Play is over. Final chip counts day 1

The final 39 players after day 1 - redraw for seats will take place tomorrow at 1 p.m.:

• Jared Davis 49,400
• Raymond Coburn 45,200
• Patric Mortensson 50,400
• Andreas Hagen 106,800
• Baic Novica 27,300
• P. Haslam 64,900
• T. Kerrigan 13,800
• Roman O'Malley 33,900
• Jim Reid 60,100
• Jon Kalmar 61,200
• Andrew Black 40,700
• Stuart Forsyth 57,600
• Thierry Cazals 23,700
• Surinder Sunar 39,900
• Marcus Elfvring 43,800
• Luca Pagano 68,500
• Ahmet Melin 43,000
• Mats Gauatin 142,800
• Joe Rafferty 129,400
• Paul Moss 35,600
• Patrick McFadden 68,200
• Greg Amolis 25,000
• Noah Boeken 72,900

• Henric Olander 159,200
• Michael O'Sullivan 168,200 (second chipleader)
• Jonas Molander 135,900
• David Pomroy 175,400 (chipleader)
• Joep Durkstra 36,100
• Donnacha O'Dea 49,400
• John Parr 17,800
• Michael Slevin 25,800
• Magnus Eklund 54,500
• Jon Kalmar 61,200
• Michael Greco 115,700

• Birgitta Johansson 22,400
• Jeffrey Bensinger 77,200
• Christoph Bannach 49,600
• George McKeever 22,400
• Thomas Brandt 58,200

It's been a long day, so I will leave all the speculation up to tomorrow. Suffice to say that I have predicted that Michael Greco is going to win the thing - if only because I would love an Eastenders soap actor to take home the title. (Also, I have noticed that this fella got game - but hey, I didn't say that when I made my bet, obviously.) Three Dutchman still in, lots of young Scandinavians, quite a few Irishmen and Englishmen, experience in the persons of Surinder & Donnacha - and obviously Andy Black who is still there, despite this huge pot that he lost. All in all, I would say we are in for some exciting stuff tomorrow - so make sure you log in at PokerPages at 1 p. m. local time. Take care - and see you all tomorrow!

We're into the final level of today, with blinds of 1,000-2,000 and a 200 running ante. Here are some recent chip counts:

• Michael O'Sullivan 114K (after winning that pot against Andy,. And after winning a huge pot with QQ against Johnny Haard's AK, with a final board AQ2A9, he is now actually the first player with over 150K in chips)
• Andy Black 25K (after losing that pot against Michael)
• Isabelle Mercier 14K
• Surinder Sunar 45K
• Greg Amolis 50K
• Ray Coburn 40K
• Andreas Hagen 54K
• Noah Boeken 73K
• Donnacha O'Dea 60K
• Joe Rafferty 90K
• David Pomroy 95K

• Joep Durkstra 58K
• Thomas Brandt 51K (just won a pot when he came over the top of a 5.5K raise, to take the pot there and then)
• Luca Pagano 62K
• Michael Greco 85K (a British soap star - he plays in Eastenders)

Andy Black has lost a massive pot! In the biggest pot of the event so far, he had big slick against someone with cowboys - and failed to improve. The former chipleader is now down to less than 25,000.

Joep Durkstra has the poker gods smiling on him. He raised all-in to 14,200 from under the gun, a raise of more than 10 times the big blind. He had K J and got called by an A Q - but flopped a king to stay alive. And not much later, he found AK in the big blind, reraised a 3,000 raise and got called by a king-jack! Joep is now back at 60K again - and as I said, he was once down to almost 2,000.

At Joep's table, there's also Swedish youngster Johnny Haard. He has just won a massive pot when he had AQ and was up against an opponent who was slowplaying aces, both before and on the flop. On the turn, all the money went in - and at that time, Johnny had already made the nut straight. The Swede now carries 81,000 in chips.

Another big stack is by a Chinese man in the basement, who (if my information is correct) listens to the name Johnny Wan. Johnny has close to 80,000, putting him in the top five right now.

A few recent chip counts:

• Andreas Hagen 42K
• Joe Rafferty 62K
• Andy Black 84K (analyzed by me beforehand as one of the top favorites - and indeed, he is the chip leader right now)
• Ken Lennaard 71K
• Luca Pagano 25K
• Ben Grundy 15K
• Paddy O'Connor 18K
• Greg Amolis 14K
• Thomas Brandt 36K
• Noah Boeken 68K (has lost a pot and is down to 48K now)
• Ray Coburn 31K (a man with green hair - really! I found it not beautiful enough to put on the photo for you, though - sorry)
• Surinder Sunar 13K

Blinds now 600-1,200 with a 100 ante.

Simon Trumper is out! "Aces" had to make a move with his short stack, and was actually fortunate to find a big hand: JJ. But Noah had a KQ for two live overcards, and that was enough to bust out Trumper. 100 players left out of the initial 248 (yes, we had two open seats after all), and lots of relatively unfamiliar faces left in the event. One familiar face with lots of chips: Noah Boeken with 55K.

A few more developments:

Our current chipleader is Richard Redmond from London. He is carrying 62,000 in chips, about three times the average stack. And Padraig Parkinson has just lost three quarters of his stack on a stone-cold resteal. He was in the 600 big blind when the button made it 2,000 to go. As this looked like an obvious steal attempt, Padraig reraised it to 10,600 with a mere J7 offsuit. When his opponent quickly called him, the Irishman knew he was in trouble, but he had to continue his bluff of course on the AT6 rainbow flop. His opponent called all-in for 2,700 though with an AQ. No miracles for Padraig, who is now down to 4,200.

Alexander Stevic has just lost two big pots, including one where he was up against a full house. The Swede has run into serious trouble, with a stack of just 9,500 now. And as I am writing this, he actually gets busted! All-in with KQ against QQ, the best hand held up – meaning that in no-time Stevic had lost al of his chips. Also in trouble is Simon Trumper. Simon check-called 4,000 against Noah on the river that had just made his opponent the nut straight. While Noah’s stack is on the rise, Joep Durkstra has just lost a big pot. With a board QQ9xx, his opponent had check-called him on all streets with TT, including a 5,500 bet on the river. He was able to snap off a bluff by the young Dutchman who had nothing more than a jack-high.

Chip counts from the basement – with 300-600 blinds and a 75 running ante:

• Luca Pagano 14K
• Surinder Sunar 20K
• Ross Boatman 7.5K
• Barny Boatman OUT (had become shortstacked, and lost the final pot with KK vs. AT, flop AQT)
• Ben Grundy 35K

In the Merrion Room (where I am seated) Xuyen Pham has just busted out. She had already been unlucky a few times, when she finally lost all her chips with AJ against an A6. And it that same room, Noah Boeken is starting to accumulate more and more chips. Against a 1,800 raise, Noah reraised to no less than 12K from the button to make his shortstacked opponent lay down a KQ. The Dutchman showed an ace, and has about 41K now.

The two remaining Dutchmen are moving and grooving – but in an atmosphere that isn’t exactly “big-hand-friendly”. Thomas Brandt had aces, and was up against a mere AJ – but his French opponent scooped a 12K pot, making the nut straight on the river. And at another table, “Smokingjoep” Durkstra has been able to fight back from a 2,400 stack to having 44,000 now! He is playing very aggressively, and seems to have Lady Luck smiling on him. When an early position player limped for 400, Joep made a very aggressive move to raise it up to 2,300 from the cutoff with a mere queen-jack offsuit. The button, a very solid player, then made it 5,000 to go while having just 3,200 left. A raise as small as this screamed a huge hand, and Joep actually asked: “You have aces?” But he still called the reraise, and then was ecstatic to see a QJ2 flop. The remainder of the money went in, and Joep’s top two held up against his opponent's KK. He is now among the biggest stacks in the event.

Other chip standings: Padraig Parkinson 8,000, Noah Boeken 27,000, Andy Black 36,000, George McKeever 35,000, Alexander Stevic 53,000. The Swede has just busted out yet another player, his TT holding up against an AJ.

Alexander Stevic has won yet another pot. With three spades on the board, he raised his opponent’s 2,000 river bet to 8,000 – and won. And two other stacks keep getting bigger as well. Thomas Brandt has just busted out the winner of the latest EPT event, Patrik Antonius. Thomas had AQ, raised with it, got reraised to 7,500 all-in and called. The Fin had KQ, and the best hand held up. Brandt now has 38K. He is trailing just a little bit to Andy Black, who has 48K and seems to be the chipleader right now. Black was sitting on the same table as young Dutchman Joep Durkstra. When Joep heard that his opponent was from Ireland, he asked the man with the “Marcel Luske-glasses”: “Do you know that Irishman who made it to the final table at the World Series this year?” “Well yes”, Black responded, “I think I know him pretty well – it’s me.”

The prize schedule:

1 €317,000
2 €174,500
3 €89,300
4 €69,500
5 €59,500
6 €49,600
7 €39,800
8 €29,800
9 €19,900
10-12 €11,900
13-15 €9,900
16-18 €7,900
19-27 €6,000

A few updates:

• Joe Beevers has lost an important pot with AJ vs. AQ, and is now very shortstacked.
• Fellow Mobster Barny Boatman is still in good shape, as is Ben Grundy who is seated right next to him. Barny's brother Ross is down to 6,000.
• Out are Kjersti Grini and also the strong Edgart Skjervold. The finalist from Baden had become shortstacked, and failed to improve, holding an open-ended straight draw against a set. Also out is former World Champion Noel Furlong.

170 players left, with blinds 150-300 and a 25 running ante.

Thomas Brandt has just won a big pot with a full house. With 36K, the Dutchman is one of the bigger stacks in the event. He is trailing to Alexander Stevic though, who has accumulated 41K - despite losing one pot with nothing, where at the river he declared “nut low”.

And Padraig Parkinson just had the clock called on him by young Anton Bergstrom, because if it had been up to the Irishman he would have waited until next week to make his decision. He had raised to 800, had been reraised 4,600 more all-in, and in the end his hand was declared dead because even with the clock being called on him, he failed to act in time.

We will complete 12 or 13 levels today, and right now 195 players are still in contention.

OK guys. Here’s the first real chip count – all the way down from the tables in the basement.

Basement:

• Patrick Bruel OUT
• Barny Boatman 36K (crushing the game – current chip leader)
• Brian Wilson 3.5K
• Roy Brindley 9K
• Luca Pagano 9K
• Dave Shallow 10K
• Iwan Jones 11K
• Ross Boatman 11K
• Torstein Iversen (almost 100% it’s him; only saw him from the back though) 9K
• Martin Vallo 6.5K
• Jonas Helness 12K (with girlfriend sitting behind him – she has not left this seat even once, so this looks like true love to me)

1^st floor:

• George McKeever 14K
• Paul Testud OUT (had KJ on QTx flop. Opponent had QQ and filled up on turn)
• Jeffrey Bensinger 16K (flatcalled 150 in small blind with KK, again flatcalled the 300 raise by the big blind, and then check-raised the 1,000 bet all-in on the flop QJ9 to take the pot there and then)

2^nd floor:

• Thomas Brandt 11.5K
• Dave Colclough 10K
• Jan Heitmann 11K
• Ben Grundy 16K
• Surinder Sunar 6K

Upper floors:

• Chister Johansson OUT
• C.T Law 8K
• Kevin O’ Connell 8K
• Steve Vladar 6K
• Anders Berg 8K
• Ram Vaswani 21K
• Isabelle Mercier 12K

• Birgitta Johansson 7K
• Julian Thew 6.5K
• Peter Eichhardt 5K
• Joep Durkstra 3K
• Andy Black 24K
• Peter Gunnarsson 5K
• Padraig Parkinson (who looked around the tables, and then said: “Is there anybody in this room who is not Swedish?”)
• Patrik Antonius 8.5K
• John Kabbaj 5.5K
• Joe Grech OUT
• Sverre Sundbo OUT
• Noah Boeken 26K
• Xuyen Pham 10K
• Edgar Skjervold 11K
• Cecilia Nordenstam 7.5K

• Joe Beevers 10K
• Paul Moss 14K
• Simon Trumper 8K (last hand before the break he had AA. A tight player raised to 450, Simon reraised to 1,250 out of the big blind - but then his opponent folded)
• Juha Hellpi 11K (who just won a pot with AA against Simon who had flopped a top pair of jacks)
• Ken Lennaard 19K
• Frode Fagerli 20K
• Kjersti Grini 3K
• Vik Kanwar 7K
• Martin Aigner 14K
• Ken Powell 12K
• Abel Meijberg OUT (he had become shortstacked, then moved in before the flop, and got called by a better hand)

About two hours into the tournament, with the blinds now at 75-150. Paul Moss has just lost a big pot with a full house against Simon Trumper’s bigger full. And Isabelle Mercier almost had her nickname “NoMercy” turned into “NoShow”. Because her flight had some serious delay, she ended up coming in no less than one hour late. And third place finisher in Baden Abel Meijberg has just value-bet 1,000 on the river with aces up, got called by someone with a mere pair of queens, someone who had asked him “So, what place did you finish in Baden actually?” “Well, third”, Abel had replied, and shortly after that, his opponent called him with the clearly losing hand. Abel then went on to explain that he didn’t even know he had two pair – he claimed he thought he had just been betting one pair of aces. Yes, it is a funny world, and here are some of the chip counts:

• Abel Meijberg 11K
• Cecilia Nordenstam 4K
• Noah Boeken 19K
• Joe Beevers 11K
• Juha Helppi 5K
• Frode Fagerli 23K

No signs of big names having busted, but with the blinds moving up to 100-200 soon, this will be just a matter of time.

We have started with 10,000 in chips and blinds of 25-50. Things are indeed very hectic here, and the large camera crews have troubles even getting to the tables. “Crazy Horse” Ram Vaswani has won a big pot with QQ against KK, a queen on the flop, and former E-WSOP winner Martin Aigner has just successfully value-bet on the turn and river with KJ for the nut straight. But the Austrian has lost some of these chips again, and is down to 9K now.

I have just talked to Rob Hollink. I called him because I didn’t see him on the list of entries, and he has confirmed that indeed he won’t be here. Others have declined as well, and often the quality of the venue has something to do with it. People view it as nice and cosy, but not very comfortable for an event of this size / stature. Other notables that are not here include “Devilfish” Dave Ulliott and “Flying Dutchman” Marcel Luske. Holland is now represented by Noah Boeken, Thomas Brandt, Abel Meijberg and Joep Durkstra.

Other names that are listed as participants are:

• Graham Clarkson
• Patrick Bruel (the French singer)
• Luca Pagano
• Isabelle Mercier
• Tony Cascarino (the former soccer player?)
• Simon Trumper
• Juha Helppi
• George McKeever
• Theo Jorgensen
• Paul Roper
• Tim Flanders
• Marc Goodwin
• Richard Baldwin
• Martin Aigner
• Martin Vallo
• Patrik Antonius (winner of the most recent EPT event in Baden)

• John Kabbaj
• Andy Black (most successful European during the most recent World Series)
• Dave Colclough
• Frank Callaghan
• Mark Williams (the snooker player?)
• Kevin O’Connell
• Joe Beevers
• Barny Boatman
• Ross Boatman
• Ram Vaswani
• Antony Lellouche
• Michel Abecassis
• Tobias Persson
• Peter Eichhardt
• Cecilia Nordenstam
• Alexander Stevic
• Ingemar Backman (finalist in Baden)
• Padraig Parkinson
• Vik Kanwar
• Dale Greenleaf
• Ben Grundy (the “MilkyBarKid”)
• Anders Berg (who has already won the no-limit hold’em tournament here yesterday)
• Torstein Iversen (finalist in Baden)
• Frode Fagerli
• Sverre Sundbo
• Edgar Skjervold
• Gunnar Osterbrod (finalist in Baden)
• Baard Dahl
• Kjersti Grini
• Rory Liffey
• Iwan Jones
• Noel Furlong (former World Series Main Event winner)
• Roy Brindley
• Alan Betson
• Paul Lecky
• Donnacha O’Dea
• Dan Pedersen
• Simon Nowab
• Steve Vladar
• Xuyen Pham (“Bad Girl”)
• Julian Thew
• Anton Bergstrom
• Richard Ashby (“CHUFFTY”)
• Joe Grech
• Morten Erlandsen
• Surinder Sunar
• Peter Gunnarsson
• Chister Johansson and his wife, Birgitta Johansson
• Jonas Helness

When people think of Ireland, they often come up with things like dreary weather, grey buildings, rain and lots of umbrellas… And now, I guess that’s exactly how things are today. In a, let’s say, typical Irish atmosphere I walked from my hotel to the Merrion Casino Club, and frankly I thought: Geez, life is not so much fun after all. Things became even worse when I spotted one of Holland’s most beautiful women, TV star Daphne Bunskoek who I thought was still “available”, with another Dutch TV star and disc-jockey Wessel van Diepen. I was thinking about going over to her and say something like “Hey baby, who needs a DJ – didn’t you know than in fact I am the Dutch Poker Champion”, but then on second thought I didn’t think this line would get her to change her mind. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all, I guess. So, I just kept walking on, thought to myself “Hmm, how silly do I look walking around with my sunglasses on when it’s always raining here”, and I finally reached the casino in a not exactly ecstatic state of mind.

However, I know that I’ve got a job to do: Provide you with the best possible information I can on the upcoming EPT event. Players are registering now at the cash desk in the “Merrion Room”. This casino has five different rooms that are nice and cosy, but also very small. With the absence of any press facilities, I have put myself in one of the corners right behind a poker table, and frankly I don’t feel that hot and snug typing my stories almost hidden in a corner. Because as I said the poker action will be on four different floors, it will not be easy to follow things closely. But I will do the best I can, as I always do, in order to provide you with all the information you need.

Play starts in two hours. I will provide you with names, chip counts and early developments then.

It is now less than 18 hours until the start of the EPT in Dublin. Many high rollers have started dropping in, and some (like one of the top favorites Andy Black) have even participated in the 500 Euros buy-in pot-limit Omaha that is taking place right now. By the way, for those interested: Yesterday's no-limit hold'em event was taken by Anders Berg.

As I said, tomorrow is a sell-out, and we will have no alternates – all of this to keep the tournament as fair and as skillful as possible. This will be the last EPT event that will be played over just two days. I have just conducted a large interview with EPT boss John Duthie, and he has confirmed that starting with the Copenhagen event in January, all tournaments will be three-day events, played over four days. This means that the start of every event will have half the players on day 1a, and the other half on day 1b. All of this to accommodate as many players as possible, and to give the players more room to play. But tomorrow we will have the start of the last “old-school” tournament, a sell-out in the not exactly spacious Merrion Club – so I expect things to be not just exciting, but also very hectic. The prize pool is definitely exciting: 250 x 4,000 Euros, for a 1 million Euro prize pool.

Anyway, I will be in the casino tomorrow afternoon from 1 p.m. local time. The tournament will start at 3 – so be here, and make sure you don’t miss a thing.

After a highly successful but chaotic stop in Barcelona, and two fairly successful stops in London and Baden, we are just two days away from the start of the fourth stop of the EPT. We are at the Merrion Casino Club in Dublin, and the event has already been sold out. 250 entrants max., and those of who who are familiar with this venue know that 250 players is a lot for this venue - as it can't exactly be called spacious. Right now, tournament director Thomas Kremser is hosting a 400 Euros no-limit hold'em event, and tomorrow he will be the director for two more (fairly small) events. The actual start of the EPT event will be on September 29th, 3 p.m. local time. I hope that the wireless system will work then (it doesn't yet), but if not I've got the back-up of a 3G system that I just purchased, meaning I will be able to provide you with all the necessary information anyway - albeit at a slightly higher cost maybe.

The weather is surprisingly nice for the time of the year, and this being my first time here in Dublin, I have actually taken the time to see some of the old city centre. But more than anything we are here for the poker obviously. I may give a little update tomorrow night on the results of some of the smaller tournaments, but if for whatever reason this will not be possible, I'll just be here a few hours before the start of the EPT.

All in all, 250 players, each of them having ponied up 4,000 Euros - meaning we will be battling for a prize pool of one cool million. From Dublin, I say: Take care, you all - and we will talk again soon.