Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona - Day 1b - Interactive

[Djinn]

Hello and welcome back to the sunny shore upon which the Casino in which we avoid the beautiful daylight is about to pay host to the second start day of the first EPT of the fifth season of the Pokerstars sponsored tour. 

If yesterday was edging gently towards chaotic, today threatens to jump over the edge - this place isn't a sprawling megacasino and the throngs of players eagerly waiting to take their seats are swarming around, threatening to outnumber the previous day's entrants and possibly overspill into the road, and there is no wifi any more.  60 media and 300+ players - everyone's pretty enthusiastic, which is lucky, in a way.  Expect a whole host of big names, multiple excitable Spanish gentlemen, intermittent posting and a generally Large Scale day of poker...

Chip counts from yesterday coming any second...

[Djinn]

And there they are - the Survivors - thanks Pokerstarsblog for collating and posting this information - yesterday there was a lot of "Is X playing today?"  "I don't know."  "Who's that dude shouting with lots of chips?"  "Your guess is as good as mine."  Kept us on our toes, as people were registering a level after play started...  But now we know.  Albert Sapiano, Michael Greco, Steve Jelinek among the UK players still in with a shot tomorrow.

Michael Bernhard Murra         Germany     87000
Jason Mercier    PokerStars player    USA    79300
Nichlas Mattsson Saarisilta    PS qualifier    Sweden    76100
Rasmus Hede Nielsen       Denmark    73100
Jesper Hougaard       Denmark    72700
Haward Speer       Germany    72300
David Shave Kruger       USA    71100
Chad Brown    Team PokerStars Pro    USA    67100
Dren Ukella       Germany    65800
Glen Chorny    PokerStars player    Canada    65500
Ramzi Jelassi       Sweden    62800
Albert Sapiano       Ireland    53700
Jonathan Dwek    PS qualifier    Canada    52500
Jerry Wong    PS qualifier    USA    52400
Carles Escobedo Santolaria       Spain    50900
Luca Giovannone       Italy    50400
Peter Buermann       Germany    48700
Jens Klaning       Denmark    46200
Daniel Mangas Nuñez       Spain    46200
Dennis Fredrik Bejedal       Sweden    45900
Andre Akkari    Team PokerStars Pro    Brazil    44200
Marco Mironti       Italy    43100
Fowzi Baroukh       UK    41200
Michael Keiner       Germany    39400
Karl Nils Heilert       Sweden    39100
Diego Perez       Spain    39000
Stavros Kalfas    PS qualifier    Greece    38900
Marko Tapio Vainio       Finland    38600
George Danzer    Sponsored    Germany    37200
Robert Mizrachi       USA    36900
Nikolaos Panopoulos       Greece    36100
Mark Dalimore    PS qualifier    Czech Republic    35700
Francesco Nguyen    #N/A    #N/A    35400
Henri Juho Kristian Koivisto       Finland    33300
Luca Pulzoni    PS qualifier    Italy    32900
Kevin Macphee    PS qualifier    USA    31800
Malte Strothmann    PS qualifier    Germany    31500
Morten Klein       Norway    30500
Eduard De Haas       Holland    28900
Ohad Simhon    PokerStars player    Israel    28200
Daniele Mazzia       Italy    28000
Benjamin Scott Stark       USA    27400
Danilo Kricak    PokerStars player    Sweden    27000
Simone Coppari       Italy    25700
Peter Mattias Nordin       Sweden    25600
Patrice Albert Libert       Belgium    25100
Douglas Polk       USA    24700
Scott Christopher Montgomery    Canada    24500
Per Daniel Andersen       Sweden    24400
Isaac Haxton    PokerStars player    USA    23900
Osman Mustanoglu       UK    23900
Robert Hudson    PS qualifier    USA    22700
Giorgio Salemi       Italy    20500
Daniele Guidetti       Italy    20300
Julien Sallin    PS qualifier    Switzerland    20100
Jerzy Hajdamowicz       Poland    19900
Denes Kalo    PS qualifier    Hungary    19700
Hans Vimmo Eskilsson       Sweden    19600
Wouter Wilhelmus Bijgaart       Holland    19200
Eric Christian Saxin       Sweden    19100
Ardavan Yazdi       Iran    19100
Raoul Gilmar Refos       Holland    18900
Adam York    PS qualifier    UK    18400
Karl Erik Drivenes Hevroy       Norway    17800
Omer Shaked       Israel    17400
Andrey Chesnokov       Russia    17000
Boris Fragin       Germany    17000
Patric Stefan Martensson       Sweden    16900
Jean Rohr       France    16800
Juha Jaakko Lauttamus       Finland    16700
Alexey Tkachenko       Russia    16700
Antoine Nahas       France    16600
Grzegorz Mikielewicz       Poland    16100
Steve Jelinek    PS qualifier    UK    14000
Patrick Antoine Perez       France    14000
David Atrubin    PS qualifier    USA    13900
William Haughey       UK    13500
Alexander Kotlyar       Russia    13500
Andreas Krause       Germany    13300
Mark Teltscher       UK    13200
Pablo Javier Ubierna Martinez       Spain    13000
Benianmino Speroni       Italy    11700
Jos Luis Cordero Moreno       Spain    11600
Jean Pasqualini       France    11400
Rafael Marc Furst       USA    11300
Nicklas Sebastian Strom       Sweden    10000
Faraz Jaka    PS qualifier    USA    9200
Danny Ryan    PS qualifier    USA    9100
Ronny Johansen       Norway    8800
Johannes Strassmann    Sponsored    Germany    8700
Erik Peter Tamm       Sweden    8700
Petter Solli Berg       Norway    8500
Vijay Singh    PS qualifier    UK    8500
Christian Grundtvig    PS qualifier    Denmark    7900
Carlos Enrique Villa    PS qualifier    Spain    7800
Michael Greco       UK    7700
Timothy Bogue       USA    7400
Axel Marten Albertsson       Sweden    7300
Samuel Chartier    PS qualifier    Canada    7000
Dustin Mele    PS Passport winner    USA    5100
Mehdi Keack       Greece    4200
Robert Andre Cazali       France    3300

[jpean]

Good morning updaters

I don't find Pascal Perrault's nor David Benyamine's chipcount which means that they have been eliminated prematurely...

[Djinn]

Good morning updaters

I don't find Pascal Perrault's nor David Benyamine's chipcount which means that they have been eliminated prematurely...

Yep there was an impressive flurry of eliminations in the last two levels last night, and they were among the late casualties.  So, I hear, was Mickey Wernick, who apparently has a more-dramatic-than-usual bad beat type story which ends in his exiting the tournament on the last card dealt last night...

[Djinn]

On the very first step into the heaving poker room, I came across this table:  Scotty Nguyen, Surinder, Freddy Deeb and a couple of empty stacks one of which immediately took on Scotty, who tried to raise the non-present big blind but ended up calling the 200 which Surinder had already bet.  "I didn't see you there," he admitted, "I was playing this guy..."
Flop:    Scotty bets out something around the 300 mark, and is quickly raised to 850.  "Sick!" he comments, while calling.
Turn:   Both players check
River: Scotty checked, Surinder threw in 1,125 and Scotty passed, saying, "Flush draw," and gets shown Surinder's .



Surinder, distracted blonde lady, Freddy Deeb

[Djinn]

Also spotted, and there are lots more where these came from:

Anthony Lellouche
Luca Pagano
Jan Sjavik
Kristian Ulriksen
Nikolaus Jedlicka
Daniel Negreanu
Per Ummer
Voitto Rintala
Isabelle Mercier
Bertrand 'Elky' Grospellier
Sorel Mizzi
Dario Minieri
Soren Kongsgaard
Tim Vance

PLUS
Julian Thew



Stuart Rutter "Do I look too cheesy?"  "No, no, of course not."

[jpean]

ok so as you can expect, my picks for today are Isabelle Mercier and Elky (PLUS Anthony Lelouche, Daniel Negreanu and Luca Pagano)

[Djinn]

This Matey was faced with a decision for nearly all his chips in the first 15 minutes of play today.  He had made it to the river out of position against one other opponent, who raised him on a K-Q-x-x-x (no suits) board from 1,200 to 6,000.  This was my first witnessed Dwell of the Day, but it turned out that he wasn't prepared to lay down his .  Good thing for him, as as soon as he threw the call in the middle, his opponent tapped the table sheepishly, before revealing his pure bluff .  Early stack for this guy.

[Djinn]

ok so as you can expect, my picks for today are Isabelle Mercier and Elky (PLUS Anthony Lelouche, Daniel Negreanu and Luca Pagano)

Here they are!  Elky, whose recent appearances have been becoming more flamboyant (someone in the press room yesterday if he was going to be The Riddler at this one after his previous Joker - it was only later I realised this was cheeky; isn't the riddler the one with the bag over his head?).  Confident, outgoing, definitely one of the French to watch this tournament.  And there are quite a few of them - every table seems to have a Pokerstars Pro or a Winamax French guy/gal on it.



And Isabelle, sporting aviators and daring outfit, looking just as confident, in the Special Boxed Table in the middle of the room.  Also of note, the guy and gal behind her looking like they are about to passionately embrace in the shadow of the weird indoor palm tree.

[Djinn]

You may have noticed an odd silence from the JungleCat at the moment - this is because overnight our wireless disappeared and lots of cables took over the room we're in like a nest of snakes.  Sadly, these snakes only choose to allow internet access intermittently, and are actually being rounded up and disposed of in about an hour, when normal service should resume.  The sound of multilingual whinging fills the air as everyone (apart from me, with a dialup card so old it's growing white hair and is partly deaf) is bounced offline. 

[jpean]

thank you Jen for photos. I'm waiting for the complete player list to choose my third pick

[Djinn]

As ever, the early scout of a room full of poker players reveals the usual hive of sartorial elegance, and among it some are the queen bees.  Not enough of each category, oddly, to give a separate prize for hoody, hair and general image of the day, so here's the lot found so far:

Runner-up Hoody of the Day:



Hoody of the Day:



Hair of the Day (the only entrant, Voitto Rintala ineligible as he won last year)



Image of the Morning (no messing, the light just so, the pose unique, the expression on Dario (bottom right)'s face hilarious)

[WarBwastard]

I'd forgotten about the EPT masseuse.  I've gone all squiffy now.

[Djinn]

Junglecat here!

We're all struggling with the connection in the press room so I have commandeered Jen's computer and connection as I just HAVE to tell you about some hands.

First off, let's fly back in time to yesterday where Micky Wernick fought through the day in game fashion despite never having seen any cards.

The last hand of the day proved a crucial one for him as he shoved all-in over the top of a raise with pocket Jacks, only to get a call from a player with Ace bit and looked set to double up to 16k or so.

In classic fashion the board went blank blank blank blank ...ACE and poor Micky was out.

He said "in 45 years that's the most painful bad beat I've had" and for a man who's played as much poker as the accomplished veteran of the circuit that's a pretty amazing statement. We're sorry Micky but you'll be back on the horse soon I'm sure!


Daniel Negreanu is yet another star name to be in attendance today and he had a bad start to the day going down to 4.5k, but not long ago his fortunes turned round, doubling through with pocket Kings. As soon as the wireless is restored in the press room, I'll have some pictures of the chirpy canadian to share with you, the blonde faithful.


Tony Cascarino, recent Bolton GUKPT winner is OUT!

He flopped top two, betting out, only to receive a call from a player who had bottom pair, which improved to a better two pair than Tony on the King turn, and the ex-footballer couldn't get away from the hand resulting in his early demise.

Can't win em all...


Julian has had a slow start, down to 7k early on, but he has ground back to 9k or so. He told me is a big fan of his table...there are two very "cally" spaniards in position on him, and I think he feels there are chips to be made at this table.

Good luck Thewy.


Lots more to tell you and lots of pictures to come. Hold onto your hats because today is already proving to be a cracking day of poker.

[Gobbomom]

Hi there Blondes! We have requests from 2+2 for ya'll to follow if you get a chance please:

 David Schnettler
Joseph Melancon
Eric Green
Brian Clark

Adam Junglen, (Mark) Randal Flowers

thanks so much for any attention you can give.

sorry, add 2 more: Tommy Pavlicek & Shaun Deeb