Play for today is over. Just before close, Andy Black added some valuable chips to his stack when with blinds 600-1200 / 100, Jules Kuusik raised to 5200 and Andy reraised all-in to 15,000 - and Jules couldn't call. Maybe Jules was misled by the fact that Andy was betting so many chips - after all, he had only 500, 100 & 25 chips, no yellow 1,000 chips, all of this in order to make his stack look bigger than it really was.

Either way, 45 players are left today. Coupled with the 38 from yesterday, this leads to the following list of names - taking into account the redraw for seats that has already been done. Thanks a lot to Edgar Stuchley, Madeleine Harper & the people at PokerStars for providing me with the info.

Into the last level, with 56 players left. Here are the chip counts from the people I recognized:

• Daan Houtman OUT
• Jorryt van Hoof OUT
• Azad Pivooti 73K
• Alex Kravchenko 16K
• Hans Eskilsson 24K
• Mattias Eriksson 42K
• Paul Testud 11K
• Arshad Hussain 16K
• Age Spets 36K
• Anders Oberstrom 28K
• Martin Wendt 17K
• Peter Eichhardt 27K
• Peter Karall 8K
• Roy van der Locht 10K
• Edgar Skjevold 22K
• Markus Golser 69K
• Per Ummer 60K
• Morten Erlandsen 37K
• Anders Henriksen 20K
• Andy Black 26K
• Attila Foris 36K
• Seppo Parkkinen 6K
• Jules Kuusik 42K
• Henric Olander OUT (eliminated by Kristian Kjondal)
• Kristian Kjondal 52K
• Frode Fagerli 55K
• Carl Olson 60K
• Miguel Magan 25K (half Dutch / half Spanish. Survived miraculously with K Q versus pocket aces. DEspite a third ace on the board, he won by making a flush)
• Vicky Coren 12K
• Juha Helppi 14K

The big stacks at the beginning of this day seem to run into more and more trouble. Not just is Christoph Haller shortstacked, also Jorryt van Hoof is down to below-average now. And Chister Johansson is even down to just 2K after losing with tens versus jacks for 11,200 total.

As before, the EPT doesn't seem to a good hunting ground for the recognized European stars. Marcel Luske has just been eliminated, and can already be found in a cash game right now. Anther notable elimination: Peter Hedlund, who had both performed so well in London. Starting to run into trouble is Christoph Haller. After his flying start, he is now down to just 10,000 for a well-below average stack.

Blinds now 300-600 with a 75 ante. 69 players remaining. 

Back from the dinner break, I ran into Katja Thater, who has just been eliminated. She said: "Rolf, I am still in a good mood, because I think I played well. I also still had 8,000 in chips with just a 400 big blind, so I still had enough chips to work with. But then I am up againsty one of those young Scandinavians, you know the type, with hair that goes in all directions, and more importantly: They call you with everything. I just hate that, haha!"

OK, so Katja is out, and so is fellow German George Danzer. He said: "Yes, I am not just out - I also just received an SMS from my girlfriend that says it's about time we have a chat. Ah, well - I guess it's not my lucky day!"

Also eliminated: Mats Iremark & Ross Boatman, while Marcel Luske has lost some chips.

In the biggest pot of the tournament so far, Jorryt van Hoof has lost his chiplead. Being in the big blind, he bet out 1600 on the flop T 6 3 , with under-the-gun player Frode Fagerli calling. The turn was the J . Now, Jorryt bet out 6K, and Frode made an unusually fast call. (Well, for some people unusually fast. In general, Frode plays much faster than almost any other player that I know.) Now the river came the 7 , completing many straight draws and creating a possible backdoor flush. Still, within 10 seconds Jorryt bet 11,000, and again within seconds, Frode said: "All-in". As the raise was just 7K more, Jorryt called, only to stare into the nut flush, A 3. Jorryt is suddenly down to 24K now, while his neighbor Frode Fagerli has a 60K+ stack.

With blinds of 150-300, and 116 players left, here is the first chip count:

• Ben Grundy OUT
• Andreas Hagen 8K
• Julian Thew 18K
• Jorryt van Hoof 56K (the current chipleader. Plays very aggressively, and has won important pots with QQ, and one with a J3 from the big blind on a 339 flop, presumably against Richard Ashby)

• Richard Ashby OUT
• Frode Fagerli 21K
• Marc Naalden OUT
• Chister Johansson 36K
• Johnny Lodden OUT
• Thomas Fougeron 21K
• Lu Zhe Zhang OUT
• Casey Kastle OUT
• David Pomroy 10K
• Markus Golser 23K
• Pepe Klinger 24K
• Roy Brindley 17K
• Kristian Ulriksen 3K
• Peter Hedlund (Nalle) 7K

• Peter Eichhardt 16K
• Richard Gryko 13K
• Roy van der Locht 23K
• Ingemar Backman OUT
• Erich Kollmann OUT
• Paul Testud 7K
• Ross Boatman 6K
• Christoph Haller 36K
• Alex Kravchenko 16K
• Kai Danilo Paulsen 20K
• Daan Houtman 7K
• Dave Shallow OUT (on one of the very first hands)
• Azad Pivooti 36K (in Dave's seat, with a large, black Buddha as a lucky charm)

• Katja Thater 6K
• Martin Wendt 25K
• Edgar Skjevold 10K
• Ivo Donev 4K (after losing a big pot with sixes against Marcel Luske's AK. Ivo had 12K, Marcel 17K, the money in before the flop - and the Flying Fox flopped a king)
• Marcel Luske 23K
• Noah Boeken OUT
• Ercin Corc 30K
• Mats Iremark 21K
• Mark Teltscher 14K
• Juha Helppi 13K
• Arshad Hussain 14K
• Mattias Eriksson 12K
• Andy Black 15K
• Henric Olander 25K
• Vicky Coren 7K (up from the 3K she had before)
• Laurens Veltman ("Scorpy") 7K
• Neil Channing OUT
• Morten Erlandsen ("Pokergirl") 21K
• Jozef Kollaritz OUT
• Rino Mathis 19K
• Carl Olson 19K
• Barny Boatman OUT
• Espen Saltnes OUT
• Kenneth Strandli OUT
• William Thorson OUT (despite a 35K stack after just two levels)
• Mads Andersen OUT (with 33 vs. TT)
• Jules Kuusik 14K
• Rehne Pedersen OUT (not 100% certain, but close)
• Tore Lagerborg OUT

We have lost Noah Boeken. Holding AK, he made it 525 to go, and then decided to just flatcall the 1800 total reraise, with a bit more than 6K behind. When the flop came KJx, all the money went in, but the Dutchman was up against a set of jacks and was drawing very thin. No help on the turn or river, and we had lost yet another favorite.

After Noah's elimination, Noah's seat had been taken by the extremely loose / aggressive Ercin Corc, a very strong and dangerous tournament player. He has about 32,000 now, and as he is seated two seats to Marcel Luske's left, the Flying Fox doesn't have much room for stealing or playing marginal hands. I remember a Master Classics tournament recently where these two players were also seated at the same (final) table, and back then Ercin didn't slow down even though both he & Marcel had large stacks in relation to the others. So, I don't expect Ercin to slow down this time either - especially because he has position on the Fox.

Prizepool for the EPT Baden:

At table 19, Marcel Luske & Noah Boeken are seated at the same table. Both have gotten off to a relatively slow start, and after two hours of play Marcel is even down to 8K. He is playing the classic smallball that he usually plays at the early stages of an event, but so far, he has not won all that many pots. Fellow countryman Jorryt van Hoof has gotten off well with 31K now, while Daan Houtman is down to 7K (seated to Christoph Haller's immediate right). And in my information is correct, we may have lost Marc Naalden. He is not in his seat anymore at table 4, seated to the immediate right of Chister Johansson.  

Another favorite is out: Johnny Lodden. Down to a bit less than 5K, he coldcalled an under-the-gun raise with the 8 6. Two players called behind him, including the button, Chister Johansson. The flop came Q 7 3 , and it got checked around to Chister who bet 1,000. When the action came back to Johnny, he decided to go for the semi-bluff check-raise all-in to 4,475, possibly to try and make his opponent fold. But Chister had a real hand, QJ, and called the raise. Blanks on turn and river - meaning that within two hours of play, Johnny Lodden is already out.

At the same time, Mark Teltscher has just bluffed his way to a decent-sized pot. Juha had raised before the flop, had gotten two callers, and from the big blind Mark also called with a 52. The flop came 984 rainbow, and Mark now decided to bet 3,000 into the field with absolutely nothing. He got a call from the button. Then, an ace came on the turn. Instead of giving up, the Energizer (Mark's nick, for obvious reasons) now chose to bet all-in for about 4,000 with, let's say, a "good low". It worked: His opponent folded, earning Mark a big pot - while holding absolute rubbish. 

Play has been going for just about one hour, and the blinds are still just 50 and 100 - yet we have already had quite a few interesting developments. For one, the strong Christoph Haller has tripled up. Holding the K 8 in a raised, multiway pot, the flop came QJT with two clubs. After some action, three players remained for the turn, that came A - the ultimate money card for Christoph. It went bet & raise even before the action had gotten to him, and he managed to get both their entire stacks. (Most likely, one of them had a straight, and another one a smaller flush. However, I am not certain about that.) So, Christoph has about 30K now. 

Another strong player who has gotten off to a flying start is Irishman Andy Black. He had a set of fives hold up to double his stack. A bit less fortunate was Ben Grundy. In a small blind / big blind confrontation, the Milkybar Kid had bullets (AA) in the small blind, while the big blind had a 32 only. Ben of course raised, and then bet on a flop that contained a deuce - yet all the time, the bets and raises were just small enough to keep his opponent in, rather than blast him out. Ben then lost quite a bit of money when a seemingly harmless deuce came on the turn. Severely crippled by this hand, he exited a few hands later.  

We have about 170 players today. A quick walk around the tables has led to me recognizing at least the following names:

Table 1: Ben Grundy (4), Andreas Hagen (7), Julian Thew (8)

Table 2: Richard Ashby (9)

Table 3: Marc Naalden (4), Chister Johansson (5), Johnny Lodden (9)

Table 4: Thomas Fougeron (5), Lu Zhe Zhang (6), Casey Kastle (8)

Table 5: Kristian Ulriksen (7)

Table 6: Roy van der Locht (3), Ingemar Backman (7), Erich Kollmann (9)

Table 7: Ross Boatman (4), Christoph Haller (8), Alex Kravchenko (9)

Table 8 & 9: empty

Table 10: Katja Thater (4), Martin Wendt (6)

Table 11, 12 & 13: empty

Table 14: Jozef Kollaritz (1)

Table 15: Peter Karall (4)

Table 16: Frode Fagerli (2), Andy Black (5), Henric Olander (8), Vicky Coren (9)

Table 17: -

Table 18: Mark Teltscher (2), Juha Helppi (7)

Table 19: Edgar Skjervold (2), Ivo Donev (3), Marcel Luske (5), Noah Boeken (7), Mats Iremark (8)

Table 20: George Danzer (4), Paul Testud (5), Markus Golser (7)

Table 21: -

Table 22: Ercin Corc (7)

Table 23: Nalle (2), Barny Boatman (5), Pepe Klinger (9)

Table 24: Jan Sjavik (2), Jorryt van Hoof (7)

Table 25: Mads Andersen (3), Peter Eichhardt (4)

Official seating positions, as provided to me by tournament director Edgard Stuchley:

Now that day 1 has ended in one Russian player having more than double the number of chips that the others do, we are now preparing for the second flight. Lots of big names are about to start their tournament - yes, even more big names than yesterday, I guess. As was the case yesterday, I will try to provide you with as much detailed information as possible, including up-to-date seat positions, chip status etc. Anyway, play is about to start soon - so I'll be off, checking out the gaming area for you.