It’s only after play ends that the day one landscape can be evaluated. 190 players began today, some with fire in their heart others with fear in their bones. The trick was to forget all that and make it through eight full hours of play ahead of the man or woman sitting next to you, and for 78 it was job done.

As tables broke players were moved towards the far end of the card room – the cozily packed tournament area we started with had by the end of level eight become a dense filled smoking room with the longer of the craned necks getting the better view. This is the close rail I talked about that gives the EPT Warsaw its own individual charm.

It was a quick start for Christoffer Sonnesson who doubled up, whilst the defeated opponent Essan Haji Chaib was on the flip side of that brutal scenario. a 15 minute tournament for him. James Honeybone of New Zealand, who arrived after a 21 hour three-stop flight from home, found the journey worthwhile, finishing the day with close to 30k after one or two shaky spells, whilst another PokerStars qualifier, and second placed man on the PokerStars.com tournament leader board Mark Hirleman also wound up in the black, surviving a tricky table that had featured Johan Storakers and Marc Goodwin.

Sadly, it was not so glorious a day for EPT presenter Kara Scott. It’s back to work for Kara who was busted in level four. She’s now back in front of the camera for some working therapy and has the temperament not to snap, at least not with the cameras rolling.

We also had a brief introduction to the world of Michel Wisniewski, the Polish Pop-Rock musician who started well but fell by the wayside before he had chance to take it to the bridge. Still, he was a welcome addition of colour on the day.

There were some big names eliminated, including Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri and Katja Thater as well as the likes of PokerStars Sponsored player Johannes Strassmann, former EPT winners Sander Lylloff and Peter Jepsen, as well as Christian Grundtvig and Jani Sointula.

Tomorrow flight 1b takes center stage and final chip counts tonight will be on the blog before the start of play. In the meantime for anyone wanting to catch up on the events of the day click on the links below...

Poles, players, press and day1a

A start for some, and end for another

21 Hours later

The Quasifiction story of poker

Kara Scott tests her game face

It’s not all poker

End of the road for Kara Scott

The calm after the storm

The Scott post mortem

It’s all in the body language... and the cards

Meet Michel Wisniewski

Easing into the end of day 1a

Finally, the video blog team wrap up the day...