Amongst friends: Katja Thater
by Simon Young

Team PokerStars' Katja Thater, currently on about 7,000 has been joined at her table by good friend and fellow German Michael Keiner (8,700). The pair know plenty about each other's play, so don't expect either to be caught out.


Michael Keiner
Katja's Team PokerStars colleague Noah Boeken, from Holland, has got off to a good start and is up to 17,000 or so. He's been a regular finisher in the EPT money positions, and is a past champion in Copenhagen, so players at his table will not want him to build too quickly on his promising opening three hours.


Team man: Noah Boeken
Chip leader as the first half of the field head off for dinner is Austria's Marcus Golser who has more than 36,000. I caught a hand just before the break where he pushed all in to take a huge pot on a three-heart board. He gave no indication if he had the flush or not, but the bet had the desired effect anyway.

Elsewhere Sweden's Jonas Molander is up to 16,000, but Magnus Petersson has taken a hit and is down to 7,000.


Jonas Molander
Holland's Marcel Luske is down in the dumps on about 1,700 - but telling everyone he has no intention of going bust just yet. And heading for comeback-of-the-day prize is Norway's Sverre Sundbo, flying the PokerStars flag, who was down to 600 chips at one point but has built back up to a credible 9,000. "I'm rebuilding nicely," he said. Not faring so well is Australian PokerStars qualifier Jason Broom, who is down to about 3,000.


Comeback of the day?: Sverre Sundbo
We are down to 231 players from the 247 starters. The last to go was mighty unlucky. Down to 500, he tossed the lot in with A-A - and was delighted to be called by Brit Roland de Wolfe holding the rather paltry 9-2. But when your luck's out, it's out. The flop? J-9-2. Ouch.


Nice flop: Roland de Wolfe