pokerstars posters)
Dan Carter  25,100

[NoflopsHomer]

Complete Player List, with embarrassing middle names:

 Basen   Abu Davas
 Andre   Akkari
 Gino   Alacqua
 Nathalie Anna   Amar
 Raffaele   Amato
 Fredrik Borje   Andersson
 Pedro Jose   Antunes De Silva Dias
 Yvon   Aouizerate
 Richard Anthony Frazer   Ashby
 Akbari   Ashley
 Terje   Augdal
 Cornelis   Bal
 Ivan   Barbuto
 Isaak Andrew   Baron
 Pascal   Barrau
 Marko   Batanjac
 Simon Robin   Battle
 Lukas   Benkovic
 Christophe Albert Roland   Benzimra
 Marius Ioan   Beranda
 Gustav Mattias   Bergstrom
 Peter Michal   Bertelsen
 Fabio   Bianchi
 Cristiano   Blanco
 Noah   Boeken
 Daniel   Bokesh
 Thierry Andre   Bolleret
 Paul   Boujenah
 Henri   Boutboul
 Tayfun Turhan   Bozkurtan
 Ola   Brandborn
 Tomas   Brolin
 Christopher   Bruce
 Daniel Oliver   Carter
 Alessio   Castelli
 Thierry   Cazals
 Orfeo   Ceraldi
 Haykel   Cherif Vidal
 Federico   Cipollini
 Martin   Clemmense
 Yann Elie   Cohen
 Seastien   Compte
 Jason Brendan   Coyle
 Kitai   Davidi Jacob
 Iñaki   De Erausquin Pedrerol
 Priyan Adrian   De Mel
 Roland   De Wolfe
 Marcello   Del Grosso
 Mark Bruce   Dickstein
 Guy Alphonse   Dupuis
 Joep   Durkstra
 Gregory Davison   Dyer
 Borge   Dypvik
 Mattias Christian   Eriksson
 Nikolay   Evdakov
 Youssef Ahmad   Fawaz
 Miguel   Fernandez Menendez
 Roberto Fabio   Ferrari
 Jerome Christian   Ferron
 Fabio   Fidanza
 Nicola   Filesi
 Darinko   Filipovic
 Philippa Anne   Flanders
 Timothy Roy   Flanders
 Terry   Fletcher
 Jjochanan Robert   Flink
 Stuart   Fox
 Erik   Friberg
 James Vincent   Fricke
 Jan Marcus   Friman
 Thomas Marshall   Fuller
 Cayetano   Garcia Ayala
 Guillermo   Garcia Domnguez
 Carlos Isaac   Garcia Frontelo
 Jesus Manuel   Garde Belio
 Gianluca Alberto   Gentili
 Mario Stoyanov   Georgiev
 Perter Herbert   Giordano
 Bjorn Erik   Glenne
 Philip Stewart   Gordon
 Joshua James   Gould
 Peter   Gould
 Michele   Greco
 Bertrand "ElkY"   Grospellier
 Atanas Stoyanov   Gueorguiev
 Per Martin   Gunlov
 Nicolas   Haby
 Randy Arick   Haddox
 Ann Liselott   Hagberg
 Andreas   Hagen
 Alexander   Hanell
 Eric A   Hardt
 Rakita Wilhelmina   Heijnen
 Anders Bertil   Henriksson
 William   Hill
 Thor   Hjertenes
 Ole Gabriel   Holgersen
 Santiago   Holguin Lopez
 Santiago   Holguin Romero
 Robertus Hendrikus   Hollink
 Orjan   Holt
 Frederik   Hostrup Pedersen
 Mats Erik   Iremark
 Alessio   Isaia
 Michael Gregorey Johan   Janot
 Nikolaus   Jedlicka
 Ramzi   Jelassi
 Carl Torbjorn   Jonson
 Janne Wilhem   Juutilainen
 Jean Michel   Kabbaj
 Igor   Kalinicenko
 Iliodoros   Kamatakis
 Andreas Karoly   Karkus
 Matthew Jonathan   Kay
 Michael Erich   Keiner
 Cort Nathan   Kibler Melby
 Stephan Alexander   Kjerstad
 Kristian   Kjondal
 Eric   Koskas
 Gabor   Kovacs Tamas
 Yves Charles Maxime   Kupfermunz
 Michael   Kwiek
 Samuel   Laborde
 Florian   Langmann
 Ville Petteri   Laukkanen
 Collin   Len
 Johan Olov   Lindgren
 Gerolf   Linke
 Piotr   Lis
 Seppo Juhani   Liukku
 Carlos   Llado Fabregas
 Jonny   Lodden
 Francisco   Lopez Martos
 Sampo Mikael   Lopponen
 Emmanuel   Loubradou
 Jon   Lundberg
 Jens   Lundgren
 Sander   Lylloff
 Juan   Maceiras Lapido
 Bent   Madsen
 Elie   Marciano
 Patric   Martensson
 Nichlas K   Mattsson Saarisilta
 Peter   Mayer Zsolt
 Daniele   Mazzia
 Lee Terence   Mccreery
 Jyri Tapio   Merivirta
 Raul   Mestre Lleida
 Dag Martin   Mikkelsen
 Sorel Jay   Mizzi
 Gyorgy   Moger
 Yahya   Mohamed
 Pietro Antonio   Monzio Compagnoni
 Sam   Morda El Sayed
 Kim   Mortensen
 Clayton Robert   Mozdzen
 Stefan Andre   Munter
 Zlatan   Musa
 Maurizio   Muzzi
 Simon   Muñoz Marin
 Marcus   Naalden
 Philippe Maurice   Narboni
 Rayan   Nathan
 Ketul   Nathwani
 Jose Luis   Navarro Giner
 Patric Skjold   Neckelmann
 Morten   Nielsen
 Seren   Nielsen
 Aleksandar Todorov   Nikolov
 Annette   Obrestad
 Gunnar   Oestebroed
 Mika Petri Sakari   Paasonen
 Claudio   Pagano
 Andre   Pagnillo
 Niko   Pakalen
 Christophe Jean   Palmeri
 Nikolaos   Panopoulos
 Juan Manuel   Pastor Baez
 Valdemir Flavio   Pereira Garreta
 Diego   Perez Marco
 Jean Pierre   Petroli
 Hai   Pham
 Julien   Pichetto
 Mikko Valtteri   Pispala
 Brian Leslie   Prescott
 Antti Pekka   Pystynen
 Stefan Vigant   Raffay
 Samir Eric   Rahal
 Mohamad Hossein   Razaghi Aval
 Raoul Gilmar   Refos
 Sonny   Rigwelll
 Sebastian Alexander   Riviere Karen
 David Robert   Robinson
 Wail   Rohayem
 Jose   Roldan Vicente
 Massimiliano   Rosa
 Pier Paolo   Roscalla
 Alexander Philip   Roumeliotis
 Daan   Ruiter
 Sebastian   Ruthenberg
 Ilari Aaretti   Sahamies
 Mohamed Reda   Sahiaoui
 Jari Tapani   Salonen
 Albert   Sapiano
 Juan   Sastre Durin
 Eric   Scalisi
 Brandon Koga   Schaefer
 Silio   Schifakacqua
 Emmanuel   Serero
 Luis David   Sevilla Petit
 Charlotta Margareta   Sjodin
 Peter Alan   Smurfit
 Jani Tapani   Sointula
 Benjamin   Sriqui
 Walter   Srour
 Phillips   Starrs
 Johannes   Steindl
 Johan Martin   Storakers
 Andreas   Streeck
 Stephane Daniel   Subrenat
 Sverre   Sundbo
 Jan Arthur   Svendsen
 Matteo   Taddia
 Erik Peter   Tamm
 Stuart   Taylor
 Mark   Teltscher
 Paul   Testud
 Katja   Thater
 Julian Peter   Thew
 Hans   Thorelli
 Clas Thorsten   Thorsell
 William   Thorson
 Peter   Tofting
 Christian   Togsverd
 Richard   Toth
 Fabrizio   Tripicchio
 Jonathan David   Turner
 Christopher   Ulsrud
 Andreas   Ulvestad
 Gianpietro   Valentini
 Ramu Pritam   Vaswani
 Andre Filipe   Veiga Araujo Dos Santos
 Atte Aleksi   Vessonen
 Fredrik   Vestberg
 Hristo   Volkov
 Mark Christopher   Vos
 Gustav Henrik Staffan   Waern
 Johan   Wahlbeck
 Ville Petteri Johan   Wahlbeck
 Atle   Walgren
 Paul James   Wasicka
 Michael   Watson
 Michael David   Wernick
 Anders Viktor   Wessman
Michael   Westerlund
 Johan Christofer   Williamsson
 Michael   Wong
 Roman   Yitzhaki
 Tutev   Yovor Anastasov
 Winfred Ka Wing   Yu
 Andrey   Zaichenko
 Marc Jaques   Zaicik
 Jerome   Zerbib

[Djinn]

William Thorsson becomes entangled...down to 4,300:

He'd raised in mid position to 525, been called on the button and then raised to 1,525 out of the big blind.  He made the call, and so did Button Matey.
Flop:    Check round, fairly fast.
Turn:    Big Blind bets out 1,525 now, called by Thorsson only.
River:    Big Blind now bets out 1,600.  William Thorsson raises to 4,200, only to find an abrupt re-raise all in, for more than his stack.  This part took a bit longer, as he considered calling, looked at his just-over-4k and eventually decided against it.

It looks like neighbour Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier is the current chip leader, nearing 30k, while erstwhile extra tablemate Pippa Flanders (pictured looking diminutive) is nowhere to be seen any more. 



This could be due to a move and dinner break (they're doing the small dining room shift system - at the moment half are on break), but I think there are too many chips on table ElkY, somehow, for that to be the case...

[NoflopsHomer]

Roland De Wolfe just felt the full force of a cooler. I believe the expression on his face can be summed up by this picture...



A-Q-9 flop, Roland has 9-9, his opponent had Q-Q. Roland very short now.

[Djinn]

Second half chip counts:

Sverre Sundbo  23,000
Alan Smurfit  9,975
Stuart Fox  13,250
Sorel Mizzi  12,500
Len Collin  12,750
Julian Thew  14,100
Johnny Lodden  25,100
Ramzi Jelassi  18,400
Roland de Wolfe  13,100
Mark Teltscher  19,500
Mickey Wernick  4,300
Phil Gordon  16,500
Mark Vos  12,500
Albert Sapiano  35,000
Roman Yitzhaki  16,450
Chris Bruce  8,450

[Djinn]

Sverre Sundbo has an above-averagey-looking stack (roughly 18k), but getting there hasn't been a steady climb... he called a raise to 300 at the end of the last level with in the big blind, and saw a threeway flop of .  That looked pretty good, as did a short stack's moving all in with , until the board came running Sevens to counterfeit his two pair and knock him back under the starting stack. 

The very next hand, however, he looked down to some small blind Aces.  It got round to him standard raised to 300 - he made it 950 to go, and the big blind re-raised to 2,200.  The original raiser thought about it for ages before passing (Queens, it has been said), as did another caller, but Sverre pushed all in (as one does) called pretty fast by the big blind's .  The held, and he's chirpy once again.