End of day 1

Day 1 is over. 44 players left, and play will resume tomorrow with 3K-6K blinds and a 600 ante. The remaining players, with their respective seats tomorrow:

• Iwan Jones 43,100, 5/8
• Dario Alioto, 64,500, 5/4
• Patric Martensson, 39,000, 1/1
• Thomas Gundersen, 49,100, 4/1
• Michael English, 30,800, 5/3
• Peter Ohlson, 96,900, 1/7
• Alex Bowler, 49,800, 1/2
• Kirill Gerasimov, 85,100, 4/5
• Robert Binelli, 42,700, 5/5
• Kyriacos Dionisyou, 60,100, 5/9
• Juan Carlos Mortensen, 73,400, 4/8
• Nicolas Martin, 173,900, 2/5 (the guy who reraised Carlos)
• Mika Puro 207,100 3/7 (the one who busted out Abel)
• Richard Baldwin 42,700, 5/6
• Jemil Butt, 70,500, 3/8
• Liam Flood, 18,300, 1/3
• Hans Eskilsson, 49,400, 2/6
• Patrick Bueno, 67,900, 4/9
• Luke Smith, 34,400, 3/5
• Andreas Hagen, 205,800, 3/2
• Romain Feriolo, 167,500, 2/9
• Steve Vladar, 26,100, 5/2
• Danige Smits, 45,200, 1/4
• Ben Calliman, 50,500, 2/7
• Steve Day, 28,800, 1/9
• Ambjorn Haga, 87,500, 2/8
• Richard Ashby, 62,600, 4/2
• Gus Hansen, 219,200, 1/6 (chipleader)
• Thomas Fougeron, 62,000, 4/4
• Patrick, 62,800, 5/1
• Edik, 19,800, 3/1
• Mike Luumi, 94,600, 3/4
• Joakim Geigert, 92,700, 4/6
• Chister Johansson, 56,700, 2/1
• Richard White, 20,200, 2/4
• Jan Boubli, 61,600, 3/9
• Richard Redmond, 83,000, 4/7
• Luca Pagano, 101,200, 5/7
• Hakon Warstad, 36,300, 1/5
• Jan Sjavik, 103,900, 4/3
• Peter Gunnarsson, 142,800, 3/6
• Anton Bergstrom, 37,000, 2/2
• Michel Zajdenberg, 34,600, 3/3

It is action time! With the blinds now at 2K-4K and a 400 ante, people cannot afford to wait anymore. Gus Hansen raised to 11K on the button, got reraised all-in to 26K by Martin Wendt and called. A4s for Martin, T8o for Gus, but an eight flopped to send home Martin. Gus has about 130K now - slightly less than the chipleader Romain Feriolo, the unpredictable Man from Marbella. Also in great shape is Carlos Mortensen, who holds close to 100,000 now.

And for the Dutch: Peter Dalhuijsen has about 65K now, a great recovery as at one point he was down to just 4K. And Abel Meijberg has just lost a big pot with AK versus 33, a three on the flop. He was now a bit below average again, and busted out when he got caught on a steal with an 84. In the meantime, Carlos has lost 32K when he reraised a late-position bettor, but had to fold against the small blind who came over the top. And the strong Kirill Gerasimov has just lost an 85,000 pot. Being in great shape with AK vs. KJo, the flop was safe, but the only card the Russian did not want to see came on the turn: a jack.

There are still 90 players left, with 1K-2K blinds and a 200 ante. We will go on until 4 a.m. probably, this in order to eliminate as many players as possible. After all, with 325 paid entries and just two days of playing, it will be hard enough as it is to have the tournament finished within the scheduled time frame.

Lots of Scandinavians are in great shape, while some of the biggest names in poker have long gone. With the likes of the Devilfishes and the Flying Foxes out, it is now the young and aggressive Swedes who seem to have taken over. In fact, the (for an EPT event of this size) relative fast structure may very well be to thebenefit of these highly aggressive move-in type of players. Anyway, I will try to have the complete list of names & chip counts of all remaining players before 5 a.m. local time.

Bad news for the Dutch: Almost all their major trumps are out. Three of Europe's best, Noah Boeken, Marcel Luske and Ed de Haas are all out. In addition to that, Danistar and Armijn Meijer have left as well, and Rob Hollink and Peter Dalhuijsen are in rather bad shape at the moment. In fact, if my information is correct, the Chief is not in the event anymore. This leaves just Abel Meijberg, who has a slightly above average stack, and my very own webmaster Peter, who is struggling.

Two more big stacks for Scandinavians: Ville Wahlbeck from Finland on table 13, and Jan Olav Sjavik on table 12, both with about 62K. At the same time, both Cecelia Nordenstam and Ibi Stoving are out.

Blinds will now be 750-1,500 with a 150 ante. 325 entries, with 135 players still left.

With the blinds now at 500-1,000 with a 100 ante, here are some random chip counts:

Televised table

• Pascal Perrault OUT
• Peter Eichhardt OUT
• Chister Johansson 45K
• Luca Pagano 7K
• Gus Hansen 57K (chip leader of the event)
• Richard Ashby 19K (ultra-aggressive, like Gus. Some major clashes are to be expected here. Richard is probably better known as "Chuffty", one of the biggest money-makers in the big pot-limit Omaha games on PokerStars)
• Brandon Schaeffer OUT

T 23 (about to be broken)

• Willie Tann 37K
• Dave Colclough 8K

T20

• Peter Dalhuijsen 21K (just suffered a major blow, and is down to just 4K now)
• Cecilia Nordenstam 10K

• Simon Nowab OUT
• Paul Testud 13K

T18

• Rob Hollink 8K
• Roberto Binelli 19K

T17

• Erich Kollmann OUT
• Carlos Mortensen 27K (just raised to 1,200, got reraised to 3,500 and moved in - winning uncontested)
• Markus Golser OUT

T16

• Michel Abecassis 8K
• John Falconer OUT

T15

• Marcel Luske 4K

T14

• Kirill Gerasimov 5K
• Stuart Nash 7K

T13

• Claudio Pagano 29K
• Alex Leviev OUT
• Robert Cohen 10K

T11

• Michael Keiner 6K
• Tony G. OUT

T10

• Marc Goodwin OUT

T9

• Noah Boeken 18K
• Abel Meijberg 25K (seated immediately next to his fellow Dutchman Noah)

T8

• Gilles Haddad 10K
• Juha Helppi 12K
• Martin Cedercrantz 41K

T7

• Ben Grundy OUT
• Anton Bergstrom 41K

T6

• Alexander Stevic OUT
• Steve Vladar 11K
• Ibi Stoving 19K
• Martin Vallo 23K (just won the last hand before the break, bluffing successfully on the river with a busted flush draw, T 7 )
• Paul Zimbler OUT
• Alex Kravchenko 21K

T5

• Martin Wendt 28K (just won a massive three-way pot with the A K. On a flop A9 5 , he bet all-in, got called by a set of nines, and won by catching king-king for runner-runner kings full of aces)

T4

• Isabelle Mercier OUT (having been shortstacked she finally found a big hand, KK. She got the money in with the best hand, but her opponent had a pair of nines an caught a runner runner flush to bust her out).
• Devilfish OUT

T3

• Jin Cai Lin OUT
• Armijn Meijer OUT
• Raul Paez Corral OUT
• Peter Gunnarson 24K
• Antonio Turrisi 14K

The blinds are now 200-400 with 50 ante, so it is slowly turning into decision time for the short stacks. The following big names have already left the arena: Barny Boatman, Daniel Larsson, Julian Thew, Simon Trumper an Xuyen Pham. New chip counts will follow soon.

Some recent developments / chip counts:

• Pascal Perrault 10K
• Peter Eichhardt 5K
• Daniel Larsson 11K
• Gus Hansen 31K (running over televised table)
• Brandon Schaefer 11K (looking much older than during his Deauville tournament win)
• Marcel Luske 14K
• Ed de Haas 7K (the tall man sitting at such a small table is a funny sight)
• Dave Colclogh 20K (taking advantage of the shorthanded play. Note that on the three heads-up tables, there are 7 players each, while all other tables have 11 players)
• Luca Pagano 16K
• Roy Brindley 10K
• Martin Vallo 18K
• Xuyen Pham 10K
• Jin Cai Lin 7K
• John Gale 22K
• Peter Gunnarsson 15K
• Raul Paez Corral 7K
• Alexander Kuzmin 6K
• Devilfish 6K
• Isabelle Mercier 7K
• Simon Trumper 5K
• Steve Vladar 11K
• Alexander Stevic 5K (just lost a big pot. On the river, his opponent first thought for 3 minutes before betting, and Alex then thought for 5 minutes before folding)
• Ibi Stoving 12K (beautiful young lady from Denmark)

• Paul Zimbler 7K
• Ben Grundy 15K
• John Kabbaj OUT (did not see it happen, but I am fairly certain he is out)
• Gilles Haddad 9K
• Juha Helppi 19K

• Martin Cedercrantz 16K
• Noah Boeken 11K
• Willie Tann 8K
• Romain Feriolo 28K

More names will follow later. We will have a dinner break now in two separate parts. In about an hour or so, I will try and provide you with some more info on the chip counts.

If my information is correct, we may even have over 300 runners! Even the small heads up tables have been turned into 'real' poker tables, and contain players of the calibre Marcel Lüske, Ed de Haas, Roy Brindley, Dave Colclough and Luca Pagano. While a lot of seasoned top pros are in action, a large part of the participants consists of young and Scandinavian players. Some online poker sites in Norway, Sweden and Finland have run lots of satellites, and as a result there are probably more players from Sweden here than from countries like France, England, Ireland, Holland and even the home country Spain. And not just are the Swedish guys playing - they are also joining each other at or around the bar. For instance, World Heads Up winner Peter Gunnarsson prefers having a chat with his Swedish friends over battling it out at his table 3. And Daniel Larsson is having this same chat, despite being seated at the Televised Table! This may have some strategic reason though: On this table, he is surrounded by absolute strength with Pascal Perrault, Chister Johansson, Peter Eichhardt, Gus Hansen and Brandon Schaefer.

Anyway, we have started with 10,000 in chips, with blinds of 25 and 50, and after the first 45 minutes of play, blinds have now been moved up to 50-100.

It's total chaos in the Gran Casino Barcelona! Lots of people are still waiting either in the lobby, or are waiting in line to get their tickets. And some rather big names even have no tickets at all! (For example: WPT France winner Roland De Wolfe will almost certainly not be participating.) Because of all the chaos, the start of the event has been delayed about an hour, meaning we will probably start in twenty minutes or so. Now, with the delay, the very large number of entrants and the alternates, it is actually to be seen whether or not this tournament will get finished in time. In time, that is: Within the schedule of just a two-day event. All in all, lots of chaos, but also anticipation, and a real poker buzz: One can simply feel the tension in the air. Anyway, I will try and get back as soon as possible with some photos, the tables + seats of some of the well-known players, and possibly even the first chip counts.