With, as always, my thanks to Madeleine Harper from the sponsor of this event, here are the official chip counts after day 1A:

After a slow start of day 1A, in the end we still managed to get some real firework. Firework that was good for one of the top favorites Johnny Lodden (ending the day with 101,000 as the chipleader), Dutchman-on-a-roll "Bokpower" Thierry van den Berg and also Henning Granstad, who has played excellent throughout the day. Full stories will follow tomorrow, together with the complete chip counts. From Dortmund, I say: Thank you for following the action along with us - See you all tomorrow!

One can say a lot of things about Johnny Lodden, but not that he is playing scared. Holding just an A5 on a T33 board for no pair, no draw, he first raised to 10K, and when reraised to 25K, he moved all-in to about 50K! A good read, as the opponent folded, but a very daring play nonetheless. Johnny is now amongst the chipleaders, together with Jim Kerrigan & Frederik Hostrup. (Multiple winner of the big Sunday tournaments on Party & Stars. And, as I said, his bother won the Asian Poker Classic just two days ago.)

Eliminated are Mats Iremark,. Torstein Iversen, Jos Ariaans, Julian Thew and Bertrand Grospellier.

We have a new chipleader! It is Fredrik Haugen, who has 85K now after busting aces with a queen-ten. (Some of you may remember him from his win at the Caribbean Poker Classic in St. Kitts. If you don't - well, I happened to report on that event too here on my Poker Pages blog, and the story is of course still available.)

At the same time, Thierry van den Berg has doubled through to 25K. Holding aces, he faced the monster draw A T on a flop J T 5 - but two blanks kept the Dutchman alive. After winning this pot, he has even accumulated some more chips - making him one of the bigger stacks in the event.

Because of the many players still left in the event, and quite frankly especially because of the many unknowns that are left, I will not be able to provide you guys with a full chip counts just yet. I hope that one or two hours before tomorrow's event I will be able to provide them to you. (As it is 2 a.m. already and we are still playing, it is probably not reasonable to assume that I will get these official chip standings before bed time.)

Into the sixth level now. We play down until the last ten levels, so I guess we still have a rather long day ahead of us. The day was not vey long day for Iwan Jones, though. He has already been eliminated, just as Juliana Wiesner (who made a move reraising to 9850 from the small blind with a mere QJ, only to find out that initial raiser David Barnes had KK). And on the verge of elimination is ElkY, with just 3.6K now.

The biggest pot of the day so far, 38K total, happened at Thierry van den Berg's table. While Thierry had done well by dodging bullets, holding big but second-best hands, yet still not getting broke with them, it was the other players at his table who got the money in. One player, almost certainly Patrick Nakache, had raised small to 800 from under the gun. While two players were thinking about calling and even had some of their chips in the middle, arguably because they hadn't noticed the pot had been raised, one player behind them in the blinds was sitting there with aces! After the uproar had ended, it was finally up to him to make it 2400, and then the initial raiser (as it turned out, with kings) re-reraised to 7000. This was Klaus Fahlenbock if my information is correct, and he obviously called when Patrick came over the top. A 38K pot for Nakache, in yet another AA vs. KK.

And this Klaus Fahlenbock was even more unlucky a bit later. He check-raised Steve Vladar all-in with KQ on a KQx board for 4K total, got called for 2K more by Steve Vladar's AQ, only to see an ace come on the turn. 

Eliminated is Micha Neuteboom (with QJ, only to run into AA), and also the popular German singer Klaus Baumgart. With A5, he had made a wheel on the turn, but his opponent Frederik Haugen had a set of deuces, and improved to a full on the river.

Also out is Dave Colclough. I've been told that he limped on the button with an 87 suited after an under-the-gun limper, only to get busted when the big blind had A8 and the flop came 882. Heads up, with Dave holding about 7.5K, it was not more than normal that the money went in - Dave losing to his kicker.

Some official figures for once: 236 entrants, 171 are still left. Average stack is 13,284. Blinds 150-300, will move up in 10 minutes to 150-300 with a 25 ante.

• Chipleader: Edward Monceda (50K)
• In good / decent shape: Andreas Hagen (24K), Julian Thew (23K), Frederik Hostrup (20K; his brother has just won the Asian Poker Classic for over $300,000), Tony Cascarino (17K), Thierry van den Berg (16K), Mads Andersen (15K), Torstein Iversen (14K).
• Shortstacked: J.P. Kelly 6K (with lots of low-denomination chips), Jos Ariaans 5K (says: "Well yeah, but just one double up and I'm back in contention), Mischa Neuteboom 3K, John Shipley 3K.
• Out: Age Spets, Eirik Bjorklund.

In action tomorrow will be (among others) the three Dutchmen Marcel Luske, Rob Hollink & Noah Boeken. Also in action will be the Germans Katja Thater, Andreas Krause, and I presume also Master Classics Main Event winner Alex Jalali, who is now seated at the cash tables.

One of the chipleaders in this event is Steve Vladar with about 28,000. He has just walked into our little press office near the tournament area, only to find out there that his wife Xuyen Pham has doubled up twice. (Modern way of communication, I guess!) The Bad Girl is still a bit below-average though with about 7300. Also in fairly bad shape: John Shipley with 5K.

Best of all right now is Trond Erik Eidsvig, with about 34K.

A few recent developments, with about 30 out of the approx. 250 players out:

• Another KK vs. AA confrontation. Under the gun, Joe Beevers had kings - only to run into the UTG+1 with aces. Small cards on the board, meaning The Elegance has lost close to half his stack.

• Out: Jan Sjavik. The man who is on a more than decent run with final tables in Amsterdam & London, and a tenth place in Copenhagen, got crippled with a set versus a made straight, and was out not much later.
• ElKY has just been forced to fold against an over the top raise from an under the gun player. Reraising from the big blind, ElKY was unable to call the re-reraise.
• The lady masseuse Frida is back in action, as always causing a bit of a stir. Why is this exactly? Yours truly has no clue - but the players seem to be waiting in line to get a piece of her action.

• Short stacks: Martin Vallo 3K (has already asked Holland Casino representatives Marie-Louise Overtoom & Marco Deen if he can join them on their way back to Amsterdam), Eirik Bjorklund, Tony Cascarino 6K, Iwan Jones 6.5K. Big stack: Peter Boom 26K.
• In general: Not many truly big stars, rather slow play, and just a few (rare) exciting moments - mostly because of big hand vs. big hand confrontations.

A bad Internet connection here in Dortmund hasn't exactly helped the reports thus far. But the action here is quite exciting. Some classic AA versus KK confrontations that were good to Andy Back (eliminating Jacob Rasmussen) but not for Thierry van den Berg (who is back at 9K, down from 16K, and who is still alive even after losing with AQ vs. 44 on a AQ4 flop), just like at the Master Classics losing with the bigger pair. Also out with aces: Jorryt van Hoof. He had made it 200, got reraised to 400 by Abdul Quam, reraised once more to 2200, and was indeed up a lower pair (TT) that by now was quite committed. A good play by Jorryt, but unfortunately the flop came T42 - meaning that the Dutchman was the one to get crippled, not his opponent.

In good shape: Steve Vladar. With AK on a flop K96 with two spades, he check-raised from 2500 to 6000, only to get reraised by the A T. The best hand held up or Smokin' Steve. 

Also in good shape is Henning Granstad with about 24K. At the televised table we have Marcel Lüske and Katja Thater in action. However, this is just for a promotional game for the German DSF sports channel. They will only be in action here at the EPT tomorrow, together with people like Markus Golser who have come back late from the Asian Poker Classic in Goa (India) because of a delayed flight.

Estimated prize pool for this event: 2.5 million Euros.

The EPT is about to continue, its next stop being in Dortmund, Germany. Right now, I am still in Goa, India (having participated in the Asian Poker Classic), but in a few days I will be present again to provide you with all the updates, hands, rumors, stories and pictures from this highly successful tournament series, the Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour. I hope you will all be there to follow the action along with me.