The dinner break has arrived after four levels, for some anyway. With such a large field the room has been split into two groups. The first group gets a 15 minute break, the other group gets a one hour dinner break. When they return the first group will do the same.

Team PokerStars Pro Tom McEvoy...

“I have 10,400. I was up to about 18 but I made a mistake on one hand - the mistake was I paid the guy off!

“Actually I moved in on him! I raised in the cut-off with Q-T of clubs, the guy on the button called with A-5 of diamonds. The flop came queen high, with all diamonds. So I bet, he called but he was short-stacked so I moved in for 4k more on him.... course he had the nuts..! Go easy - I didn’t have to lose all that!

“But I like it here. And I live in Las Vegas so I feel like I’m at home with all the cactus!”

Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano...

“It’s going very well; I have more than 40k. I had pocket queens and they held up. I have a highly aggressive player on my left so basically that was my plan – I gave up a couple of times with him, I played weak with him. I was hoping he would do everything by himself and that’s what he did. He was bluffing on the turn with open ended, and I had queens and that was a very big pot. And when you have chips everything is easier.

“It’s not easy to concentrate- almost impossible! I’m really surprised I’m still in the tournament, I can tell you!”

John Duthie talked to the video blog team about bringing the PokerStars.com EPT to Italy, the part Luca Pagano played in bringing the event to San Remo and a word or two about how the Italians play their poker...

For latest chip counts at the dinner break click here.

Photos © Neil Stoddart