Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona - Day 2 - At A Glance

[Djinn]

Afternoon all.  The traditional queue at the top of the stairs down to the tournament area has formed, and players are just about to head in and restack their stacks in preparation for playing the second day of the Pokerstars.com EPT Barcelona; the biggest prize pool here EVER is on offer and the swarm of players deep and shallow stacked coming back today all want a slice of it.

Here are the chip counts - part 1. German bracelet winner Sebastian Ruthenberg leads the charge.

Here are the chip counts by position - part 1, with German bracelet winner Sebastian Ruthenberg leading the charge...

Sebastian Ruthenberg   105900
Jonas Klausen   101800
Mikael Lundell   101000
Brice Cournut   87100
Michael Murra   87000
Jason Mercier   79300
Olof Jonatan Stal   78100
Nichlas Saarisilta   76100
Aniol Alcaraz Coca   74100
Pedro Pocas   73600
Rasmus Hede Nielsen   73100
Jesper Hougaard   72700
Haward Speer   72300
Voitto Rintala   71800
Nestor Ygborn   71200
David Shave Kruger   71100
Mazhar Nawab   70600
Sorel Mizzi   68500
Chad Brown   67100
Dren Ukella   65800
Glen Chorny   65500
Pasquale Braco   63900
Nils Petersson   62800
Ramzi Jelassi   62800
Hafiz Khan   59200
Kristian Ulriksen   57100
Albert Sapiano   53700
Claudio Cecchi   53100
Giorgio Bernasconi   52500
Jonathan Dwek   52500
Jerry Wong   52400
Carles Santolaria   50900
Luca Giovannone   50400
Eduardo Fernandes   49300
Peter Buermann   48700
Jens Klaning   46200
Daniel Mangas   46200
Dennis Bejedal   45900
Talal Dan Shakerchi   44500
Andre Akkari   44200
Benjamin Mirsaidi   43500
Marco Mironti   43100
Alessandro Lusso   41400
Fowzi Baroukh   41200
Alessandro Longobardi   40900
Michael Banducci   40700
Thierry Van Den Berg   40200

[Djinn]

Forget the lights and camera (literally for the last one, sorry) there is nothing but action out there as short stacks give it a shot to double up and big stacks continue to press their advantage.  While the rest of the list is coming, here's a peek at what's going on:

Surinder Sunar doubles up right off the bat to 25,000 with vs. something that didn't hit a King or hit one with a worse kicker (watch out, Poirot) on a board of .

Julian Thew has taken a couple of shots moving in preflop, but no callers yet...

Albert Sapiano calls Matey's bet on a flop only to bet 30k when it's checked to him on th turn.  Pass.  Players are wary of the Honeyman...but his table is a pretty tough one, containing also Mark Teltscher, Sorel Mizzi and Patrik Martensson. 

[Djinn]

Chip counts part 2 - there's a higher % of brits lurking in the bottom half so you might want to peruse carefully...

Asti Ruscalla   39800
Michael Keiner   39400
Karl Nils Heilert   39100
Diego Perez   39000
Stavros Kalfas   38900
Didier Samy Pitcho   38800
Marko Tapio Vainio   38600
Anders Wessman   37300
George Danzer   37200
Robert Mizrachi   36900
Johansen Wagner   36700
Nicolas Levi   36700
Nikolaos Panopoulos   36100
Mark Dalimore   35700
Francesco Nguyen   35400
Martin Nielsen   35100
Giuseppe Festa   34900
Mark Randal Flowers   34300
Henri Koivisto   33300
Luca Pulzoni   32900
Marius Fjellbu Oi   32800
David Schnettler   32800
Kevin Macphee   31800
Malte Strothmann   31500
Alessandro Minasi   30900
Chris Verkerk   30900
Frederic Brunet   30800
Steven Silverman   30700
Frank Yuanfang Gu   30700
Morten Klein   30500
Mathieu Albano   30400
Felipe Ramos   29500
Arnaud Mattern   29200
Richard Wheatley   29100
Eduard De Haas   28900
Ohad Simhon   28200
Frank Stumpf   28000
Daniele Mazzia   28000
Fintan Gavin   27500
Cedric Rossi   27500
Benjamin Scott Stark   27400
Luis Petit   27300
Jesper Hoog   27200
Danilo Kricak   27000
Manuel Cecilia   26600
Gareth Teatum   25900
Joseph George Pelton   25800
Simone Coppari   25700
Peter Mattias Nordin   25600
Patrice Boudet   25200
Patrice Libert   25100
Steven Weusten   24700
Douglas Polk   24700
Scott Montgomery   24500
Joao Vide Barboa   24500
Per Daniel Andersen   24400
Osman Mustanoglu   23900
Isaac Haxton   23900
Tobias Reinkemeier   23700
Jose Vazquez Ortega   23400
Alan Smurfit   23300
Sheryl Lea Gershon   23100
Robert Hudson   22700
Jonas Molander   22500
Helfried Bernhardt   22100
Peter Eastgate   21100
Marcellino Terracciano   20800
Philippe Narboni   20700
Giorgio Salemi   20500
Daniele Guidetti   20300
Julien Sallin   20100
Jerzy Hajdamowicz   19900
Laszlo Pocze   19900
Denes Kalo   19700
Hans Eskilsson   19600
Davidi Kitai   19300
Wouter Bijgaart   19200
Eric Christian Saxin   19100
Ardavan Yazdi   19100
Raoul Gilmar Refos   18900
Adam York   18400
Karl Hevroy   17800
Roberto Pompei   17700
Dag Palovic   17600
Omer Shaked   17400
Diogo Borges   17200
Boris Fragin   17000
Andrey Chesnokov   17000
Patric Martensson   16900
Jean Rohr   16800
Juha Lauttamus   16700
Alexey Tkachenko   16700
Antoine Nahas   16600
Tobias Bengtsson   16600
Petre Ionescu   16200
Grzegorz Mikielewicz   16100
Sergio Bessa   16000
Clyde Foe   16000
Vitaly Lunkin   15400
Cornelis Alblas   14700
Olvedo Vinvent Heinze   14700
Stuart Rutter   14300
Eric Mizrachi   14200
Salavatore Pengue   14000
Steve Jelinek   14000
Patrick Perez   14000
David Atrubin   13900
Theodoros Aidonopoulos   13800
Stephen Chidwick   13800
Bruno Drago   13700
William Haughey   13500
Alexander Kotlyar   13500
Oleg Makovenko   13500
Maria Maceiras   13400
Mauro Corsetti   13300
Andreas Krause   13300
Mark Teltscher   13200
Andrew Lichtenbeger   13100
Roger Hairabedian   13100
Pablo Martinez   13000
Ouri Aron Cohen   12500
Damien Vidal   12100
Nunzio Lagana   11700
Benianmino Speroni   11700
Fabrice Soulier   11700
Jos Moreno   11600
Jean Amsellem   11600
Jean Pasqualini   11400
Rafael Marc Furst   11300
Surinder Sunar   10800
Julian Thew   10700
Nicklas Strom   10000
Stuart Taylor   9700
Steven Thompson   9500
Casey Kastelic   9400
Faraz Jaka   9200
Danny Ryan   9100
Alexander Grishchuk   9000
Ronny Johansen   8800
Erik Peter Tamm   8700
Johannes Strassmann   8700
Petter Solli Berg   8500
Vijay Singh   8500
Christian Grundtvig   7900
Carlos Enrique Villa   7800
Michael Greco   7700
Richard Ashby   7600
Semen Apokorin   7600
Timothy Bogue   7400
Axel Albertsson   7300
Samuel Chartier   7000
Ojan Faramarzi   5200
Dustin Mele   5100
Michel Abecassis   4700
Mehdi Keack   4200
Robert Andre Cazali   3300

[JungleCat03]

Yes, Jonas is a regular on the european circuit and I've seen him in good positions on several occasions. He was well chipped up at the EPT San Remo before falling away in the latter stages. Definitely a man to watch for this tournament and the future.

Mikael Lundell appears to be almost a complete unknown, although he has one of the best names in poker - his full name being Per Mikael Kyung Moo Lundell. If we weren't so busy there would be some immediate photoshopping done on his person.

Sadly I know nothing of the other players either, although wer are bound to have juicy titbits of information filter into the press room as the day proceeds and we will share these with you as they arrive...


In other news, sadly Julian Thew has fallen at this early stage.

In the big blind it was folded round to the small blind, who appeared to try and raise but put in half a big blind. Julian was confused and asked the dealer if it was a real raise at which point he was told it was a call.

He looked at his cards and found A-K so moved in, only for the small blind to insta-call as he had Aces!!!

A bit of a sick one for Julian, there was no escaping from that hand with his stack but he was his usual philosophical self, remarking "sometimes it just doesn't go your way..."

[Djinn]

More trips heartache for Kristian Ulriksen now as he gets to a flop of with Steve Jelinek and one other guy - wish I could tell you if it was raised preflop, as that surely makes a difference... but I am going to opt for Probably Unraised.  Ulriksen had a bet of 4,500 in the middle (the pot about 7k) and Steve had moved his short stack all in... 
Ulriksen: 
Jelinek: 
The turn and river were the harmles and a double up for the Jelifish. 

SPOT PRIZE  Which other UK player with a less apt nickname wears this exact T-shirt while playing?  First correct answer gets a virtual cocktail.



Continually built-up and knocked-back Kristian makes rude gesture and consolidates stack.



That's not actually true - he was just throwing in his ante.  This is what he always looks like:

[Djinn]

Hoody of the Tournament, who I think turns out to be Dutch online qualifier Steven Weusten, just eliminated neighbour Steven Silverman, who got it all in on a flop of , only to instamuck on seeing Weusten's smacked-as-good-as-it-gets . 




Right at the beginning of the day, Mehdi Keack was one of the first small stackers to take the plunge, moving in with but finding Aniol Alcaraz Coca with .  He was already out of his chair and halfway across the room before tablemate Stu Rutter and the dealer seemed to notice that he'd rivered a four-flush in hearts. 


Here's your start-of-day chip leader, Sebastian Ruthenberg, towering over most other stacks even now.  It does look like his neighbour Haward Speer has totally perfected the sidelong glance, though.

[JungleCat03]

Ok, first off here we have the Dane who is up there with the leaders, his stack 100k+ at the moment. As mentioned before he has threatened to take down a big live tournament before and this could well be the one the way things are going.

Jonas Klausen



Next up we have the popular Frenchman Nicholas Levi, who is almost unrecognisable without his omnipresent, famous hat.

When I asked him where it was he said "somewhere on the airplane, I definitely checked it in!" He is on roughly 20,000 at this point and looking oddly younger than usual I thought...

[JungleCat03]

Next up we have Mikael Lundell, the aggressive Swede who has been bullying his tables into virtual submission so far. He doesn't look like he's about to take his foot off the gas either as we see him here eyeing his neighbour's chip stack invidiously...

Scott Montgomery was missing from his table, and  if anything Mikael's chip stack looks to have passed the 120k mark at this point so he may well have been the executioner of the canadian WSOP final tablist.

A man to watch clearly...



Mark "Randall" Flowers obviously had a great finish to yesterday as he managed to end the day with 35,000 in chips after grinding it out with his initial 10k for most of the day. He may have donated a few of these chips back so far though as he looks to have in the region of 30k at the moment.

I captured him at an unfortunate moment - just as that world famous beagle, Snoopy walked past his table, causing Mark to gape open mouthed at the canine legend of updating.

[JungleCat03]

Finally I captured Surinder Sunar who doesn't seem to have deviated much after doubling through to 25k, perhaps down to 23k or so at this point...

Just to his left is recent bracelet winner and part of teh accomplished Winamax team Belgium Davidi Kitai, who is on 65-70k and doing very nicely at the moment.

Despite the fame he has accrued by winning that WSOP bracelet over the summer I was pleased to see he was awe-struck by my presence, appearing to gape open-mouthed at my arrival to the table...

...then I realised his eyes were focused on Snoopy who was standing behind me. DAMN THAT BEAGLE!




Stuart Taylor had been all-in several times before I joined his table to find out how it was going.

He was up to 13k although he told me he had mainly been shoving and picking up blinds so far. "I've actually had hands most of the time so was hoping for a call! I need to double up so I can play some poker..."

His chance arrived soon as he got in preflop versus a shorter stack than him and found himself in a coinflip with versus the other player's .

A flop of looked very dangerous and the other player's railing fanclub burst into cheering as a appeared on the turn to complete his nut flush.

Stuart just shook his head glumly, resigned to more grinding with a short stack...

[Djinn]

              jen are you forgetting mazzer  he had a good run last year .
he has 70 k keep me updated please .
                                                        thx barry.

No worries Barry, Jen is on the case. For some reason Maz has passed under our radar so far in the tournament but with 70k that will no longer be the case.

Updates on their way...

Yes, he's dropped to around 60k but is still in great shape.  I recall him going deep in this tourney last time, and he just sort of sneaks up the chip standings.  I do remember yesterday thinking, "That guy looks a lot like Maz Nawab," but somehow failed to chat to him (the breaks are pandemonium).  A good player who could bring a surprise EPT Title out of the bag.

Maz Nawab - The Invisible Man



Joining him in this Gambling Sideshow:

Sheryl Lea Gershon - the Amazing Tattooed Lady*



Ed de Haas - World's Tallest Gamer




*Not true - just a shirt.  Her actual tattoos were deemed unacceptable for entry to casino and she was sent back for something longsleeved.**

**Also not true. 

[JungleCat03]

Fall Of The French

Two of the big French hopes have faced a rum time recently.

First off Arnaud Mattern was seen making a big re-raise all-in over the top of a Ramzi Jellasi raised from the cut off.

Ramzi made an amazing call for nearly half his stack (25,000 or so)with , which proved to be a good one as Mattern could only table and despite turning a double gut-shot and a flush draw the mono-browed young Frenchman missed on the river to end his dreams of tournament glory whilst a delighted Ramzi pulled in a 50k + pot.

It looks like the Swedish player, who has had a horrendous series of bad beats in recent EPTS may finally be running good and with his aggressive game, he will be a tough man to stop.


Next up, Nicholas Levi had become pretty short and was looking for unopened pots to push his stack in. He did find one, but was looked up relatively light by an opponent with .

He couldn't spike one of his live cards, meaning another Frenchman who had high hopes must put his hopes of EPT glory on ice for now...

[JungleCat03]

Don't You Just Hat It When That Happens?

The news that Nicholas Levi's hat has gone missing, presumed stolen from the local airport has sent the assembled media into a frenzy. It is his trademark and an iconic symbol of the game and the police are exploring every avenue in an attempt to recover the infamous item of apparel.

They have recently turned up some footage from the airport which they believe may be of some help in locating the thief. They have disbursed the footage amongst the media. The face looks familiar but I can't place it.

He seems to be wearing some sort of disguise...

Can you help?

[Djinn]

After having study the list, my picks for today are

Brice Cournut   87100
Nicolas Levi   36700
Arnaud Mattern   29200

and if he is not OUT yet could you try to look at Michel Abecassis ?

OK here's Arnaud, with 27k just before the first break which has now ended.  He is a very serious player, whose previous EPT win in Prague hasn't in any way altered his focus, and determination to play.



While Arnaud might be grinding up a short stack, something good has happened today to Michel Abecassis - he's gone from supershort to around 50k which must be worth half a smile...

[Djinn]

Is tattoo lady the only female left in this event?  My tea bag told me in no uncertain terms yesterday we'd have a female winner. Can it be that it lied to me?

No there are a couple dotted around still - the one doing the best I am pretty sure is Maria Maceiras.  Here she is updating bloggers - good to see she's approachable by the press... sitting comfortably on around 45k.



Also on Maceiras' table - the interesting combo of Ramzi Jelassi and Stuart Rutter, who look like they might have been bantering sotto voce about Ms. Maceiras.  Not one to sit quietly, she promptly pulled Ramzi up on that, who pointed the finger at Stuart Rutter, saying something about how she couldn't be a tight player as she was Spanish.  "Ten-Jack is a good hand here!" he said, and to be fair didn't get any argument from Maria.

[Djinn]

End of the road for George Danzer - spotted earlier peering out here.  He pushed all in after there was a raise to 5k and a call, with a total stack of around 15k.  The initial raiser passed, but the caller, true to form, called with - George's didn't improve past King high and he's on the rail.  But only for a night - he'll be back tomorrow when the EPTLive gets into full swing, with all that live filming and multilingual commentary and that.  I heard that he's a pretty funny guy, and also has what amounts to, in Germany, a comedy regional accent