August 2007 Archives

Apologies for the lack of colour -- and for the "u" in that word, American blog readers -- but we're reaching the business end here in Barcelona and I expect more people are interested in cold, hard chip counts rather than life histories. (And on the "u" point, I'm English.)

So, here's the skinny: Twenty-two players remain, playing blinds of 3,000-6,000 with a 500 ante. They's spread across three tables and they're sitting with, approximately:

Table A

Greg Dyer -- 205,000
Mohamad Kowssarie -- 475,000
Mika Paasonen -- 480,000
Voitto Rintala -- 185,000
Adam Junglen -- 370,000
Other -- 190,000

Table B

Aditya Agarwal -- 320,000
Peter Giordino -- 135,000
Patrick Bruel -- 250,000
Borge Dypuik -- 70,000
Christophe Ulsrud -- 260,000
Sander Lylloff -- 260,000
Tronde Eidsvig -- 440,000

Table C (TV table)

Sylvester Geoghegan -- 160,000
Alessio Isaia -- 170,000
Mark Teltscher -- 240,000
Davidi Kitai -- 131,000
Philip Yeh -- 108,000
Niklaus Jedlicka -- 297,000
Javed Abrahams -- 120,000

Those recent eliminations:

25 - Daan Ruiter (Holland) €16,700
26 - Henrik Jensen (Denmark) €16,700
27 - Ole Holgersen (Norway) €16,700
28 - Michael Greco (UK) €16,700
29 - Michael Wong (USA) €16,700 (PokerStars qualifier)
30 - Ian Woodley (UK) €16,700
31 - Martin Wendt (Denmark) €16,700
32 - Thomas Fjelleheim (Norway) €16,700
33 - Ryan Jones (USA) €14,650
34 - Eric Hardt (USA) €14,650 (PokerStars qualifier)
35 - Bjorn Erik Glenne (Norway) €14,650
36 - Giovanni Spadavecchia (Italy) €14,650
37 - Henrik Sorensen (Denmark) €14,650
38 - Nikolas Panopoulos (Greece) €14,650
39 - Fabrice Soulier (France) €14,650

Update: We've also just lost Sylvester Geoghegan (the mysterious "Vesty" from the overnight list) who got it all in pre-flop with A-Q but ran into Nicholas Jedlicka's A-K. Dag Mikkelsen also perished. He lost a chunk with K-Q against A-K and shoved the rest in with something very meagre and was busted.

As the players take another 15 minute break, we get a chance to dance around the railbirds and check a few chips.

There are 24 players remaining -- we play down to eight tonight, remember -- and among them are the following stacks:

Niklaus Jedlicka - 170,000
Adam Junglen -- 325,000
Sander Lylloff -- 310,000
Dag Mikkelsen -- 215,000
Mark Teltscher -- 250,000
Mohamad Kowssarie -- 345,000
Alessio Isaia -- 240,000
Peter Giordano -- 245,000
Mika Paasonen -- 490,000
Patrick Bruel -- 310,000
Greg Dyer -- 110,000
Aditya Agarwal -- 250,000
Javed Abrahams -- 100,000
Sylvester Geoghegan -- 240,000

Definitely out of the tournament are:

Martin Wendt
Fabrice Soulier
Eric Hardt
Ryan Jones
Ian Woodley

The players are back from their day three dinner break. Same old buffet, but more to go around.

There are 34 of them left chasing that million-plus top spot, and they're posting blinds of 2,000 and 4,000 with a 400 ante.

Among those challenging:

Greg Dyer - 145,000
Patrick Bruel - 168,000
Aditya Agarwal - 55,000
Bjorn Erik Glenne - 90,000
Mika Paasonen - 360,000
Pete Giordano - 355,000
Borge Dypuik - 170,000
Michael Greco - 120,000
Mark Teltscher - 365,000
Mohamad Kowssarie - 155,000
Michael Wong - 31,000
Ryan Jones - 31,000
Dag Mikkelsen - 110,000
Martin Wendt - 125,000
Nicklaus Jedlicka - 99,000
Philip Yeh - 80,000
Adam Junglen 290,000

They're being swatted out of this tournament like drunken flies. Here are the fallers so far:

41 - Stefan Mattsson (Sweden) €12,550
42 - Andrey Zaichenko (Russia) €12,550 (PokerStars Qualifier)
43 - Tutev Yovor (Bulgaria) €12,550
44 - Mika Puro (Finland) €12,550
45 - Daniel Dodet (Belgium) €12,550
46 - James Higgins (UK) €12,550
47 - Katja Thater (Germany ) €12,550 (Team PokerStars)
48 - Mark Vos (Australia) €12,550
49 - Massimiliano Rosa (Italy) €10,500
50 - Jean Paul Pasqualini (France) €10,500
51 - Alexander Philip Roumeliotis (Sweden) €10,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
52 - Cort Kibler-Melby (Germany) €10,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
53 - Jerome Ferron (France) €10,500
54 - Jesus Garde (Spain) €10,500
55 - Phil Starrs (UK) €10,500
56 - Daniel Stern (USA ) €10,500

Michael Wong is smiling. But really, after what's happened to him today, few could blame him for being crouched in the corner, head in hands, cheeks moistened by torrents of tears and a mutilated effigy of the poker gods kicked into the trash.

The PokerStars qualifier from San Diego, California, hit a flop on the second hand of today. He hit it pretty good. He had 3-4, that flop was 5-6-7 and there was nothing wrong with getting it all in there. Problem: his opponent had limped to the same flop with 8-9, otherwise known as the nuts.

"I lost three quarters of my stack," Wong confided. "I'm the short stack now."

It's merciful that he had such a lot of chips to begin today. He was the top-ranked PokerStars qualifier overnight with 193,000. Now he's down to about 50,000.

But, by his own admission, he went on a rush yesterday to get himself near the chip lead, and there's still every chance something similar could happen again.

Update: And if a picture is worth a thousand words, here's "War and Peace" courtesy of Neil Stoddart, peerless PokerStars photographer, who captured it all going wrong for Wong.

A monstrous pot just went the way of Mika Paasonen on the feature table.

Patrick Bruel was the victim of the coldest of decks and, holding A-10, must have thought he was ahead on a flop of Q-10-10.

Patrick Bruel in happier times

But there was some very suspicious checking and flat-calling through the streets, before Mika pushed and Patrick called on a blank turn. Paasonen had been exceptionally crafty with pocket queens for queens full and Bruel shipped towers of chips to the Finn.

On the outer tables, Mark Teltscher, the nemesis of Katja Thater, has continued to build. Meanwhile Cort Kibler Melby, an early leader in Barcelona, is out.

Updated chip counts will follow.

And so it ends for Team PokerStars in Barcelona.

Katja Thater, who had clung on and clung on late yesterday to end the night as the only Team PokerStars player to make the money, was always going to have to make a move early today.

Katja Thater stands and prepares to leave

But she must have been delighted when Mark Teltscher, the British player who triumphed in season two's EPT London, put in a button raise when Thater had glanced down at pocket kings. She tossed in whatever extra she had and Teltscher showed queens.

You guessed it, though. I don't even need to write it. Thater is on the rail.

Vultures and reporters share a lot in common -- it would be difficult to contest that they're not pretty much the same thing -- and an innate attraction to carnage and carrion is probably their most pronounced similarity.

So it was that I, and nine or ten others, gathered around Ryan Jones's table as the cards hit the air for the first time this morning. The United States player, who cashed in W-Dollars on PokerStars to buy his seat here, had the lowest chip stack of everyone, and was shaping up for a fairly certain first-round push.

And push he did when it was folded to him on the button. Ole Brandborg, in the big blind, insta-called. Brandborg has 10-10, Jones showed K-8 and there was much sharpening of talons and pencils.

But, behold, not only a king on the flop, but also an eight, leaving Brandborg looking for one of the two remaining tens to send Jones out. Neither materialised, and Jones lived to fight another few hands, at least.

Daniel Stern, another W-Dollars player, was not so fortunate. Despite holding the chip lead after day two, the American was also short-stacked coming into today and shoved from the big blind, over the top of a middle position raiser. Stern had K-Q, his opponent 8-8 and there was no help for the overcards. Stern was first out today.

Following him hastily to the rail was Phil Starrs, from Scotland. The PokerStars player won his seat here when he took down an APAT event on the site. But his A-9d was beaten by the J-8d of Bjorn-Erik Glenne. All this was on TV as well.

So, within the first half hour, it's two down, 48 to go until the final table. We'll have all the details here.

Welcome back to the Gran Casino Barcelona for day three of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour.

There's one thing on everyone's minds today: money. And while it's fair to say that the subject hasn't exactly been too far from most minds for the preceding three days, this time it's not a case of "what if" but rather "how much?"

The cash bubble burst late last night, meaning all 56 players who return today are already guaranteed a return on their investment, somewhere between €10,500 (for the first eight out), up to €1,170,700 for the last man, or woman, standing.

Ryan Jones, from the United States, is likely to be happy with anything. He's bottom of the chip pile going into today. Meanwhile, Mohamad Kowssarie, from Sweden, is eyeing millionaire status. He starts today with 332,200 and the chip lead.

Everyone and anyone in the middle also has a significant chance to become a star. The television feature table has been assembled overnight and one table of players, of the remaining eight, will have their every move scrutinised by the millions in their living rooms.

There's also a live webcast of the feature table, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Starting under the studio lights when play gets under way in the coming moments, is table seven, which features three PokerStars qualifiers -- Phil Starrs, from Scotland, Adity Agarwal, from India, and Andriy Zaichenko, from Russia -- as well as Patrick Bruel, the French actor/singer/poker player, and Bjorn Erik Glenne, who won this event last year.

Check back here for your words and watch the broadcast over there. Then scatter some sand around your feet and turn the central heating up and it'll be practically as though you're here.

Here's how they finished day two in Barcelona. This bunch will return tomorrow, where they're all in the money.

Payouts follow.

Chip counts:

Mohamad Kowssarie (Sweden) - 332,200
Mark Teltscher (UK) - 300,600
Patrick Bruel (France) - 267,000
Pete Giordano (USA) - 253,900
Adam Junglen (USA) - 227,800
Mika Paasonen (Finland) - 213,600
Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) - 197,000
Michael Wong (USA) - 193,800 (PokerStars qualifier)
Jean Baptiste Tomi (France) - 147,100
Sander Lylloff (Denmark) - 142,500
Tronde Eidsvig (Norway) - 141,200
Philip Yeh (Sweden) - 134,200
Dag Martin Mikkelsen (Norway) - 130,600
Martin Wendt (Denmark) - 130,400
Bjorn Erik Glenne (Norway) - 126,700
Thomas Fjelleheim (Norway) - 125,300
Javed Abrahams (UK) - 120,100
Ola Brandborn (Sweden) - 112,300
Nickolaos Panopoulos (Greece) - 110,600
Jan Sjaavik (Norway) - 106,200
Voitto Rintala (Finland) - 101,300
Kees Alblas (Holland) - 98,100
Giovanni Spadavecchia (Italy) - 97,000
Greg Dyer (USA) - 95,200
Daan Ruiter (Holland) - 92,200
Andrey Zaichenko (Russia) - 84,800 (PokerStars qualifier)
Alessio Isaia (Italy) - 84,700
Ian Woodley (UK) - 82,900
Juan Maceiras (Spain) - 74,300
Eric Hardt (USA) - 70,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
Nikolaus Jedlicka (Austria) - 67,700
Tutev Yovor (Bulgaria) - 62,300
Aditya Agarwal (India) 61,400 (PokerStars qualifier)
Fabrice Soulier (France) - 60,000
James Higgins (UK) - 56,500
Alexander Roumeliotis (Sweden) - 56,300 (PokerStars qualifier)
Vesty ? 55,000
Michael Greco (UK) - 49,700
Daniel Dodet (Belgium) - 47,400
Borge Dypvik (Norway) - 45,200
Henrik Sorensen (Denmark) - 45,000
Cort Kibler-Melby (Germany) - 43,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
Phil Starrs (UK) - 39,900 (PokerStars APAT qualifier)
Mark Vos (Australia) 38,300
Stefan Mattsson (Sweden) - 35,000
Jean Paul Pasqualini (France) - 34,600
Daniel Stern (USA) - 32,500
Massimiliano Rosa (Italy) - 31,200
Kitai Davidi Jacob (Belgium) - 31,100
Ole Gabriel Holgersen (Norway) - 26,200
Henrik Jensen (Denmark) - 25,200
Mika Puro (Finland) - 25,100
Jerome Ferron (France) - 23,100
Jesus Manuel Garde (Spain) - 20,400
Katja Thater (Germany) - 19,200 (Team PokerStars)
Ryan Jones (USA) - 7,200

1 €1,170,700
2 €673,000
3 €388,800
4 €301,000
5 €250,800
6 €196,500
7 €154,700
8 €104,500
9-10 €64,800
11-12 €46,000
13-14 €33,450
15-16 €25,100
17-24 €20,900
25-32 €16,700
33-39 €14,650
41-48 €12,550
49-56 €10,500
Total prize pool €4,181,100

And that's it, the bubble has burst. The unfortunate player is also nameless: after seeing his move with Q-8 picked off by Martin Wendt's A-K, he disappeared into the Barcelona night. It would have been imprudent to follow him, notebook poised.

Cameras and chaos follows the announcement of "All-in, called!"


The bubble-boy makes his departure
So there we have it. The end of day two.

By my reckoning, Mohamed Kowssarie is the chip leader, with Mark Teltscher and Adam Junglen in pursuit. Katja Thater is the lone Team PokerStars member who made it, continuing her fine form from Vegas this year.

Cort Kibler-Melbey is in the mix, as are fellow qualifiers Michael Wong, Aditya Agarwal, Andrey Zaichenko and Phil Starrs. I'm confident there are more, and the official list, out as soon as we have it, will no doubt confirm it.

Alas, we lost Noah Boeken, Sverre Sundbo, ElkY and Daniel Negreanu. High rollers Johnny Chan and Patrick Antonius also went home empty handed. Joris Jaspers, who began the day with great promise, took a succession of bad beats and hit the rail before anyone started writing cheques.

We'll have that official list posted here in the morning, when you'll also be able to tune in to full coverage of day three, both here on the blog and via the EPT live feed. More details of that tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's what happened today:

Prodding at the bubble

Katja Thater catches a lifeline

The money nears

KidPoker hits the rail

The railbirds move in

The chaos continues

Ups and downs, ins and outs

Qualifiers waiting to pounce

Day two starting stacks

It's bubble time in Barcelona. Fifty-seven players remain, 56 will get paid. As ever, vultures are circling above the poker room as we await the most unfortunate cadaver.

Thomas Wahlroos, from Finland, was out in 58th. He pushed with 10-7c and was called by 9-9. The flop gave hope: J-Q-K but neither the ace nor nine came and he was gone.

For the record, we have a new chip leader in Mohamad Kowssarie, from Sweden. He's been silent all day, but must have just taken a massive pot from Fabrice Soulier because the Frenchman is down to about 40,000 while Kowssarie peers over 350,000.

Also near the top is Adam Junglen, from Stow, Ohio, who cashed in his W-dollars on PokerStars and has crept up to 235,000. Mark Teltscher, EPT winner in season two, has about 290,000.

Among the others:

Michael Wong (PokerStars qualifier) -- 165,000
Aditya Agarwal (PokerStars qualifier) -- 68,000
Daniel Stern -- 35,000
Martin Wendt -- 96,000
Mika Puro -- 25,000
Christopher Ulsrud -- 160,000
Katja Thater (Team PokerStars) -- 25,000
Cort Kibler-Melby (PokerStars qualifier) -- 45,000
Phil Starrs (PokerStars qualifier) -- 45,000
Michael Greco -- 55,000
Andrey Zaichenko (PokerStars qualifier) -- 90,000
Mark Vos -- 18,000

News of the unlucky bubble boy will be here soon.

Already we're down to 67 since the last update, and chips are flying in, out, left and right.

One of those profiting from this free-for-all is Katja Thater, with the distinct help of the dealer, it must be said.

Katja Thater
The Team PokerStars star, a bracelet winner at this year's World Series, got all her chips in pre-flop and found two callers. The flop was all diamonds, ace, nine, blank, and Michael Greco moved his remaining 20,000 or so into the middle.

The other player had enough behind that he could afford to pass and, after squeezing his cards proud enough to flash me a nine, did indeed let them go. Katja showed 5-4 of spades for low pair, no kicker. Greco tabled queens.

"Come on, give me a four," Thater implored, and there was a minimum of hesitation before a four did indeed pop out on the turn, leaving Greco punching the table in frustration.

The ace on the river was seemingly irrelevant, but the other player who had folded his nines, wheeled away in disgust, presumably at the sight of the card that would have given him a larger two pair than Thater.

But that was that. Greco took the side pot, containing only his chips anyway, and Thater was left to stack somewhere in the region of 40,000, which is a definite lifeline.

Other chip counts:

Phil Starrs (PokerStars qualifier) -- 65,000
Nikolaus Jedlicka -- 100,000
Paul Wasicka -- 45,000
Michael Keiner -- 85,000
Patrick Bruel -- 140,000
Fabrice Soulier -- 200,000+
Ryan Nathan -- OUT - ran aces into Soulier's set of tens
Pete Giordano -- 200,000
Thomas Wahlroos -- 30,000
Michael Wong (PokerStars qualifier) -- 138,000
Bryn Kenney -- 20,000
Aditya Agarwal (PokerStars qualifier) -- 68,000
Mika Puro -- 44,000
Mark Teltscher -- 240,000
Mark Vos -- 30,000
Katja Thater (Team PokerStars) -- 40,000+
Philip Yeh -- 79,000
Cort Kibler-Melby (PokerStars qualifier) -- 55,000
Michael Greco -- 18,000
Julian Thew -- 45,000
Bjorn-Erik Glenne -- 79,000

The Gran Casino, Barcelona, resembles Bedlam at the moment. Thomas Kremser has just banished the media to the rail, while 77 players retake their seats for the beginning of level 12.

The tournament director has also just announced that we'll be playing to the money tonight. Twenty-one of these contenders will go home empty handed. The remaining 56 will find their pockets lined with silver.

There are some huge stacks; there are some minute ones. The latter will be shoving, the former smugly picking them off.

I just caught up with Anton Smolyanskiy, the New Yorker who has had a tortuous day. He's down to less than 10,000 now after he flat called an under-the-gun raiser with 9-9 and pushed on a queen high flop. That raiser had A-Q and crippled him, and while Antony was stalking the floor during the break wondering if he played it right, it's difficult to see how it could have played out differently.

Among the others still fighting are Katja Thater (the final sponsored PokerStars pro after Sverre Sundbo departed), and qualifiers Philip Starrs, from the UK, who has 65,000, and Andrey Zaichenko, from Russia, who has a monstrous 122,000.

Aditya Agarwal, from India, has 65,000, while other PokerStars qualifiers, a little further out of view, are also prospering.

I'll check up on all them right away - as well as the other tournament chip leaders - and have a full update here very soon.

Daniel Negreanu is OUT.

He raised from the small blind and his neighbour moved all in for about 70,000 which, as Daniel noted, is a strange bet. The blinds at the time were 600-1,200 so this was strange indeed.

But Daniel had pocket queens, thought, and called. His adversary showed A-K.

OK, so we flipped a coin and the flop brought both king and ace. KidPoker packed his bags and is out of here.

PokerStars hopes now lie with Katja Thater, still battling with 20,000, and Sverre Sundbo, on 24,000.

Oh, and all those qualifiers. Who are doing rather well.

Forgive me for stating something obvious: poker is quite popular these days. One need only take a cursory glance around the Gran Casino Barcelona to judge how it's erupted in the public interest in recent years.

If people aren't playing poker here (there are juicy side games aplenty), they're railbirding it. Scarcely ten minutes goes by without Thomas Kremser, tournament director, grabbing the microphone and requesting approximately 19,526 spectators to move out of the tournament area.

That's testament firstly to tournaments like the EPT, which brings the best players in the world to one venue, and also to the television presentation of such events. As usual, highlights of this tournament will be broadcast worldwide within a year, and the feature table will be live online tomorrow (see a few posts down this page).

And television produces its own stars. Daniel Negreanu, for instance, is one of the most recognisable faces either side of the Atlantic for his multi-million dollar exploits around the baize. The likes of Katja Thater, Fabrice Soulier, Patrick Bruel and Marc Goodwin, all still also in contention here, are also very easy on the television eye.

But one of the boons for those of us who have followed the EPT since it's inception is the possibility of finding a quiet corner and watching some of the best poker you're likely to see almost untroubled by any spectators. Some players might not be glamorous, but boy can they play.

Table two here is one such example: here we have Thomas Wahlroos playing into Theo Jorgensen; two of Scandinavia's finest pitted head-to-head. Throw into the mix the PokerStars players Anton Smolyanskiy, from New York, and Andrey Zaichenko, from Russia, and it's a table to make a PokerStars blogger drool.

Andrey Zaichenko
Zaichenko is ruling the roost. He's up to about 95,000, while Wahlroos is on about 40,000 and Jorgensen has 26,000. Smolyanskiy, who was originally from Russia before moving to Manhattan, New York, is on 29,000.

It's definitely one for the purists.

The craziness continues in Barcelona -- as well as the eliminations that usually follow.

Some of those eliminations:

Moments ago, Noah Boeken bit the dust. He was all in on a flop of K-8-10 rainbow. Noah had 7-9 for the open-ended straight draw, but he was called in two spots; one player had 10-8; another pocket eights.

Noah Boeken

The turn was very kind to one of those, and very cruel to two. It was another ten, giving the player with 10-8 (believed to be Ola Brandborg) a full house and leaving the others, Noah included, drawing dead.

Also out are Paul Testud, whose queens lost to sixes. And Praz Bansi, whose queens lost to A-9. But the ladies were kinder to Daniel Negreanu, who thought about folding them pre-flop when a tight player moved in, but instead took the risk and ended up tripling through, beating A-K and K-10. He's up to around 60,000.



Daniel Negreanu

Patrick Antonius perished at the hands of Martin Wendt - twos versus queens, all-in pre-flop.

Four players then contested a huge pot on Joris Jaspers' table. One of those was Jaspers, and I'm happy to say the PokerStars qualifier prevailed. He moved in pre-flop over the top of two all ins in the seats immediately to his right.


Joris Jaspers

Paul Wasicka had all of them covered and thought for long enough for about 50 railbirds to flock to the table. In the end, Wasicka folded and the players -- Alexander Salabascher, Paul Gourlay and Jaspers -- showed 9-9, 10-10 and J-J respectively.

No suck out -- in fact, the jack flopped -- and Jaspers leapt to around 60,000.

Brandon Schaefer just took down a nice pot ahead of the dinner break. He made a sizeable bet on a board of two nines and a queen to push his solitary adversary out. Schaefer, EPT maestro from the United States, has about 93,000.

Other notables:

Michael Wong (PokerStars qualifier) - 90,000
David Williams - 39,000
Katja Thater (Team PokerStars) - 23,000
Daniel Stern - 85,000
Sverre Sundbo (PokerStars sponsored pro) - 60,000
Juan Maceiras Lapeido - 95,000
Ryan Nathan - 52,000
Philip Yeh - 85,000
Thomas Wahlroos - 58,000
Daniel Negreanu (Team PokerStars) - 58,000
Dag Mikkelsen - 52,000
Paul Wasicka - 75,000
Mark Teltscher - 100,000
Brandon Schaefer - 93,000

The last thing we at the PokerStars Blog would ever do is actively encourage you to go somewhere else for your coverage of this EPT event. We like to think we provide the best and most in-depth coverage of all the European Poker Tour action. That said, we can't really ignore one of the coolest things about the EPT.

Beginning Friday morning at around 11:00am ET (17:00 Barcelona time), you can watch the TV table of the EPT Barcelona action live on your computer. Then, on Saturday at the same time, you can watch the final table as it happens. What's more, it's free. No waiting to watch it on TV. No reading. Just top-notch coverage of one of the most exciting events in European poker.

To watch the stream, be sure to visit EPTLive.com.

And, of course, be sure to come back here. There are just certain things you won't see on TV and all the behind the scenes action will still appear on this blog.

Enjoy!

There are few things less surprising in poker than the all-in fest that ensues early on day two.

Having spent much of their respective first days clinging on to however small a stack they might be left with, most of the players towards the lower end of the chip ladder decide that it's double-up or go to the beach time within the first couple of rounds.

This, of course, makes for some crazy plays and crazier results, as some well-known names will testify.

Out on table 23, there was always going to be fireworks with the short-stacked but hyper-aggressive Annette "annette_15" Obrestad sitting the right of the short-stacked but seriously talented Paul Wasicka. Making up a fascinating trio was Peter Toefting, a PokerStars player from Denmark, whose seat in Barcelona cost him precisely nothing, having bested a field of 3,000 to win a freeroll organised by a Danish newspaper, then taking first spot in a single-table final to claim his place here.

Annette Obrestad and Paul Wasicka

It was about half an hour into proceedings when I strolled to the table to see a load of chips in the middle and some furious calculating of pots and side-pots underway. Neither Wasicka nor Annette seemed to have any chips in front of them, while Toefting also seemed to have a hefty chunk in the centre of the table.

When all the chopping and stacking was done, it became clear that this was a three-way coup, with Obrestad and Wasicka's tournament life on the line and Toefting's pretty much in the balance as well. They each flipped their cards: Obrestad had K-K, Wasicka 8-8 and Toefting needing to catch up with A-10.

But, as is so often the case, the poker gods soon turned all that on its head. The flop brought an ace, and an eight, catapulting Wasicka into the lead and relegating Annette's kings to the bottom of the heap. Nothing changed on turn and river, tripling up Wasicka, the former World Series runner up, handing a decent side pot to Toefting, and sending Obrestad back to the online tables, where she'll no doubt soon be running amok with even more ruthless elan than usual.

Meanwhile, mixed news for other qualifiers. Bryn Kenney was "at it" again, he proudly confided to me a few moments ago, and ended up cracking aces when his 10-6 squeeze play hit the fop squarely on the head. He's up to 80,000.

However, Cort Kibler-Melby was on the rougher end of a beat: his Q-Q outdrawn by A-Q all-in pre-flop for 20,000 and change.

And Team PokerStars lost an ambassador a moment or so ago. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was seen departing the card-room, leaving Katja Thater, Noah Boeken and Daniel Negreanu to fight the good fight.

Without question, one of the most exciting things about the European Poker Tour is the continued emergence, and subsequent rise to prominence, of the PokerStars qualifiers. There's a seemingly limitless source of top quality players in cyberspace who come blinking out of their bedrooms and studies to take their place near the chip lead of these major tournaments in the "real" world.

Barcelona, season four, is no different.

As the players unbag their day two chips, Joris Jaspers, from Nismegen, Holland, has the most stacking to do. He endured, then prospered, from a roller-coaster day yesterday to start this afternoon with 62,150.

Up to 20,000 within the first few levels, he then inched up to about 40,000 before being crippled by a set-over-set encounter. He battled back to 22,000 and was rewarded for his persistence with a move to Daniel Negreanu's table late in the day. Within one level, he was up to 62,000, where he finished the day.

"You know what's going to happen now," said Paul Gourlay, an English player sitting to Joris's right today. Gourlay then mimed a huge growth in his own stack, and a corresponding reduction in Jaspers'. We all laughed amiably. But that should stop very soon.

Also with ample stacking this afternoon are Lukas Benkovic, from Dunajska Streda in Slovakia, who has 28,900, and Bryn Kenney, from Long Island, NY, in the United States, who has 34,300.

Lukas Benkovic

Kenney also had an up-and-down day yesterday that finished, unfortunately, somewhat on the down side. He shipped a 25,000 pot late in the day to an opponent holding Q-2. Kenney had pocket fours and shoved pre-flop, but paid the price for having made a similar move earlier in the day, then showing the mighty 5-3.

This time his opponent must have thought his picture card was ahead and took the chance. He spiked it on the flop and the 20-year-old Kenney was cut down to size.

No fear, though. He has plenty to play with -- and some pedigree too. He won the first EPT Barcelona satellite that was run on PokerStars this year, and rather than waste time waiting for it to come around, won a satellite to next month's London event as well.

Worth keeping an eye on, is the official judgment here.

Also worth keeping an eye on - but mostly because he falls into an unfortunate "blink-and-you'll-miss-him" category is Richard Guttman, from Austria. Of all the players who made it to day two, he has the fewest chips: just 1,100. And with levels starting today at 400-800, he'll be waiting the draw for the button more anxiously than most.


Richard Guttmann

After our two day ones, day two proper will begin at the Gran Casino Barcelona at 5pm, central European time.

The following 204 players made it, some with significantly more than others. Join us for the early all-in fest, followed by some first-rate battling.

Day 2 chip counts:

Daniel Stern (USA) - 101500
Thomas Wahlroos (Finland) - 87800
Fabrice Soulier (France) - 78400
Gregory Dyer (USA) - 76500
Mark Teltscher (UK) - 67300
Mark Vos (Australia) - 64300
Sander Lylloff (Denmark) - 62600
Joris Bernard Jaspers (Holland) - 62150 PokerStars qualifier
Jean Paul Pasqualini (France) - 61900
Sverre Sundbo (USA) - 60500 PokerStars sponsored pro
Massimiliano Rosa (Italy) - 60100
Cort Kibler-Melby (USA) - 59500 PokerStars qualifier
Jean Baptista Tomi (France) - 58500
Voitto Aulis Rintala (Finland) - 57800
Björn Erik Glenne (Norway) - 56700
Juha Jaakko Lauttamus (Finland) - 56100
Andrey Zaichenko (Russia) - 56000 PokerStars qualifier
Jose Roldan Vicente (Spain) - 53000
Rayan Nathan (Australia) - 52700
Philip Chen Yun Yeh (Sweden) - 52600
Theo Jorgensen (Denmark) - 52200
Mohamad Ali Kowssarie (Sweden) - 52000
Kitai Davidi Jacob (Belgica) - 51900
Nikolaus Jedlicka (Austria) - 50900
Ilari Sahamies (Finland) - 46900
Martin Wendt (Denmark) - 45700
Ola Brandborn (Sweden) - 45100
Fabrizio Tripicchio (Italy) - 44700
Henrik Jensen (Denmark) - 44600
Kristian Ulriksen (Norway) - 44500
Gyorgy Moger (Macedonia) - 43800
Patrik Antonius (Finland) - 43200
Francis Mahiout (France) - 43200
Joan Sastre Durin (Spain) - 42900
Stefan Mattsson (Sweden) - 42700
Mika Paasonen (Finland) - 41800
Adam Marc Junglen (USA) - 40800
Richard Ashby (UK) - 40500
Michael Wong (USA) - 40100 PokerStars qualifier
Imad Derwiche (France) - 40000
Jan Olav Sjaavik (Norway) - 39600
Eric Scalisi (France) - 39400
Johnny Chan (USA) - 39200
Tutev Yovor (Bulgaria) - 38800
Sebastien Compte (France) - 37400
Sergey Rybachenko (Russia) - 36900
Eric Van Der Burg (Holland) - 36800
Pepe Samuel Laborde (France) - 36200 PokerStars qualifier
Thierry Cazals (France) - 34900
Nikolay Losev (Russia) - 34800
Bryn Kenney (USA) - 34300 PokerStars qualifier
Juan Maceiras Lapido (Spain) - 34200
J.Pierre Petroli (France) - 34000
Lex Veldhuis (Germany) - 32900
Jesus Manuel Garde (Spain) - 32100
Sampo Lopponen (Finland) - 31100
Francisco Lopez Martos (Spain) - 30700
Johan Niermi Tjader (Sweden) - 30600
Dag Martin Mikkelsen (Norway) - 30400
Marc Goodwin (UK) - 30200
Marcus Friman (Sweden) - 30000
Ryan Jones (USA) - 29500
Daan Ruiter (Holland) - 29400
Ian Woodley (UK) - 29200
Lukas Benkovic (Slovakia) - 28900 PokerStars qualifier
Youssef Fawaz (France) - 28800
Thor Hansen (Denmark) - 28700
Patrick Bruel (France) - 28500
Nickolaos Panopoulos (Greece) - 28500
Nikolas Vicente (France) - 28400
Sylvester Georghegan (Ireland) - 28300
James Desmond Higgins (UK) - 28300
Anton Amolyanskiy (USA) - 28300
Cees Bal (Norway) - 28000
Mark Dickstein (USA) - 27800
Carlos Llado (Spain) - 27800
Alesko Isaia Italy - 27600
Peter Clark (UK) - 27400
Kees Alblas (Holland) - 27100
Mario Georgiev (Bulgaria) - 26800
Pete Giordano (USA) - 26500
Patrick Bueno (France) - 26300
Brian Green (USA) - 26300
Carl Ygborn (Sweden) - 26300
Dennis Plejdrup (Denmark) - 26200 PokerStars qualifier
Alexander Salabaschew (France) - 26100
Samir Rahal (France) - 25800
David Sonelin (Sweden) - 25700
Michiel Brummelhuis (Holland) - 25400
Julian Thew (UK) - 25400
Thomas Fuller (USA) - 25000
Magnus Cornmark (Sweden) - 24900
Gerard Lancry (France) - 24700
Anton Bergstroem (Sweden) - 24600
Daniel Negreanu Canada - 24500 Team PokerStars
Vesa Leikos (Finland) - 24400 PokerStars qualifier
Sanchez Raymi (Sweden) - 24000
Hans Eskilsson (Sweden) - 23600
Emmanuel Loubradou (France) - 23000
Gunnar Ostebrod (Norway) - 23000
Hansen Casper (Denmark) - 22900
Mika Puro (Finland) - 22500
Ayaz Manji (Portugal) - 22400
Brandon Schaefer (USA) - 22000
Nico Behling (Germany) - 21500
Juan Pastor (Spain) - 21100
Eric Hardt (USA) - 20900 PokerStars qualifier
Noah Boeken (Holland) - 20800 Sponsored
Santiago Holguin (Spain) - 20600
Pascal Peretti (France) - 20600
Giovanni Spadavecchia (Italy) - 20600
Mikael Isik (Sweden) - 20300
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (France) - 20100 Team PokerStars
Simon Wolf (UK) - 20100 PokerStars qualifier
Ognyan Ivanov (Bulgaria) - 19700 PokerStars qualifier
Daniel Mangas (Spain) - 19600
Janne Lamsa (Finland) - 19400
Erik Tamm (Sweden) - 19200
Thomas Tollund (Denmark) - 19200 PokerStars qualifier
Jean Yves Chicheportiche (France) - 18700
Ramzi Jelassi (Sweden) - 18700
Borge Dypvik (Norway) - 18400
Thomas Fjelleheim (Norway) - 18100
Joep Durkstra (Holland) - 17900
Daniele Mazzia (Italy) - 17900
Katja Thater (Germany) - 17900 Team PokerStars
Javed Abrahams (UK) - 17800
Walter Srour (Brazil) - 17800
Thierry Van Den Berg (Holland) - 17600
Henrik Sorensen (Denmark) - 17100
Daniel Dodet (Belgium) - 16900
Praz Bansi (UK) - 16700
Michael Greco (UK) - 16600
Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) - 16600
Angel Botana (Spain) - 16500
Tomas Brolin (Sweden) - 16500
Ville Aleksi Salmi (Finland) - 16300 PokerStars qualifier
Aditya Agarwal (India) - 16100 PokerStars qualifier
Jason Coyle (UK) - 15800
Augustin Federici (France) - 15800
Jgors Kalinicenko (Latvia) - 15700
Marc Naalden (Holland) - 15400
Christophe Palmeri (France) - 15400
Janne Juutilainen (Finland) - 15300
Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark) - 15300
Hans Ari Varsi (Norway) - 15300
Kenny Johansson (Sweden) - 15100
Philip Starrs (UK) - 15100 PokerStars qualifier
Gianluca Gentili Italy 14900 PokerStars qualifier
Isaac Garcia (Spain) 14800 PokerStars qualifier
Trond Erik Eidsvig Norway 14600
Andreas Hagen Norway 14500
Paul Testud (France) 14200
Atle Walgren Norway 14100
Peter Tofting (Denmark) 13900
Jeff Garza (USA) 13700
Pascal Barrau (France) 13500 PokerStars qualifier
Pedro De Jodar Muñoz (Spain) 13400
Paul Gourlay (UK) 13400
Piero Compagnoni (Italy) - 13000
Senastian Skuja (UK) - 13000
Frederik Vestberg (Sweden) - 13000
Renart Yague (Spain) - 12800
Phil Gordon (USA) - 12700
Keven Stammen (USA) - 12600 PokerStars qualifier
Paul Wasicka (USA) - 12500
Anders Henriksson (Sweden) - 12300 PokerStars qualifier
Andre Kolzch (Germany) - 12000
Alexander Stevic (Sweden) - 11900
Jannick Wrang (Denmark) - 11800
Stephane Daniel Subrenat (France) - 11600 PokerStars qualifier
Peter Bertelsen (Sweden) - 11300
Sonny Ridgewell (UK) - 11200
Joakim Angle (Sweden) - 11100
Alexander Roumeliotis (Sweden) - 11100 PokerStars qualifier
Ole Holgersen (Norway) - 11000
Gordon Vayo (USA) - 10800 PokerStars qualifier
Dan Carter (UK) - 10600
Kjetil Ness (Norway) - 10600
Eric Da Silva (France) - 10100
David Williams (USA) - 10100
Michael Keiner (Germany) - 9900
Annette Obrestad (Norway) - 9700
Seweryn Brzozowski (Poland) - 9600
Isaac Baron (USA) - 9500 PokerStars qualifier
Raoul Refos (Holland) - 9500
Dan Boren (Sweden) - 9300
Stig Top Rasmussen (Denmark) - 9200
Henrik Wärn (Sweden) - 9200
Jerome Ferron (France) - 7700
Mika Antero Heikkinen (Sweden) - 7700
Carlo Bordogna (Italy) - 7500
Miguel Magan Tier (Spain) - 7300
Tommi Mourujarvi (Finland) - 7000
Thomas Peterson (Sweden) - 7000
Jerome Zerbib (France) - 7000
Alexander Hanell (Sweden) - 6800
Orjan Holt (Norway) - 6400
Lee McCreery (UK) - 6000
Nicola Filesi (Italy) - 5500
Geir Inge Haugland (Norway) - 5400 PokerStars qualifier
Rob Hollink (Holland) - 4800
Davood Mehrmand (Germany) - 4000
Richard Guttmann (Austria) - 1100 PokerStars qualifier

The bagging up has begun here in Barcelona, and the usual end-of-night chaos has ensued. Through the clattering and chattering, it's just about possible to discern that 112 players have made it into day two, where there'll be joined by the 99 from yesterday.

Here's what they'll be playing for:

1 €1,170,700
2 €673,000
3 €388,800
4 €301,000
5 €250,800
6 €196,500
7 €154,700
8 €104,500
9-10 €64,800
11-12 €46,000
13-14 €33,450
15-16 €25,100
17-24 €20,900
25-32 €16,700
33-39 €14,650
41-48 €12,550
49-56 €10,500
Total prize pool €4,181,100

Those 200-odd contenders almost didn't include Daniel Negreanu, who found himself all in on the final hand of the night. The board was 2h-3h-6c and Negreanu's push for around 8,000 was called by Lex Veldhuis. Daniel showed 7-7 for an overpair; Veldhuis was on the flush draw and overcards. He showed Kh-8h.

None of his outs materialised, though, and KidPoker lived to fight another day.

The chip leaders still include Daniel Stern, Thomas Wahlroos, Fabrice Soullier, Patrick Antonius and Theo Jorgensen. A full count will, of course, be posted here as soon as we know it.

Also still bagging at the end are: Patrick Bruel, Johnny Chan, Mika Puro, Alexander Stevic, Raymi Sanchez Thorn, Eric Van Der Burg, Dag Mikkelsen, Marc Goodwin, Stig Top Rasmussen, Praz Bansi and PokerStars qualifiers Aditya Agarwal, Dennis Plejdrup and Anton Smolyanskiy.

There will be others, so be sure to check back tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's what you may have missed today (and can catch up with right now):

Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu starts to play

The table of death, and others

Johnny Chan starts prop betting

Fossilman faces extinction

Early chipcounts

Dario Minieri and Greg Raymer suffer early setbacks

Introducing some qualifiers

Day 1B begins: who's in the field

Goodnight from Barcelona.

Day 1B is drawing to a close - and there are some very big stacks developing.

Daniel Stern, from the United States, is probably top of the pile still, sitting behind about 115,000 or so (if my tired chip-counting eyes aren't deceiving me.)

There's also a nice little battle developing on another table, where Fabrice Soullier, the French player, is nursing a stack of around 75,000 right next to where Thomas Wahlroos, of Finland, riffles about 80,000.

Elsewhere, Patrick Antonius has taken a hit and is down to about 34,000; tablemates Martin Wendt and Dag Mikkelsen remain healthy on 30,000 and 35,000 respectively. Ross Boatman, however, has perished.

Daniel Negreanu has a new neighbour, and a slightly reduced stack. Next to him now is Praz Bansi, a British World Series bracelet winner, and his stack is about 15,000. I can't be certain where it went, but PokerStars Supernova Lex Veldhuis has around 43,000 - at least 10,000 of which he didn't have a few minutes ago.

Not a big stack but always worthy of a mention is Dennis Plejdrup, a serial qualifier for the EPT and World Series on PokerStars. He's still battling, and recently got it all in with A-9. That's nice when the board brings another three aces.

Plejdrup has about 13,000 as the end of the day nears.

After an uncharacteristically quiet opening few levels -- both in terms of chatter and play -- Daniel Negreanu is moving into gear. And it's a joy to watch.

Daniel Negreanu: the moment KidPoker woke up

Always the entertainer, for the poker connoisseuer and the amiable railbird alike, KidPoker has snapped into action in the past couple of hours, stealing pots, posing for photos, accumulating chips, accepting dinner invitations, running over his table.

A moment ago, he entered into a conversation with a gaggle of enthusiastic players/spectators about the upcoming World Cup. One problem: Daniel was talking soccer, they were talking poker.

"What position do you play?" he asked. "Forward, midfield, defence?"

"Errr," they replied. Big laughs.

In the middle of all that, he called a pre-flop raise on the button and saw the big blind come along for the ride. When both opponents checked the J-9-5 board, Daniel fired out 1,500 and picked it up. He shrugged his shoulders. Easy as that. Back to the conversation.

Negreanu knows that now is about the time to start making his moves. He has somewhere like 22,000 as we enter the final level of the day.

Not so good for both Luca Pagano and Humberto Brenes, who are out. Daniel Stern, however, has more than 80,000 and is the probable tournamant chip leader, having overtaken Gregory Dyer's total from Day 1A.

We're just about to enter level seven, meaning blinds at 200-400 and a 50 ante. There are 162 left from the 279 who started today and, predictably, some a faring better than others.

In the happy category, we find the likes of Daniel Stern, from the United States, who is not only sitting on the same table as Isabelle Mercier and Liz Lieu -- worth the buy-in alone -- but also has about 65,000 in chips.

His tablemates aren't quite so chirpy: Mercier has about 12,000, even after winning a decent pot with A-J just before the break. Lieu has slightly more, but not so much that she's troubling the chip leaders.

Most definitely among those -- probably at the very top -- is Patrick Antonius, the Finnish high-stakes player and glittering EPT alumnus. Antonius has at least 60,000, possibly much more.

He makes up at least one component on the undoubted table of death here: to his immediate left is Martin Wendt, also chipped up to about 24,000, and Marc Goodwin, a poor relation on about 8,000.

Table of death: (l-r) Patrick Antonius, Martin Wendt, Marc Goodwin

That table also happens to feature Ross Boatman, the solitary Hendon Mobster in today's field, sitting with a meagre 5,000, as well as Eric van der Burg, the Dutch player who just missed out on the final table at the Monte Carlo Grand Final earlier this year.


Ross Boatman

And it doesn't stop there: EPT watchers will probably remember Anton Bergstroem, from Sweden, who made the final table here in season two. He has 22,000. Oh, and there's Dag Mikkelsen, a PokerStars Supernova from Norway, who led the World Series after day four, sitting behind 13,000 or so.


Dag Mikkelsen

Elsewhere, Theo Jorgensen, from Denmark, always a contender when the EPT comes to town, has about 41,000, recently doubling up with Q-Q against A-K. The queen on the flop was overkill. Alexander Stevic, another EPT star from Sweden, has 22,000. And while we're in the Nordic countries, Stig Top Rasmussen, from Denmark, has 25,000.

Johnny Chan's domination is waning somewhat. He's down to about 21,000.

As far as Team PokerStars goes, well, it isn't really at the moment. Luca Pagano just shipped most of his stack elsewhere and has about 1,100; Humberto Brenes is also likely to be moving his shark forward fairly soon: he has about 8,000. Daniel Negreanu isn't necessarily panicking yet, however. He has 11,000.

On the rail, we find Dario Minieri, Marcel Luske and Terence Chan, among many others.

Update: Isabelle Mercier just busted. She had 3-3, her opponent had J-J and Isabelle missed her backdoor straight draw on the turn. She's out.

Big pots draw big crowds, even in this relatively early stage of the tournament. And it's always amusing, for the railbirds at least, to see a player turn over a hand like 5c-7c when they've just shoved their entire stack -- of close to 13,000 -- in the middle.

In this case, there was good reason. Just. A flop showed Kc-2c-9h and it was heads up. Peter Dalhuijsen, from Holland, had obviously sensed some kind of weakness from his adversary and moved in with his bottom-of-the-barrel flush draw.

It looked to be a fine move: Douglas Champie, PokerStars qualifier from the United States, had to think for nearly five minutes, running through the possible hands that he might be up against. "Aces?" he muttered, before calling with K-J for top pair.

That's when he saw the flush draw, and he dodged the two bullets on the turn and river to knock out Mr 5-7.

"I only played one qualifier," he told me as he stacked his 28,000 chips. He could take it a long way.

Meanwhile, Patrick Antonius, who made his first real splash on the live circuit with a third place here in season two, just doubled up courtesy of a total cold deck. Antonius had 10-J, his opponent K-Q and the board was K-Q-9. Enough said.

Elsewhere, Johnny Chan is not content with hogging somewhere near the chip lead. He's also looking for some side action and has found a customer in Sorel Mizzi. According to reliable sources, they're betting &euro1,000 on each flop: if it's mainly black, Chan gets it. If it's mainly red, it goes to Mizzi.

After the first hand was taken down by a pre-flop raise, thwarting the gamblers, Chan ended up calling another raiser the next time with 10-9 of diamonds. Not only did a 10 flop, earning the real pot for Chan, but he also took the prop bet as black outnumbered red on the board.

Mizzi looked on as Chan explained his dubious call: "I had two red cards!" he said.

Ask any poker player what is their least favourite hold 'em hand, and it's likely that a fair number will answer J-J. Unless there's been some crazy action before it reaches you, allowing a fairly simple pre-flop fold, pocket hooks usually present one of those rock/hard place decisions.

If you raise and get action, the chances are you're a coin-flip at best - any Q-K-A on the flop and you're worried; any three undercards might have made someone else a set. If you raise and get no callers, you've managed to nick the minimum with, supposedly, one of the best two-card holdings in the game.

Or, this could happen. Which is worse. (And it happened to the best, I'm sure you'll notice. So don't feel so rough the next time it happens to you.)

Greg Raymer saw the knaves pre-flop and made a fairly standard raise to 800. A short stack to his left took less time than we might expect to shove his entire 4,425 stack into the middle. Greg didn't have a great deal more than that, and figured it's a mandatory call. At this stage, and with that stack, a coin flip is fine.

It's even better when your opponent tables K-J for the bluff. But it can go horribly south when the five community cards come Q-4-4-5-6. No problem? Not if four of those are clubs, and that rogue king across the table is black and club-shaped.

Greg was felted.

But, ever the battler, the former world champ was happy to shove his remaining 800-odd into the middle on the very next hand. The big blind is almost priced in to the call, and eventually does, tabling Q-J. And, guess what, Raymer has J-J again.

"Surely I can't lose against two hands that I'm dominating," he says.

This, I'm afraid, was hubris.

The first four cards off the deck are fine: A-K-K-5, rainbow.

"At least I won't lose to the flush this time," Raymer says.

True. But out popped the queen on the river and the Fossilman is OUT.

There's been mixed fortunes for the big names in the tournament so far, with the likes of Dario Minieri bludgeoning his way out of the tournament, while Greg Raymer just doubled up his meagre short-stack courtesy of an ace flopping for his A-4 to outdraw an opponent's 10-10.

Elsewhere, Daniel Negreanu has spent four hours amassing 500 more than he started; Luca Pagano is on about 7,800 and Isabelle Mercier's finely manicured nails are scratching the felt around her 3,500 in chips.

And for shark fans: Humberto Brenes has 8,900. Chomp, chomp.

Humberto Brenes

Among the others:

Thomas Wahlroos - 22,000
Liz Lieu - 9,500
Jorge Correia - 12,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
Marc Goodwin - 10,400
Martin Wendt - 8,500
Karl Mahrenholz - 7,500
Dennis Plejdrup - 7,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
Terence Chan - 8,800
Top Ramassen - 31,000
Rolf Slotboom - 8,000
Daniel Stern - 27,000
Johnny Chan - 40,000+
Lex Veidhuis - 13,500
Alexander Stevic - 8,500
Peter Eichhardt - 6,700
Mads Anderson - 7,000
Ben Grundy - 3,000
Patrick Antonius - 15,000
Ross Boatman - 5,900
Sonny Petersen - 2,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
Marcel Luske - 8,000

We're down to 239 players from more than 270 who started today (final count and payouts are imminent). It's approaching the end of level four where the blinds are 100-200.

That's the word that applies to both Greg Raymer and Dario Minieri after they each got involved in the early skirmishes.

Dario, never one to hang around, moved all in on a flop of 4s Ks 5h, a 10,000 re-raise of another player's meagre 2,000 bet. That other player thought for a moment, before calling with pocket sixes - a call that hints at the kind of respect Dario's bets usually command at these events.

As it turns out, this one was a pretty good call. Dario was on a steal -- a semi-bluff at best, with the mighty 5s 3s, or a pretty feeble flush draw, in other words.

Dario Minieri makes a familiar forward motion

This time it failed to hit and the young Italian is down to 2,000 and change. Which, if past history is anything to go by, will have either trebled or vanished by the time I finish writing this next word.

As for Raymer, he was aggressive and unlucky, a combination that usually ends in a hefty stack sliding into the distance. He had Jd-10d and bet 1,000 on a nice looking flop of Jc-5d-3d. But after the 2d turned, Fossilman's adversary came out betting: 1,500 into this growing pot.



Greg Raymer: anguished

Greg called with his made flush, and the river was a harmless 5c. Somehow both players managed to check here, and Raymer's opponent showed Kd-9d, a bigger flush than the former World Champion's.

Crippled, but it probably could have been worse.

Update: Johnny Chan is the likely chip leader after winning a three-way coup with A-K. One opponent was all in pre-flop, the other folded on the turn to a hefty bet from Chan. The Orient Express had hit his ace, but the premature folder was distraught to see a seven appear on the river, which they saw to determine the winner of the main pot. It would have made a set with the pocket sevens he claimed to have folded. As it is, Chan won about 12,000 to more than double his starting stack.

As ever on the EPT, the Barcelona field is swelled by a sizeable number of PokerStars qualifiers, that significant bunch of "just another internet player" who seem to invite the scorn of the so-called established names, before relieving the contemptuous of their chips, titles and dignity.

It's likely to be no different here. Lurking among the TV pros today are 36 players who won their seats in online satellites hosted by PokerStars. And some of them are already attracting the attention that they probably deserve.

Take Sonny Petersen, a 26-year-old qualifier from the Faroe Islands. The Faroes are hardly renowned as a poker hotbed, but then they're hardly renowned for very much at all*. This small group of islands, positioned between Norway and Iceland in the Norwegian sea, has a population of a little more than 48,000, making it the 202nd largest country in the world, just smaller than St Kitts and Nevis, but bigger than the Cayman Islands.

Sonny Petersen: Faroes' finest

There are no casinos in the Faroes and certainly no poker rooms. But that didn't stop Petersen entering a $100 satellite to the $1,000 EPT qualifier and winning both, earning him his spot in Barcelona.

And that in itself is big news in the Faroe Islands: Petersen was interviewed on a national radio station about his qualification, and now carries the weight of a country, albeit a tiny one, on his shoulders. We'll follow his progress on behalf of all the Faroese -- and PokerStars players -- here.

Also in today's field Jorge Correia, from Portugal, and New Zealander Clinton Herring. Correia's progress to the EPT cost him a grand total of $22 after he won a special PokerStars qualifier restricted to Spanish and Portuguese players.

Just one seat was on offer in this unique qualifier, and it went to Correia, which was all the more impressive since he didn't take a single rebuy. (An add-on at the end of the rebuy period accounts for the additional $10 he had to spend.)

Correia is on the same table as Marc Goodwin and Liz Lieu.

Herring's journey from New Zealand to Barcelona clocks in at around 8,000 miles. So it's just as well that he didn't take too long in qualifying: he signed up to PokerStars about two days before entering his first EPT satellite, from which he qualified at the first attempt.

To get near the money will take significantly longer, but with a played one, won one record in PokerStars organised events, he could be one to watch here.

"I'm in first place. Write that," chimed Anton Smolyanskiy, a PokerStars player from New York City. He was right: the tournament hadn't quite started yet, so technically his 10,000 chip stack was as dominant as any other.

With confidence like that, there's plenty this actuary from Manhattan, originally from Russia, could achieve. And if he gets stuck in Barcelona, he's happy as well.

"This place is awesome," he said. "I could live here."

His reason?

"Everybody works so slowly. It's awesome."

*Except, obscure soccer stats fans, once holding Scotland to a faintly amusing 2-2 draw in a European Championship qualifying match in 2002.

"It looks like a bit of a tougher field today," understated a PokerStars colleague here in Barcelona.

And he's right.

One of the common trends during these multi-tiered first days is a tendency for the well-known touring pros to sit out the early exchanges, forsaking a day off in the middle of the tournament for a one night fewer away from home.

That usually means precisely what has transpired here: around the 30 or so tables in the Gran Casino Barcelona is assembled one of the most glittering fields in world poker.

Let's just take a quick look around:

Representing Team PokerStars today we have:

Daniel Negreanu (Canada) -- Team PokerStars' latest addition is making his debut on the EPT. But with three WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles, he has the chance to complete a unique hat-trick here in Barcelona.

Greg Raymer (USA) -- Fossilman is yet to cash in an EPT event, but the 2004 World Champion remains one of the most feared players in any field.

Humberto Brenes (Costa Rica) -- Two WSOP bracelets, three WPT final tables, a sun visor, moustache and trademark plastic sharks. You know who we're talking about.

Isabelle Mercier (Canada) -- "No Mercy" has shown characteristically little mercy on the European Poker Tour and has cashed three times with one final table appearance.

Luca Pagano (Italy) -- Among the most successful EPT players, Luca made two final tables in season one and has four other cashes in EPT events.



PokerStars sponsored pro:

Dario Minieri (Italy) -- Undoubtedly one of the most exciting players on the tour, this PokerStars Supernova is always one to watch.

Among the others:

Johnny Chan (USA) -- Few players need less introduction than the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner. But he's a rookie here. It's the Orient Express's first EPT appearance.

John Shipley (England) -- Made the World Series main event final table in 2002, and won the first EPT event to be held in London. Here, he's a PokerStars qualifier.

David Colclough (Wales) -- Among the most well-respected and most feared British pros. A former European player of the year with 16 cashes in World Series events.

Marcel Luske (Holland) -- The Flying Dutchman has been on two EPT final tables, including the Grand Final in season two. Mentor to PokerStars' own Noah Boeken.

Juha Helppi (Finland) -- Ten WSOP cashes and a WPT title for this highly-ranked Finnish player.

Praz Bansi (England) -- World Series bracelet winner in 2006, highly ranked British player.

Liz Lieu (USA) -- A "spectators' favourite", Lieu has amassed more than $500,000 in tournament winnings including three cashes in World Series events.


Alexander Stevic (Sweden) -- Winner of the first ever EPT event in Barcelona in 2004, Stevic followed up with third place in the season one Grand Final.

Ben Grundy (England) -- Four cashes on the EPT for the Milky Bar Kid, including seventh and tenth places in successive Monte Carlo Grand Finals.

Jonas Molander (Sweden) -- Ninth in Dublin during season two; twelfth in London and seventh in Baden during season three. One of the EPT's most consistent performers.

Theo Jorgensen (Denmark) -- Two EPT final table appearances in season two and three.

Peter Eichhardt (Sweden) -- Two final table appearances, in Deauville in season one, and Baden last year.

Fabrice Soulier (France) -- Three World Series final tables and a string of cashes across Europe.

The chip counts have been finalised from yesterday's action. Of the 263 who started, 99 made it through to the second day, with Greg Dyer, of the United States, top of the pile.

Three Team PokerStars members -- Katja Thater, ElkY and Noah Boeken -- are still in the mix, while Sverre Sundbo, a PokerStars sponsored pro here in Barcelona, is among the chip leaders. Moreover, 12 PokerStars satellite qualifiers are also still involved. Of those, Cort Kibler-Melby and Andrey Zaichenko lead the way.

Day 1B begins within the next few hours.

Full chip count from Day 1A:

Gregory Dyer (USA) 76,500
Mark Teltscher (UK) 67,300
Mark Vos (Australia) 64,300
Sander Lylloff (Denmark) 62,600
Sverre Sundbo (Norway) 60,500 (PokerStars sponsored pro)
Massimiliano Rosa (Italy) 60,100
Cort Kibler-Melby (Germany) 59,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
Björn Erik Glenne (Norway) 56,700
Andrey Zaichenko (Russia) 56,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
Jose Roldan Vicente (Spain) 53,000
Rayan Nathan (Australia) 52,700
Kitai Davidi Jacob (Belgium) 51,900
Nikolaus Jedlicka (Austria) 50,900
Ilari Sahamies (Finland) 46,900
Ola Brandborn (Sweden) 45,100
Fabrizio Tripicchio (Italy) 44,700
Joan Sastre Durin (Spain) 42,900
Mika Paasonen (Finland) 41,800
Richard Ashby (UK) 40,500
Michael Wong (USA) 40,100 (PokerStars qualifier)
Eric Scalisi (France) 39,400
Tutev Yovor Anastasov (Bulgaria) 38,800
Sebastien Compte (France) 37,400
Pepe Laborde (France) 36,200 (PokerStars qualifier)
Thierry Cazals (France) 34,900
Juan Maceiras Lapido (Spain) 34,200
Jean Pierre Petroli (France) 34,000
Jesus Manuel Garde Belio (Spain) 32,100
Sampo Lopponen (Finland) 31,100
Francisco Lopez Martos (Spain) 30,700
Marcus Friman (Sweden) 30,000
Daan Ruiter (Holland) 29,400
Lukas Benkovic (Slovakia) 28,900 (PokerStars qualifier)
Youssef Fawaz (France) 28,800
Nickolaos Panopoulos (Greece) 28,500
Bal Cees (Holland) 28,000
Mark Dickstein (USA) 27,800
Carles Llado Fabregas (Spain) 27,800
Alesko Isaia (Italy) 27,600
Mario Georgiev (Bulgaria) 26,800
Pete Giordano (USA) 26,500
Samir Rahal (France) 25,800
Julian Thew (UK) 25,400
Thomas Fuller (USA) 25,000
Emmanuel Loubradou (France) 23,000
Gunnar Oestebroed (Norway) 23,000
Brandon Schaefer (USA) 22,000
Juan Pastor Baez (Spain) 21,100
Eric Hardt (USA) 20,900 (PokerStars qualifier)
Noah Boeken (Holland) 20,800 (Team PokerStars)
Santiago Holguin Lopez (Spain) 20,600
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (France) 20,100 (Team PokerStars)
Erik Tamm (Sweden) 19,200
Ramzi Jelassi (Sweden) 18,700
Borge Dypvik (Norway) 18,400
Joep Durkstra (Holland) 17,900
Daniele Mazzia (Italy) 17,900
Katja Thater (Germany) 17,900 (Team PokerStars)
Walter Srour (Brazil) 17,800
Michael Greco (UK) 16,600
Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) 16,600
Tomas Brolin (Sweden) 16,500
Jason Coyle (UK) 15,800
Jgors Kalinicenko (Latvia) 15,700
Marc Naalden (Holland) 15,400
Christophe Palmeri (France) 15,400
Janne Juutilainen (Finland) 15,300
Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark) 15,300
Phillips Starrs (UK) 15,100 (PokerStars qualifier)
Gianluca Gentili (Italy) 14,900 (PokerStars qualifier)
Carlos Isaac Garcia Frontelo (Spain) 14,800 (PokerStars qualifier)
Andreas Hagen (Norway) 14,500
Paul Testud (France) 14,200
Atle Walgren (Norway) 14,100
Peter Tofting (Denmark) 13,900
Pascal Barrau (France) 13,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
Piero Monzio Compagnoni (Italy) 13,000
Frederik Vestberg (Sweden) 13,000
Phil Gordon (USA) 12,700
Paul Wasicka (USA) 12,500
Anders Henriksson (Sweden) 12,300 (PokerStars qualifier)
Stephane Daniel Subrenat (France) 11,600 (PokerStars qualifer)
Peter Bertelsen (Sweden) 11,300
Sonny Ridgewell (UK) 11,200
Alexander Roumeliotis (Sweden) 11,100 (PokerStars qualifier)
Ole Gabriel Holgersen (Norway) 11,000
Dan Carter (UK) 10,600
David Williams (USA) 10,100
Michael Keiner (Germany) 9,900
Annette Obrestad (Norway) 9,700
Isaac Baron (USA) 9,500 (PokerStars qualifier)
Henrik Waern (Sweden) 9,200
Jerome Ferron (France) 7,700
Jerome Zerbib (France) 7,000
Alexander Hanell (Sweden) 6,800
Orjan Holt (Norway) 6,400
Lee McCreery (UK) 6,000
Nicola Filesi (Italy) 5,500
Rob Hollink (Holland) 4,800

Things have just about wrapped here in Barcelona and the players are bagging up their chips and heading to the bar bed.

It's been a good day for Team PokerStars, with all four of those who started still breathing at the end of it all. Katja Thater has a little over 17,000; ElkY nearer 19,000; Noah just over 21,000 and Sverre Sundbo up to 60,500 by close of play.

Some of the PokerStars qualifiers are going great guns too. Andrey Zaichenko, from Russia, just bagged up 55,000 chips; Cort Kibler-Melby, from Germany, has 59,450. Also returning on Wednesday are Phil Starrs, from the UK, who has about 19,000 and Samuel Laborde, from France, who's sticking 36,000 under his pillow tonight.

As ever in these huge events, there are players we will have missed and players who will come from nowhere to soar into the chip lead. The full chip count will be posted here and on the EPT site as soon as it's made official by Thomas Kremser, EPT tournament director, and his super-efficient casino staff.

Check back tomorrow for full coverage of day 1B, which is certain to be another star-studded affair.

In the meantime, here's what happened today:

Welcome to Barcelona
An introduction to some of the notables
The rise and fall of Gobboboy
Boeken and Shaefer go in opposite directions
Cort Kibler-Melby: an early contender
Sverre versus Supernova

You give action, you get action. It's one of those poker precepts that everyone who's anyone knows and loves -- until it turns around and bites you somewhere unpleasant.

Sverre Sundbo, Team PokerStars representative from Norway, gives action. He also gives plenty of chat and usually sports an incorrigible smile. That is, until he ends up shipping the best part of 20,000 to a neighbour holding K-5.

Rewind.

I arrived at Sverre's table to find him sporting shorts and flip-flops, a book opened beneath his seat, and a huge stack on the table in front of him. As usual, he's also engaged in pleasant conversation with anyone around, but breaks his monologue to announce "call" when a short stack in the nine seat moved all in pre-flop. Sundbo tabled A-9, the short-stack showed A-K. Sverre winced.

But the flop was kind and showed that magic nine. Sverre winced again, but this time out of sympathy. Handshakes were offered and the unlucky holder of the big slick slipped into the night.

Two hands later, though, and Sundbo is involved again. This time it's a battle of the blinds between the Norwegian and Nikolaus Jedlicka, PokerStars Supernova from Austria. Sverre makes it up, Jedlicka checks and the dealer peels off 5s 5h 4c.

Sverre checks, Jedlicka bets, Sverre calls.

Sverre Sundbo, left, and Nikolaus Jedlicka take a nap after their confrontation

The turn is an innocuous looking Js, but this is when the action starts. Check from Sverre, bet from Jedlicka, raise from Sundbo. Jedlicka thinks, but not so long that it appears he's got a real decision. In fact, he announces all in and tosses in an extra 8,000 or so.

Sverre now has the decision, and in keeping with the way the hand had played out to this point, he keeps it brief. "Call," he says.

Jedlicka now shows his K-5 for trips and a pretty sizeable kicker. Sundbo mucks. "I'm drawing dead," he says.

The table tries to determine what he had. Sundbo tells them that it's obvious what he had. He couldn't beat any real hand but put Jedlicka on a complete bluff or a draw. The chips go to Austria, and Sundbo picks up his book. It's upside down, he puts it away and carries on the chatter.

He's down, but by no means out. Sundbo still sits with about 28,000, while Jedlicka nurses something very similar.

Players are now taking a 15 minute break before we enter level seven, where the blinds will be 200-400 with a 50 ante. We're playing eight levels only today, meaning a relatively early finish of just after 3am.

Play is still racing along. We're down to 136 players of the original 263 and it's fair to expect that we'll comfortably break the 100 level tonight. Tomorrow's field will be bigger: there are some players who didn't show today who will be included tomorrow, while plenty of pros pre-registered for Wednesday, preferring to play three days straight, with any luck, rather than take a day off.

Among the notable chip-stacks, or notable names, are the following:

David Williams -- 34,000
Noah Boeken -- 19,000
Sverre Sundbo -- 46,000
Anette Obrestad -- 21,000
Brandon Shaefer -- 15,000
Mark Teltscher -- 48,000
Cort Kibler-Melby -- 55,000
Katja Thater -- 19,00
Mickey Wernick -- 13,000
Paul Testud -- 26,000
Roland de Wolfe -- 9,000
Ilari Sahamies -- 30,000
Phil Gordon -- 13,000
Michael Greco -- 21,000
Rob Hollink -- 2,500
ElkY -- 20,000
William Thorson -- 3,500
Paul Wasicka -- 19,000
Ramzi Jelassi -- 26,000
Richard Ashby -- 23,000
Johnny Lodden -- 19,000
Julian Thew -- 10,500
Thierry Cazals -- 21,000

Among the notable eliminations:

Ram Vaswani
John Kabbaj
Jimmy Fricke
Jani Sointula
Sorel Mizzi

Spotted in the crowd:

Johnny Chan

Here's what's been going on today so far:

Welcome to Barcelona
An introduction to some of the notables
The rise and fall of Gobboboy
Boeken and Shaefer go in opposite directions
Cort Kibler-Melby: an early contender

Jimmy Fricke's destroyer was a player named Cort Kibler-Melby, a PokerStars qualifier from Germany. Kibler-Melby has been destroying pretty much anyone and everyone so far and is the early chip leader here in Barcelona, with close to 70,000 in chips.

Cort Kibler-Melby

That's no mean feat, given that his starting table included Fricke, Rob Hollink and Jani Sointula. Fricke's place has now been taken by the equally fearsome Anette Obrestrad, better known to quivering online opponents as annete15.

It's the action table, no doubt, and most of it so far is going in Kibler-Melby's favour.

Update: Kibler-Melby's table has just broken. But it doesn't get any easier: he's now to the right of William Thorson and directly opposite Brandon Shaefer.

Meanwhile, Team PokerStars members Noah Boeken and Katja Thater are sitting on around 11,000, while Sverre Sundbo is enjoying his opening table and is up to around 37,000.

Chip counting in these early stages of an EPT tournament is a particularly fruitless endeavour. You scan your eyes up and down a variously ordered stack of chips, before deducing that the player in question has more or less 10,000. Or somewhere near what they started with, in other words.

Obviously that's not absolutely precise, because we've just finished level four now and already more than 50 players are out. Their chips have scattered across the remaining 209, who, after a 15 minute break, will play be posting blinds of 150-300 as we enter level five.

Noah "Exclusive" Boeken might wish the break had come a hand or two earlier. He just shipped about 9,000 of his chips to an unknown opponent after a decidely crafty river bet. Looking at a board of 7s As 5c 6d 5d and holding A-K for two pair, Boeken had a big decision to make. His opponent had moved all in when the second five fell on the river; a massive overbet of about 7,000 into a pot of just 4,000.

Eventually Noah called and was shown 5s 4s. If Exclusive had put his opponent on a missed flush draw, he'd have been right. But that missed draw had just rivered trips, leaving Boeken scratching his head and down to about 4,000.

Moving in the right direction, however, is Brandon Schaefer, from the United States. Schaefer has one of the most impressive EPT records of all: played three, won one, runner-up in one. That success came in season one, when he triumphed in Deauville, France (after qualifying on PokerStars) and riding his free ticket to second spot in the Monte Carlo Grand Final.

Brandon Schaefer


This time around, Schaefer has bought in directly and must have loved a flop of A-K-7 when he was holding pocket kings. There'd been some pre-flop action, which slowed into a trapping battle after the action flop. Schaefer checked, his single opponent checked. On the turn, Brandon fired out a modest bet and was delighted to see his opponent move all-in for about 5,000 more.

Schaefer called, obviously, and was shown pocket jacks. The pot of around 17,000 was moved in his direction.

Another EPT cash here for Schaefer will send him rocketing up the rankings once more.

Update: Jimmy Fricke is out. No details as yet, but he was spotted departing the card room a moment into level five.

EPT players are given 10,000 in chips for their eight grand, with the dealers demanding just 25 and 50 for the blinds in the first one-hour level. But while many players decide to take it easy during the opening exchanges, deciding that survival is the name of the game, others go straight for the jugular -- and sometimes straight for the exit door.

Ram Vaswani, the leading player in the EPT rankings, is one such casualty. He was seen disappearing into the Barcelona sunset barely an hour after this whole thing started.

Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, the well-known internet player, who burst onto the live scene with second place in this year's Aussie Millions, is playing a similarly dangerous game.

Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke

Fricke, who has found himself on the same table as Rob Hollink and Jani Sointula on his EPT debut, was the only player for the first couple of levels who seemed to want to mix it up. He stole a lot of blinds, and increased his stack accordingly, but then got involved in one of those crazy pots where no one is really sure what's going on or why, but about 5,000 gets shipped in an opponents' direction.

When I got to the table, the flop was already down after what seemed to be some moderate pre-flop action. Fricke was against one other player, who check raised the flop of 10s 4c 2h. Fricke re-raised, opponent called.

The turn was the Js, which didn't seem to be the kind of card that could help much. Fricke's opponent bet 2,000 - an early outing for two blue 1,000 chips - and Gobboboy thought a while before calling. The river was even more innocuous seeming - the 3c.

Fricke's opponent bet out again, this time 3,000. Once more, Fricke dwelled then called and was shown an unsuited 10-4 for two pair on the flop. Fricke sighed, squeezed his cards once more to himself, then mucked.

At that point, he was down to about 7,000, grateful that his early action had given him the extra breathing space.

Even as the Catalonian sun continues to beat down outside, the stars are out in the Grand Casino Barcelona.

Among today's 263 contenders, cramming the cardroom to bursting point, are the following names, faces and, indeed, bodies:

Click name for player profile from EPT database

Rob Hollink (Holland) - winner of the first EPT Grand Final
Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke (USA) - PokerStars qualifier, second in Aussie Millions 2007
Brandon Shaefer (USA) - winner of EPT France in season one and Grand Final runner up; ninth in all-time EPT rankings
Ram Vaswani (England) - Hendon Mobster, WSOP bracelet winner and leader of EPT rankings
Noah Boeken (Holland) - winner of EPT Copenhagen, season one, among five EPT cashes. Team PokerStars player

Mickey Wernick (England) - former European No 1
Paul Wasicka (USA) - WSOP main event 2006 runner up
Phil Gordon (USA) - multiple WSOP final tablist and WPT champion
Mats Iremark (Sweden) - EPT Deauville champion, season two - PokerStars qualifier

Sverre Sundbo (Norway) - Team PokerStars player
Thomas Brolin (Sweden) - former international soccer player
Julian Thew (England) - six cashes on EPT, including two final tables
Mark Naalden (Holland) - third in EPT Copenhagen, season two
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (France) - Team PokerStars player, Supernova, second in EPT Copenhagen, season three

Andreas Hoivold (Norway) - winner EPT German Open, season three
Johnny Lodden (Norway) - Internet legend, four cashes in EPT
Roland De Wolfe - EPT Dublin winner, season three. WPT winner.

Katja Thater - Team PokerStars player. Winner of WSOP bracelet 2007.

William Thorsson (Sweden) - Third in EPT Dublin, season three

Here's something you don't hear every day.

How would you like to play on the EPT? In Barcelona? Tomorrow?

One of the PokerStars qualifiers over here in Spain has managed to lose his passport, meaning he can't register at the Grand Casino Barcelona. But his seat needs filling - and it's yours if you want it.

The buy-in here is €8,000, and the seat is availabe to anyone with the dollar equivalent ($10,900 approximately) in their PokerStars account. You'll need to find your way to Barcelona in time to play at 5pm tomorrow, and take a shot at that prize pool, estimated at around 4 million total.

Interested? If so, e-mail ept@pokerstars.com as soon as possible.

It would be a story to end all stories.

Hello and a very warm welcome to beautiful, balmy, beach-side Barcelona and the beginning of season four of the European Poker Tour.

The success story for the EPT continues, with 550 players pre-registered for this €8,000 ($10,900 approx) event. To put that into perspective, when the first EPT event began in this very casino in September 2004, a grand total of 229 players parted with €1,000 to generate a €229,000 prize pool. Alexander Stevic, of Sweden, took the €80,000 first prize.

This time, Stevic's payout is the equivalent of just ten times the buy-in. And we're looking at a pool of nearer to €4 million. And there are about as many members of the press corps as there were players in that inaugural event.

Also dotted around Barcelona this week are some of the leading lights of the international poker scene. Representing Team PokerStars in Barcelona, we have Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Humberto Brenes, Katja Thater, Isabelle Mercier, Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. We'll follow all their progress closely here.

And that's not all. In fact, that's barely the start of it. As ever, there are a host of PokerStars qualifiers from across the globe hoping to make a name for themselves. Some have qualified for as little as, well, nothing, instead cashing in their frequent player points (FPPs) for a taste of the high-life. Check back here throughout the week to hear their stories and watch their rise or demise.

Day 1A of the tournament is due to get under way any minute. We'll play until 4am, central European time, and then we'll start again with our second contingent tomorrow. Day Two proper begins on Thursday, day three on Friday and a final table of eight will convene on Saturday to play for the big, big money.

Stay tuned. There will be fireworks.

The end of the month brought some big money to the PokerStars Sunday tournament tables. The biggest winner of the day was the United States' Egar1m who picked up more than $243,000! Congratulations to all the people who pulled in the big cash this week. See you next Sunday!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up
Based on finishing order and two-way deal

1. zivziv (Israel) $64,642.86
2. gennaro (Austria) $59,872.50
3. Bryan_Furry9 (Denmark) $29,694.72
4. jpmetalman (United States) $24,042.60
5. mgw21 (United States) $18,854.46
6. ael1979 (Cyprus) $14,214.66
7. conslice (Canada) $9,996.66
8. QuasiFiction (United States) $6,200.46
9. mattymat (United States) $3,711.84


PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand
Based on finishing order and two-way deal

1. ozzieowen (United Kingdom) $16,820.48
2. luckynutz21 (United States) $10,506.54
3. Duecesover3s (United States) $6,376.31
4. O.Mustang (United Kingdom) $4,554.51
5. 72_Chevy (United States) $2,732.71
6. drhoopsmd (United States) $1,821.81
7. DAVIDOXXX (France) $1,457.45
8. bibiaans (Netherlands) $1,184.18
9. mppowerm (Germany )$910.91



PokerStars High Stakes Showdown

1. malicous222 (United States) $25,000.00
2. Iftarii (United States) $15,000.00


PokerStars Sunday Million

1. Egar1m (United States) $243,115.80
2. Sir_DonaldRM (Spain) $123,607.00
3. kaweco (Canada) $81,831.80
4. rk58 (Sweden) $67,422.00
5. MattZman69 (United States) $54,202.00
6. scarface_79 (United States) $40,982.00
7. jeffreyjjj (United States) $28,819.60
8. pokerguru69 (United States) $18,243.60
9. OnlyPlayRagz (United States) $10,576.00

Barcelona Final Table Report

London Final Report

Baden Final Report

Dublin Final Report

Copenhagen Final Report

Germany Final Report

Poland Final Report

Monte Carlo Final Report

European Poker Tour Monte Carlo

European Poker Tour Barcelona

European Poker Tour London

European Poker Tour Baden

European Poker Tour Dublin

European Poker Tour Copenhagen

European Poker Tour Deauville

Filed by Sean Callander