“That’s it! I’m swimming back to Cyprus!”

This is Phidias Georgiou with a head flick towards his stack and a faint glimmer of a smile on his face. It’s a self defence mechanism I think because his stack flies high at over 70k. You get the impression after watching Phidias for a short while that this guy will settle for nothing less than the best of himself. But it’s a trait that has served him well.

Talking of flying high, Runar Runarssen sits on Phidias’s right, a miniature Eiffel tower protecting his chips. The pilot from Iceland, whose day job is for a domestic airline, has about 26k but you can see he’s mentally kicking himself over something...

PokerStars qualifier Runar Runarsson

“I just had pocket jacks. The guy next to me raised and this guy... (he gestures to a player at the other end of the table) ...went all-in.” He winces as he tells me. “I just couldn’t call” he said, he face breaking into a grin but showing signs of the agony his mind is dealing with.

He’s no stranger to the highs and the lows of tournament poker. As far as the EPT is concerned he’s normally a regular at Copenhagen but he’s spreading his wings a little with a trip to Dublin. (I promise that’ll be the last reference to flying.) He likes to play live, he said, but is hampered by geography, living as he does just outside the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. He has good reason to play live too, having come second to Will Ma at the €10k Rendez Vous a Paris early this year, taking home a friendly looking $304,967.

Runar cuts a distinguished figure in the poker crowd, easy to spot for his shaved head, flecked with silver, with wide eyes that look like the kind that could spot dust on the other side of the table, taking in everything else along the way.

Eagle eyed and holding steady at 26,000. Chips that is, not feet.

Tournament update:

Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano just kept his tournament hopes alive by doubling up. Down to just under 15k Luca bet, finding Ian Cox re-raising behind him, which prompted the Italian to move all-in. Aces for Luca which held up when Cox called with K-Q.

Poker can be touch and already we’ve lost over 50 players today, including...

Jonas Molander -- Sweden
Albert Smith – USA – PokerStars qualifier
Chris Bush – Canada -- PokerStars player
Patric Fredriksson – Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier
Antoon Kleynen -- Holland -- PokerStars qualifier
John Conroy – Ireland
Daniel Ryan – USA -- PokerStars qualifier
Juha Helppi -- Finland
Alexander Fitzgerald – USA --PokerStars qualifier
Mark Bointon – England -- PokerStars qualifier
Michael Hogbom – Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier
Martin Wendt -- Denmark
Ben Grundy – England
Justin Francis -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier
Seth Blackman – USA -- PokerStars qualifier
Stig Top-Rasmussen -- Denmark
Alan Smurfitt -- Ireland
Florian Langmann -- Germany
Katja Thater –Germany -- Team PokerStars Pro