Table 7 is practically a bastion of PokerStars. Three men at work, line astern and each a healthy stack. Rosiest of the three is Marcus Lind, in a white cap flecked with a floral pattern of brightly coloured paint. He has an equally colourful stack - two brown chips, each worth 5k guard several towers of blues adding up to over 50k, not bad when you consider the opposition at the other includes Mark Vos and the gentleman Liam Flood.

Also still here after a full seven levels is Rayan Nathan. The Australian is playing his third EPT. He qualified for the Monte Carlo Grand Final on PokerStars last March and bought into Barcelona earlier this month with W$. Doing the same again in London he’s looking to improve on a cash finish in Monte Carlo and a ‘One table off cashing’ finish in Spain.

Rayan Nathan

The task might be a little easier if he wasn’t sitting with Jani Sointula, Dennis Plejdrup, Barny Boatman and Michael Greco. Each of them has posed some threat today, highlighted neatly by Rayan’s volatile stack.

“I was okay, up to 14k. Then I lost some with A-J against K-T when he made a straight. Now I’m down to 8k. I’m in trouble.”

The man from Adelaide is still chipper though, looking for a boost in the last hour before the end of play.

Another man still on the happy side of calm is Vijayan Nagarajan, sat alongside the likes of Marc Goodwin and EPT Dortmund Champion Andreas Hoivold - in the midst of a marathon massage.

“I have something like 25k” Said Vijayan. “The big stacks are vicious but one of them doubled me up so I can’t complain! I just want to get through the next hour.”