As the first half of the field pause at the dinner break the smoke is clearing on a tough first four hours, particularly for Team PokerStars Pros. Following the eliminations of ElkY and Lee Nelson, Isabelle Mercier is the next to be busted, her pocket kings out flanked by Q-T which would go on to make a straight.

That coincided with news of the payouts at the PokerStars.com EPT San Remo. A sell out field of 700 players is the official announcement, making for a total prize pool of € 3,195,860 and a payout for the top 72 players. First place on Saturday night will pay a worthy € 869,000.

Incidentally, that is six players short of the record number of entrants at an EPT (excluding the PCA), behind last year's Monte Carlo Grand Final.

Payouts...

1st -- € 869,000
2nd -- € 505,000
3rd -- € 287,600
4th -- € 223,600
5th -- € 188,500
6th -- € 140,600
7th -- € 111,800
8th -- € 76,700

9th and 10th -- € 46,300
11th and 12th -- € 28,750
13th and 14th -- € 22,400
15th and 16th -- € 17,600
17th to 24th -- € 16,000
25th to 32nd -- € 12,800
33rd to 40th -- € 11,200
41st to 48th -- € 9,600
49th to 56th -- € 8,000
57th to 64th -- € 7,020
65th to 72nd -- € 5,750

For the latest chip counts at the dinner break click here.

Meanwhile the video blog team caught up with Luca Pagano who today works the other side of the rail...

Photos © Neil Stoddart