It doesn’t take long for any April visitor to San Remo to realise that one day looks pretty much like the next. There are exceptions of course. It’s 18 degrees today not the 17 degrees of yesterday, and for a short time earlier I thought I saw a cloud. It turned out to be a slow seagull. Basically the ocean still shines and San Remo stays sunny and nice each day of the week.

That’s outside. Inside things get a whole lot different. This is day two of the PokerStars.com EPT San Remo and that means wholesale changes. The blinds are beginning to pinch, the competition remains fierce and determined, and the prospect of a money finish becomes a reality.

PokerStars qualifier Henrick Brockmann, just one of a few players who chatted with the video blog team this morning...

As play ended late last night 113 found themselves still armed with a stack of some value, having seen off the other 250 players over nine levels, and they join the 95 players who did the same on day 1a. For the defeated, time to evaluate the situation with the help of local hospitality, but there’s no ice cream for the rest, at least not yet. In fact a good day for some today will be judged on not seeing daylight until tomorrow.

Crowds were gathered outside Casino San Remo early today, sitting on the stairs to the main entrance getting a last blast of vitamin D as the rest of the town took an afternoon siesta.

You can find the full list of combined day one chip counts by clicking here, and we’ll have updates on chip counts throughout the day on that same page.

Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Rahme talks about his plans for day two...

Among the field will be Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri and Raymond Rahme, as well as PokerStars Sponsored Players Johannes Strassmann and Jan Heitmann who both had strong finishes late yesterday.

But for now it’s a short wait for players to take their seats, put any thought of tourism behind them (as if that was likely) and push on through to Friday. 72 will be paid, 136 will leave empty handed. Play begins at 3pm.

The video blog team talked to three distinguished players as they arrived today - Rolf Slotboom, William Thorson and Juha Helppi...