Well, well, well. Apologies dear readers.

Less than an hour ago, the tournament director announced a break of half an hour and PokerStars blog took a slight break to gain some sustenance to see us through to the small hours. We returned to gather a few stories and take a few snaps and were just writing them up when an announcement was made. The tournament is over for the night.

What? It's only 8.30 p.m. GMT. We're hardly getting going.

But it was true. Earlier today, we'd been promised that the tournament would pause for the night when we reached 40 players. Thirty-two of them will make the money, and the television crews, who begin filming tomorrow, want to capture the bubble moment.

Fair enough, but there were still about 46 players when we headed to the media room to begin writing. We missed, it seems, ten minutes of utter carnage.

And so it proved. After consulting with fellow media reps and players, it turns out that the final hand of the evening was the largest of the tournament so far, and accounted for both Liam Flood and Erik Friberg, who both had sizeable stacks last time we looked.

It played out as follows:

Liam Flood open raised from mid position for about 8,000. Surindar Sunar called on the button and Erik Friberg called from the big blind. The flop seemed innocuous: 9s-8c-4c.

Erik checked, but Liam, the short stack among the three, moved in for about 40,000. Surinder, with a much larger stack, flat called Liam's all in and then Friberg moved all in over the top. Surinder hardly blinked before calling for all his chips and we were three-way. We were also fairly certainly looking a three big hands.

So it proved: Liam had Ac-Kc for the nut flush draw. Erik had 4-4 for bottom set. Surinder had 9-9 for top set, and the rail gasped.

The turn and river did not hit for Liam, and he walked. Friberg also walked, but was soon called back as he had about 5,000 chips remaining. He'll have to bring them back tomorrow, when those chips will represent about one big blind.

Also returning tomorrow are a number of PokerStars qualifiers, most of whom we have already met, and most of whom are in with a significant chance of making some big bucks in London.


Vijayan Nagarajan


Martyn Reeve


Katja Svendsen


Marcel Baran


Josh Egan

And that cap at the top of the page. That's on the head of Phidias Georgiou. He'll be back too.

Oh yeah, and this man. No caption necessary.

Full chip counts for the remaining players will be posted here momentarily. And we'll be back to play down to a final table tomorrow.

See you then.

And for anyone just tuning in who may have missed the action...

EPT London: Day two begins

EPT London: In the thick of day 2 action

EPT London: Chip counts

EPT London: Before and after the break