WPT OFFICIAL CHIP COUNTS / SEATING POSITIONS AFTER DAY TWO

Table 1

1. John Jerney 74,800
2. Kenneth Strandli 74,900
3. Patrice Boudet 54,800
4. Benjamin Hannuna 30,800
5. Philip Yeh 181,900
6. Daniel Bertelsen 119,000
7. Gilles Haddad 34,100
8. Karsten Johansen 338,000
9. Nabil Ayoudi 105,500

Table 2

1. Sami Torbey 126,400
2. Chister Johansson 214,400
3. David Paindestre 118,800
4. Henri Boutboul 94,100
5. John Poujade 157,000
6. Romain Feriolo 234,300
7. Phil Hellmuth 208,000
8. Angelo Yu Zuo Ping 182,400
9. Patrick Schuhl 95,700

Table 3

1. Elie Marciano 89,500
2. Jani Sointula 183,200
3. Christian Grundtvig 111,300
4. James Davenport 114,200
5. Henrik Witt 147,300
6. Andreas Hagen 49,700
7. Surinder Sunar 18,100
8. Daniel Lellouche 53,000
9. Thomas Wahlroos 268,400

Play resumes tomorrow at 4 p.m., with more than anything the absolutely cracking table 2 to look forward to. All in all, one can conclude that the Scandinavians rule - but those who have followed European poker, know that this is no surprise. We will play three more minutes at the 1,500-3,000 level with 400 ante, and will then move on to 2K-4K with a 500 ante. I look forward to tomorrow - and as I hope, so do you. Au revoir! 

We have reached the money! 27 players left, and they will play down to the final six tomorrow. Exact names & chip counts will follow in a (OK, beware: French) minute. 

Action is slowing down somewhat now that we are so close to the money. Especially Andreas Hagen & Phil Hellmuth seem eager to take advantage of the sudden tightness by many players. Phil made a second consecutive raise, the first one to 10K, the second one to just 9K - and just as I expected that second raise signaled a big hand: aces. He got no action though.

One player who hasn't reached the money: Michiel Brummelhuis. Coldcarded when it mattered most, he raised from early position to 11K with the A J . When he got mini-reraised to 24K, he had a tough decision to make. He decided to go for the stop-and-go and bet all-in for 20K on the flop K 9 5 . His opponent called with jacks though, and the Dutchman was eliminated.

Down to 30. We have just lost the charming Vanessa Rousso. Just when it looked she was in decent chip position, it was over for her. She played "second hand low" with pocket jacks - and it backfired for her. First, she flatcalled Chister's 8,500 raise. Then, when Jani Sointula made it 28,500 and Chister got out of the way, she moved all-in for about 85K total. Jani called with big slick - and caught a king on the turn to bust her out.

Karsten Johansen has crossed the 400K mark after eliminating Joe Beevers. Holding kings versus jacks, both with one diamond, all the money went in on an all-diamond flop. The Elegance was drawing very thin, and could not find the jack he needed. 33 players still in - only 6 more to go and then we'll wrap things up.

Just got what I perceived to be the quote of the day from Vanessa Rousso, having won a pot that lifted her stack to 112,000. When someone said: "Quite a comeback", she said: "No, it's not a comeback, it is just a come. After all, I've been behind all of the time..." Maybe it's just that it is getting so late - but I thought that was quite funny.

Chister Johansson is continuing to do well. He just called a 8K total raise from Phil out of the big blind. On a flop JJT, the Swede then bet out 10K to win the pot uncontested. Still, Phil said right after folding: "Look man, I am ready to call. Don't think you can bet me off my hand - because I want to call! I already called on the river once with an ace high, and I am willing to do it again." 

The last remaining Dutchman is in good shape! Michiel Brummelhuis has just severely crippled Surinder Sunar. From the button, Surinder had raised, and Michiel reraised with what proved to be ace-king. Now, both Surinder & Michiel are not the fastest of players, and Surinder took quite a while before finally moving all-in. Then the Dutchman took even longer to make a decision, but in the end he put all of his chips in the middle too. Michiel was a slight dog against Sunar's pocket sixes. But a king flopped to give him a 115K pot. Surinder was devastated, but is not dead yet - as he had the Dutchman (barely) covered.

And Shawn Buchanan has followed Surinder's example of losing an important big pot. On a flop KT2, he had KJ, and Nabil Ayoubi went all-in with the Doyle Brunson: T2. Still lots of outs for Shawn, but his opponent's bottom two held up.

Finally, a story about young Dane Daniel Smits. Down to a mere 2,200 after having lost with kings against AK, at a moment when just the big blind was 1,600, things didn't look too good for him. Just an hour later, he is back at 100,000 again! 

The chip leader is not about to shut down. Karsten Johansen now has about 230K - at least 90K more than his closest rivals.

Jim Kerrigan has just been busted out by Daniel Smits. All-in before the flop, his A8 couldn't improve against the Dane's QQ. Also out is Jan Sorensen.

And Vanessa Rousso keeps winning her all-in confrontations. This time she reraised Phil all-in to about 22K with an AJ. Phil was pot-committed with the KQ, but found no help.

The Poker Brat is back at 100K again. For the fourth successive time, he got reraised before the flop. This time it was Tony Chessa to reraise him all-in. Tony had an AJ, but this time Phil decided to go for the gamble with the K 9 , getting decent odds. A nine on the flop sent home the Englishman.

And an exiting hand at the adjacent table. The unpredictable and highly emotional Romain Feriolo put his last remaining chips into the pot on the river, in an absolute monster pot. The final board was 4 J 6 8 T , and as it turned out Romain had two aces, no clubs. When he got called, he shook his head in disbelief, cursing his bad luck that the board had developed in such an unfavorable manner for him. But then his opponent opened his cards: He had just the J 9 , meaning that Feriolo's bullets had remained good. He got a well-deserved kiss from his wife - not in the last place because he is now back in contention again with almost 100K.

Blinds now 1,000-2,000 with a 300 ante. I expect we will play down to the final 27. While this may seem like a long way to go, taking into account the high blinds & ante pressure right now,I expect things to be over within three hours actually. 

The big names continue to be eliminated! Five potential winners, and top players, have recently been eliminated. In successive order: Steven Frederick, Victor Ramdin, Alan Goehring, Ram Vaswani & Casey Kastle. Despite the exits of all these notables, there are still lots of top players in the event. Still in great shape: Phil Hellmuth & Chister Johansson, both with about 100K.

And right after these five, we have also lost Erica Schoenberg and Dave Colclough. In the meantime, Phil Hellmuth's stack is starting to shrink a little. He has already folded A8 offsuit and even A J to reraises, and still has just 70K left out of the 115K he once had. In the meantime young Roman Yitzhaki who is seated at his table is pretending to be impressed by Phil, complimenting him all the time about his accomplishments, yet at the same time bringing up all kinds of subjects that he knows Phil doesn't like. For instance, mentioning bad plays that Phil has made in the past, or asking things like: "Phil, have you read the comments about you on Barry Greenstein's site?" Hellmuth then replied "No, I haven't read them", when of course everyone knows he has - including young Roman. So, it seems like even the young guys over here are trying to get the Poker Brat off his game, and it needs to be said that this "game within a game" is rather interesting to watch. The only thing that is unclear yet is the outcome.

Back from the dinner break. I just had a litle chat with Vanessa Rousso, and she mentioned that she hadn't had any chips throughout the event. Quote: "Rolf, this tournament makes me look ten years older." I replied: "I hope not for you - it might cost you your sponsor deal." Yeah, as you can see, sometimes even yours truly has his funny moments.

Good news for Vanessa though: The first hand after the dinner break, she immediately doubled up. Holding pocket jacks against Andreas Hagen's pocket kings, she ended up winning the pot by making a flush.

No such things for Johan Storakers. The former Master Classics Main Event winner busted out just before the dinner break. Blinds now 800-1,600, ante 200, and there are 61 players left.

A quick update, including the chipleaders, big names and all, listed according to stack size:

• Karsten Johansen 148K (Has just won a huge pot against former chipleader Philip Yeh. On a board 9 4 3 9 , with 12K in the middle, Karsten check-raised his aggressive opponent from 8K to 23K, with Yeh calling. A 3 on the river. Now Karsten bet 15K. He got called, showed KK - and it was good. A massive pot for Karsten, and Yeh is now down to 70K (from the 115K he had had earlier.)

• Shawn Buchanan 110K
• Phil Hellmuth 99K

• Curt Kohlberg 75K
• Philip Yeh 70K
• John Duthie 65K
• Thomas Wahlroos 64K
• Surinder Sunar 63K (one of the previous winners over here)
• Romain Feriolo 61K
• Ram Vaswani 59K
• Michiel Brummelhuis 54K (Has just made a good call on the river against a 14K all-in bet. With an ace on the flop, the check / check on the turn suggested to Michiel that his kings were good. He stuck to his read and check-called his opponent's obvious bluff.)
• Peter Davidsen 47K
• Erica Schoenberg 46K

• Gilles Haddad 45K

• Kalil Rahal 41K (the chipleader at the beginning of the day)
• Alan Goehring 38K

• Dave Colclough 38K
• Chister Johansson 37K
• John Kabbaj 36K
• Joe Beevers 36K
• Jani Sointula 31K
• Victor Randin 29K (with lots of low-denomination chips)
• Padraig Parkinson 26K
• Johan Storakers 24K
• Mark Teltscher 21K
• Andreas Hagen16K
• Frode Fagerli 14K
• Vanessa Rousso 13K
• Casey Kastle 9K
• Tony G... OUT

Blinds 600-1,200, with a 100 ante. Play will go on for less than an hour - after that it is back to dinner again.

The defending champion is out! Yesterday, on the last hand of day 1, Roland De Wolfe had been able to double his stack from 8K to about 17K. But today, his stack quickly went down to that same 8K again. With blinds 400-800 and a 75 ante, Roland went all-in from the button with a KQ, and got called by the big blind with a Q9. The inevitable nine flopped to bust out De Wolfe. 

It is again 30 minutes later - and we have lost an additional 10 players. Among these 10 players we had no others than Farzad Bonyadi, the strong Mikael Thuritz (who lost with tens against the queens of, again, Jani Sointula) and finally the shortstacked Freddy Deeb. He walked along our press table, and then said: "Well yes, I may be out here in the tournament, but I guess I will simply be the number 1 in the cash games then."

Still, the start of this second day has not exactly favored the favorites, and almost all quality players who by chance started out low on chips, have now been eliminated.

As to the last remaining Dutchman: Michiel Brummelhuis started the day third in chips with 62,175, but he is now down to 40K again. When a short stack raised, Michiel reraised to 6K with an ace-king. A third player then came over the top, going all-in for 22K. The short stack called all-in, and after some deliberation Michiel called to. As it turned out, his AK dominated the AQ of the 22K stack - but a queen came on the turn to cripple the Dutchman.

We have played for just 30 minutes, and have already lost 20 players. Two more big names that are out: Frederik Hostrup & Julian Thew. Julian had been forced to lay doen on a couple occasions, having made the initial raise. Having gotten shortstacked, he went all-in with an A7, got called by one of the blinds with an AJ - and that was it for the Englishman.

It is short-stack elimination time! Lots of big names with short stacks have busted. Some of the early developments:

• Rob Hollink is out. Holding a 32, he got a free play in the big blind. Having flopped two pair on a 432 flop, the Chief bet 9,000 all-in. He got called by Johan Storakers, and then Haim Kakoun raised all-in. 43 for Haim, which made Rob draw extremely thin. In the end, Haim even managed to end up with a straight flush!
• Also out is Thomas Middleton, the winner of the Master Classics Main Event. He had queens against kings, and found no help.
• Also out: Pascal Perrault & Joe Fawaz.
• Jani Sointula has just doubled up with A K against Jean Poujade's A 9 . Poujade still has a decent stack, but he still saw 18K out of his stack go to Jani's.

CHIP COUNTS AT THE START OF DAY 2 (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER / TABLE / SEAT)

• Aktell, Greger 29,225 15/8
• Albregin, Sergey 40,400 15/3
• Atlani, Maurice 14,975 9/8
• Attali, Hubert 5,775 11/5
• Ayoubi, Nabil 21,875 5/10
• Beevers, Joe 25,850 1/9
• Berg, Anders 24,525 4/1
• Bertelsen, Daniel 20,350 7/2
• Bilney, Sarah 29,775 2/5
• Bonyadi, Farzad 41,050 11/3
• Boudet, Patrice 31,825 16/6
• Boutboul, Henri 39,850 12/4
• Brochard, Marc 35,150 11/7
• Brummelhuis, Michiel 62,175 10/2
• Buchanan, Shawn 52,850 11/8
• Bueno, Patrick 7,000 12/3
• Bulichec, Ilia 28,775 8/10
• Burlet, Gabriel 28,100 9/6
• Cannon, Nichomas 8,850 9/1
• Carvin, Michel 8,850 9/1
• Cazals, Thierry 19,975 16/8
• Champagnol, Patrick 7,425 4/8
• Cherrett, Tom 26,975 15/1
• Chessa, Tony 40,850 8/5
• Cohen, Massou 17,225 8/3
• Colclough, Dave 25,275 9/5
• Comper, Gheorghe 17,500 3/1
• Cristea, Lucian 10,675 6/6
• Dahan, Didier 10,100 7/7
• Daneshgar, David 24,325 1/1
• Danzer, George 31,025 4/2
• Davenport, James 27,425 6/4
• Davidsen, Peter 16,350 1/2
• De Wolfe, Roland 17,475 12/9
• Deeb, Freddy 3,500 11/4
• Detournel, Xavier 7,775 16/4
• Durand, Jacques 17,050 1/6
• Duthie, John 29,800 1/7
• Ek 22,175 12/2
• Esfahani, Shahram 48,850 15/5
• Fagerli, Frode 30,250 16/5
• Fawaz, Joe 6,650 4/5
• Feriolo, Romain 46,950 4/3
• Frederick, Steve 7,500 7/5
• G, Tony 10,100 8/4
• Gale, John 23,575 5/5
• Garreth, Patrick 8,975 5/3
• Goehring, Alan 17,800 16/2
• Grospellier, Bertrand 22,775 3/2
• Grundtvig, Christian 18,850 16/7
• Gulesian, Andre 5,600 5/1
• Hacquet, Emmanuel 3,700 1/4
• Haddad, Gilles 39,725 4/9
• Hagen, Andreas 46,300 9/2
• Hairabedian, Roger 15,300 16/1
• Hannuna, Benjamin 30,950 4/6
• Haslam, Pete 19,700 9/4
• Hassid, Franck 10,675 8/9
• Heitmann, Jan 17,025 12/5
• Hellmuth, Phil 46,475 5/2
• Hollink, Rob 7,925 11/10
• Hostrup, Frederik 5,700 15/9
• Jelassi, Ramzi 46,250 10/10
• Jepsen, Peter 13,100 7/6
• Jerney, John 21,925 6/10
• Johansen, Karsten 72,200 12/7
• Johansson, Birgitta 18,825 12/1
• Johansson, Chister 49,450 8/8
• Jorgensen, Theo 8,675 9/3
• Jurskis, Arnas 38,775 7/10
• Kabbaj, John 41,050 8/2
• Kakoun, Haim 41,775 11/6
• Kastle, Casey 16,300 1/8
• Kerrigan, Jim  20,775 3/8
• Kohlberg, Curt 44,900 10/8
• Koskas, Eric 66,075 16/3
• Kuzmin, Alexander 23,850 15/2
• Kwang, Lee 24,775 8/7
• Lamsa, Janne 28,875 3/9
• Lellouche, Antony 7,175 3/4
• Lellouche, Daniel 24,475 6/1
• Lepage, Patrice 39,675 2/8
• Lester, Jason 19,000 2/9
• Mackay, Anthony 22,425 10/5
• Marciano, Elie 32,825 8/6
• Mathew, Rory 11,125 15/6
• Mazur, Jon 15,325 4/6
• McDonald, Ian 16,875 7/1
• Middleton, Thomas 11,900 5/6 
• Nowab, Simon 33,725 2/7
• Pandestre, David 26,475 5/9
• Parkinson, Padraig 23,675 5/8
• Pedersen, Rehne 13,925 6/9
• Pereira, Jose 37,600 11/9
• Perrault, Pascal 5,500 15/7
• Petersen, Mark 7,800 2/2
• Petit, Emile 33,825 7/9
• Pinson, Bruno 17,825 10/7
• Pluskwa, David 10,000 10/1
• Polze, Laszlo 39,100 7/4
• Poujade, Jean 74,425 2/1
• Rahal, Kalil 85,125 6/2
• Rahimi, Bob 9,300 1/3
• Ramdin, Victor 19,675 15/4
• Rousso, Vanessa 10,900 10/4
• Rybachenko, Sergey 8,475 9/9
• Schoenberg, Erica 34,850 4/7
• Schuhl, Patrick 50,550 3/3
• Sjogren, Per 39,300 6/3
• Smurfit, Alan 23,400 16/9
• Sointula, Jani 21,000 2/3
• Sorensen, Jan 31,975 5/7
• Soulier, Fabrice 22,025 12/10
• Storakers, Johan 20,125 11/2
• Strandli, Kenneth 16,500 6/8
• Sunar, Surinder 28,475 6/7
• Tann, Willie 5,625 10/9
• Testud, Paul 19,825 2/6
• Teltscher, Mark 31,225 7/3
• Thew, Julian 16,525 7/8
• Thuritz, Mikael 27,225 2/4
• Torbey, Sami 60,650 9/7
• Touil, Samuel 49,375 3/6
• Tykoczinski, Raphael 14,975 8/1
• Tyler, Matt 17,425 3/5
• Vaswani, Ram 58,900 6/5
• Wahlroos, Thomas 31,825 11/1
• Wasicka, Paul 7,000 12/8
• Weiss, Adam 32,125 10/6
• Witt, Henrik 53,000 12/6
• Yeh, Philip 53,150 7/3
• Yitzhaki, Roman 30,700 1/5
• Yu, Angelo Zuo Ping 22,050 5/4

We will start out with blinds 300-600 and a 50 ante. All in all, 133 players left, with a 26,165 average chip count at the start of this second day.