We know that many of our readers here are fans of young phenom Annette_15. Her day her, sadly, has not been as spectacular as her everyday performance. After struggling through a day that seemed painfully card dead, she moved all-in from the small blind with pocket eights against two people who had limped into the pot. One of the limpers called with A9o and spiked his ace on the river. Annette offered a polite, "Nice hand," and made for the door. Lina, our Swedish blogger is searching for Annette as we speak. If the reporter tracks down the player she calls, "her idol," you might see it in a bit on the Swedish PokerStars Blog.

In other news, Team PokerStars Victor Ramdin has just sent an opponent packing. After some pre-flop raising, he and his foe saw a Ts-Th-6c flop. Victor checked and his man moved all in for 13.7K. Victor muttered something about how the guy would've made the same move with a big hand as a small one and called with pocket jacks. The jacks held and Victor is now up to about 45,000. The knockout was all the sweeter, as just a few hands before, Victor had been re-raised off a hand by the same player, who then showed his bluff K-4 holding to the table. Victor had folded an ace face up.

Victor has had an up and down day today, no doubt because of his aggressive game. Last night at the welcome party, we were chatting with Isabelle Mercier. Victor said, "If I had my game and Isabelle's patience..." He left it at that.



Meanwhile, Spain's Carlos Mortensen, a WSOP and WPT winner, has just escaped elimination by the skin of his teeth. Facing a raise and a call, he pushed his remaining 11,000 with A-Q diamonds. Insta-call from the initial raiser (J-J), while the caller folded.

The flop was 2-7-5 with just one diamond. Carlos was standing now, about to pick up his coat and head for the door. But wait, the turn was 10 diamonds. The river needed to be another diamond, an A or a Q. It was the 3 diamonds. A punch of the air, and Carlos sat down again, now happy behind a pile of more than 25,000, above the room average of nearly 24,000.

It just goes to show how quickly things can change in this game. Carlos, known as the Matador, is a dangerous man with chips - a bit like holding a red rag to a bull.