The dinner break has arrived for some but not others. A split break so as not to strain facilities here see’s at least one player working on an empty stomach - England’s Julian Thew.

With 5k left, and a board of 2d-5s-Ts-6d it was on Julian to act. Only he hardly had chance to before a player opposite, not in the hand, called the clock on him.

“I’ve had ten seconds” protested Julian. Another player, still in the pot, leapt to Julian’s defence.

“More like five” and Thomas Kremser was called over. Perhaps eyeing the clock counting down towards his big blind the clock man was told no. Julian made his decision – a 5k bet that would take the pot.

Julian is not the sort of player to make too much fuss. Ever since breaking onto the European poker scen at the Master Classics in Amsterdam over two years ago he has gone on to great things. An EPT winner in Baden this year he followed it up with a UK Poker Tour win last week, good for a £89,950 ($176,000) payday, to go with the one he won back in September worth £59,500 ($119,984).

And had things not gone so well for Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier he might still be at the top of the EPT Tournament Leader Board. In effect he held that position for about 36 hours...

Julian finished 96th in the Caribbean, picking up $16,000 about a day and a half ahead of ElkY who won it all heading straight to the top of the EPT leader board. Had he busted a few places earlier things might have been a little different.

But with form like this Julian could well be back at number one by the end of the week.

Tournament update -

An update on the Team PokerStars situation is not looking so good. Dario Minieri, whose gutshot straight attempts cost him dearly earlier on is out. It’s the same fate for Sebastian Ruthenberg. The PokerStars sponsored player found A-K spades and raised with to callers. He shook one off with a raised on the flop which brought two more spades but his other opponent re-raised. Sebastian moved all in but he lost to a set which ultimately became a full house.

Photos © Neil Stoddart

Chip Counts after the dinner break -

Lex Veldhuis – PokerStars player – 12,000
Thomas Peterson – PokerStars qualifier – 5,525
Stefan Ebbing – PokerStars qualifier – 7,000
Sebastian Zink – PokerStars qualifier – 43,000
Malte Strothmann – PokerStars qualifier – 6,500
Steve Jelinek – PokerStars qualifier – 28,500
Redmond Lee – 42,000
Julian Thew – 3,200
Ulrica Skonnemark – 4,000
Simone Gallitti – 13,100
Dustin Mele – PokerStars Passport winner -- 17,000
Roland Falk – PokerStars qualifier – 12,000
Andreas Hachmeister – PokerStars qualifier – 3,500
Thomas Fougeron – 9,400
Marcel Baran – 16,000
Tommy Pavilicek – PokerStars qualifier – 6,100
Jason Hackett – 15,000
Lukasz Wasek – 18,000
Angelika Mannsfeld – 10,000
Mats Iremark – 41,000
Thomas Ermas – 11,000
Juha Helppi – 6,000
Alex Kravchenko – 9,500
Juha Lauttamus – 10,200
Katja Thater – Team PokerStars Pro – 8,000

Tournament update –

Thierry van der Berg – OUT
Gino Alacqua – OUT
Julian Thew – “I should have passed” -- OUT