October 2007 Archives

Into level six with blinds at 150/300 with a 25 ante, it seems Frenchman Ludovic Lacay is the clear leader, but there’s plenty of action from PokerStars qualifiers with the likes of Justin Francis, Barry McGrath and Michael Durrer in close pursuit.

Ludovic Lacay – France – 95,000
Roman Yitzhaki – USA – 21,000
Andreas Hoivold – Norway – 22,000
Justin Francis – USA – PokerStars qualifier – 33,000
Tom Bentham – England – PokerStars qualifier – 19,000
Patrick Bruel – France – 19,300
Tony Cascarino – Ireland -- 23,000
Roy Brindley – Ireland – 19,000
George McKeever – Ireland – 21,000
Ben Grundy – England – 22,000
Surinder Sunar – England – 33,500
Annette Obrestad– Norway – 9,400
Luca Pagano – Italy – Team PokerStars Pro – 17,000
Daniel Tarnopol – USA – PokerStars qualifier – 27,000
Katja Thater – Germany – Team PokerStars Pro – 15,500
Alan Smurfit – Ireland – 15,500
Andreas Hagen – Norway – 26,500
Richard Ashby – England – 13,200
Anders Pettersson – Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier – 19,000
Barry McGrath – Ireland -- PokerStars qualifier – 40,000
Arshad Hussain – England – 42,000
Michael Durrer – Germany -- PokerStars qualifier – 31,000
Albert Smith – USA -- PokerStars qualifier – 16,500
Thor Hansen – Norway – 42,000
Jonas Molander – Sweden – 26,000
Ramzi Jelassi – Sweden – 11,000
Juha Helppi – Finland – 10,000
Runar Runarsson – Iceland -- PokerStars qualifier – 22,000

Eliminations:

PokerStars qualifiers Karsten Vogt, Tom Marchese, Bishar Khalaf and Antoon Kleynen have all found their tournament ending prematurely. Also out are Praz Bansi, Thomas Wahlroos and EPT Baden winner Julian Thew.

Team PokerStars pros Katja Thater and Luca Pagano are back from the dinner break in a little better shape than when they left. Both are off the felt after flying lower than is normally comfortable, Luca at times clipping the trees as his stack descended.

Luca moved in on the hand before the break. A chance to eat dinner in peace was at stake – either by double-up or elimination. So if you feel like sticking around Kings are a good way to increase your chances, which is what Luca showed when called by the player on his left who held pocket tens.

Back from dinner and whilst Katja enjoyed a massage and Luca dived under the cover of headphones PokerStars qualifier Daniel Tarnopol was happily adding to his stack, chatting with table mates along the way.

PokerStars qualifier Daniel Turnopol

Daniel, from San Mateo California, turned pro last December after working as an electronics engineer and looks like he made a good decision.

“I played in Baden last month and ran quite badly – I was card dead for a while. Here I have a great table and I busted a player out earlier.

Whether or not he had a read on Alan Smurfit I don’t know but he came out a hand with him better off, chasing away the bracelet winner with a strong bet on the turn.

“There are some good players here” he said, referring to Katja, Luca and Smurfit as well as Andreas Hagen and Ben Grundy. “Actually I like that – they’re easier to read.”

Industry Hall

Industries Hall has little left to show of its past and the factory that used to operate here. Big doors along each side - the type you’d see in aircraft hangers revealing a blimp or the space shuttle - are one of a few tell tale signs of what used to be. That’s all behind it now, a world of exhibitions, horse trials and the like are its main preoccupation now.

And of course poker.

In that case Industry Hall is not alone in diversifying. Poker players have varied backgrounds too, for example Luca Pagano used to run a disco. And he taught people to use computers - “A lifetime ago... maybe two or three lifetimes ago...”

What about everyone else?

EPT winner Pascal Perrault -- pharmacist
Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman -- journalist
Team PokerStars pro Noah Boeken -- door-to-door salesman
PokerStars qualifier Phidias Georgiou -- civil engineer
Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier -- um, Starcraft player
Dave Colclough -- inland revenue
WPT and EPT winner Roland De Wolfe -- journalist
Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater -- horse breeder
EPT Dortmund Champ Andreas Hoivold -- cartoon collector
Norwegian pro Age Spets -- real estate
EPT Baden winner Julian Thew -- draughtsman
Andreas Hagen -- school teacher
Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri – Magic player
Tony Cascarino -- international footballer
Christiano Blanco -- sports journalist
Patrick Bruel -- actor and singer

Proof finally that you don’t need to have to be a maths genius (Thor Hansen excluded) or have just left college to make it in this game – although statistically that may help. It also pays to be good at poker, which is the running theme among all of the above.

Now of course their labour is poker, where the average player will work 12 hours a day with an hour break with no pension or health care provision, and an hourly rate than can vary between “I’d rather not say” and “can you carry that big check for me?” Hmm. The old job wasn’t so bad after all.

Tom Bentham has gone beyond proving himself to be a capable online player. The former university student quit his studies to turn his attention full time to playing and it’s working out well, qualifying for another EPT after his appearance in London last month. Oh, and he’s also won four seats to the PCA.

PokerStars qualifier Tom Bentham

His latest attempt at an EPT cash has taken a few set-backs though and as far as his table draw goes it isn’t the easiest. Sat alongside him are the likes of Joe Grech, Roy Brindley, Tony Cascarino, Joey Lovelady, Liam Flood, Patrick Bruel and fellow PokerStars Qualifier Justin Francis.


Tony Cascarino, Joey Lovelady and Liam Flood

It can't be a bad way to spend your retirement - qualify online and travel a few thousand miles to have a crack at an EPT. That’s the position Justin Francis finds himself in. The former Engineer from South Carolina, here with his wife Jodie, is making his first trip to Dublin (“although I’m part Irish”) and only recently began playing Texas hold’em after returning to the game after raising a family.

Right now nothing seems to be slowing him down. Taking a few small pots and a sizable one in an inter-PokerStars scrap with Tom Bentham that left the veteran with the upper hand.


PokerStars qualifier Justin Francis

With the flop of 7-8-J already on the board Tom made it 350 which Justin called. Tom checked the ace on the turn leaving Justin to bet 2k. Tom called, betting 2,500 when another ace came on the river. Justin, hardly moving and with hands clasped in front of him, paused for a while before calling. Both had an ace but the accompanying eight gave Justin a full house. It edges Justin past the average chip mark.

“I had a pretty shaky start but chips wise I’m okay” he said. “But you can only win with good hands!”

For Tom though things would get a little worse before they would get better. A hand or two later he came out firing again, a bet of 500 called by Joe Grech and Patrick Bruel. Tom bet again, 1,100 on a flop of 9-3-2. Grech, whistling now, called leaving Patrick to get out of their way. A nine on the turn, a check from Tom and a 2k bet from Grech. But it was too rich for the PokerStars Qualifier who takes another knock.

What was it I said about demons? For Tom they seem to be from an older generation, and they’re playing havoc with his stack.

Tournament update:

Early fallers include two former EPT Dublin winners. Ram Vaswani was out shortly after the start and Roland de Wolfe found his top two pair shattered by a straight- flush draw which hit on the turn.

In the meantime the payouts have also been announced, with a combined prizepool of €1,701,700 divided among the top 24 finishers.

1st - €532,620
2nd - €297,800
3rd - €178,680
4th - €127,630
5th - €105,510
6th - €83,380
7th - €66,370
8th - €47,650

9th and 10th - €30,630
11th and 12th - €23,820
13th and 14th - €20,420
15th and 16th - €15,320
17th to 24th - €10,210

Cards are in the air – by design not by any evil force and day 1b is underway. A bigger field than yesterday with 132 sitting down to play. It's top heavy with Irishmen as you'd expect but large chunks of the world are represented. Among those here...

John Tabatabai -- Wales
A new face on the EPT scene. He finished second in the WSOP Europe giving his profile a boost. Originally from Cardiff he now lives in London and tears up games on the internet.

George McKeever – Ireland
Ever present on the Irish poker scene. Seventh in the WSOP main event back in 1999.

EPT Baden winner Julian Thew

Julian Thew -- England
One of the most popular players on the circuit who topped his six previous cashes by winning the EPT Baden earlier this month, paying off the last of his mortgage in the process. Can he make it two in a row?


Luca Pagano

Luca Pagano – Italy -- Team PokerStars Pro
Five cashes and two final tables in the EPT to date and a mainstay on the tour since its early days events like this are part of Luca’s successful day job.


Katja Thater

Katja Thater – Germany –Team PokerStars Pro
Katja got everyone’s attention this year by winning a bracelet at this year’s WSOP, preceding that with a final table appearance in the EPT Warsaw. She cashed in Barcelona in September and has cemented her reputation as one of the best players in Europe.


Last year's EPT Dublin winner Roland De Wolfe

Roland De Wolfe – England
His past life as a journalist fades more and more as Roland keeps winning. The first player to win both a WPT and EPT event Roland made that record in Dublin last year and shows no sign of slowing down.

Mickey Wernick – England
A former European Player of the Year and veteran of Vegas in the old days, Mickey has cashed twice in the EPT.


Thomas Wahlroos

Thomas Wahlroos – Finland
Always good to listen to at the tables the ruthless Finn normally batters his way deep in tournaments or is out in the first levels. He plays like it means nothing and gets results.

Roy Brindley – Ireland
Born of England now a native of Ireland. One of the unsung talents of the game in Europe and winner of numerous tournaments around the world.

Tony Cascarino – Ireland
The former footballer turned poker player cashed in London last month and will want to at least repeat that feat on home soil.


Liam Flood

Liam Flood – Ireland
A veteran of the European poker scene Flood is also a tournament director.


Patrick Bruel

Patrick Bruel – France
Solid poker player and singing sensation in the French speaking world. Normally followed by the cameras of the French media for selling millions of records and winning a WSOP bracelet along the way.

Andreas Hoivold – Norway
The cartoon collector made headlines when he talked and played his way to EPT success is Dortmund last season.

Arshad Hussain – England
Popular player on the English and European poker scene. The family man from the north west of England came second in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo in season two and has a fondness for Ferraris.

Praz Bansi – England
Since winning a bracelet at the 2006 WSOP has gone on to win a GUKPT event and cashed all over the place.

Ben Grundy – England
An internet grinder and one of the best English players in the game. Still known as the ‘Milkybar kid’ for his youthful looks he may never lose that moniker.


Annette Obrestad

Annette Obrestad – Norway
Short to international fame after winning the inaugural WSOP Europe main event in London earlier this year. Could certainly take the EPT by storm.

Jonas Molander – Sweden
Three strong finishes in the EPT including a final table appearance at Baden last year, a ninth in Dublin and 12th here in season two.

Anthony Lellouche – France
Another of the popular Frenchmen crowd, Anthony had his best EPT to date in London last month where he finished sixth.

Thor Hansen – Norway
An old style gambler and a successful one who has made his living from pool and poker for many years. A mathematician and well respected member of the poker community. When he wins everyone is pleased.

Florian Langmann – Germany
Back for more EPT action after his second place finish in London last month.

Juha Helppi – Finland
The extreme poker champion as well as holder of various other titles. Famously came second to Phil Hellmuth as the Brat won his 11th bracelet.

Ram Vaswani – England
‘Crazy Horse’ is one member of the Hendon Mob and won this event in its first year, then finished second in Copenhagen. He has two other final table appearances including last season’s Monte Carlo Grand Final.


William Thorson

William Thorson – Norway
Young, aggressive and Scandinavian. One of the best players in the game today he finished third in the EPT Dublin last year and has shown his ability around the world.

Surinder Sunar – England
An English professional and regular on the Late Night Poker series which revolutionised poker. Described as quiet he takes no prisoners at the table.

Thomas Fougeron – France
Popular Frenchman and regular on the EPT. The Parisian made a stunning comeback at EPT Dortmund last season coming from a single chip on day one to finish on the final table.

Karl Mahrenholz – England
Another new face to the poker scene in the last year he has had GUKPT success and wins across the world. He also has four WSOP chases to his name.

A tricky-treaty kind of day lays ahead for the second flight of players making their way to EPT glory. For some it will be a night of horror! (my emphasis) one of disaster and mayhem. For the rest the promise of sweet reward - a seat in day two and maybe a toffee apple. You never know. They will then return tomorrow for day 2, joining the survivors of yesterday, when the blur between the real world and the spirit world will have faded for another year.

The Royal Dublin Society is in the Ballsbridge district of Dublin, an area yet to embrace this Halloween spirit. It’s early though and office workers on a stolen lunch break seem uninterested in witches and demons. The grey skies remain but there’s no sign of broomsticks, ghouls, nothing of Harry Potter.

It was here in Ireland where Halloween is thought to have first been celebrated emerging from the Pagan festival of Samhain (stay with me) before it was exported across the sea one way and across the ocean the other. In the pursuit of coffee this morning I half expected to see the traditional Halloween meal of Colcannon available in the local food outlets, a Halloween dish said to be eaten for lunch, often with coins wrapped inside. The tradition seems to have died out, possibly due to the risk of choking on the coins.

That all done and dusted attention reverts back to the poker with many players preparing for a visit by their own personal demons at some point today - if things don’t go according to their plan. A growing number of players, each with their €8,000 seat secured, are milling around the tournament area in anticipation of the start, which should be approaching in the not too distant future. But it wouldn’t be a poker tournament without a slight delay.

Mike McDonald leads the field at the end of day 1a with Dave Colclough not far behind. Among them are 16 PokerStars qualifiers and a quick look at who's left shows...

Mike McDonald – Canada –- 67,250
Dave Colclough – UK -- 59,350
Phidias Georgiou – Cyprus -- PokerStars qualifier -- 55,475
Kristian Kjøndal – Norway -- 53,150
Jacques Zaicik – France -- PokerStars qualifier -- 48,225
Andrew Black – Ireland -- 45,675
Simon Christensson – Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier --5,000
Christoffer Egemo Hansen – Denmark -- 43,050
Kevin Vreeswijk – Holland -- 42,725
Marcel Baran – Germany -- 40,150
Henric Stråth -- Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 39,000
Csaba Malnai – Hungary -- 37,250
Johnny Lodden – Norway -- 37,225
Casper Hansen – Denmark -- PokerStars qualifier -- 37,150
Johannes Steindl – Austria -- 36,500
Adrian Koy – Germany -- 35,850
Andrew Grimason – Ireland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 35,400
Sebastian Ruthenberg – Germany -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 35,175
Oran Holt – Norway -- 33,450
Kenneth Hicks Jr. – USA -- PokerStars qualifer -- 30,950
Aleksandr Arutjonov – Estonia -- PokerStars qualifier -- 30,150
Noah Boeken -- Holland -- Team PokerStars Pro -- 27,825
Daniel Ryan – USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 27,550
Carl Hostrup – Denmark -- 26,850
Brandon Schaefer – USA -- PokerStars player -- 26,725
Stig Top-Rasmussen – Denmark -- 26,300
Martin Wendt – Denmark -- 25,125
Ian Woodley – UK -- 24,550
Christopher Hamman – USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 18,875
Hans Eskilsson – Sweden -- 18,550
Mark Segal – UK -- 18,500
Paul Testud – France -- 17,750
Reijo Manninen – Finland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 17,525
Len Collin – Ireland -- 17,275
Michael Hogbom – Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 16,100
Gustaf Jonasson – Sweden -- 15,200
Johan Storakers – Sweden -- 15,050
Thierry Van den Berg – Netherlands -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14,250
Daan Ruiter – Netherlands -- 14,125
Terje Augdal – Norway -- 13,925
John Conroy – Ireland -- 11,525
Reuben Peters – USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 11,050
Mathieu Gallienne – France -- 10,750
Martin Rask -- Denmark -- 10,175
Davide Calabro – Italy -- 8,125
Patric Fredriksson – Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 5,850
Jan Sjavik – Norway -- 5,450
Seth Blackman – USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 5,000

The Royal Dublin Society

Far from being ravaged by any potential Guinness hangover the start of the EPT Dublin saw 91 poker players from across Europe and the world fresh, on time and ready to take their €8,000 seat to the next round of the EPTs fourth season. Industries Hall at the Royal Dublin Society would be home for the best of them for the next nine hours. By close of play less than half would be permitted to return for day 2.

Liked, local and lesser known faces were here, including Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Dario Minieiri and Noah Boeken. So too the likes of former EPT winners Brandon Schaeffer, Rob Hollink and Pascal Perrault, plus multiple WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel, Englishman Barny Boatman, local boy Andy Black and Dave Colclough - to name just a few.

Whilst the day would end well for Boeken and Schaeffer, both ElkY and Dario Minieiri felt the wrath of a day that wasn’t going their way. Dario fell before dinner, ElkY shortly afterwards. Neither beat Barny Boatman to the rail, however. The Hendon Mobster was out among the first when his top pair flush draw was left floundering on the river.

Of the PokerStars crowd qualifier Rupinder Bedi was in good spirits and could have been classed as ‘most likely to succeed', having just come from winning over $400k online. Playing his first EPT his initial anxiety gave way first to confidence and then to disappointment as he crashed out, two pairs, aces and queens, against a set of nines.

A familiar face from EPT London was PokerStars Qualifier Phidias Georgiou, back to cross his London watermark where he narrowly missed out on the final table. Wearing his emotions on his sleeve and across his face the Cypriot played with flair, his tired looking face belying his confident approach as he attempted to pick up where he left off at The Vic.

They may not have exited the tournament but both Noah Boeken and Brandon Schaeffer experienced those perilous moments that precede defeat being all-in a few times - but both came through nicely. First Brandon was down to a modest 6.5k before doubling through Andy Black, using this new momentum to climb away from danger on what had been a difficult table.

Former ‘Magic’ player and Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken performed his own tricks to stagger away from 2k to 30k in about the time it takes to book a flight home. In true Boeken style he put a lot of it down to good fortune.

“It’s tough when you make the nuts” he’d said with a grin after doubling up with pocket nines on a flop of 9-5-5. The chips were headed back his way and he finished the day above average.

It wrapped up day 1a – 48 players likely to sleep well. We do it all again tomorrow as day1b gets comfortable in Industry Hall, starting at 2pm.

And if you're just tuning in, here's what you may have missed:

Set to begin

The usual suspects

The whole truth and nothing but the truth

Phidias in a fog

Leading the field

More than a close Schaef

Slow/fast journey into the night

Into the last level of the day with two modes of play, both of which sway between speedy all or nothing poker - of double up or die - contrasted with the slower paced journey into the night, the warming sense of well being when you sit behind a stack healthy enough to breathe by itself on day two.

Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken could be said to have taken both paths, but as the half hour remaining mark came along he looked happy to take the latter approach. It had been an unsteady day.

“I was going good but I lost chips in a few pots.” He said. “I lost 15k on a hand where I thought he was bluffing. Then I went down to 5k, then 2k.”

Then the turnaround, almost breaking the sound barrier, going from 2k to 30k in about an hour.

“I doubled up, then doubled up then doubled up again. I hit some flops and it was easy. I had nines, the flop came 9-5-5. It’s not hard to win!”

At the close of play it’s a lot easier to sign off on your bagged-up chips when they’re worth counting.

***

On the table next to him is Phidias Georgiou. He’s spent much of this evening with his head low to the table, tiredness dulling his face and his forehead in his hand in a kind of ‘ice cream headache’ position. He was standing now though. Johnny Lodden has re-raised him on a board of K-3-Q-5-8., making a call a decision for all his chips. He does call, outdoing Lodden with his A-K to Lodden’s J-T. Phidias threw his cards face up on the table, following it with a curt “yes!”

He’s not going back to bridges just yet.

If Brandon Schaeffer does actually win his second EPT here he might look back to one hand in particular which breathed life back into his tournament after it looked destined for a post-dinner, pre-desert exit.

He’s in the far corner of the cardroom on a table with relatively little give. Andy Black sits on his left, Pascal Perrault is opposite, so too Johann Storakers. In terms of Black and Schaeffer one has the chips and is raising everything, the other is left looking for a Hail Mary play – it’s Brandon with the raw end of the deal – a little over 6,500 and the looming prospect of a slow walk back to the hotel.

Then that hand came up.

Moving all-in Brandon found Andy Black, who’s pleasure it was to have the button, re-raising and effectively isolating Brandon from the seat three player who took the Black move as a polite invitation to leave the hand.

Brandon showed his J-T of clubs with Andy ahead with pocket kings. The flop brought a jack and a club. Brandon would still need help. He got it – a club in the turn, another on the river to flush the kings back from whence they came, doubling up the American. Stirring stuff.

“You get it in bad and suck out!” said Brandon afterwards - that was his trick, he said. “Andy Black had been playing every hand and I thought my J-T move was in a good spot. But he had kings! (pause for brief laughter). The turn was great though (second slight pause for laughter).” Then, “Yeah!”

It marked a turning point for Brandon. Doubling up seemed to agree with him and a string of pre-flop bets followed, each uncontested, the momentum turning his way and taking his stack passed the 20k mark.

As we enter level 6 the blinds now have a 25 ante attached. In terms of a chip leader Irish eyes are certainly smiling on Johnny Lodden, who has just under 50k, but it’s Henric Strath of Sweden well ahead with over 80k. Notable others include...

Henric Strath – Sweden – 80,000
Jon Conroy – Ireland -- 4,800
Daniel Dodet – France -- 8,000
Thierry van den Berg – Holland -- PokerStars Qualifier -- 16,100
Johnny Lodden – Norway -- 47,000
Noah Boeken – Holland – Team PokerStars Pro -- 21,000
Paul Testud – France -- 7,500
Marcel Baran – Germany -- 20,000
Stig Top-Rasmussen – Denmark -- 40,000
Chris Hamman – USA - PokerStars Qualifier – 19,000
Arutjunov Aleksandr – Estonia -- PokerStars Qualifier – 32,000
Zlatan Musa – Denmark -- PokerStars Qualifier – 9,000
Ville Mattila – Finland -- PokerStars Qualifier – 5,000
Reijo Manninen – Finland -- PokerStars Qualifier – 10,000
Jonathan Nagy – Spain -- PokerStars Qualifier – 8,500
Brandon Schaeffer – USA -- PokerStars Player – 6,500
Pascal Perrault – France -- 16,000
Johann Storakers – Sweden -- 18,000
Andy Black – Ireland -- 23,000
Dave Colclough – Wales -- 22,000
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – France -- Team PokerStars Pro – 8,200
Phidias Georgiou – Cyprus -- PokerStars Qualifier – 25,000
Martin Wendt – Denmark -- 16,000
Jan Sjavik – Norway -- 10,100

Tournament update:

Rupinder Bedi fell short of his quest to barnstorm his first EPT event. The PokerStars.com double shootout winner is out. There’s good company on the rail thought with Erik Seidel, Henning Granstad, Rob Hollink and Ian Woodley among those on the outside looking in.

If you followed the progress of the EPT London last month you might remember the heroic adventure of Cypriot Phidias Georgiou, the civil engineer and PokerStars qualifier who narrowly missed out on a final table finish at The Vic.

Phidias Georgiou

Phidias is a rugged looking man who has swapped his open shirt and stubble of London for a superman shirt. A more relaxed approach perhaps. Or maybe not...

“I’m telling you, I’m going back to civil engineering! This is too stressful! Back to bridges, back to bridges...”

He’s out of his chair but it’s clear from the size and colour of his stack that it’s not all tension and misery. He’s up to 35k with an average close to 18k.

“I was playing the best poker of my life in London” he says, hoping to pick up where he left off. We’ll wait and see.”

The confidence is there. It may just be a matter of cards.

***

There’s little doubt among railbirds that the make-or-break table in these early stages is table three, a vicious looking scrap that features Rob Hollink, Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand Grospellier, Andy Black, PokerStars Qualifier Thierry van den Berg and Marcel Baran.

It’s difficult to tell which player the crowds are craning their neck to see but Andy Black does have a knack of grabbing the attention, which he does here by ordering a bag of food, brought to him by a friend. It features among other things sliced cheese and roughly half of the fruit sold in a small supermarket. But if anyone knows the importance of a healthy body and mind it’s Black, and it’s showing -his stack looks good.

As Black tucks in Thierry van den Berg gets a massage. A tense table requires some intense relaxation and van den Berg is locked in.

After a few levels the shape of things hasn’t changed much. The only differences are that Rob Hollink has gone and ElkY’s stack has lost some of its distinguishing features. Gone of the brown chips (5k) and most of the blue ones (1k). All that’s left is a rag-tag handful of reds and greens.




But it’s how you use it that counts.

First he moved all-in with A-3, doubling up when an ace hit the turn. The only analogy to describe the cameras and railbirds around the table is the vulture one, closing in on the wounded supernova elite. I suppose that included me. His double up did help but it was not long before he was looking for a hand to move in with.

Just minutes before the dinner break he found it, pushing for 2,800. Thierry van den Berg, himself flying the flag for PokerStars as a qualifier, made the call with K-Q. ElkY was ahead with A-J which stood the test of flop turn and river. ElkY doubles up again and as the bell goes he faces a dinner break much easier to digest.

Experiencing his first EPT PokerStars Qualifier Rupinder Bedi looks strangely calm at the first break. No sign of the nerves that often rattle anyone new to the live tournament arena.

Rupinder is here as the result of winning an $11 double shootout on PokerStars.com and whilst his stack hasn’t yet taken off these early levels have done no end of good to his confidence – something he puts down to a ridiculous bluff early on.

Rupinder Bedi

“Yeah, a ridiculous bluff” he laughs. “Actually it made me feel better! I’ve just been playing my own game since then. I went down to 12k and now I’m back up to where I started.”

The 27-year-old from Leicester has been playing poker for five years both online and at his local casino, but after a few minutes talking it appeared Rupinder was no stranger to tournament success. What was his biggest win? I asked. Only in passing did he mention his recent $450k online tournament win. Feel free to volunteer this kind of information Rupinder...

“I’m a modest kind of guy!”

Either way, The father of three is all set now to match that with a live result.

“I’ve seen aces once and I’m enjoying the experience. I’ve seen a few players I recognise too. I’m feeling calmer now!”


Tournament update:

Barny Boatman was out of the tournament in the first level, losing out with top pair and a flush draw when the turn and river left him empty handed.

Also out is Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri. He’s suffered all day before performing a do-or-die move shortly after the break. All-in for just short of 2k he ran into Jan Sjavik who called with the edge, out-doing the young Italian with A-Q to his A-T. A queen on the flop put end to any hope of a Minieri revival.

In a slight break from tradition the 91 players of day 1a begin with 15,000 chips with blinds in this first level at 25/50. So who’s here?

Noah Boeken - Holland - Team PokerStars
Two final tables in season one of the EPT, including the Copenhagen title. Whilst he’s in the record of becoming the first player to win two EPTs is always a possibility.

Dario Minieri in action

Dario Minieri - Italy - Team PokerStars
Technically the new boy of Team PokerStars, Dario is known as one of the most aggressive and dangerous European players. Eliminated at the hands of Dario means you’ll likely have a story to tell.

Pascal Perrault - France
Pascal won in Vienna back in season one and has been a consistent performer in European events since then.

Johnny Lodden - Norway
A master of the internet game, the type of player who is the source of legend. Still looking for his first big live poker win the EPT is a likely place for that to happen.


Andy Black

Andy Black - Ireland
Finished fifth in the WSOP main event in 2005 and, with two more final table appearances in the WSOP this year not to mention his seventh place in the EPT Grand Final last season, is one of the top tournament players in the world.

Marcel Baran – Germany
The young German professional finished third in the EPT London last month picking up $379,387. He’s looking to go at least one better here in Ireland.


Brandon Schaeffer

Brandon Schaefer - USA
Whenever he enters an EPT things usually happen. He’s won one, come second in another. Candidate for ‘Player most likely to win a second EPT.’


Dave Colclough

David Colclough - Wales
The Welshman is a former European Player of the Year, and has made six WSOP final tables. He also won the fourth leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour earlier this year.

Barny Boatman - England
One of the most popular players on the circuit Barny cashed in the H.O.R.S.E. event at the WSOP Europe in London and has a long list of titles to his resume.


Martin Wendt

Martin Wendt - Denmark
Another fixture on the EPT, with four cashes. Easy to pick out in a crowd thanks to his shaved head and almost trademark huge headphones.

Jan Sjavik - Norway
Jan seemed almost unstoppable in the EPT season three, finishing third in London (behind eventual winner Vicky Coren) and memorably tenth in Copenhagen when he recovered from chip and a chair syndrome. He also has 11 WSOP cashes since 2000.


Erik Seidel

Erik Seidel - USA
One of the most accomplished players in the world with eight WSOP bracelets to his name. He famously appears in the movie Rounders, where his defeat to Johnny Chan in the WSOP in 1988 is shown (repeatedly).


Rob Hollink

Rob Hollink - Holland
Winner of the EPT Grand Final in season one as well as a bundle of tournaments around the world. He still pursues an elusive WSOP bracelet but trying has been profitable - 17 WSOP cashes to date.


'ElkY'

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – France – Team PokerStars
The former gamer spent several years living in South Korea as a professional ‘Starcraft’ player before switching to online poker. After success in that he turned to live poker – the highlight so far being his second place finish in a gut-wrenching final at the EPT Copenhagen last January against Magnus Petersen.

Light southwesterly winds

Dublin woke up to glorious sunshine this morning and breakfast brought the late night revellers to their senses. Then lunch came, met by grey cloud and a drop in temperature sending the revellers back to bed again. Still, putting trust in the eager housekeeping services of Dublin’s hotel industry most players seem to be on time for the start of this, the next leg of the PokerStars European Poker Tour.

In true EPT fashion day one will be split over two days, the first flight underway this afternoon before their brothers and sisters in arms try their luck same time same place tomorrow.



And where is that place? Industries Hall, part of the vast Royal Dublin Society (Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Atha Cliath) – 40 acres of exhibition halls, stables, show grounds and a conspicuous stadium towards the back– former home of Shamrock Rovers Football Club who were apparently good and apparently bad during their six season tenure.



Now the RDS is reserved for an eclectic mix of luminaries. Among those who have graced these cobbles over the years range from King George IV (hence the Royal title) back in 1820, to the more modern royals of Bruce Springsteen and Britney Spears.

That’s the history lesson done. It leaves us with crowds of players gathering around the tables as formalities are completed – a mixture of old and new faces adorn Industries Hall, among them Team PokerStars pros Luca Pagano, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Noah Boeken and Dario Minieri.

They seem ready. We should be underway shortly.

Dublin – home to James Joyce and Bono (among others) and for the next five days the EPT Dublin, the fourth leg of this year’s tour which moves on from Baden, Austria, where Englishman Julian Thew took the honours two weeks ago.

Whilst Joyce coloured the literary world with his pen and Bono brought anthems and big sunglasses to the rock stage, the EPT players arriving for a pre-tournament soiree had their own beautiful day in mind – one that takes shape at some point on Saturday evening if all goes to plan, accompanied by a large check and a ticket to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo later next year.

That would be for tomorrow, but tonight it was to the heart of downtown Dublin - The Gravity Bar - a lavish party type place perched above the Guinness storehouse and boasting fine drink and an even finer view – a 360 panorama of the Dublin skyline or in our case the twinkling lights of a city braced for the opening days of what is now officially Autumn (Fall to those on the western side of the Atlantic) where the sunlight hours grow short and people turn indoors for entertainment.



The Irish capital is tailor made for good company. Whoever you are, wherever you come from Dublin holds the monopoly on making you feel welcome. Here it’s literally possible to bottle hospitality and export it around the world – it’s called Guinness, an Irish stout beer and trusted ice-breaker which most sampled tonight purely to take the chill from the bones.

Cliche of course – the Emerald Isle of passion, music and the black stuff (Guinness’s alter ego) - but it could explain the popularity of this EPT leg, which traditionally captures the attention of Irishmen and Englishman from across the Sea. Last year one such traveller took honours after a thrilling performance going by the name Roland de Wolfe. Ahead of a field of hundreds Roland took the plaudits, becoming the first player ever to bag both a WPT and EPT title in the process.

Whether any more records will be set this year it’s unclear, but we’ll find out starting tomorrow at the Royal Dublin Society. Join us for the start at 2pm (9am ET).

For the second straight week, all of the big PokerStars Sunday tournament played to a champion without the encouragement of a deal. Every first place player won the full first prize, including SlippyJacks who pocketed an amazing $240,633.15 in the monthly $530 Sunday Million.

Here are the final table results for all the big Sunday events.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-up Final Table Results

1. Terkenfan89 (Norway) $79,539.48
2. VBOOS (United Kingdom) $40,134.60
3. jordankickz (United States) $28,540.16
4. Shinomori (Sweden) $23,107.80
5. ZooterFitz (United States) $18,121.38
6. lol_zzz123 (Sweden) $13,661.98
7. Brian Strahl (United States) $9,607.98
8. cwp394 (United States) $5,959.38
9. Do4Love (Finland) $3,567.52

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results

1. MSBoss (United Kingdom) $17,984.01
2. Riddick54 (Germany) $8,992.01
3. Arctic Dave (United States) $6,294.41
4. jotwatso (United States) $4,496.01
5. DSCKE RULES (Canada) $2,697.61
6. DareDawg 78 (United States) $1,798.41
7. Holmesy1978 (United Kingdom) $1,438.73
8. gotladyluck (Canada) $1,168.97
9. jdog42 (United States) $899.21

PokerStars High Stakes Showdown Results

1. $tinger 88 (United States) $25,000.00
2. GigaBet (United States) $15,000.00

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results

1. SlippyJacks (United States) $240,633.15
2. blanconegro (United States) $122,344.75
3. forcewithme9 (United States) $80,996.15
4. PerPer (Denmark) $66,733.50
5. yeamanyeaman (United States) $53,648.50
6. LuckyLady519 (United States) $40,563.50
7. domingo32 (Italy) $28,525.30
8. MrKorvOla (Sweden) $18,057.30
9. Hasn82 (Denmark) $10,468.00

When the Asia Pacific Poker Tour came to life earlier this year, it advertised events in Manila, Seoul, and Sydney. All along, however, there were mysterious references to another event that had still not yet been confirmed. Now we know what organizers were talking about.

Today, the APPT announced it is throwing two major events in Macau, China at the end of November. Between November 22-27, the PokerStars-sponsored APPT will hold a $2,500 buy-in main event and a $15,000 High Rollers event at the Grand Waldo Hotel & Casino in Macau.

Since 1999, Macau has been transforming itself into the Far East's gambling capital. Now, it's on its way to becoming one of the poker capitals of the East. PokerStars is walking in step with the APPT and offering tons of satellites to the brand new event in Macau. In fact, in celebration of today's announcement, PokerStars is holding a 10-seat guaranteed $215 satellite to the $2,5000 Macau main event. The event kicks off at 22:33 ET under the Tourney/Special tabs in the PokerStars tournament lobby.

APPT President Jeffrey Haas said, "The APPT Macau will be a landmark moment for poker in Asia and globally, as it will be the first government-sanctioned real-money poker tournament played in the People's Republic of China's Special Administrative Region of Macau."

For full information on the newest APPT event, visit the APPT Macau home page. To see how you can win your way to China, check out PokerStars APPT satellites page.

Players from the United States once again made a strong showing across all the Sunday tournaments. Norway, however, played home to the biggest winner of the week. Norway's Macknot won more than $187,000 in this week's Sunday Million. Congratulations to everyone who picked up big scored this weekend. Final table results for all of PokerStars big Sunday events are below.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Results

1. ohaver (United States) $86,288.76
2. rekopman64 (United States) $43,540.20
3. ITSDAROC (United States) $30,961.92
4. Tarjei82 (Norway) $25,068.60
5. CrushU66 (Canada) $19,659.06
6. ocrowe (Canada) $14,821.26
7. wernse (Germany) $10,423.26
8. booboobibi (Australia) $6,465.06
9. essay (United Kingdom) $3,870.24

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Results

1. WickKed813 (United States) $17,699.01
2. Oktah77 (Germany) $8,849.51
3. thanbai0910 (United States) $6,194.66
4. Mini_Helmuth (United States) $4,424.76
5. Zoli30 (Hungary) $2,654.86
6. barlishor (Romania) $1,769.91
7. bumblebee101 (Germany) $1,415.93
8. JChapman (United Kingdom) $1,150.44
9. xBILY TALENT (Canada) $884.96


PokerStars Sunday Million Results

1. Macknot (Norway) $187,630.24
2. weeminer (United States) $97,729.52
3. Ghost4476 (United States) $70,328.72
4. Dabe8Gavis (United States) $54,801.60
5. Keano7 (United Kingdom) $41,884.08
6. juice54 (United States) $30,010.40
7. Cardinal7 (United States) $21,529.20
8. kev_unlimit (Hong Kong) $13,048.00
9. Ivey $00 (Germany) $8,089.76

Two great names--great if only for how very cool they are and how much money they won--ended up at the top of the leaderboards this week. My personal favorite "ChadNFreude" won the Sunday Hundred Grand this week. "Pairofnothin" won the Sunday Million for more than $140,000. Finally, "Kennethmedh" (which I am sure means something quite cool in Swedish) took down the Sunday Warm-Up for more than $57,000. Congratulations to all the big money winners from the weekend--cool names or not.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and three-way deal

1. Kennethmedh (Sweden) $57,054.93
2. n1stunnor (United States) $46,737.43
3. the wa®den (United States) $60,000.02
4. daobvious (United States) $24,093.80
5. walrus_poker (Australia) $19,093.20
6. Slaktaren007 (Sweden) $14,501.74
7. Poker Tuck (Netherlands) $10,410.34
8. blai528 (United States) $6,546.24
9. power2prut (United States) $3,818.64


PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results

1. ChadNFreude (United States) $18,411.01
2. krc1337 (Poland) $9,205.51
3. Joympi (Germany) $6,443.86
4. blackmadness (Canada) $4,602.76
5. Michaja2006 (Netherlands) $2,761.66
6. deaky (United Kingdom) $1,841.11
7. wasylaa (Poland) $1,472.89
8. !!BADlady (United States) $1,196.72
9. Huizuh (Netherlands) $920.56

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results

1. Pairofnothin (United States) $140,448.84
2. ClubbedBoat (United States) $138,000.00
3. McNAbb2 (Canada) $68,625.48
4. twin peaks07 (Belgium) $53,474.40
5. LukeFromB13 (United States) $40,869.72
6. Ralfinator (United States) $29,283.60
7. Crawfdad (United States) $21,007.80
8. canalman (United Kingdom) $12,732.00
9. Binde (Sweden) $7,893.84

Being a poker player and running a blog can sometimes be a hard gig. You run the risk of giving too much of yourself and your game away. Regardless, there are hundreds upon hundreds of people who spend part of their day playing cards and part of their day writing about the game or whatever else strikes them.

This year, the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker drew 1,337 player/writers from around the world. The final table showed just how international the game and blogs are. The nine final table players came from eight different countries.



Eighty-one players won everything from duffel bags, to iPods, to xBoxes. The final table players won some big prizes, including Portugal's LParreira, who beat out everybody and will be joining us for the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas in January.

On a personal note, thank you to all the players who came out, had fun, and played with respect for your fellow bloggers. It was a good time all around and we had a great final table.

Here are the final table players and what they walked away with. Congratulations to all.

2007 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker Final Table Results

1. LParreira (Portugal) -- $12,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package
2. mathwise (Canada) -- 50" Plasma TV
3. lborba (Brazil) -- 24" computer monitor, a Canon Rebel digital SLR camera, and a Sony Camcorder
4. ulan-ude (United States) -- poker table, a deluxe 500-piece clay chip set, Sunday Million ticket
5. Abellyus (France) -- Eight $215 Sunday Million tickets
6. NileFever (United Kingdom) -- $1,050 and $530 Sunday Million tickets
7. stakaman1962 (Greece) -- $1,050 Sunday Million ticket
8. BoreN =P (Norway) -- Canon Rebel Digital SLR Camera
9. fourflushers (United States)- Luxury Poker Chip Set

PokerStars released a new version of its software on Thursday. Though the changes are subtle, they stand to offer you even more flexibility when playing.

The biggest change that stands to affect the most users is the ability to re-size PokerStars' lobbies. If you'd like a bigger look at PokerStars' main lobby, you can now just click your mouse on the edge of the lobby and drag it out to the size you want. The same thing goes for the tournament lobbies. The new feature is especially great for checking out tournament payouts. Rather than opening a new window to see some of the deeper payout places, you can now make the lobby bigger and use a scroll bar next to the prize pool section of the lobby. Click on the images below for more detail.





PokerStars also released a "Language" section at the top of the main lobby. Now, users can pick from 13 different languages when enjoying PokerStars, now including Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Hungarian. You can, again, click on the image below to see the language options in detail.



So, if you have not yet logged into PokerStars this week, be looking for these changes.

Enjoy!

PokerStars has just introduced a brand new way for you to win your seat to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for as little as $7.50. The new PCA Steps tournaments offer any bankroll a chance to play in a multi-million poker event in the Bahamas in 2008.

The PCA Steps satellites are a six-step process. Step 1 is a $7.50 or 500 Frequent Player Point SNG that can win you a seat in a Step 2 event. Step 2 moves you on to Step 3 and so on. Or, if you prefer, you can buy in at any level you want, all the way up to Step 6, a two-table tournament that awards three prize packages to the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

You can find the new satellites under Events/PCA/Sit&Go Satellites in your PokerStars software.

Good luck!

Julian Thew, EPT Baden winner
There are poker players, there are popular poker players, and then there is Julian Thew.

Talk to anyone on the international poker scene for any length of time and you'll never hear a bad word said about the player from Nottingham, England. There are likely to be a few tales of crazy bets with fresh air, turned flushes, horrific outdraws and one-outers on the river. But by general assent, Thew is one of the good guys.

And now he's the good guy who also done good: Thew is the EPT Baden champion, beating 281 other players to the title and earning €670,800. He said in his pre-match interview that he wanted to pay off his mortgage by the time he was 40. He was $20,000 short and had two weeks until the big day.

Consider it paid. And how about another house? Or a car?

The day started in typical fashion in this picturesque little spa town in the Austrian mountains. We supped coffee, ate luxurious pastries, sampled sauerkraut und wurst as these eight eyed a fortune:

Vladimir Poleshchuk - Russia - 624,000
Julian Thew - England - 610,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 468,000
Manfred Hammer - Germany - 369,000
Anton Allemann - Switzerland - 254,000
Thierry van den Berg - Holland - PokerStars player - 227,000
Thomas Fuller - USA - 190,000
Ted Lawson - USA - 81,000

But the players had hardly had a chance to wipe the ketchup from their chops before two were on their way out of the tournament arena.

Both were skewered by Vladimir Poleshchuk, of Russia, the player with a name and unforgiving table manner to prompt a thousand "Impaler" references crackling round the media room.

On the very first hand, Anton Allemann, the Swiss player who had stayed near the chip lead for two days, was busted with ace-king on a king-high flop. Vladimir also had a king but the decisive card was the nine that had also appeared: matching the nine in Poleshchuk's hand. Auf Wiedersehen, Anton.

The very next hand and Vladimir was at it again. This time, Ted Lawson, the WSOP bracelet holder from the United States, was on his way. Lawson had king-queen of clubs, but Vladimir had found ace-nine of hearts and the flop was all red and heart-shaped. Lawson was despatched, €83,600 richer for his EPT debut.

At this point Vladimir looked unassailable, both in terms of cards and obvious headlines being produced by the journalists. In the second regard, only Manfred Hammer came close: there were plenty of "Hammertime!" shouts heard around Baden, as well as speculation as to Manfred's middle name. Anything beginning with "C" -- for MC Hammer -- would have been too perfect.

No one ever found out, more's the pity, because Hammer was next to be beaten out of the tournament and again it was Vladimir who did the damage. Manfred had 5-5, all in pre-flop, but Vladimir's ace-queen matched an ace on the flop and while Hammer was our sixth placed finisher, Vladimir broke through the million mark.

By this point, the three quietest players at the table were Thomas Fuller, from the United States, Denes Kalo, from Hungary, and Thierry van den Berg, the PokerStars qualifier from Holland.

But while better things beckoned for the first two -- Fuller, in particular, beginning a charge forward with some aggressive moves and an outdraw of J-J with 7-7 -- van den Berg slid out the door.

Thierry had certainly kept his table chatter up for the opening exchanges, but had been frustratingly card dead and ended up pushing in behind jack-nine. Fuller, who now had enough to back his ace-ten, made the call and sent the final PokerStars qualifier to the rail, €132,900 richer.

When we went four-handed, the action slowed dramatically and the stacks started to level out. Vladimir, Julian and then Thomas all took the chip lead, but never by too much, until a monster hand occurred between the Englishman and the American.

It started as a three-way pot, with only Denes sitting out after Thomas raised in early position. The flop came Kc-6c-Qh and got a little tricky: Thew checked, Vladimir checked, but Thomas slid in a half-pot bet. Thew thought for a moment but ended up raising, which got rid of Vladimir. However Thomas was going nowhere but all in, and Julian called.

We expected big hands and we weren't far wrong. Thomas had pocket sixes and had flopped bottom set. Julian had queen-eight of clubs, for middle pair and the flush draw. They wished each other good luck and the turn was revealed.

Ace. Of. Clubs.

That was the key card for Thew as he filled his flush. Thomas had re-draw outs for the full house, but none came and the young American, whose friend had predicted he'd finish fourth, was felted and out soon after.

Fuller fulfilled that friend's prophesy when he moved in with ace-six and ran into Denes Kalo's pocket sevens. Fuller was gone, with a reputation greatly enhanced by his play here. Thew, although his nemesis at the table, had also become his friend when they shared a table in Barcelona last month, and here around the final table. Thew was among many who acknowledged that Thomas had not made a mistake the whole day.

Still, Julian, Denes and Vladimir had a job to do. No room for regrets or recriminations.

But there was not much left in the day for Vladimir either and now Denes had turned assassinator-in-chief. The Hungarian had a king-jack when all of Vladimir's chips were in the middle, behind ace-queen. Denes had filled a straight by the river and ended it for Poleshchuk. He earned €225,000.

So, it was heads up - and it went on for a long time. The blinds reached 20,000-40,000, the highest ever reached in an EPT tournament.

As the action hotted up, Thew kept cool by means of his now-trademark table fan, and he was waving it casually in the air when Denes was making a power play: shoving all-in pre-flop. Thew hardly hesitated to make the call and showed his ace-eight. It was looking strong against Kalo's ace-five.

But Julian never counts chickens before they're hatched: he's put plenty of outdraws on folk far more brutal than a five popping up now. However, flop, then turn and then river were all blanks and Thew blinked, smiled, shook hands, smiled again, and began life as an EPT champion.

With a house all of his own.

EPT Baden final result:

1st - Julian Thew, England, €670,800 (+ €10,000 buy-in into EPT Grand Final)
2nd - Denes Kalo, Hungary, €375,000
3rd - Vladimir Poleshchuk, Russia, €225,000
4th - Thomas Fuller, USA, €160,820
5th - Thierry van den Berg, Holland, PokerStars qualifier, €132,900
6th - Manfred Hammer, Germany, €105,000
7th - Ted Lawson, USA, €83,600
8th - Anton Allemann, Switzerland, €60,000

9 - Gunnar Rabe - PokerStars qualifier - €38,600
10 - Sebastian Ruthenberg - PokerStars player - €38,600
11 - David Sonelin - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - €30,000
12 - Michael Durrer - Germany - PokerStars qualifier - €30,000
13 - Age Spets - Norway - €25,700
14 - Hans Eskilsson - Sweden - €25,700
15 - Pascal Perrault - France - €19,300
16 - Peter Gould - England - €19,300
17 - Alexander Kravchenko - Russia - €12,860
18 - Hector Fuentes - Spain - €12,860
19 - Victor Goossens - Holland - €12,860
20 - Alan Smurfit - Ireland - €12,860
21 - Kalil Rahal - France - €12,860
22 - Andreas Hoivold - Norway - €12,860
23 - Jiri Vacek - Hungary - €12,860
24 - Daniel Mangas - Spain - €12,860

Julian Thew, England, wins EPT Baden, earning €670,800

Denes Kalo, Hungary, eliminated in second place, winning €375,000

10.15pm: We have a winner. Julian Thew has ace-eight against Denes Kalo's ace-five and they get it all in pre flop. Denes needs the five and it never materialised: Julian is the champion - and a very popular one at that.

10pm: The heads up battle has been cagey. Very, very cagey. Julian takes a pot, Denes takes a pot, with the stacks similar to how they started after half an hour of play. They've taken a short break for some air. We await the crowning of a champion.

9.15pm: We're heads up between Julian Thew, of England, and Denes Kalo, from Hungary.

They have:

Thew - 1,754,000
Kalo - 1,069,000

Here we go.

9.05pm: Vladimir Poleshchuk, Russia, eliminated in third place, winning €225,000
Denes raises pre-flop from the button and Vladimir comes over the top for his whole stack. Vladimir shows A-Q and is ahead of Denes's K-J, but it's outdraw time, as Denes fills a straight on the river. Down to two.

8.55pm: Thomas Fuller, USA, eliminated in fourth place, winning €160,800.
And just like that, Thomas is gone. He couldn't recover from the crippling blow suffered at the hands of Julian Thew and then moved in with A-6. Denes Kalo calls with 7-7 and hits another seven, ending the hopes of Fuller. Down to three.

The players request a two minute break as the blinds go up to 15,000-30,000, with a 3,000 ante. Thew has more than half the chips in play: 1.8 million. Vladimir is now back in second, with 571,000 and Denes has edged into third. He has 261,000. Thomas, who just lost that massive pot, is trailing with 137,000.

8.45pm: Huge pot. Vladimir raises 70,000 pre-flop and Thomas Fuller starts peering ominously at the Russian's stack. He calls, and then Julian Thew also gets involved. He calls. They see Kc-6c-Qh and Julian and Vladimir check. Thomas, who seems to be strong, fires just more than 100,000 into the 228,000 pot, giving Thew a tough decision. He announces a raise and bumps it up even further: the pot swells to 788,000. Vladimir gets out the way but Thomas moves in and Julian calls. Thomas has a set of sixes, Julian Q-8 of clubs for middle pair and the flush draw. It was already a massive, massive pot and when the ace of clubs came on the turn, it gave Thew the flush and sent him into a commanding chip lead. It's about 1.8 million and Fuller is felted.

8.41pm: Vladimir and Denes play a 150,000 pot: the flop came 10-9-J - check, check - then the turn brought another 10. Check check. The river was a king and Denes bet and took it.

8.40pm: Big pot brewed between the two chip leaders, but soon fizzled out. Thomas Fuller raised pre-flop and Julian Thew called. The flop came 4s-3d-10c and Julian bet it. Thomas folded.

Thomas Fuller is the tournament chip leader, with about 980,000. Thew is second with about 780,000. Vladimir and Denes are third and fourth, respectively.

8.32pm: Julian raises from the small blind and Vladimir calls from the big. The flop comes K-J-6 and both players check, as they do when the 8 comes on the turn. Julian then bets on the J river and sends Vladimir into the tank. The Russian thinks and thinks and then folds.

8.30pm: Julian Thew, who took a bit of a hit from Thomas Fuller a few pots before, raises from the button but is met with a re-raise all in from Vladimir in the small blind. Julian lays it down and loses 60,000.

8.20pm: Thomas Fuller takes down a sizeable pot, betting into a ten high flop, with both Julian and Vladimir still involved. They both pass and the American, who's impressed everyone on this final table, climbs up again.

8.02pm: Big pot - and a double up for Denes Kalo. The chip leader calls the Hungarian player's all in pre flop with pocket nines. Kalo has pocket jacks and there's nothing to worry about on the board. Kalo is back in the game with about 500,000.

8pm: Back from the dinner break, with the four remaining players sitting behind the following chips:

Julian Thew - 986,000
Thomas Fuller - 762,000
Vladimir Poleschuk - 744,000
Denes Kalo - 331,000

And they're playing for:

1st - €670,800
2nd - €375,000
3rd - €225,000
4th - €160,820

6.45pm: That's the dinner break. There are four left, and Julian Thew has edged into the chip lead, ahead of Thomas Fuller, then Vladimir Poleshchuk and Denes Kalo. Full counts to follow.

6.40pm: Julian Thew raises from the button and Thomas Fuller calls from the big blind. The flop comes 4-J-K and Thomas checks. Julian bets and takes it, showing A-K.

6.35pm: Thomas Fuller raises pre-flop and Vladimir calls. It's a lucky-looking flop: 7-7-7 and, after Vladimir checks, Thomas bets into a 200,000 pot. Vladimir then unleashes the check-raise, but it's only the minimum. Thomas Fuller moves all in. Wow. The pot goes up to 760,000, the biggest of the tournament so far. Vladimir folds, and slips right down the board. Thomas shows ace-king for a super-powerful move and he might now be in second place, behind Thew.

6.30pm: Denes Kalo raises to 58,000 from the small blind. Julian calls in the big blind and the flop brings J-Q-J. Both players check and see a scary ace on the turn, which prompts a check from Kalo. Julian tosses 30,000 into a pot of 124,000 and Kalo calls. Julian tables the queen, and scoops.

6.25pm: Three way pot, with Vladimir calling from the button; Denes maing up the small blind and Julian checking the button. The flop comes Ks-Qd-9c and Vladimir makes a small bet. That prompts Denes to move all in and Vladimir quickly folds.

6.15pm: Thomas Fuller raises pre-flop and Vladimir calls. The board comes 6-7-8 rainbow and Thomas puts in a small bet that's an easy call for the Russian. They both check the jack turn, then Thomas fires again on the 9 river, obviously representing the 10 for a straight. Vladimir buys it, and folds. Thomas takes a 230,000 pot.

6pm: No sooner is that last update typed than Kalo moves all-in pre-flop against Thomas Fuller. Fuller folds.

5.50pm: Back from the break and a big pot developed between Julian Thew and Denes Kalo. A sizeable bet on the ragged flop picked it up for Thew. Kalo has been quiet today -- perhaps card dead, perhaps attempting just to edge up the payout scale. Only the television edit will show.

5.20pm: The players take a ten minute break. Chip counts:

Vladimir Poleshchuk - Russia - 984,000
Julian Thew - England - 880,000
Thomas Fuller - USA - 569,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 459,000

5.15pm: With all four remaining players sitting with no more than about 400,000 between first and fourth, the action is slow here in Baden. Julian Thew has pinched a couple of blinds and antes, but was also caught with his fingers in the till by Denes Kalo, who called a 50,000 river bet and Julian mucked.

4.45pm: The blinds are at 6,000-12,000 and the stacks are levelling out. Julian Thew just picked up a pot with A-Q, and then re-raised a Thomas Fuller pre-flop raise. Vladimir thought about it, but folded, but Thomas decided to call. The pot was about 250,000 at this point. The flop came Kd-6c-2h and Julian checked. Thomas checked behind and the turn was 9s. Julian bet out for 90,000 which sent Thomas deep into the tank. Thomas eventually folded, and Julian picked up that quarter-million to temporarily halt Thomas's move up the leaderboard.

4.30pm: Thierry van den Berg, Holland, PokerStars qualifier, eliminated in fifth place for €132,900.
Thomas Fuller continues his charge. He raises pre-flop and Thierry van den Berg moves his short stack all in over the top. Fuller calls quickly and shows A-10; Thierry has J-9s. The flop brings queen-eight-king, which is an inside straight draw for the PokerStars qualifier from Holland. But the turn and river are blanks and Thierry is out.

Four players remain:

Vladimir Poleshchuk - Russia - 1million
Julian Thew - England - 700,000
Thomas Fuller - USA - 670,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 470,000

4.25pm: Thierry van den Berg, the PokerStars qualifier from Holland, raises pre-flop and Thomas Fuller moves all in for the second hand in a row. He has Van den Berg covered and the Dutchman thinks then folds. Fuller is on the move.

4.20pm: It's tough to get precise chip counts at the moment, but Vladimir is still out front with around about 1 million. Julian Thew remains second with about 700,000.

4.15pm: Thomas Fuller is the next one all in against Vladimir, and he's not in good shape with 7-7 against J-J. That is, until a seven flops and the last remaining American doubles up, handing Vladimir his first hit. Fuller ends with a full house -- sevens full of tens -- and is up to about 250,000.

4.10pm: The chips have been flowing in one direction only today, and that is towards Vladimir Poleshchuk. He now has about 1.2 million in chips.

4pm: Manfred Hammer eliminated in sixth place, winning €105,000
Manfred Hammer finds all his chips in the pot with 5-5 and is called by Vladimir Poleshchuk with A-Q. The flop brings an ace immediately and Hammer never recovers. Hammer time is over. Down to five, with Poleshchuk, the Russian player, having accounted for all three of today's eliminations.

2.35pm: Predictably, it's slowed a little after those amazing early-day bust-outs. Just time to update the tournament situation: they're playing level 20 with blinds of 5,000-10,000 and a 500 running ante.

2.27pm: Ted Lawson, USA, eliminated in seventh place, winning €83,600
As we struggle to contain the urge to use the headline "Vlad the Impaler", Vladimir Poleshchuk earns his second scalp of the day, on the second hand. This time it's Ted Lawson who's all-in with king-queen of clubs. Poleshchuk has ace-nine of hearts and flops three hearts for the flush. Lawson out in seventh and we're down to six, without even completing an orbit of the table.

2.25pm: Anton Allemann, Switzerland, eliminated in eighth place, winning €60,000
An amazing start here in Baden, for everyone except Anton Allemann. The young Swiss player was all in with ace-king on a flop of king-nine-ten. Vladimir Poleshchuk called with king-nine for two pair and Anton was out - first hand of the day

2.15pm: Cards are in the air.

Welcome back to Baden, where we're all set for the final table of today's European Poker Tour (EPT) event. There were 282 players when we began on Sunday afternoon and now there are just eight homes in seven different countries to which the big money will be finding its way.

We have two Americans, a Russian, an Englishman, a Hungarian, a Swiss and a Dutchman currently seated around the trademark sandy baize of the EPT final table. They are, in seat order:

Seat 1: Thierry van den Berg, 35, Holland - 227,000 in chips PokerStars qualifier
Thierry, a former chef from Almere, is a regular PokerStars qualifier and won four EPT seats last year on PokerStars, as well as four World Series seats. He also qualified on PokerStars for EPT Dublin at the end of October. Thierry, who has a 6-year-old daughter, turned pro a year ago. He made the final table of the $5,000 NLHE Six Handed tournament at last summer’s World Series but has never cashed before in an EPT. He said: “I can play my own game today as I’ve finally got a good stack.”

Seat 2: Manfred Hammer, 55, Germany - 369,000
Manfred Hammer, 55, was born in Dinkelsbuehl, Germany but now lives in Bregenz in Austria. Married with three children and two grandchildren, he is the co-owner of a construction company. He says his business means he rarely has time to play poker and this is by far his biggest success. Prior to EPT Baden, his biggest tournament win was second place in an Austrian tournament last July.

Seat 3: Julian Thew, 39, England - 610,000
Father-of-two Julian has been a professional player for two years and is very popular on the European poker circuit. The former draughtsman from Nottingham is having a great year, having just won the Plymouth leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. He said “I promised myself I’d pay off our mortgage before I turned 40 and that’s in two weeks time - I’m only $20,000 short at the moment. ” This is Julian’s third EPT final table and seventh EPT cash. His biggest EPT win to date was fourth in Copenhagen during season one for $30k.

Seat 4: Vladimir Poleshchuk, 42, Russia - 624,000
Vladimir, a 42-year-old father-of-two from Moscow, has been playing Texas hold’em for six years and turned pro after just a year. Vladimir says his biggest win in poker so far was winning a $1,000 tournament in Korona, Russia, for $40,000. He bought in to last year’s EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo but failed to cash. The former army officer said: “I feel pretty comfortable about my game, and confident about today’s final table. I’ve been playing well against some pretty strong players. And I’ve enjoyed being in Baden; it’s a beautiful town.” Vladimir is being supported here by his wife Elena.

Seat 5: Ted Lawson, 49, South Florida/Las Vegas, USA - 81,000
Despite Baden hosting his EPT debut, Ted Lawson, from South Florida, is well known on the international poker scene. The married father-of-three has ten World Series cashes including three final tables and a bracelet. He now features prominently in both the Cardplayer and Bluff magazine rankings and has made 12 final tables this year. Describing himself as a poker professional, Lawson runs 21st Century Holding, the NASDAQ-listed company he founded with his wife in 1983.

Seat 6: Thomas Fuller, 24, Boulder, Colorado, USA - 190,000
Former psychology student Thomas took up poker after watching the film Rounders and has been a professional player for over two years. He also played in EPT Barcelona last month but had a “bad beat”. He said: “Actually that’s been true of all my big tournaments– I’ve either played badly or taken brutal beats – apart from this one!

Seat 7: Denes Kalo, 31, Hungary : 468,000
Dénes Kaló was born and lives in Budapest, Hungary. He works as the sales manager of a broker company and has been playing poker for 3 years. His best poker result to date was coming second in the 2006 EPM Vienna. Outside of poker, Denes is a sailing enthusiast.

Seat 8: Anton Allemann, 24, Switzerland : 254,000
Anton is one of two psychology students sitting at today’s final table (the other is American Thomas Fuller). He took up poker 18 months ago after a mere glimpse of the payout structure at an EPT event showed how much money could be won. He started playing online but now likes both online and live events. He said: “My previous biggest win was a cash game in Vegas during the World Series – I made $40,000 in one night. I think I’m an aggressive player, but I can also be flexible and adapt to the table conditions”

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a final table.

After a quick, slow, quick, slow day in Baden, we finally shaved the field down from 40 to the eight players who'll duke it out tomorrow for the EPT Baden crown.

They are, in order of chip stacks:

Vladimir Poleshchuk - Russia - 624,000
Julian Thew - England - 610,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 468,000
Manfred Hammer - Germany - 369,000
Anton Allemann - Switzerland - 254,000
Thierry van den Berg - Holland - PokerStars qualifier - 227,000
Thomas Fuller - USA - 190,000
Ted Lawson - USA - 81,000

The 40 began falling in the very first hand, and taking the earliest bath was Hevad "RaiNKhan" Khan, the Team PokerStars pro from the United States. RaiNKhan took a nasty beat from Julian Thew at the end of yesterday, and shoved his short stack in when it was folded to him first thing today. Not a bad move most of the time, but Manfred Hammer -- whose name has spawned repeated "Hammer time!" shouts in the press room today -- found aces. That was that for RaiNKhan.

At the same time on the television table, Carlo di Renzo was running into Alan Smurfit's aces. The carnage had officially started.

In went the chips and out went the players. We lost PokerStars qualifiers Matt Tyler and Roman Yitzhaki, as well as well-known European pros Thor Hansen and Surindar Sunar. Soraya Homam, Harald Poeschl and Johann Fest also took the walk.

Then, no sooner had the bubble floated into view, than it was burst by Heimo Kraner, from Austria. We were in the money.

It didn't last long for Daniel Mangas, from Spain, who had his kings outdrawn by Thew's jacks. Thew went on a charge for the rest of the day, finding big cards when necessary, and playing the big stack with aplomb. He's second in chips going into tomorrow.

Among his victims was Pascal Perrault, the final remaining EPT champion after Andreas Hoivold was eliminated in 22nd. Also hitting the spas with a bundle of cash were Alexander Kravchenko, the World Series final table finisher, and David Sonelin and Michael Durrer, PokerStars qualifiers, who perished in 11th and 12th, respectively.

Many of their chips found their way into the stack of Vladimir Poleshchuk, from Russia. He'll take the chip lead into the final. His last victim of the day was the PokerStars player Sebastian Ruthenberg, who couldn't repeat his third place finish in Dortmund earlier this year. He went out in 10th.

When the final nine assembled around the not-really-final-table -- we play to eight on the EPT -- there were a couple of short stacks in front of Gunnar Rabe, from Sweden, and Ted Lawson, of the United States. Rabe was the first to find a hand -- pocket tens -- but they weren't good enough to beat Manfred Hammer's queen-ten, which turned a straight.

So it was over. The eight were decided and they're in line for a monster payout when proceedings begin again at 3 p.m. central European time.

We'll have a blow-by-blow account right here. Don't miss it.

Today's eliminations:

9 - Gunnar Rabe - PokerStars qualifier - €38,600
10 - Sebastian Ruthenberg - PokerStars player - €38,600
11 - David Sonelin - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - €30,000
12 - Michael Durrer - Germany - PokerStars qualifier - €30,000
13 - Age Spets - Norway - €25,700
14 - Hans Eskilsson - Sweden - €25,700
15 - Pascal Perrault - France - €19,300
16 - Peter Gould - England - €19,300
17 - Alexander Kravchenko - Russia - €12,860
18 - Hector Fuentes - Spain - €12,860
19 - Victor Goossens - Holland - €12,860
20 - Alan Smurfit - Ireland - €12,860
21 - Kalil Rahal - France - €12,860
22 - Andreas Hoivold - Norway - €12,860
23 - Jiri Vacek - Hungary - €12,860
24 - Daniel Mangas - Spain - €12,860

The final table payouts:

1st - €670,800
2nd - €375,000
3rd - €225,000
4th - €160,820
5th - €132,900
6th - €105,000
7th - €83,600
8th - €60,000

Picture (c) Neil Stoddart

Gunnar Rabe, PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, has just burst the TV bubble. He knew he was up against it when the final nine sat down around the pseudo final table; his "chip-and-a-chair" good humour hinted at an inclination to get the chips in behind the first decent hand he found.

Gunnar Rabe, shortly before departing in ninth place
(c) Neil Stoddart

And pocket tens wasn't bad, especially when Manfred Hammer called with queen-ten. But the German player made a straight on the turn, and Rabe was gone.

The final eight are now bagging up and heading home for a good night's rest before the fireworks start afresh tomorrow.

And, just like that, they're down to nine. This time it's Sebastian Ruthenberg, the PokerStars player from Germany, who was on the receiving end.

He lost a huge pot to double up Anton Allemann and then pushed in with 6-6 the next hand. Thierry van den Berg, the PokerStars qualifier from Holland, found aces again and they held. Van Den Berg now has plenty; Ruthenberg has €38,600 for 10th place.

The final nine, who have been moved to one table, are:

Thierry van den Berg - Holland - PokerStars qualifier - 224,000
Manfred Hammer - Germany - 305,000
Gunnar Rabe - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - 74,000
Julian Thew - England - 602,000
Vladimir Poleshchuk - Russia - 627,000
Ted Lawson - USA - 84,000
Thomas Fuller - USA - 113,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 447,000
Anton Allemann - Switzerland - 144,000

Michael Durrer, the PokerStars qualifier from Germany, has just taken two beats and then the miserable walk to the rail.

Michael Durrer - PokerStars qualifier takes €30,000

First, it was Gunnar Rabe, the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, who doubled through the man from Dusseldorf with ace-ten versus king-queen. Then, when it was Durrer facing Denes Kalo's king-queen, a queen flopped to outdraw ace-jack.

Durrer takes €30,000 for 12th place, but Rabe has now recovered from holding just one blue chip worth 1,000 to sit more comfortably around about 100,000.

Durrer was preceded out of the tournament by Age Spets, from Norway. He was all in pre-flop against Sebastian Ruthenberg and Vladimir Poleshchuk. Poleshchuk bet on the river and Spets didn't show what he had. He merely mucked his hand and left the television table.

* * * * *

And it's all action on the television table -- which you can watch on the EPT Live feed by clicking HERE. David Sonelin, the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, has just been eliminated by Poleshchuk.

All the money went in on the turn when and ace hit. Sonelin had made top pair, with a five kicker, but the Russian had filled a straight with his king-jack and catapulted into the chip lead. He has more than 600,000 now.

So, those eliminations in full:

11 - David Sonelin - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - €30,000
12 - Michael Durrer - Germany - PokerStars qualifier - €30,000
13 - Age Spets - Norway - €25,700
14 - Hans Eskilsson - Sweden - €25,700
15 - Pascal Perrault - France - €19,300
16 - Peter Gould - England - €19,300
17 - Alexander Kravchenko - Russia - €12,860
18 - Hector Fuentes - Spain - €12,860
19 - Victor Goossens - Holland - €12,860
20 - Alan Smurfit - Ireland - €12,860
21 - Kalil Rahal - France - €12,860
22 - Andreas Hoivold - Norway - €12,860
23 - Jiri Vacek - Hungary - €12,860
24 - Daniel Mangas - Spain - €12,860

We play down to eight tonight. That's two more and we're done.

When you're hot, you're hot and Julian Thew is somewhere near to the sun at the moment.

Julian Thew - an hour or so before his rush to the chip lead

He just busted Pascal Perrault in a battle of the blinds that got a little ugly courtesy of a pair of pocket aces (Thew's) to Pascal's ace-queen. They did the usual shilly-shallying, raise-reraise pre flop and then flipped. There were no miracles for Perrault and Julian vaulted into the chip lead.

A few hands later and he was at it again. Thomas Fuller, from the United States, raised to 20,000 from early position. From my railbird's perch I'd seen his pocket jacks. Julian asked how much he had behind, and Thomas counted out around 80,000. Julian bumped it up to 100,000, effectively putting Fuller all in, and after a couple of minutes' speech-play, the young American folded.

Ted Lawson led the other players in their guessing as to what Thomas had and he eventually showed them the hooks. Julian tapped the table in appreciation of the laydown and flashed pocket queens.

Julian is leading by some distance now: he's on more than 575,000, with Denes Kalo on about 380,000 and the PokerStars player Sebastian Ruthenberg on about 370,000. The short stacks are Age Spets and Thomas Fuller.

Meanwhile, Hans Eskilsson is out. The former soccer professional from Sweden pushed in with king-four and ran into David Sonelin's ace-queen. The PokerStars qualifier from Sweden continues to prosper under the studio lights.

Sure enough, they've started to fall. We're now down to two tables of eight, meaning 16 players in total. Five have gone since the last update and there's a redraw underway.

They were:

17 - Alexander Kravchenko - Russia - €12,860
Ran into Pascal Perrault's aces.

18 - Hector Fuentes - Spain - €12,860
Lost with king-queen to Denes Kalo, whose jack-ten made two pair

19 - Victor Goossens - Holland - €12,860
Lost a chunk with queens against Vladimir Poleshchuk's aces. Then lost rest with ace-seven against Thierry van den Berg's K-J. Van den Berg rivered a flush.

20 - Alan Smurfit - Ireland - €12,860
Kings couldn't hold up against Julian Thew's ace-jack; ace on the flop.

21 - Kalil Rahal - France - €12,860
Queens against kings, all in pre-flop.

A reminder of the payouts:

1st - €670,800
2nd - €375,000
3rd - €225,000
4th - €160,820
5th - €132,900
6th - €105,000
7th - €83,600
8th - €60,000

9th-10th €38,600
11th-12th - €30,000
13th-14th - €25,700
15th-16th - €19,300

And the players chasing:

Thierry van den Berg - Holland - PokerStars qualifier - 230,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg - Germany - PokerStars player - 212,000
David Sonelin - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - 202,000
Peter Gould - England - 114,000
Manfred Hammer - Germany - 101,000
Age Spets - Norway - 65,000
Vladimir Poleshchuk - Russia - 230,000
Hans Eskilsson - Sweden - 57,000

Anton Allemann - Switzerland - 160,000
Julian Thew - England - 320,000
Pascal Perrault - France - 193,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 435,000
Ted Lawson - USA - 150,000
Michael Durrer - Germany - PokerStars qualifier - 75,500
Gunnar Rabe - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - 120,000
Thomas Fuller - USA - 120,000

PokerStars is running a special $11 rebuy satellite for EPT Dublin on October 10. You can find all the satellite details in the PokerStars lobby under 'Tournaments/EPT'.

As part of our support for the Simon Poker Day charity tournament (run annually by Irish poker joker Padraig Parkinson), PokerStars is donating $2 for every buy-in, rebuy, and add-on.

All details about Simon Poker Day, can be found by clicking HERE. The tournament raised €50,000 for the Dublin homeless last year.

Please note: tournament only open to British and Irish players.

It's been very slow going since the dinner break, with all 21 players who sampled the fine cuisine here still remaining in the tournament.

David Sonelin, the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, is still out front, and has now been moved to the featured table. For anyone unaware, you can watch that table on a live webcast by clicking HERE.

The complete list of remaining players is as follows:

Featured table:

Age Spets (Norway)
Vladimir Poleshchuk (Russia)
Hans Eskilsson (Sweden)
Thierry van den Berg (Holland) - PokerStars qualifier
David Sonelin (Sweden) - PokerStars qualifier
Peter Gould (England)
Victor Goossens (Holland)

Table 1:

Denes Kalo (Hungary)
Alan Smurfit (Ireland)
Kalil Rahal (France)
Manfred Hammer (Germany)
Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) - PokerStars player
Julian Thew (England)
Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) - PokerStars qualifier

Table 2:

Anton Allemann (Switzerland)
Hector Fuentes (Spain)
Pascal Perrault (France)
Ted Lawson (USA)
Michael Durrer (Germany) - PokerStars qualifier
Alexander Kravchenko (Russia)
Thomas Fuller (USA)

While we wait for the inevitable fireworks to spark that will result in the field thinning to the required eight by the end of the day, why not enjoy some day three photography, courtesyof Neil Stoddart, PokerStars' photographer for the EPT.

Sebastian Ruthenberg, left, and Julian Thew discuss who should have called Gunnar Rabe's all in. Thew called with ace-ten and lost to Rabe's ace-jack


Pascal Perrault: the last remaining former EPT champion in the field


Age Spets, through a looking glass (or something)


Barry Greenstein drops into the EPT Live commentary booth. Follow the link at the top of the page to watch the live webcast


Hans Eskilsson: former football player in the money


It's all happening in there

Today's dinner - which will be served momentarily - is likely to taste a little sweeter for PokerStars qualifier Thierry van den Berg after a big double up in the past ten minutes.

A pre-flop raising battle broke out between the Dutch player and Peter Gould, of England. Thierry raised under-the-gun-plus-one, Peter re-raised from one off the button, Thierry moved all in and Peter was pot-committed. The final re-re-raise was about 30,000 more into a pot of around 90,000.

Thierry van den Berg rubs his hands at the prospect of a double up

Peter knew he was behind as he tabled A-K. Thierry, who spent much of yesterday lamenting the absence of pocket aces from his hand, uttered: "For once in my life," before flipping over those bullets. Good time to get them.

The flop, though, was scary for Thierry. It brought a queen and a ten, meaning "any old jack" would do it for Peter, as he repeated through turn and river. It didn't come, though, and Thierry doubled through to around 100,000.


The board keeps Thierry's hopes alive

Scratching the felt on the same table is Jiri Vacek, who lost near enough all his stack with A-2h against Victor Goossens' pocket fives. In fact, Vacek thought he was out, but tablemate Age Spets called him back suggesting he may have had Goossens covered. He did, as it happens, but he has less than 5,000 left and is itching to shove them in.

* * * * *

Tournament update:

Vacek was all in blind moments after the hand described above. He had jack-nine and couldn't beat K-Q of Thierry van den Berg. He takes €12,860 for 23rd.

Andreas Hoivold just became out 22rd placed finisher, earning €12,860. His A-4 couldn't overtake Gunnar Rabe's K-K and the Dortmund champion is gone. Pascal Perrault is now the lone remaining

* * * * *

Unrelated picture moment


Alexander Kravchenko under surveillance

Shortly after the bubble burst, the world collapsed for Daniel Mangas, from Spain. On the featured table, he re-raised Julian Thew's pre-flop bet and was all in for about 75,000. Julian called with jacks, Daniel flipped kings and was looking good. But Thew spiked a jack on the turn and moves to more than 200,000.

Other selected counts:

David Sonelin - PokerStars qualifier - Sweden - 378,000
Julian Thew - England - 210,000
Denes Kalo - Hungary - 205,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg - PokerStars player - Germany - 190,000
Michael Durrer - PokerStars qualifier - Germany - 140,000
Alexander Kravchenko - Russia - 125,000
Andreas Hoivold - Norway - 79,000
Peter Gould - England - 75,000
Thierry van den Berg - PokerStars qualifier - Sweden - 71,000
Anton Allemann - Switzerland - 70,000
Pascal Perrault - France - 67,000
Gunnar Rabe - PokerStars qualifier - Sweden - 65,000
Alan Smurfit - Ireland - 64,000
Hans Eskilsson - Sweden - 57,000
Age Spets - Norway - 48,000

Recent eliminations:

24th - Daniel Mangas - Spain - €12,860

There are a few subjects in these poker tournaments that always make good blog posts: the introduction, the shots of the town, the first eliminations, the Team PokerStars pros' progress, and, perhaps best of all, the bubble.

That paragraph of filler above is perhaps the best indication that this tournament was different. Before we even got a chance to hype the fact that they were playing hand-for-hand and that the next man out goes home with nothing, he'd been busted and was already on his way. Two and a half days and nothing to show for it. Tough beat.

The man in question this time was Heimo Kraner, from Austria. He moved all in pre-flop with an ace-queen and was called in two spots: Age Spets and chip-leader David Sonelin. The flop was ace-high, pretty good for Kraner, but Spets and Sonelin checked it all the way down and an eight fell on the river. Sonelin bet, Spets folded ace-queen face up, and Sonelin showed pocket eights for the rivered set.

Kraner is gone, we're down to 24, and everyone is getting paid.

David Sonelin with the chip lead

Poker is a game of decisions - and some of them can be worth several hundred thousand euros. As we approach the bubble in an event of this size, the number and importance of every call, raise or fold increases, and the top players have a tendency to make the right move at the right time.

And while most of us amateurs can only dream about playing for so much cash, it is sometimes possible to imagine ones way into these situations: hanging around in these events sometimes affords an insight into the thought processes of the best players.

Moments ago, with 27 players remaining, I caught a sight of Thomas Fuller squeezing his cards and seeing ace-ten off-suit. He was in the big blind and was facing a raise from Gunnar Rabe, the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, who is hardly shy of putting his chips in the pot.

Gunnar Rabe, top, and Thomas Fuller, front

What would you do? Fuller had a decent stack; Rabe's was somewhat smaller. Fold and let him take it, perhaps advertising that your blind is there for the stealing. Raise and hope that Rabe was on a steal? Calling is another choice, of course, but what flop do you really want to see, especially out of position?

In this instance, Fuller went for option two, and stuck another 25,000 in the pot. That gave Gunnar a decision, and he called with a reluctant shrug.

When the flop came littered with rags, Fuller tried flexing his muscles and moved all in, giving Gunnar a decision to call for his tournament life. But Rabe had actually been in the driver's seat all along. He called and flipped aces. No miracle runner-runner was forthcoming for Thomas.


Thomas Fuller jots down details of the pot that went Rabe's way

Fuller, however, was still sitting behind a healthy enough stack and the very next hand had another tough decision. This time Gyoergy Moger, from Hungary, moved his small stack all in pre-flop. Thomas this time found ace-jack and again he found the call. Moger had fours and they were racing.

But the flop this time was slightly more healthy: a king, ten and a queen meant a straight for the young American. He offered his hand to his opponent, but Moger refused to take it until he'd seen the next two cards. Sure enough, a four came on the turn, giving Moger a set and plenty of full-house outs on the river. Thankfully for Fuller, none came and Moger took the walk.

Up, down, up again in two hands. Who'd be a poker player?

Baden is a sleepy little spa town near to the eastern edge of Austria, close to the borders with Hungary and Slovakia. The permanent residents and tourists alike hike up mountains, eat lavish pastries or relax in the spas.

The bombardment of poker players that occurs once a year must be quite a shock to the system, and when the money pulls into view - as it has during day three - the action becomes even more hectic.

The floor

From a starting field of 40, we're already down to fewer than 30. I'm not naming a specific number because it's sure to be out of date by the time this appears online.

Among those to fall are Roman Yitzhaki, who was the victim of some PokerStars players cannibalism. He was busted with ace-king against David Sonelin's kings; the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden continuing the form that lifted him up the leaderboard late last night.


Roman Yitzhaki: before his departure


David Sonelin: chip leader

And Sonelin's ascendency has continued right the way to the top of the pile. He also knocked out Thor Hansen, whose aces weren't good enough to beat the young Swede's jacks, when they made a flush.

Soraya Homam has also gone, joining Harald Poeschl, Johann Fest, Matt Tyler and Surinder Sunar on the rail.

Pictures (c) Neil Stoddart

Day three has begun in a predictable hurry, with those near the bottom of the overnight leaderboard desperate to begin their climb -- or to hit the spa.

As reported, we have already lost RaiNKhan, whose relaxation will have to wait until after his spell in the EPT Live commentary booth (join him HERE), and Carlo di Renzo, both of whom ran into aces.

But Thor Hansen, who was at the very foot of the table, just got all his stack in the middle and picked up the blinds and antes. He flashed a seven-five off-suit to advertise exactly the kind of hands with which he's prepared to make these moves.

Alexander Kravchenko, who was a dominant force in this year's World Series main event, also just survived an all-in. But his was of the double-up variety. He had ace-king and found a caller in Hans Eskilsson, the former soccer pro turned poker player.

Alexander Kravchenko, right, and Hans Eskilsson, far left

Eskilsson thought for an age before calling with pocket twos. The door card was a king and that was enough to double up Kravchenko.

* * * * *

It looks as though we have just lost both Surindar Sunar, from the feature table, and Matt Tyler, the PokerStars qualifier, from outside. Tyler suddenly appeared on the television feed shaking his friend Julian Thew's hand, and then settled in the bleechers. Hand details to follow.

Surinder, meanwhile, was a victim of Thew's. They got it all in pre-flop with ace-jack versus eights. The jack flopped to give Surinder a potential double-up, but the eight turned and Thew knocked him out.

It's frantic stuff.

Day three begins, and day three is over for RaiNKhan. He pushed his short stack in when it was passed to him two off the button.

Manfred Hammer, in the big blind, called immediately and it looked for all the world like a big hand. It was. It was aces.

RaiNKhan flipped Kh-8d and flopped an eight. But there was no more help and Hammer's aces held up. The final Team PokerStars Pro fell at the first today.

Meanwhile, a similar scenario was being played out on the featured table. Carlo di Renzo, of Italy, ran into Alan Smurfit's aces and that was that mark two.

Incidentally, we began today with about half an hour remaining of level 13, where blinds are 1,000-2,000 with an ante of 200.

Preparations underway for day three

Welcome again to Baden, Austria, for a crucial day three of the €8,000 PokerStars European Poker Tour event.

There's an argument to be made that all days in such a massive tournament are crucial, but today has special claims: we start with 40 players, we will end with eight. The player out first will go home with nothing; those who remain will win at least €60,000. And one of them will take €670,000 by the end of tomorrow night.

That means that today is not only bubble day, but also the day on which tomorrow's television stars and fortune holders are decided. In other words, today is a crucial day on the European Poker Tour.

So, who's in the running?

As usual, the field here has thinned to include an attractive smattering of big-name stars, wily veterans, young guns and online stars. Some players already fit into more than one category; others are busy making the transistion.

The hopes of Team PokerStars rest on the ample shoulders of Hevad "RaiNKhan" Khan, although he has some work to do. RaiNKhan has played an near-perfect tournament so far, but late last night had his jacks cracked by Julian Thew's 5-3, the Englishman hitting a straight on the river and knocking the Team PokerStars pro down to 21,300 in chips. It's not all over for the New Yorker, but he's looking up at 36 of the remaining 40.

Nearer the top of that pile is Michael Durrer, a PokerStars qualifier from Dusseldorf in Germany. Durrer was also close to the chip lead at the end of day one, but was circumspect when asked at the beginning of yesterday to relate the tale of his tournament. "The story happens on Wednesday," he said, referring to the day scheduled for the final table. Durrer might well feature prominently in that.

David Sonelin, a serial PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, is also in the top ten overnight. He survived a huge all in late in the day against Gunnar Rabe (who is, you guessed it, a PokerStars qualifier from Sweden) and finished with 115,500. Rabe is still alive himself, and has a healthy 81,300.

Among the rest of the field are Pascal Perrault and Andreas Hoivold, both previous EPT winners, Alan Smurfit, from Ireland, who won a bracelet at this year's WSOP, Surindar Sunar, the English professional, Alexander Kravchenko, who made the final table of the WSOP main event, and the aforementioned Julian Thew, another English professional and regular high-placed finisher on the EPT.

The featured table, which you can watch in any of six languages by clicking HERE, will begin with Sunar, Thew, Perrault, Smurfit and Durrer.

We'll have all the action from there and the outer tables here on PokerStars blog. Continue to check back for the remainder of the day.

It's crucial.

A reminder of the payouts:

1st - €670,800
2nd - €375,000
3rd - €225,000
4th - €160,820
5th - €132,900
6th - €105,000
7th - €83,600
8th - €60,000

9th-10th €38,600
11th-12th - €30,000
13th-14th - €25,700
15th-16th - €19,300
17th-24th - €12,860

The full chip counts for the 40 remaining players in Baden:

Anton Allemann (Switzerland) 140,000
Acar Mazlum (Switzerland) 136,000
Daniel Mangas (Spain) 134,500
Thomas Fuller (USA) 128,800
Vladimir Poleshchuk (Russia) 122,600
Michael Durrer (Germany) PokerStars qualifier 116,000
David Sonelin (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 115,500
Julian Thew (UK) 114,700
Victor Goossens (Holland) 108,900
Denes Tamas Kalo (Hungary) 102,200
Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) PokerStars player 97,400
Hans Vimmo Eskilsson (Sweden) 96,800
Pascal Perrault (France) 95,700
Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 81,300
Christophe Defforey (Germany) 81,200
Jiri Vacek (Czech Republic) 78,100
Hector Fuentes (Spain) 77,400
Heimo Krainer (Austria) 73,500
Thierry van den Berg (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 69,800
Roman Yitzhaki (USA) PokerStars player 69,800
Age Spets (Norway) 68,500
Peter Gould (UK) 65,800
Gyoergy Moger (Hungary) 56,500
Dennis Naci Hansen (Denmark) 54,400
Alan Peter Smurfit (Ireland) 49,700
Kalil Rahal (France) 48,900
Andreas Hoivold (Norway) 48,900
Manfred Hammer (Germany) 47,200
Matthew Tyler (UK) PokerStars qualifier 45,600
Christophe Benzimra (France) 37,500
Surinder Sunar (UK) 36,300
Alexander Kravchenko (Russia) 34,800
Harald Poeschl (Austria) 33,800
Johann Fest (Germany) 28,000
Edward Lawson (USA) 25,300
Soraya Homam (Germany) 25,000
Andreas Fluri (Switzerland) 23,300
Hevad Khan (USA) Team PokerStars Pro 21,300
Carlo Di Renzo (Italy) 16,200
Thor Hansen (Norway) 14,400

Play begins tomorrow at 3 p.m.

And there we have it, day two is over.

We started with a field of 156 still afloat in the tournament and now we're down to 40. Some of the biggest names are still around; many others have gone. There's very little mercy shown during the course of one of these days, and this one has been particularly brutal.

It all started, I suppose, when Sander Lyloff, the overnight chip leader, lost two massive pots and was out: leader to loser in a matter of three levels. Then the deluge started: trotting up the stairs from press to poker rooms inevitaby meant passing someone on the way down announcing another big-name departure.

They fell like flies. Barny Boatman lost with a set of nines. Then the Team PokerStars Pros started taking the hits: Noah Boeken couldn't double his overnight short-stack; Dario Minieri's fours lost to queens; Luca Pagano departed; Barry Greenstein signed his book and left; Andre Akkari was on his way back to Brazil; Katja Thater, who'd clung on for hours, eventually also took the fall just before dinner.

By the end, only RaiNKhan of the Team PokerStars pros was still in the field, but he has a micro-stack, after Julian Thew rivered a straight in the final orbit of the day. We also lost both PokerStars qualifiers who had previously won EPTs: Mats Iremark and John Shipley were both eliminated in the early evening.

So where did all the chips go? Well, PokerStars players Sebastian Ruthenberg, from Germany, and Roman Yitzhaki, from the United States, still have plenty. As do PokerStars qualifiers Michael Durrer, Thierry van den Berg, David Sonelin, Matt Tyler and Gunnar Rabe.

Also in the field are Surindar Sunar, Age Spets, Julian Thew, Alexander Kravchenko and Alan Smurfit, among others. The full chip counts for the remaining 40 players will be here as soon as we know them.

In the meantime, here's a review of today's action:

Durrer doubles up -- The travails of a chip leader

Gunnar gunning: the emergence of Gunnar Rabe

Slicing through the field

Dinner break update

Brutal departures

Greenstein exits -- Other PokerStars notables

Day two begins -- Qualifiers or champions? -- Thierry van den Berg and Michael Durrer

Picture (c) Neil Stoddart

The day is definitely drawing to a close now, and were it not for a two-outer recently sending Michael Durrer, the PokerStars qualifier from Germany, to more than 100,000, we'd already be packing up and going home.

But, truth be told, I'm happy: when I spoke to Durrer earlier in the day, asking him for the story so far, he told me to check back later. It was too early for stories, he said. But, having noticed about 30 railbirds crowded around his table late on tonight, the notebook came out and recorded this, among th other scrawls, doodles and nonsense.

We were already past the turn and the board read: Ac-6c-6d-5d. The pot was already monstrous, and Philip Yeh, from Sweden, had put a bet of about 15,000 into it. Durrer, from Dusseldorf, was thinking. He was thinking hard. And then he said all-in, pushing his remaining 35,000 or so into the pot.

Massive pot goes to Michael Durrer

Yeh thought for a far shorter time and called. He had Durrer covered, but only just. However, he definitely had the better hand: his six-ten had made trips, while Durrer's ace-ten was two pair.

That was until the river, when one of the two aces remaining in the deck popped out, to send gasps around the rail and leave Philip punching the table and cursing his ill fortune.

Durrer, however, was smiling. His story is only just beginning.

* * * * *

Another chip lead dwindles

No sooner had the previous post found its way onto PokerStars blog, than Gunnar Rabe, its principal subject, was confirming its content. Chip leaders have really struggled here in Baden, suffering huge hits the minute they seem to accumulate a huge stack.

So it was again for Rabe, the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden. He ended up losing a pot of around 50,000 to fellow Swede and fellow PokerStars qualifier, David Sonelin. Rabe had 5-5, Sonelin A-K and it all went in on a board of 9d-9c-Kc.

There was no miracle five on turn or river and Gunnar was down to about 100,000. Sonelin, meanwhile, is up to about 60,000.

It's been a very bad day to be a chip leader. The minute after players have accumulated monster stacks, they've lost them, with the chip lead swinging from table to table.

Sander Lyloff kicked it all off when he imploded very early in the day, and was knocked out. More recently, Pascal Perrault and Julian Thew have taken hits, and Raul Mestre, from Spain, has also gone from hero to very-close-to-zero after a number of hands went against him.

The latest player hoping to make the title of chip leader stick is Gunnar Rabe, the PokerStars qualifier from Sweden, who just won a huge pot from Mestre. The board showed 7s-3s-9c when I arrived to the table a few moments ago and Rabe had just been re-raised. There was an initial bet of about 7,000 in the pot and Mestre had bumped it up to 18,000.

Gunnar Rabe: PokerStars qualifier heading the field

Rabe called and the turn was a dangerous 6s, potentially filling flushes or straights. Mestre agonised for about five minutes before checking and Rabe checked behind him.

Amateur observers might have been suspicious of Mestre's Hollywood-ing, but there was nothing restrained or covert about the thump of the table that followed this sequence, which unfolded in a flash: the river brought the As; Mestre checked; Rabe bet 20,000 and Mestre called. Rabe turned over Ks-7c for the now-nut flush, and Mestre was vlearly devastated.

He later confided to having hit the queen-high flush on the turn, but his trap-check backfired. The free card gave Rabe, who made the final table in Dortmund last year, the bigger flush and a chip lead of around about 160,000.

Meanwhile, we're down to 47 players, with Ram Vaswani among the latest big-name casualties.

The plan at the beginning of the day today -- day two, in case anyone was wondering -- was to play six levels or reduce the field to 40 players, whichever came soonest.

The media room usually nods appreciatively when such decisions are announced, silently certain that it'll mean the full six levels before they can fold up their laptops and head off for the day. Play tends to slow, short stacks double up, and it's another seven hours at the coal face.

But, and I'm hoping not to hex proceedings here, this might be different. We're already down to 62 players on a compact seven tables and not many are showing any signs of putting on the brakes.

Unfortunately, the cull around the dinner break included Katja Thater, the Team PokerStars Pro, who had been sliding towards short-stack status earlier in the day and wasn't able to arrest the decline. That leaves RaiNKhan as the lone surviving Team PokerStars Pro. The New Yorker has charmed his table and railbirds alike on the way to his current 40,000-odd stack.

RaiNKhan
(c) Neil Stoddart

That's around about the average, currently 46,000.

RainKhan is on today's unofficial PokerStars table, which also features Sebastian Ruthenberg, from Germany, and qualifier Gunnar Rabe. John Shipley and Matt Tyler, both English PokerStars qualifiers, were also on the same table as one another, before the former was seen heading to the door, his 50,000 stack from minutes before having vanished.


Matt Tyler

Meanwhile, here are a few others still battling:

Alan Smurfit - Ireland - 40,000
Thor Hansen - Denmark - 38,000
David Sonelin - Sweden - PokerStars qualifier - 58,000
Richard Ashby - England - 24,000
Janne Juutilainen - Finland - PokerStars player - 33,000


Ram Vaswani - England - 32,000
(c) Neil Stoddart
Philip Yeh - Sweden - 18,000
Daniel Mangas - Spain - 105,000
Roman Yitzhaki - USA - PokerStars player - 80,000


Julian Thew - England - 120,000
(c) Neil Stoddart
Thierry van den Berg - Holland - PokerStars player - 26,000
Surindar Sunar - England - 39,000
Age Spets - Norway - 91,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg - PokerStars player - Germany - 85,000

Gunnar Rabe - PokerStars qualifier - Sweden - 52,000
Matt Tyler - PokerStars qualifier - England - 14,000
Acar Mazlum - Switzerland - 134,000
Michael Durrer - PokerStars qualifier - Germany - 38,000
Pascal Perrault - France - 115,000
Andreas Hoivold - Norway - 88,000
Alexander Kravchenko - Russia - 22,000
Anton Allemann - Switzerland - 96,000

They're playing with blinds of 600-1,200 and a 100 ante.

After a short break to allow for the biggest ever World Championship of Online Poker, the Sunday Million returned to join its brothers on the biggest tournament day in online poker. More than 6,300 players signed up on Sunday and fought for a $1.2 million prize pool. Among them was Team PokerStars' Steve Paul-Ambrose. Steve looked good to make a final table run but turned out to be the unfortunate final table bubble boy, finishing in tenth place. The eventual winner was Haligon. After a four-way deal and finishing first, Haligon won more than $130,000.

Here are all the results for this week's Sunday tournaments.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and four-way deal

1. MasterJNeel (Belgium) $49,119.34
2. nicava (United States) $34,074.20
3. Zugwat (United States) $60,161.11
4. youscareppl (Netherlands) $34,475.43
5. bjerke1972 (Norway) $18,809.76
6. Yank46 (United States) $14,180.96
7. Kenny Rap (United States) $9,972.96
8. Mrsgardener (Denmark) $6,185.76
9. postmannen (Norway) $3,703.04

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and five-way deal

1. markbris (United States) $8,728.93
2. Deuce250 (United States) $5,896.60
3. 19hexe83 (Germany) $13,037.64
4. gab434 (Canada) $8,885.42
5. Pokerchlg (United States) $5,945.35
6. Fly-me1 (Sweden) $2,247.45
7. PokerRandy55 (United States) $1,642.37
8. TwinsCubsFan (United States) $1,210.17
9. Hi Chucky (United Kingdom) $864.41

PokerStars High Stakes Showdown Final Table Results

1. $tinger 88 (United States $25,000.00
2. Iftarii (United States) $15,000.00


PokerStars Sunday Tournament Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and four-way deal

1. Haligon (United States) $132,181.68
2. TeamWispy (United States) $93,830.66
3. hansou (France) $85,875.00
4. dh3684 (United States) $86,396.26
5. PkrHolic (Austria) $40,638.60
6. bb55 (France) $29,118.00
7. fladfisk111 (Denmark) $20,889.00
8. zoomboy (Cote Divoire) $12,660.00
9. Urlings (Belgium) $7,849.20

As the players prepare for the dinner break, there are a couple of eliminations to report. First, Mads Anderson, EPT Copenhagen winner during season two, perished at the hands of Age Spets, king-queen unable to overtake ace-queen.

Then PokerStars qualifier Matt Tyler accounted for Paul Testud. This time Tyler's queen-jack was able to outdraw Testud's ace-eight. Both players had fairly short stacks and were pretty much obliged to make the all in play.

Also playing all-in poker is Katja Thater, the Team PokerStars Pro. She's been nursing a short stack for some time, and is just abot managing to pick up a few blinds and antes by shoving it in. It'll be double up or out very soon.

Katja Thater: waiting for a double up

So, there are 65 players remaining going to the break. The average stack is about 38,000 and they'll be playing level ten on their return.

It's been a brutal past hour in Baden, particularly for Team PokerStars Pros. Dario Minieri, Luca Pagano and Andre Akkari have all perished, leaving Katja Thater and RaiNKhan carrying the hopes.

Andre Akkari in happier times

Sebastian Ruthenberg, a PokerStars player from Germany, is still involved, however, while PokerStars qualifiers Thierry van den Berg, John Shipley and Mats Iremark are still comfortable.

The first player through the 100,000 mark seems to be Acar Mazlum, who was on Patrik Antonius's table. Antonius is no longer there, but Mazlum was seen stacking chips as Antonius headed out. It was a nut flush versus top pair encounter, according to other media reporters.


Acar Mazlum

Meanwhile, former EPT champions Pascal Perrault and Andreas Hoivold have found their way next to one another. Each has around about 80,000 in chips -- and a lot of conversation.


Pascal Perrault, left, and Andreas Hoivold

There are many ways to earn a seat at an EPT event, only one of which involves delving under the mattress, hauling out a bundle of used bank-notes and plonking them onto the cashier's desk in any one of these spectacular locations across the continent.

Every serious poker player knows that the most efficient route into many of the top tournaments is via an online satellite. Ever since Chris Moneymaker, then Greg Raymer, won their seats to the World Series on PokerStars, and then won the whole thing, players have been battling it out in cyberspace for the right to battle it out in "real" space and take home a fortune.

Last week, Joseph Mouawab, from Lebanon, won the London leg of the EPT after qualifying online at PokerStars, following in the footsteps of Gavin Griffin and Brandon Schaefer, among others, who had previously trod the same path to a pot of gold.

And it has recently become even easier, and even cheaper, to take a stab at this kind of success.

PokerStars recently launched $8.80 + rebuy satellite tournaments to EPT events, guaranteeing at least one seat in the €8,000 buy-in "live" tournaments. The first such tournament was so popular that two seats were generated, earned by some of the most frugal players in the entire event.

chrisrokx, from Munich, Germany, won a $13,350 package to EPT Dublin for a grand total of that original $8.80. He neither rebought nor added on, but ended in the top two to earn his seat. Phoenician88, of Portland, Oregon, didn't rebuy either, although he did take an add-on to bring his total spend to $16.80.

Both of these PokerStars players will take their seat in Dublin at the end of this month, where there's likely to be a first prize in the region of €500,000.

PokerStars are intending to run these satellites every Thursday and Friday, so keep an eye out. It might well be the best $8.80 ever spent.

A German player named Andreas Krause is the new owner of a book entitled "Ace on the River," penned by a certain Team PokerStars Pro named Barry Greenstein.

That, unfortunately for Greenstein, means that his European Poker Tour excursion to Baden is over. As is well documented, the "Robin Hood of Poker" gifts a copy of his book to the player who eliminates him from every tournament: he brings a copy along at the start of every day, sits it on the table beside him, then autographs it and hands it over when the death knell sounds.

Barry Greenstein: player, author, out

It happened a few moments ago and, after fulfilling a couple of media requirements, Greenstein left the casino. He'll no doubt be back, but it's over for now.

Other Team PokerStars Pros have fared differently so far today. Dario Minieri is hardly a grinder, but he's been disciplined so far this afternoon and is still sitting with roughly what he started the day with, around 11,000 - still a short stack, but enough to play with.

Andre Akkari has dropped to about 8,000; Katja Thater has 14,000 and Luca Pagano, sharing a table with Pascal Perrault and Mark Vos, has about 22,000. RaiNKhan is also among tough company: he sits to the unfortunate right of Ram Vaswani. But his 31,000 is currently outsizing Ram's 29,000. Sebastian Ruthenberg, a PokerStars player in Baden, has 29,000


Luca Pagano
(c) Neil Stoddart

The PokerStars qualifiers, though, are reliably prosperous. John Shipley, who has been moved to Minieri's table, has 43,000, just short of Thierry van den Berg's 45,000, who is also on that table.


John Shipley
(c) Neil Stoddart

Mika Paasonen, who made the final table in Barcelona and is a qualifier here, has 22,000; Mats Iremark, EPT Deauville champion, has more than 40,000.

Among the other big names: Patrik Antonius just rivered a full house when his tournament life was on the line. He'd moved in on the flop with two pair, was called by a flush draw that got there on the turn. But one of his four outs popped out on the river and he's back around 35,000.

Sander Lyllof, overnight chip leader, has been going in the wrong direction all day. He has less than 10,000 in front of him after doubling up Richard Ashby (pocket fours, versus king-queen). And, in fact, as I type that, Lyllof has just appeared in the press room. He doesn't look happy and is clearly out.

Meanwhile, Mads Anderson and Andreas Hoivold, both former EPT winners, have 42,000 and 33,000, respectively.

It's been a strange day so far. No one has emerged with a monster stack; those who once had one have lost it. It really is anyone's game.

They run a tight ship here in Baden, Austria. The advertised start time for this, the second day of the European Poker Tour event, was 2 p.m. central European time. And sure enough, as the clock struck two moments ago, there was a fanfare over a loudspeaker, a deafening clatter of chips, and the familiar words "Shuffle up and deal," albeit with an Austrian accent.

That sent a bustle of poker players scattering like ants in search of their seats, where they found their overnight stacks already unbagged and assembled for them. A yellow sticky note in front of each stack bore the player's name and every dealer also had a list of the players on their tables; allowing them to apply names to otherwise anonymous faces.

How's that for efficiency.

And, of course, the beginning of a new day always means a deluge of all-ins. Small stacks want to double them up or go home; big stacks begin their bullying. One such bet on Thang Nguyen's table forced the reigning EPT Baden champion to fold, but the table was being punched in aggravation a step or two in the other direction. Cards were on their backs between two unknown players and there was the distinct hint of outdraw: pocket jacks were mucked after a queen had appeared on the river to give the chips to the player holding A-Q.

Expect plenty more of that in the opening levels.

* * * * *

Qualifiers or champions? Both

Yesterday, PokerStars blog featured a post concerning the quest for a second EPT victory. No single player has ever won two EPT events, although plenty have come close. We ran through a list of potential double champions; names of players still going well here in Baden who could be the first to earn that second crown.

Inexplicably -- and apologies to all concerned -- there were two very special names missing from that list. Both John Shipley, from England, and Mats Iremark, of Sweden, are previous EPT winners. Shipley took it down in London during season one, while Iremark triumphed in Deauville on season two. Shipley beat the likes of Baard Dahl, Noah Boeken and Marcel Luske on his final table; Iremark saw off Ram Vaswani, Theo Jorgensen and Isabelle Mercier.


Mats Iremark
(c) Neil Stoddart

Both of them are still in the mix in Baden this time around. And what's more, both of them booked their seat in this event via PokerStars satellites, each succeeding in a $1,050 event.

Shipley, a PokerStars SuperNova, also played in London last week via this route, and is a major tournament heavyweight. He came to the final table of the 2003 World Series as the chip leader.

Iremark is also something of a serial qualifier. He's among the most familiar faces on the EPT, often clutching a Rubik's Cube and with huge headphones clamped to his head. He won the Rookie of the Year award in the 2006 European Poker Awards.

We'll keep an eye on both of them as they seek that much-coveted second EPT success.

* * * * *

Qualifiers in the hunt

As ever, there are a number of PokerStars qualifiers near the top of the leaderboard here in Baden, attempting to turn their satellite wins into a huge live score.

Thierry van den Berg, from Holland, tangled yesterday with two of Europe's top players -- Roland de Wolfe and Dario Minieri -- and by the end of the day had more chips than both of them put together. Thierry was in fourth place overall, with 42,100, while Roland was out and Dario down to 11,450.


Thierry van den Berg

Minieri and van den Berg have renewed their acquaintance today, out on table 12. Both are battling.

Meanwhile, Michael Durrer, from Dusseldorf, Germany, also peered down at most of the field after his day one. He finished with 39,700, but refused to get carried away when we spoke earlier today.


Michael Durrer

"What's been the story of your tournament so far?" I asked.

"There's no story yet. The story happens in three days time, right?" he replied, looking towards Wednesday's final table.

Eventually, he confessed to taking a huge pot off Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi in the third level yesterday, when his nut flush got paid off. And it's been steady progress ever since.

Durrer originally attempted to qualify for both Baden and Dublin EPTs, and qualified for the latter on PokerStars. But he switched to the closer event - and is glad he did.

"I'll check back later and see how goes today," I told him.

"I hope you will," Durrer said. "I hope you will have something to check."

Also going well after day one is Tobias Reinkemeier, another German PokerStars player. He allowed a brief smile for the camera moments ago, but soon returned to his game face for the rest of day two. He started the day with 30,750 and is going strong.


Tobias Reinkemeier

* * * * *

Tournament update

Among the early fallers in today's event is Barny Boatman, whose set of nines was rivered. Noah Boeken, the Team PokerStars Pro from Holland, also departed: his shortstack couldn't climb today. Both Sander Lyloff and Patrik Antonius took early hits to their stacks but are far from danger. Meanwhile, all of Dario Minieri, Luca Pagano, Katja Thater, RaiNKhan, Barry Greenstein and Sebastian Ruthenberg remain.

We're in level seven, with blinds of 200-400 (50 ante).

And that's that.

We started at 6 p.m. with 282 players, we played six levels, and now the the remaining 156 have bagged up and gone home. Job done. End of day one. See you tomorrow.

So, what happened?

Well, it's been a typically tough day on the European Poker Tour. But when the going gets tough, etc, etc., and there's a lot of toughness in this game.

Leading the pack at the end of the day is Sander Lyloff, the Danish player who won in Barcelona a few weeks ago. He has 66,150 but is looking over his shoulder at an amazingly high quality field. (The full chip count is at the bottom of this post.)

Fellow former EPT champions chasing that elusive second crown include Patrik Antonius (29,925), Ram Vaswani (22,175), Pascal Perrault (27,250), Mads Anderson (24,650), Thang Nguyen (21,200), Andreas Hoivold (22,650) and Noah Boeken, who finished with 4,575 after taking a late hit from Team PokerStars team-mate Katja Thater.

Thater finished with 17,525, surviving a table that not only included Boeken, but also Andre Akkari, the Team PokerStars Pro from Brazil, who doubled up at the death to finish with 27,925.

It was a pretty good day for the guys and gals in the PokerStars shirts. Despite losing Vanessa Rousso early in proceedings, and also seeing ElkY and Marcel Baran depart towards the end, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri and RaiNKhan are still afloat, as is Sebastian Ruthenberg, a PokerStars player here in Austria. Barry Greenstein is leading the Team PokerStars Pros, with 30,325.

As ever, the numbers and the quality of play was raised in this tournament by a number of PokerStars qualifiers in the field. Among the 42 who started today, the name of Thierry Van Den Berg has featured prominently on leaderboards. The $1,050 satellite winner from Holland is sitting pretty with 42,100.

Also well within spitting distance are Michael Durrer and Tobias Reinkemeier, both from Germany, as well as John Shipley (17,350), from England, who is a PokerStars qualifier here, but needs no introduction to most followers of the game. As well as a World Series main event final table, Shipley won EPT London during season one, and has the class to match any previous major result.

We start tomorrow at 2 p.m. central European time, which means 8 a.m. on the east coast of America. What better way to spend a day at the office by following the progress of the tournament as they play down to 40.

Here's a review of today's action:

Power poker with Dario Minieri --- The chase for two EPTs

Mid-day chip counts

Baden: Not just any poker room --- PokerStars cannibalism -- Payouts

Players and photos

EPT Baden: cards almost in the air

The night before

End of day chip counts:

Sander Lylloff (Denmark) 66,150
Gyoergy Moger (Hungary) 46,775
Manfred Hammer (Germany) 43,825
Thierry Van Den Berg (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 42,100
Markus Lehmann (Germany) 40,100
Michael Durrer (Denmark) PokerStars qualifier 39,700
Raul Mestre Lleida (Spain) 39,700
Victor Escudero Mellado (Spain) 39,325
Christophe Defforey (Germany) 39,300
Thomas Wahlroos (Finland) 38,150
Sebastian Riviere (Sweden) 35,575
Mark Vos (Australian) 32,875
Mark Secher Petersen (Denmark) 32,675
Voitto Aulis Rintala (Finland) 32,625
Daniele Cuomo (Italy) 32,050
Andreas Fluri (Switzerland) 31,275
Luis David Sevilla Petit (Spain) 31,075
Tobias Reinkemeier (Germany) PokerStars player 30,750
Dan Bitsch Pedersen (Denmark) 30,650
Barry Greenstein (USA) Team PokerStars Pro 30,325
Patrik Antonius (Finland) 29,925
Sigi Stockinger (Austria) 29,675
Christian Aris (France) 28,900
Florian Langmann (Germany) 28,400
Dennis Naci Hansen (Denmark) 27,925
Andre Akkari (Brazil) PokerStars player 27,925
Roman Yitzhaki (USA) PokerStars player 27,900
Hevad Khan (USA) Team PokerStars Pro 27,825
Simon Munoz (Spain) 27,350
Pascal Perrault (France) 27,250
Balazs Gergely Biri (Hungary) 27,000
Julian Thew (UK) 26,525
Denes Tamas Kalo (Estonia) 26,475
Bonyadi Farzad (USA) 26,250
Robert Binelli (Italy) 26,200
Magnus Mamsen (Denmark) 25,500
Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) Team PokerStars Pro 25,300
Christophe Benzimra (France) 25,075
Mads Andersen (Denmark) 24,650
Edward Lawson (USA) 24,625
Adam Levy (Canada) PokerStars double shoot out qualifier 24,525
Harald Poeschl (Austria) 24,500
Janne Wilhelm Juutilainen (Finland) PokerStars player 24,050
Luca Pagano (Italy) Team PokerStars Pro 23,725
Acar Mazlum (Switzerland) 23,225
Johan Van Til (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 23,150
Joep Durkstra (Holland) 23,075
Johnny Groenne Jensen (Denmark) 23,025
Andreas Hoivold (Norway) 22,650
Ram Vaswani (UK) 22,175
Jan Olav Sjaavik (Norway) 22,075
Armin Stocker (Switzerland) 22,025
Klaus Haunschmidt (Austria) 21,975
Johann Fest (Germany) 21,875
Thang Nguyen (Germany) 21,200
Martin Rask (Denmark) 21,025
Mikael Johansson (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 20,700
Mats Erik Iremark (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 20,700
Baroukh Fowzi (UK) 19,975
Paul Testud (France) 19,925
David Sonelin (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 19,675
Rino Mathis (Switzerland) 19,325
Philip Chen Yun Yeh (Sweden) 18,950
Hector Fuentes (Spain) 18,700
Theo Jorgensen (Denmark) 18,525
Vlado Sevo (Svn) 18,300
Richard Ashby (UK) 17,825
David Daneshgar (USA) 17,625
Matthias Neu (Denmark) PokerStars qualifier 17,575
Katja Thater (Germany) Team PokerStars Pro 17,525
Joshua James Gould (UK) 17,350
John Shipley (UK) PokerStars qualifier 17,350
Andreas Rathje (Germany) 17,250
Thor Hansen (Denmark) 16,800
Thomas Fuller (USA) 16,575
Eldos Davlet (France) 16,500
Martin Vallo (Denmark) 16,300
Kalil Rahal (France) 16,250
Alexander Kravchenko (Russiasia) 16,175
Szabolcs Attila Saskoey (Hungary) 16,075
Victor Goossens (Holland) 15,925
Hans Vimmo Eskilsson (Sweden) 15,625
Johan Storakers (Sweden) 15,150
Alan Peter Smurfit (Irl) 15,025
Werner Lorenzoni (Austria) 14,700
Giuseppe Festa (Italy) EPT Online qualifier 14,625
Vladimir Poleshchuk (Russia) 14,575
Dave Colclough (UK) 14,550
Pier Paolo Ruscalla (Italy) 14,475
Bill Edler (USA) 14,400
Adrian Koy (Germany) 14,050
Roy Von Der Locht (Germany) 13,850
Jeffrey Glaser (USA) EPT Online qualifier 13,750
Anton Allemann (Switzerland) 13,700
Krzysztof Czerwinski (Pol) PokerStars qualifier 13,675
Andreas Krause (Germany) 13,575
Daniel Mangas (Spain) 13,550
Magnus Persson (Sweden) 13,425
Marcus Naalden (Holland) PokerStars double shoot out qualifier 12,600
Barny Boatman (UK) 12,575
Herbert Otto (Germany) PokerStars double shoot out qualifier 12,300
Morten Erlandsen (Denmark) 12,125
Josef Kollarits (Austria) 11,900
Raoul Gilmar Refos (Holland) 11,825
Christian Hohendorf (Germany) 11,625
Mark Bartlog (Germany) 11,575
Thanh Pham (Germany) 11,575
Dario Minieri (Italy) Team PokerStars Pro 11,450
Rein Roelof Zijda (Holland) 10,750
Dalibor Oliver Zjacic (Croatia) 10,475
Mika Paasonen (Finland) PokerStars qualifier 10,425
Gabor Kovacs (Hungary) PokerStars player 10,425
Matthew Tyler (UK) PokerStars qualifier 10,125
Peter Gould (UK) 10,075
Jonas Erik Svante Oedman (Sweden) 9,200
Justin Charles Smith (USA) 9,200
Pavel Blatny (Czech Republic) 9,050
Eva Marianne Ulrika Skoennemark (Sweden) 9,025
Jeppe Mikkelsen (Sweden) 9,025
Ilhan Eyikat (Turkey) 8,975
Daniel Tarnopol (USA) PokerStars qualifier 8,975
Istvan Zsolt Novak (Hungary) 8,950
Katja Svendsen (Norway) 8,775
Marcin Krzysztof Horecki (Poland) PokerStars qualifier 8,750
Age Spets (Nor) 8,700
Martin Jaeger (Austria) 8,675
Dean Plumley (UK) 8,650
Surinder Pal Singh Sunar (UK) 8,575
Michael Csango (Austria) 8,525
Heimo Krainer (Austria) 8,450
Matteo Taddia (Italy) 8,250
Ugur Coskun (Turkey) 8,025
Joris Bernard Antoine Jaspers (Holland) PokerStars player 7,875
Paul Christoffersson (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 7,750
Yakov Zvi Hirsch (USA) PokerStars qualifier 7,325
Mika Puro (Finland) 7,125
Carlo Di Renzo (Italy) 6,850
Hugo Franca (Denmark) PokerStars player 6,675
Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 6,600
Adriaan Schaap (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 6,575
Danny Stiegler (Denmark) PokerStars qualifier 6,475
Mark Raymond Segal (UK) 6,475
Benjamin Charles Johnson (USA) PokerStars player 6,200
Jan Bendik (Slovakia) 5,275
Sorin Posa (Romania) 4,875
Uffe Holm (Denmark) 4,750
Jiri Vacek (Czech Republic) 4,725
Zsolt Peter Mayer (Hungary) 4,675
Gianni Giaroni (Italy) 4,650
Noah Boeken (Holland) Team PokerStars Pro 4,575
Aurangzeb Sheikh (USA) 4,500
Mikkel Aakjar Lassen (Denmark) 3,925
Chris Bush (USA) PokerStars player 3,875
Soraya Homam (Germany) 3,575
Christina Stadel (Germany) 3,025
Manutscher Parsian (Austria) 2,650

"Quick, take a photo of Dario while he has chips."

That was the suggestion made an hour or so ago when the young Team PokerStars Pro from Italy was looking over a stack of around about 30,000 and bossing his opening table.

Dario Minieri: easy come, easy go

We've grown used to seeing that kind of photo: the diminutive pro made to seem even smaller by a monstrous stack of chips. We also know that the stack is hardly likely to stay at that size: it could be doubled or gone in the blink of an eye.

That, of course, is because Dario Minieri plays power poker. On a tour dominated by aggressive play, Dario is the aggressor's aggressor. If he has chips he shoves them in. If he doesn't, he still shoves them in, until he gets some more.

I stood watching his table for an orbit a moment or two ago. By the time I got there, he had about 11,000 (no one knew where the others had gone since he moved tables.) And sure enough, they were frantically being moved forwards and usually coming back with friends.

He raised the blinds no fewer than four times in the orbit, taking them each time. Once, he flashed pocket jacks; the rest he didn't show. Obviously, not everyone stands for it. He was re-raised pre-flop once and had to fold, but no one really enjoys tangling: he got a walk in his big blind, of course.

We'll keep an eye on his continued progress. By the time I find my way back to the table, he'll be gone, one way or another. If he's not out the door, he'll be concealed behind a freshly acquired mountain of chips.

* * * * *

You never win twice - or do you?

No one has ever won two EPTs.

Plenty have tried and some have come close: Brandon Schaefer has a first and a second, as does Mark Teltscher. Other champions have followed up a big win with a final table finish; some have done that the other way round.

But no one has ever won two EPTs. Until now, perhaps?

Obviously it is far too early to say -- we still have about 180 runners with an hour left of day one -- but there are a number of likely candidates still in the field.

Out on table 17, Ram Vaswani and Pascal Perrault are doing battle. Ram leads the all time EPT tournament rankings, and it's not difficult to see why. He won in Dublin during season one, then came second in Copenhagen three months later. He placed fifth in Deauville during season two, and eighth in the Grand Final that year. His record is so good that the 18th and 19th places in Copenhagen (again) and London seem insignificant.

Perrault also earned his big score on season one, when he took it down in Vienna. Last week in London, he was around the chip lead for three days, before busting out just before the final table. But he's back in with a shout here: he has around 21,000, to Ram's 16,000.

Down on table one are two other contenders for the coveted second trophy. Thang Nguyen triumphed here in Baden last year, and he's back today, sitting behind 14,000. If he peers one seat to his right, he'll find Noah Boeken, the Team PokerStars Pro, and another EPT sensation.

Boeken came sixth in London during season one, and made it five places better in Copenhagen three months later, taking his first major win. He's been 11th, 22nd and 12th in Dublin, Copenhagen (again) and Barcelona on three subsequent occasions.

But it doesn't end there.

Also very much in the mix here are Sander Lyloff and Patrik Antonius. Lyloff won in Barcelona a month or so ago, and has one of the chip-leader's stacks here. He's got somewhere in the region of 50,000 and looking very strong on a table that also includes Marcel Luske and Richard Ashby.


Sander Lyloff: around the chip lead

Antonius, meanwhile, is his usual steady self. He triumphed in Baden during season two (following up a third place in Barcelona a few weeks before). And, typically, he's been silently amassing chips all day and now has about 38,000.


Patrik Antonius: focussed

That first two-time winner will be crowned soon. Maybe even Wednesday.

Pictures (c) Neil Stoddart

We've just entered level five, which means blinds of 150-300. We'll play this level, then one more, and then that's it for the night, bringing the majority of the 201 remaining players back tomorrow.

Of those still in the hunt are the following:

Mika Paasonen - PokerStars qualifier - 7,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg - PokerStars player - 21,000
Barny Boatman - 13,000
Katja Svenssen - 4,000
Jan Sjavic - 15,000
Raymi Sanchez Thorn - 12,000
Katja Thater - Team PokerStars Pro - 8,000
Andre Akkari - Team PokerStars Pro - 11,000
Noah Boeken - Team PokerStars Pro - 15,000
Nicolas Levi - 5,000
Paul Testud - 18,000
Luca Pagano - Team PokerStars Pro - 6,500
Lex Veldhuis - PokerStars player - 5,500
Andreas Hoivold - 11,000
Jon Shipley - PokerStars qualifier - 16,000
Jonas Molander - 12,000
Thor Hansen - 9,000
Thomas Wahlroos - 31,000
Mads Anderson - 13,000
Theo Jorgensen - 16,000
Mark Vos - 2,800
Marcel Baran - PokerStars player - 12,000
Marc Naalden - 9,500
RaiNKhan - Team PokerStars Pro - 18,000
Florian Langmann - 21,000
Richard Ashby - 9,500
Sander Lyloff - 25,000
Marcel Luske - 11,000
Alan Smurfit - 10,000
Patrik Antonius - 27,000
Thang Nguyen - 9,500
Age Spets - 22,000
Dario Minieri - Team PokerStars Pro - 23,000
Barry Greenstein - Team PokerStars Pro - 21,000
Julian Thew - 9,000
Ram Vaswani - 17,000
David Colclough - 14,000
Pascal Perrault - 18,000
Surinder Sunar - 4,500
Voitto Rintala - 22,000

Notable eliminations:
Andy Black
Roland de Wolfe
Nicolas Jedlicka
Daniel Stern
Vanessa Rousso
John Kabbaj

The playing area here in Baden is spread across two main rooms and a couple of nooks and crannies.

The main poker room is a vast rectangular affair, which feels familiar to anyone who's ever been to any event of this size. But the second room, and its two adjoining wings, is amazingly bright and airy, putting paid once and for all to the notion that poker is a game played in smoky, dingy backrooms of pubs and clubs. This is more like a circular greenhouse, with a colourful mural-cum-mosaic on the ceiling.

Main room, from above
(c) Neil Stoddart


The adjoining, more airy, poker room

Along one side of the room is a line of flags representing many of the players' nations, while waiters and waitresses wheel trolleys of drinks around like flight attendants. A cheery sign wishes all players "Good luck!" and best of all, the table numbers dangle from the ceiling on Christmas tree baubles.



Add to all this a very well received player's buffet -- there's nothing poker players enjoy more than a good feed -- and the net result is a poker tournament that feels uncharacteristically friendly. I'm certain there are more smiles than usual in the opening levels of such an event.

* * * * *

Familiar faces

The table draw for today's event created the now-customary number of talking points, with no table more noteworthy than number one, which seems to be encouraging cannibalism among Team PokerStars pros.


Table one

In seat five is Noah "Exclusive" Boeken, the EPT stalwart and regular in-the-money finisher, two places to the right of Katja Thater, herself a WSOP bracelt winner and increasingly regular EPT high-placer. As if that wasn't enough, Andre Akkari, the first Team PokerStars pro from Brazil, perches in seat nine, his canary yellow Brazil soccer strip making him very hard to miss.

Paul Testud and Nicolas Levi, both from France, are also seated next to one another on the same table, and they're sure to know a little about each other's games.

Meanwhile, Barry Greenstein and Vanessa Rousso, also Team PokerStars pros, were also drawn on the same table. And RaiNKhan, something of an online whizz, is in good company: he's seated opposite Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi, a player whose online profile is on a similar standing to RaiNKhan's.

"Don't worry though," said RaiNKhan during a recent break in the action. "I've won every pot I've played against him so far."

* * * * *

Tournament update

About 25 players fell in the opening two levels, two of poker's leading ladies among them. Annette Obrestad was spotted stalking out of the poker room, following Vanessa Rousso out the door. Sorel Mizzi has also departed.

As is only to be expected, there are few stacks more than about 18,000 and it's still very, very early in this tournament yet.

Meanwhile, the payouts have been announced, and here's what they're playing for:

1st - €670,800
2nd - €375,000
3rd - €225,000
4th - €160,820
5th - €132,900
6th - €105,000
7th - €83,600
8th - €60,000

9th-10th €38,600
11th-12th - €30,000
13th-14th - €25,700
15th-16th - €19,300
17th-24th - €12,860

The official number of runners for EPT Baden is 282. The payouts will be announced soon, but in the meantime, here are a few players in the field:

Team PokerStars pros

Katja Thater
(c) Neil Stoddart


Noah Boeken
(c) Neil Stoddart


Andre Akkari
(c) Neil Stoddart


Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
(c) Neil Stoddart


Dario Minieri


Luca Pagano


Vanessa Rousso
(c) Neil Stoddart


Barry Greenstein
(c) Neil Stoddart


Hevad "RaiNKhan" Khan
(c) Neil Stoddart

PokerStars players



Marcel Baran - Germany - Third in EPT London last week after qualifying on PokerStars



Sebastian Ruthenberg - Germany - Third in EPT Dortmund during season three

Chad Brown - USA - Eight cashes in 2007 WSOP among 19 career total WSOP cashes

Notable others

Katja Svenssen - Norway - Cashed in London last week as a PokerStars qualifier
Raymi Sanchez Thorn - Sweden - Had a great run in 2005 World Series after qualifying on PokerStars
Jan Sjavik - Third in EPT London during season three, plus two other EPT cashes and 11 WSOP cashes
Jani Sointula - Finland - Former Monte Carlo Millions champion
Paul Testud - France - Veteran of European poker scene; won $2,500 event at 2007 Bellagio Cup
Nicolas Levi - France - Made final table of EPT Dortmund during season three
Annette Obrestad - Norway - Youngest ever WSOP bracelet winner and online sensation

Mats Iremark - Sweden - EPT Deauville champion during season two
Rob Hollink - Holland - EPT Grand Final champion during season one
Surinder Sunar - England - WPT champion and British stalwart
Martin Wendt - Norway - Four EPT cashes, most recently in Barcelona in August


Marcel Luske - Holland - Hugely popular Dutch pro, with 17 WSOP cashes and final table in season two EPT Grand Final
Alan Smurfit - Ireland - WSOP bracelet winner in June; cashed in EPT London last month
Age Spets - Norway - Two EPT cashes and two WSOP cashes in brief career
Patrik Antonius - Finland - High stakes cash and tourmanet player; EPT Baden champion during season two
John Shipley - England - PokerStars qualifier - EPT London champion during season one; made World Series main event final table


Juha Helppi (right) - Finland - WPT champion among six cashes; 10 WSOP cashes; Sander Lyloff (right) - Denmark - EPT Barcelona champion in August this year
Andreas Hoivold - Norway - EPT Dortmund champion during season three
Jonas Molander - Sweden - Three EPT cashes and Bellagio Cup event winner 2007
Thang Duc Nguyen - Austria - Reigning EPT Baden champion
Ramzi Jelassi - Sweden - Two EPT cashes among consistent European tournament results
David Colclough - England - Former European Player of the Year and consistent majot tournament performer
Barny Boatman - England - Hendon Mobster with countless major tournament results
Lex Veldhuis - Holland - PokerStars SuperNova, exchanged W$ for entry into EPT Baden
Florian Langmann - Germany - Second place in EPT London last week
Julian Thew - England - Six EPT cashes including two final tables


Ram Vaswani - England - Leads all-time EPT leaderboard and has WSOP bracelet
Jeff Lissandro - Italy - Six cashes in 2007 WSOP including one win and one second place
Pascal Perrault - France - EPT Vienna champion during season one; cashed in London last week
Marc Naalden - Holland - Third in EPT Copenhagen during season two; here a PokerStars qualifier
Theo Jorgensen - Denmark - Two EPT final tables; two WSOP final tables
Mark Vos - Australia - WSOP bracelet winner 2006
Andy Black - Ireland - Made WSOP main event final table in 2005, among countless successes
Thomas Wahlroos - Two cashes in EPT Grand Finals and four in-the-money finishes in the 2007 WSOP

And some fashion among the PokerStars players and qualifiers:


Janne Juutilainen - PokerStars W$ player from Finland

Gunnar Rabe - PokerStars Qualifier from Sweden

It's a relatively late start to day one in Baden -- 6 p.m. is a good two hours later than we're used to on the EPT. The reason is that the casino ran a super-satellite until late last night and it's only fair to allow those qualifiers a chance to recuperate before it all begins again today.

And when it does begin, we'll be playing the now familiar format: €8,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold 'em, 10,000 starting stacks, one hour blind levels, beginning at 25-50. Full details of the tournament structure can be found HERE. We'll be playing six levels today, and starting earlier tomorrow.

As I type, players are enjoying their pre-competition buffet but cards are expected to be in the air in a little over an hour. We'll introduce some of the competitors to you during the first few levels, while play is comparatively sedate, and then keep you posted on all the action as it hots up later in the day.

Meanwhile, here are a few snaps from around Baden. Make the most of them: it'll be poker, poker, poker from here on.

Hello all, and a warm welcome to Baden, Austria, the third stopping point on this, the fourth season of the PokerStars European Poker Tour. So far this year, we've been to Barcelona and London, where a Danish backgammon expert and a Lebanese property developer, respectively, have worked their way to the top of the pile.

The game's the same in Baden, but the setting, as ever, is something new. Imagine if you could walk around the village painted on the front of a box of chocolates: attractive, multi-coloured cottages, rolling hills, the occasional cow or sheep. That's similar to the feeling one gets while approaching Baden.


Beautiful Baden

There's something of the pastoral, something of the Alpine and a definite sense of well-being; the result of the natural spa minerals that course through the water and permeate the air.

In truth, healthy living was not high on the agenda as the PokerStars welcome party kicked off this evening in the salubrious Bar 2, one of the town's very few nightspots. PokerStars qualifiers mingled with Team PokerStars pros -- and a complimentary bar left no one empty-handed.

So it was that Barry Greenstein, Hevad "RainKhaN" Khan, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Vanessa Rousso, Noah Boeken and Katja Thater -- all seasoned PokerStars pros -- joined Marcel Baran and Chad Brown -- appearing in the PokerStars livery for this event -- in meeting the assembled party population of Baden, as well as the numerous qualifiers who had booked their seat in online satellites. Joseph Mouawad was once just a PokerStars qualifier, like many in Bar 2. Now, of course, he's EPT London champion and the man all are trying to emulate.


Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown

The tournament begins at 6 p.m. central European time on Sunday and concludes on Wednesday, when we'll have our new champion.

But for tonight, at least, the focus was less on poker and more on chocolate fountains -- both white and dark -- and dancing the night away. Some players might be nursing a sore head when we convene around the tables tomorrow afternoon, but the action is unlikely to be quiet if past EPT are anything to go by.


Perfect pre-poker sustenance

Join us here for complete coverage of the event. We'll have photographs, reports, interviews and updates. It's going to be another cracker.

Now that the end of the year is drawing nigh, the elite among the PokerStars VIP Club are starting to come out of the woodwork. It's only been a couple of weeks since we saw PokerStars third Supernova Elite member of the VIP Club.

Now, there is a fourth: jhub3000



Because few people can conceive of what it takes to achieve this level of play, we asked jhub3000 a few questions. This is what he says about joining ElkY, BigJoe2003, and marchinvest2 as the only Supernova Elite members of the PokerStars VIP Club.

***

How did you make it to Supernova Elite?

jhub3000: Almost entire 6 man SNGs, mostly from the $119 to $565 level, usually 8-12 tables at a time

What have you been spending your FPPs on?

jhub3000: Like marchinvest2, I just get the cash bonuses because I'm saving for a house. I also purchased a car (07 Chrysler 300) with some of the money I received from the bonuses.

Do you have any interests outside of poker?

jhub3000: Sports, fantasy football, camping, fishing, working out.

How did you get into poker?

jhub3000: I used to occasionally play with friends. Then I tore my achilles tendon and needed something to do on the weekends because I didn't couldn't play sports and didn't feel like going out to parties/bars with my friends on crutches. I started up a play money account in the Spring '05. I did extremely well (who wouldn't at play money) and decided to make a real money deposit. I deposited $50 & never looked back. I started at $1 & $2 SNGs. I made some money but nothing big. Then I read some books and switched to cash games. That's when I really started doing well. I played mostly NL hold em and some Omaha H/L. I went from site to site and probably played on about 7 sites. Finally in the fall of '05 I switched back to SNGs, except this time I played 6 max SNGs since that is what I had been playing most recently in cash.

I immediately did extremely well. I found out that I was getting laid off from my college job so I started up an Excel spreadsheet to calculate my hourly rate to see if I could do it as a job. I realized that I was making more than I would at a normal "job" so I decided to give it a go. I started playing as my job while in college in January '06. This is when I switched to PokerSars and immediately wished I had done so sooner. I started out just 2 tabling $38s and then gradually added tables and eventually moved up in stakes (a lot later than I should have). I have been playing full time since January of this year. I'll probably be going back to school for my last semester this Spring.

In 2005, PokerStars created a blog for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. A few weeks later, PokerStars created a blog for the European Poker Tour. A few weeks later, it followed that all of the events and more could be covered even better with an official PokerStars Blog. So, in April 2005, the first PokerStars Blog appeared on the Internet. Since then, the blog and its writers have been all over the world covering events from the World Series, to the EPT Grand Final, to the brand new Asia Pacific Poker Tour. Now, the PokerStars Blog is being written in many different languages. In recent months, we have seen the emergence of blogs written in German, Swedish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and even a blog especially for the players on PokerStar.net.

Throughout this time, PokerStars has truly come to appreciate the contribution bloggers make to the poker community. So, for the past three years, PokerStars has hosted the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP). In 2005, blogger easywind took home the WBCOOP championship. In 2006, the title went to Daleroxxu. This year, the event has once again gotten bigger.

The 2007 WBCOOP is a $40,000 freeroll open exclusively to bloggers. First prize is a $12,000 package to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Other prizes include a 50" plasma tv, thousands of dollars in PokerStars tournament entries, and an amazing array of electronics and poker accessories. The only requirements to enter are having a regularly updated blog, registering, and posting the registration code on your blog.

The 2007 WBCOOP is October 14th, 2007 at 3:00pm ET on PokerStars.

For full details on the event, visit the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker page.

My job just isn't that bad. Points in support of this assertion include but are not limited to the following few moments the past three years of my life:

Having Greg Raymer cook me a steak at his swank pad in Vegas

Playing backroom poker in Monte Carlo with Anthony Holden

Walking through the bowels of Binion's Horseshoe and into the morning sun the morning Joe Hachem won his World Series bracelet

Having Isabelle Mercier buy me a $30 beer at a night club

Walking in on Joe Hachem as he played an odd gambling game...in the men's room

Indeed, I like my job, despite its silly hours and sometimes eye-wrecking tedium. All of that said, one of my favorite things to do all year long is play host to my fellow bloggers in the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.

So, if you're a blogger and want to get a little something back for the hard work you put into your blog, register today.

We'll see you at the tables.

Depending on who is doing the telling, there are either 193 or 194 countries in the world. Regardless of which is right, one thing is for sure: 107 of those countries were represented in the 2007 World Championship of Online Poker. More than 17,000 unique players bought in over 23 events for a total of $24,218,600 in prize money. off the top of my head, I can't think of any championship that has those kinds of stats. It's pretty clear: when PokerStars throws a World Championship, it throws a World Championship.

There were many an impressive performance over the course of WCOOP's two and half weeks. PokerStars player wwwBTHEREcom made it into the money eight times over the course off 23 events and scored more cashes than any other player in the 2007 WCOOP. Because of the sheer number of players from the U.S., you'd expect that the United States won more bracelets than any other country. The U.S. players won nine of the bracelets. The next biggest number was four bracelets for players from Sweden.

Of course, we already know the biggest money winner was TheV0id from the U.K. Here are the top ten money winners across the entire series.

1. TheV0id (United Kingdom) $1,228,330.50
2. ka$ino (United States) $850,782.50
3. mig.com (United States) $586,387.83
4. LadyMaverick (United States) $467,020.50
5. AB_illusive (Denmark) $398,648.93
6. HelmetSky (Israel) $382,245.00
7. mpg1000 (United States) $307,295.00
8. chulwoo $292,932.50
9. taktloss47 (Germany) $261,093.82
10. nitbuster (United States) $234,587.75

The World Championship of Online Poker rather seeps into a person's daily routine after a while. When it's over, players, organizers, and, yes, bloggers, have a hard time figuring out what to do with themselves. It's almost hard to believe it's finished.

For now, we must put the WCOOP to bed for another year. After a $24 million year in 2007, it's nearly impossible to predict how big 2008 will be.

For a full look at this year's statistics and past years figures, check out PokerStars WCOOP statistics page.

For a look at all the final table reports, see any of the links below.

Event #1 Report

Event #2 Report

Event #3 Report

Event #4 Report

Event #5 Report

Event #6 Report

Event #7 Report

Event #8 Report

Event #9 Report

Event #10 Report

Event #11 Report

Event #12 Report

Event #13 Report

Event #14 Report

Event #15 Report

Event #16 Report

Event #17 Report

Event #18 Report

Event #19 Report

Event #20 Report

Event #21 Report

Event #22 Report

Event #23 Report

Winner Interviews

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has become more than just a tradition for the PokerStars family. It has become an institution in the poker world. Once a year, poker players from all over the world converge on Paradise Island off the coast of Nassau, Bahamas for a week of some of the best tournament poker on the planet. From the side tournaments, to the huge cash games, to the $8,000 televised main event, the Caribbean Adventure is the trip PokerStars players plan for all year long.

Once again, PokerStars is throwing the huge poker party on the Caribbean shores. From January 5-11, 2008, the virtual PokerStars tables will become real for a week. It's a poker players convention with a chance to win some very big cash. Last year, Ryan Daut won $1,535,255 in the championship event. In 2008, it could be you.

If you've been before, very little is changing about the event. The only exception is actually pretty exciting. The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is now a European Poker Tour event. EPT creator John Duthie and his excellent production team are going to turn the PCA into an international poker spectacle.

PokerStars has just launched its first round of satellites to the event. We can expect them to keep running non-stop for the next couple of months. A quick review of the PCA satellites page shows qualifiers starting as low as $2 (not to mention Frequent Player Point freerolls) for the $12,000 prize package. Win one of the big ones and PokerStars is not only going to take care of your buy-in. It will also cover your hotel stay and travel money.

As always, the PokerStars Blog will be on hand to provide full coverage of the event. From the back-stories in the epic cash games to the final table of the main event, we'll be there to keep your friends and family apprised of your progress.

For all the details, visit the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure page.

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker is a lot of things to a lot of people. It is appointment poker every year for the world's serious players. It is the third richest tournament series--live or online--in the entire world (only behind the World Series and WPT championship). It is the biggest online tournament series anywhere in the ethereal world of internet poker. Finally, the main event--unlike any online event of its kind--gave the winner the chance to be an instant poker millionaire.

And that's exactly what happened in the 2007 WCOOP main event.

Nearly 3,000 players signed up on Sunday to play in the $2,500 WCOOP main event. The prize pool nearly touched $7.5 million. The posted first prize was almost $1.4 million. On Monday morning, the players neared the final table and at that moment there was nothing bigger going on anywhere in the poker world.

When the final table bubble burst, nine players sat down to fight for the $3.7 million on the table. Among them was Team PokerStars' Vanessa "LadyMaverick" Rousso, and several other top players from the poker world.

Seat 1: LadyMaverick (2620233 in chips)
Seat 2: mpg1000 (18764293 in chips)
Seat 3: Fischer80 (4806266 in chips)
Seat 4: HelmetSky (4387588 in chips)
Seat 5: nitbuster (3574607 in chips)
Seat 6: ka$ino (8945334 in chips)
Seat 7: E-Daddie (4751160 in chips)
Seat 8: mao15 (3611592 in chips)
Seat 9: TheV0id (8498927 in chips)

The final nine started off at the 65000/130000/13000 level and, in the early going, mpg1000 was using the chip lead to his advantage, squeezing the shorter stacks out of pots and building his lead without seeing flops.

The first major confrontation saw TheV0id clash with E-Daddie. E-Daddie came in for a raise to 520,000 and The V0id raised him back to 1,170,000. E-Daddie came back for another raise and TheV0id--who had E-Daddie covered--pushed all-in. E-Daddie called with pocket queens to see TheV0id's tens. The ladies held up and E-Daddie got a key early double-up.

Shortly thereafter we saw the first elimination of the final table. Mpg1000 had come in for a raise to 350,000 and Fischer80 put the rest of his four million chips in the middle with pocket jacks. Ka$ino called and mpg1000 got out of the way. Ka$ino held KK and flopped his set on a TcQcKs board. Fisher80 needed a nine or ace, but missed and was out in ninth place, earning $59,960.

On the shortstack, Rousso was looking for a chance to double up. It came in the form of aces on the button. After coming in for a raise, she saw mpg1000 put her all-in. Rousso called in a shot to see mpg1000's pocket sevens. Rousso's aces flopped a set and pushed her over four million in chips.

After a few more hands, players took a break. After eighteen hours of play, a quick walk and a cup of coffe were likely what they needed. When they came back, they sat to to 80000/160000/16000 blinds.

A few hands into the new level of play, Ka$ino moved into the chip lead. After picking up a few smaller pots, he played a nearly three million chip pot with mpg1000 on an all-spade king-high flop. When mpg1000 bet into it, ka$ino put in a sizable raise and mpg1000 folded. For the first time at the final table, mpg1000 was without his top spot on the leaderboard.

Nitbuster soon began a trip up through the chip-stacks. After playing quietly for the first hour or so, he ramped up the aggression. After calling TheV0id's raise in the big blind, nitbuster check-raised TheV0id all-in on a 9h Kd Ah flop. TheV0oid thought for a good, long while before mucking his hand. The pot was worth nearly three million chips and nitbuster had worked his way up over the six million mark. Just a few hands later, he moved over the eight million mark after betting into Rousso on a 6c9hAd7d board and taking down the pot.

TheV0id, who had been the chip leader for a while before the final table, soon began working back up. The first order of business was raising from late position and then pushing all-in after mpg1000 re-raised out of the blinds. Mpg1000 eventually folded and TheV0id was up over seven million. He gave some of it back soon thereafter, though. After nitbuster limped into the pot and ka$ino did the same, TheV0id raised to 1.2 million. While TheV0id might have suspected there was a chance nitbuster was a limp re-raise, he likelyy didn't expect it out of ka$ino. And yet, that's what k$ino did, raising enough to get TheV0id all-in. The result? A fold, putting ka$ino above the 20 million chip mark.

The blinds moved up to 100000/200000/10000, and moved HelmetSky to get his stack in with AK pre-flop. He got action from E-Daddie's AJ. No jack came on board and HelmetSky doubled up.

While TheV0id might have given up some chips in the earlier hand, a few hands later, it came time to send an opponent packing. Mao15 was down to 2.7 million chips and open-pushed with pocket eights. TheV0id had pocket kings, pushed to isolate, and picked up the pot. Mao15 finished in eighth place, for $103,431.

Rousso had fallen back below two million chips and open-pushed with AQ. Nitbuster played his pocket kings and was looking good to bust the member of Team PokerStars. The flop came Q77 and opened up a couple more outs for Rousso. Her ace hit on the turn and she was back up to 3.7 million.

HelmetSky proved to be E-Daddie's downfall. A few minutes later, they got it all-in pre-flop with HelmetSky holding AK to E-Daddie's AQ. While E-Daddie turned a diamond draw, he missed on the river and finished in seventh place. He was awarded $163,931 for his efforts.

Nitbuster had already been the victim of the small suckout against Rousso. That one will probably never come to mind again, because the next one put him out in sixth place. He sat in the small blind with six million chips. When TheV0id came in for a raise to 550,000, nitbuster pushed back for 2.6 million. TheV0id thought for a bit before pushing all-in for nitbuster's entire stack. Nitbuster called with AsQs. TheV0id held...AhJc. Right in the door was the Js. Nitbuster had an open-ended draw by the turn, but missed on the river and headed for the virtual exit with a $232,345 prize.

That hand put TheV0id right back in contention for first place. He ended the hand with only 2 million fewer chips that ka$ino.

Seat 1: LadyMaverick (3959932 in chips)
Seat 2: mpg1000 (11424060 in chips)
Seat 4: HelmetSky (8066408 in chips)
Seat 6: ka$ino (19097300 in chips)
Seat 9: TheV0id (17412300 in chips)

After a short break, the blinds moved up to 125000/250000/25000, and Rousso found a quick double-up. In a battle of the blinds, TheV0id put Rousso all-in. She called in a flash with 99. TheV0id held Q7. Rousso turned a set and rivered a full house to move up to 6.2 million. That hand and one a couple orbits later against ka$ino dropped TheV0id down to around 10 million.

Ka$ino, meanwhile, could not be stopped. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, he worked his way up to 28 million in chips, largely without showing his hand. When he did finally turn over his cards, it was to show mpg1000 AK in a 17 million chip pot...pre-flop. MPG1000 held KQ with the queen of clubs. Three clubs were on board by the turn, but mpg1000 missed on the river and was out in fifth place, earning $307,295.

Just a few minutes later, HelmetSky lost a big race against TheV0id. It was QQ for HelmetSky and AK for TheV0id, all-in pre-flop. An ace fell on the turn and HelmetSky couldn't find a queen on the river. He went out in fourth place, a $382,235 payday.

Rousso was the next to go. Aftr calling a raise in the big blind, she flopped two pair with her 3c6c. She check-called the flop. A second spade came on the turn and both players checked. A third spade came on the river. This time, Rousso bet out and ka$ino put her all-in. Ka$ino held 9s2s for the flush. Rousso's third place finish earned her $463,940.

Going into heads-up play at 12:10pm ET, the blinds sat at 150000/300000/30000. Ka$ino held a nearly 3:1 chip lead.

Seat 6: ka$ino (44141724 in chips)
Seat 9: TheV0id (15818276 in chips)

Half an hour into heads up play, there had only been on major swing. TheV0id worked his way up to 27 million in chips after flopping a pair of aces and getting paid. After a short break, the players resumed at 200000/400000/40000.

Seat 6: ka$ino (34691724 in chips)
Seat 9: TheV0id (25268276 in chips)

A very odd hand arrived after the break in which the players poked and prodded at each other on a 5QQ flop. The turn was a deuce and TheV0id bet 1.8 million. Ka$ino called. The river was a ten and TheV0id bet a curious one million chips into a nearly seven million chip pot. TheV0id called with K2 to beat TheV0id's bluff. TheV0id responded with:

TheV0id: omg
TheV0id: wasnt supposed to bet that
TheV0id: so hard to see with all the millions

A few hands later, ka$ino had his biggest lead of the tournament, holding 46 million chips. Then came the big swing. After both checking the flop, the players were looking at a board of 7c 5c Kd 6d. Ka$isno check-raised and TheV0id pushed all in. Ka$ino called to see he was in bad shape. While he held 56 for two pair, TheV0id had K5. For at least a moment, TheV0id had the lead.

Seat 6: ka$ino (29123448 in chips)
Seat 9: TheV0id (30836552 in chips)

It would only take a few minutes for ka$ino to get it all back On the river, he bet into a 8d Js Qc Qd 6s board and TheV0id laid down his hand, giving up a 17 million chip pot. Still, the tables refused to stop turning, and a few hands later, it was all-in pre-flop with TheV0id holding pocket sevens to ka$ino's AQ. The pair held up and The V0id took over as chip leader.

Before long, the stacks had evened up. After a little more than an hour of heads-up play, the event had become a heads-up sit and go for a difference of nearly $700,000 in prize money. To the amazement of many people watching, there came not even a mention of a deal. With the big money still on the table, the next huge 18 million chip pot slid to TheV0id. Only then did ka$ino mention any sort of business.

ka$ino: want to do a 100k save
ka$ino: for second place?
ka$ino: blinds getting bigger
TheV0id: well not now when im in front
TheV0id: :)
ka$ino: ok

In front and marching, TheV0oid started hitting some flops and picking up some pairs. Before long, TheV0id was up to 45 million. The lead lasted another ten minutes when the first real ugly hand appeared. They got it all in on a Qs Td Kh flop. Ka$ino had flopped a set of kings to TheV0id's J9 for a straight. The board paired queens on the river, though, and ka$ino jumped back into the lead with his full house. It lasted until TheV0id flopped trip tens and picked up a 14 million chip pot to retake the lead.

A couple of hands later, the stacks were basically even and the idea of a save was re-visited. And so it was. After a brief discussion, the players decided to award $850,782.50 for second and $1,228,330.50 for first. When the players reached the two hour mark of heads up play, TheV0id held 37 million chips to ka$ino's 22 million. A few minutes after the break, TheV0id moved back up to 44 million after making two pair with queens and nines vs ka$ino's AJ on a AKQ9x board. That big lead lasted all of one hand. Ka$ino flopped a set of fours and got paid on the river to move back close to even.

The tournament has nearly been running for 22 hours. Even the toughest among the railbirds wondered how...no, if it would end. Like a flash of heat lightning on a hot night, the final hand came from nowhere and ended the tournament with a $1.2 million clap of thunder. With the blinds at 300000/600000/60000, TheV0id came in for a raise to 1.4 million. Ka$ino re-raised to 4.4 million. The V0id pushed all-in and got an instant call from ka$ino. TheV0id held KsQh to ka$ino's AcKd. The flop, 3cJhTs, was foreboding. The turn was a quick reprieve from what now seemed inevitable. The river was the thing...the nine of spades, giving the straight and the WCOOP championship to TheV0id.

After two and half weeks, 23 events, and nearly $25 million in prize money, the 2007 World Championship of Online Poker ended by awarding the first ever $1 million prize to the winner, TheV0id.

Congratulations to all the players who cashed in this year's WCOOP. Final table results for the main event are below.

2007 WCOOP Event #23 Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and $150,000 save for second place

1. TheV0id (United Kingdom) $1,228,330.50
2. ka$ino (United States) $850,782.50
3. LadyMaverick (United States) $463,940.50
4. HelmetSky (Israel) $382,245.00
5. mpg1000 (United States) $307,295.00
6. nitbuster (United States) $232,345.00
7. E-Daddie (United States) $163,391.00
8. mao15 (United States) $103,431.00
9. Fischer80 (Denmark) $59,960.00

Full 2007 WCOOP Main Event Results