Set to go: John Shipley

by Simon Young

William Thorsson is OUT after his aces were cracked by John Shipley's flopped set of jacks. The Scandinavian Live Player of the Year, who came 13th in last summer's WSOP, had just lost half his stack when he found the bullets.

With the blinds at 150-300 with running 25 ante, England's Shipley raised pre-flop to 900. Thorsson re-raised to 2,400. Shipley raised again to 6,500 total,which was called by the Swede. The flop came 10-J-3, a nice flop for the aces, so when Shipley moved in for his remaining 6,000 or so, Thorsson called.

He flipped over the aces, and to his horror found himself staring at Shipley's pocket jacks, with the flopped set. The turn and river - 9 and 4 - made no difference, and Shipley, who won the Season One EPT London, rockets up to more than 30,000.


Down and out: William Thorsson

There are now 130 players left, but expect that number to start tumbling now the antes are kicking in. Already absent, presumed out, are last year's Copenhagen winner Mads Andersen, Erik-Bjorn Glenne, and Erik Friberg.


Big deal: Anthony Holden

Still going strong is PokerStars qualifier and serial WSOP bracelet winner T J Cloutier, who has now moved up to 17,000 after flopping trip nines. Team PokerStars Tom McEvoy is still there with 14,000 or so, and British author Anthony Holden, who wrote The Big Deal and is soon to publish The Bigger Deal, is on just under 10,000. He is flying the PokerStars flag at this event.

The UK's Iwan Jones still looks like the chip leader, with 47,000, all neatly stacked with the white marks on the chips lined up beautifully.