Chip leader: Bastian Landehagen

by Simon Young

The fighters are heading to the card room for the bloody battle that awaits. Day Two of the EPT here in Copenhagen will see the gladiators using their fearsome skill and weapon of choice - the huge chipstack. The victims? The shortstacks, thrown into the arena with little protection, and apparently no hope of survival. But, as Martin Wendt from Denmark showed yesterday, anything can happen. He was down and seemingly out with just 1,800 at one stage before fighting gallantly to finish on a healthy 47,400. He is one to watch today.

Chipleader is diminuitive young Swede Bastian Landehagen with 98,400. Although he undoubtedly has the skill, and his armoury is the biggest of all, you would not back him in a real life fight. In fact, I don't think he'd last five minutes.

PokerStars qualifiers are doing us proud. Brent Wheeler, from Illinois, is starting in third place with 74,000, while Italy's Marco Lucidi (he should be good at gladiatorial contests) is fourth with 69,700 and Anton Smolyanskiy from the US is not far behind in fifth.

Team PokerStars' Luca Pagano, Tom McEvoy and ElkY also safely through. Luca, from Italy, is bang on average in chips, but the other two need to find some early cards to get going.


T J Cloutier

We have one special PokerStars qualifier who quietly moved up the field yesterday to finish with just under 40,000. Mr T J Cloutier won his seat here in a PokerStars cash satellite and showed the young guns of Scandinavia just how to play well with little fuss. He has a future in this game, that lad.

The table draw has been made there is one intriguing Scandinavian Table of Death. Facing each other will be some big-hitters - Norway's Johnny Lodden, Martin Wendt from Denmark, Sweden's Peter Eichhardt and fellow Swede Magnus Peterssen, a PokerStars qualifier who played well yesterday to finish with 39,400.

Play is due to start at 2pm local time with blinds at 400-800 and 100 running ante. Some 154 players are left to enjoy the hour-long levels, but with the shortest stack on just 3,300, that number will reduce fairly swiftly.

We'll bring you all the action as it happens.