Dream day: Bastian Landehagen

by Simon Young

Play at the entertaining Day 1B of the EPT Copenhagen is finished for the night, with Swede Bastian Landehagen seemingly topping the pile with a massive 98,500 chips.

He soared through the last couple of levels, while previous leader Morton Lund Jensen, from Denmark, fell the other way, losing one big pot and then a monster to Norway's Jan Sjavik, who ends up on more than 60,000. Q-Q v K-K did that particular damage.


Jan Sjavik


Ben Johnson

New Yorker and PokerStars player Ben Johnson, who finished second in Austria in October, had been sitting in mid table for much of today, but burst into life late on to finish with 40,000 or so.

Another PokerStars qualifier, no less than T J Cloutier, had a great EPT debut, finishing with 38,900 having survived the day's table of death, including at times Marcel Luske, William Thorsson, Juha Helppi and Alexander Stevic. Stevic is the only one of those who will see Day 2.

Team PokerStars Tom McEvoy has 13,500 and will look for some decent action as survivors from the two Day 1 fields come together tomorrow. And qualifier Brian Cook, a plumber from Illinois, who was the first chip leader after doubling up with quad kings in level one, has made it through the minefield to finish up on 25,000.


The chips Wendt - and came back again

Comeback of the day must belong to Danish star Martin Wendt, who had less than 2,000 chips at one stage before firing back...and back, and back, to end up with an excellent 47,000. Ireland's Roy Brindley also survived a few set backs to finish on 45,800.

Play starts at 2pm local time tomorrow, when ideally tournament director Thomas Kremser would like to whittle the field down to the last eight to play Saturday's final table with a first prize of €550,000 on offer to the winner. The cash is paid down to 40th place.

We'll get you the day's official chip counts as soon as we can, but in the meantime, from a wet and windy Copenhagen, goodnight.