AWOL Anne
Simon Young reports:
SSHHH, don't tell the teacher, but Anne Schoendorff has skipped university to be here in Barcelona. She is just two weeks into her English and history degree in Copenhagen, but has quietly slipped away to join poker's elite.

So far she has made a learned decision. She sits on 36,000 chips as we head into Day Two, and 5,000 of them belong to your correspondent. Yup, she busted me out early this morning at the end of Day 1B when her rivered straight eclipsed my pocket fours.

But I'm not bitter (grrrr) and it's good to see she put my chips to good use and went on to build a nice stack ready for battle today. Anne - Babeee on PokerStars - has been playing poker for about 18 months and this is her biggest live event so far.

"My first day went well, it was a steady accumulation of chips. I am sorry for knocking you out. No, really, I am! What do you mean you don't believe me?"

She had planned to sit back for a few rounds today to assess her table. But no sooner had she sat down than she eliminated fellow PokerStars qualifier Ian Smith (iansmitty). He had about 9,000 and made his stand with J-10 but found Anne with A-J.

He looked dominated but the flop bought him some hope with an up and down straight draw. No improvement, and he was walking to the door, leaving Anne counting up her 45,000 mountain of chips.

Bill's a dedicated dad
Meanwhile on table 24, Canada's Bill Fitzpatrick (billiam cdn) is enjoying leading the PokerStars qualifiers pack. He's on 48,400 chips and feeling in good shape.

He's no stranger to these parts, it's his third EPT event, and he's off to play in the London EPT next week as well. It was his son's birthday yesterday, and he wants to dedicate any success here to him.