January 2008 Archives

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days. For some the highs of looking ahead to a third day, whilst for others a night spent thinking of a hand misplayed or the hand the other guy shouldn’t have played, but did, and did well, awaits.

Two Team PokerStars players had made it this far. Katja Thater, who had battled through day 1a would make a run on the money, trailing Daniel Negreanu who was healthier chip wise but whose day two campaign received a minor set back when he forgot to wake up - for the second day. But it made for great footage as he skipped past tables to reach his seat.

Still, he had 60k, more than Katja, and the possibility of a Triple Crown winner of EPT, WPT and WSOP titles was distant yes, but still alive. But not for long. A jubilant Markus Tandler eliminated Daniel. Markus’ scream of joy and quick apology was audibly one of the high notes of the day.

Hope for Team PokerStars came from a different corner, with Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske ending the day in fine form, on a song and 123,000.

Typically a number of PokerStars qualifiers put in fine performances. Jan Heitman is top of the group on 200,400 whilst Christopher Rossiter is further behind on 129,500. Further back American Christian Harder is on 101,900 and Tyler Friederich is on 91,600.

The day was started in fine spirit, most notably by Passport winner Dustin Mele who had enough wish fulfillment on his face to keep everyone cheery. An early candidate for most optimist player of the tour Dustin knew he was up against it, returning today with just 4,600 but gave it his best regardless determined to enjoy himself and gaining priceless experience of EPT action in the process as he plans where he PokerStars passport will take him next.

We also caught up with PCA 8th place finisher Ricky Fohrenbach. The Connecticut man also had reason to enjoy himself even on a tough table that featured the likes of Annette Obrestad and Nicolas Levi (both of whom were eliminated as the day progressed). He had above average chips and a worthy plan B – this being his first trip to Europe, he and a few friends had Amsterdam in mind had the cards not gone his way. They did fior a while, but the Amsterdam plan was already in action by the close of play.

As day 2 in Dortmund finishes the final of the WPT Borgata Classic will soon begin on the East coast in Atlantic City. The significance? A certain Gavin Griffin; an EPT and WSOP bracelet winner who stands ready to add a WPT title becoming in the process the first player to win that Triple Crown of titles. It’s a tall order but we’ll find out tomorrow whether or not he becomes the first member of an exclusive club of one.

Finally, in amongst news of risers and fallers, we finished the day with Marcel Luske and a demonstration of chip accumulation as players and railbirds alike watched on in quiet awe. Stephen Wrengler was the bubble boy; Thor Hansen marking the finishing line of an action packed day of poker goingout in 33rd.

Chip leader at the start of the day Chabot Cyrille, finished 21st in chips with 74,700 whilst a new chip leader emerged front and centre in the form of Diego Perez Marco of Spain on 361,600, nearly 30k ahead of Canadian Mike McDonald.

We start again at 3pm tomorrow local time, with the addition of the EPT Live teams bringing coverage of day 3 in five languages. And for anyone wanting to catch up with the latest from today, including video blogs…

Day 2 and the business of poker begins

Thinking the impossible in level 9

The ballad of Ricky Fohrenbach

Poker’s most exclusive club

Around the tables

A song in his head, hands on a fortune

Closing stages of day 2

With 32 players left the chip counts and standing look like this…

Diego Perez Marco -- Spain -- 361,600
Michael McDonald -- Canada -- 335,700
Claudio Rinaldi -- Switzerland -- 278,700
Marco Liesy -- Germany -- 278,200
Johannes Strassmann -- Germany -- 276,400
Aniol Alcaraz -- Spain -- 216,200
Brandon Schaefer -- USA -- 202,300
Andreas Gülünay -- Germany -- 201,100
Jan Heitmann -- Germany -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 200,400
Manfred Hammer -- Germany -- 135,300
Christopher Rossiter -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 129,500
Thibaut Durand -- France -- 123,200
Marcel Luske -- Netherlands -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 123,000
Peyman Mohammadzadeh -- Germany -- 114,800
Manfred Bass -- Germany -- 114,400
Daniel Ryan -- USA -- 110,400
Daniel Carter -- UK -- 105,900
Christian Harder -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 101,900
Alexandar Milanov -- Bulgaria -- 96,300
Tyler Friederich -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 91,600
Chabot Cyrille -- France -- 74,700
Hugo Marialva Felix -- Portugal -- 63,000
Marcel Cesarz -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 59,300
Steve Jelinek -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 57,700
Jioí Kulhánek -- Czech Republic -- PokerStars qualifier -- 53,600
Bernhard Damnik -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 44,000
Andreas Sarling -- Finland -- 38,400
Torsten Haase -- Germany -- 36,800
Syikrai Istafan -- Hungary -- 32,100
Mario Kühl -- Germany -- 27,600
Raul Paez Corral -- Spain -- 25,400
Sebastian Till -- Germany -- 16,200

For a recap from the EPT Live team, Lee Jones has the detail...

The plan was for eight levels of a field down to 32. We wondered how long it would take and it turned out things moved fast just when it was expected to slow. The approach to the bubble was as expected, nothing like the hour long bubble play last year.

Mats Iremark -

The EPT Deauville champion of season two was an unexpected casualty before we reached the money. In a pot involving Mike McDonald and King-queen Mats showed Jacks, good at the start of the hand and with all your chips in the middle, bad when a queen hit the board twice and your chips won’t come back.

Stephen Wrenger -

Probably missed for most of the tournament Wrenger would have the ignoble job of being the bubble boy, and it was another EPT winner Brandon Schaeffer who would see him off, grateful for a little touch of good fortune – a dramatic one too. Q-T-5 on the flop which hit both players well. Q-T for Brandon and two pairs, T-T for Wrenger to move ahead. Until the turn, an explosive card with the noise of the crowd audible two flights up. Brandon takes the pot and Wrenger leaves with nothing.

The pace showed no signs of slowing, most seemingly grateful for an early-ish night, thanks mainly to two hands that both saw two players gone in quick succession – between then and the 32 left now Ramsi Jelassi fell victim to a killer four, despite holding aces, against anothe rplayer with tens. As well as the four a ten hit the river, ending all hope for Ramsi who would have taken the side pot had the river not been so bad. And then crowd favourite and legendary gambler Thor Hansen marked the final elimination of the day, exiting in 33rd place the victim with A-T against an ugly run in with a K-Q found another king on the flop.

Seeing as though Marcel Luske is a sponsored player for PokerStars here in Dortmund I figured I’d spend a few minutes watching him play a few hands. If nothing else he’d probably provide a song and the quality of play when he’s around never seems to tarnish.

With him at the table is PokerStars qualifier Mika Turpeinen and two Manfred’s - Manfred Bass and Manfred Hammer, and Andreas Sarling.

Marcel’s career has been a long and profitable one. A casual glance through his results shows consistent wins going back years, a resume you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere, and one that has seen him in smart shoes for many years.

EPT London, season one, 2004. Marcel finishes seventh in one of the first EPTs out with K-Q against the pocket Jacks of Jon Falconer. His young protégé Noah Boeken finishes sixth.

The flop is A-J-A. Marcel bets, putting off anyone else from getting involved any further. It’s good for another 10k pot.

Done with stacking chips he readjusts his shades, a chunky looking combination of UV protection and built-in radio player with an earphone emerging from the frame like landing gear. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see in an 1980s innovation catalogue along with a gold ballpoint pen featuring a digital clock at the end. But this is Marcel and he has the knack of making the ordinary look cool and entirely appropriate.

Music is important to him, only his headphones don't seem to work…

He makes another pre-flop bet but again finds no takers - good for the blinds. Soon there’s action at the other end of the table. The player in seat six bets 8k and immediately covers his face with his hand, like he doesn’t want someone on the rail to recognize him. Andreas Sarling sitting on his left and next to act neatly pushes his stack forward, a neat shove often replaced by a gesture these days.

Compared to seat six Sarling is in full control, unashamed of the move and presumably happy for anyone on the rail to see him. His opponent goes through the motions of asking how much. Marcel looks interested as well, leaning forward to watch what happens next. Predictably the raiser folds, opting not to call the 48k move.

Another table breaks and Thor Hansen arrives, unpacking his chips and coming over to Marcel to shake hands.

“Marcel, play good okay?” he says, “I know you can.”

With that Sarling makes another per-flop bet. Sarling has the well crafted look of determined youth about him. A young player hoping to seize this EPT bull by the horns and make a Sarling shaped mark. He’s well on his way.

EPT Copenhagnen, season one, 2004. Marcel narrowly misses out on his second final table of the season when he finishes in ninth place – this time protégé Noah Boeken wins the event.

Barely seconds after Sarling bets Marcel leans to the dealer, vaguely points with a finger and tells him he’s all-in. A few seconds ago, noticing me standing alongside he said he’d hardly played any hands. Sarling might have been annoyed but didn’t show it. He mucked - Marcel showing him two black kings.

“That’s the minimum hand I show” he says and whistles another quick tune and then says something to Sarling. Maybe it was coincidental, maybe a deliberate attempt to sooth a wounded ego but Sarling breaks his stern face for a second to smile. Sarling is no different from a lot of young players sat opposite Marcel of trying to block out the chat – no attempts to fraternize at all. Marcel usually breaks them. Sarling seems happier now.

EPT Grand Final season two, 2006 - Marc Karam moves all-in from button with J-7. Luske calls with pocket eights. A harmless flop leaves Marcel ahead but he and hundreds of others watch as one of the most painful moments in EPT history unfolds. Karam hits runner-runner sevens, eliminating the Dutchman.

Marcel limps on the button and the big blind taps the table. They check the flop 6-2-3 to see a king on the turn. The big blind checks, Marcel spins six blue chips over the line, good for another pot and time to order tea.

“Thor… tea?”

“As your buying…” replied Thor Hansen, the look of an irregular tea drinker across his face. Just a few hands until the break… PokerStars sponsored player Marcel Luske up to 172,000.

Play is progressing after the dinner break. Tournament director Thomas Kremser intends to see through eight levels of play but will stop if we reach 32 players left. It’s difficult to say in level 13 right now which will come first. Meanwhile there have been a few keys eliminations to report…

Annette Obrestad
The EPT Dublin runner-up is out. In her own words, which you can see below, she had an up and down day, bluffing off a few chips at the start of the day and being eliminated a short time ago…

Katja Thater
The last remaining Team PokerStars player is out. All in pre flop it was A-K for Katja against pocket fours. The ace hit the flop but a four on the turn wasn’t far behind. Katja joins fellow Team PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu on the rail.

Markus Golser
The Austrian pro who made the final table in Prague is out. Details are vague but his seat has been taken by Ricky Frohenbach.

Others gone
Pascal Perrault is out, so too Daniel Zink, Mazhar Nawab, Paul Testud, Redmond Lee, Patrick Bueno and Thomas Brolin.

Kara Scott has a round up of events so far...

Photos © Neil Stoddart

The money is a plus, but few things do your poker reputation as much good as some kind of record. A lot are dubious - first to do this, the first to win that, but others really separate the good from the incredible.

PokerStars blogs have always featured the possibility of a double EPT winner - just last year in Dublin Roland de Wolfe become the first player to win both a WPT and EPT event and Team PokerStars pro Joe Hachem recorded a WPT win to go with his WSOP bracelet last year.

But there remains another even more exclusive record, a club whose membership numbers less than one – titles in EPT, WSOP and WPT event - the ‘Triple Crown’ of poker.

Last night Team PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu looked to be the best hope, coming into day 2 today with close to 60k. His wins in both the WPT and WSOP left just an EPT to bag. I say ‘just’ - it would never be an easy ask. And when he chased a flush with a stack one third of what he started with today his tournament and record breaking hopes rested on a diamond - a diamond which didn’t come.

Check below to see the hand and hear what Daniel had to say about EPT Dortmund...

But today could yet see the first ever Triple Crown winner. Whilst Daniel Negreanu’s hopes of getting membership card number one are gone, across the ocean in Atlantic City Gavin Griffin – the season three EPT Grand Final winner and a WSOP bracelet winner in the $3,000 pot-limit hold’em in 2004, stands on the brink of history at the WPT Borgata Classic. There he is second in chips at the final table to be played later today, with just David Tran narrowly ahead of him in chips.

It’s an incredible achievement for anyone but Gavin coming this close will please a lot of people who follow the game so closely. Recognisable for his pink hair, reminding everyone of the work he does for breast cancer awareness with his girlfriend Kristen, were he to win in Atlantic City it would be a triumph for one of poker’s nice guys.

The man from Orange County made enough of a headline winning in Monte Carlo. In a gripping heads-up battle with Marc Karam who came out tops on a memorable last hand – a moment that can be relived here…

Everyone at PokerStars would like to wish Gavin good luck for the final table and we’ll have news of the result on the PokerStars blog when we get it.

Tournament update -

For chip counts of all remaining players in the EPT Dortmund click here.

Ricky Fohrenbach - where have you heard that name before? Well Ricky finished 8th at the PCA a few weeks ago and was the chipper sounding 20-year-old who had a spell in the commentary box with the EPT Live team out in the Caribbean.

“I’m on a pretty tough table with about 39k. My day one table was much easier!” He said. “I have Annette on my table and a pretty good player opposite. And Nicolas Levi in the white hat.”

Richard's eighth place finish came on his second attempt at the PCA and made him $150,000 in prize money. But at 20 years old Ricky has predictably played little live poker and doesn’t profess to being an expert just yet...

“I don’t pay attention to the way someone looks at their cards or watch if their eyebrows twitched or anything! I just play my cards. I haven’t played many big pots. I had queens against ace-nine and lost that. Then I got tens against 9-3 and they held up! But I’ve been up and down a bit."

So is it forward to poker or back to Boston College? Well, the Milford, Connecticut man seems unsure - but for now he'll settle for life as a young guy on the road playing a game for money and no reason to rush. And he has a plan B in place should things go wrong…

“I’ve never been to Europe before. In fact, if I bust out me and some friends are heading to Amsterdam!”

Somehow, they all end up in Amsterdam…

Tournament update -

Frenchman Nicolas Levi is out. Earlier today he'd been left with 4k in four neat stacks of black chips. "Chip and a chair" said someone from the rail. "Then bring me more chairs" shot back Nicolas. His tournament was ended soon after with a run in against Annette Obrestad.

Marcel Luske is faring better - he just doubled up to 47,000. Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater on the other hand spent the break pacing back and forth keeping away from people and questions. In the zone she was looking to recover from a hand against Brandon Schaeffer that had just cost her a few thousand..

Half an hour in and 13 players are already on their way home. One of them is Passport winner Dustin Mele.

Fair’s fair Dustin had the work to do. He came ready to turn his 4,600 into a colossus, one that would guarantee the PokerStars passport winner a handsome payoff to take back to New York. But things don’t always go according to plan. He was out within minutes of the start, but his experience here is only the start of a year long adventure - not bad for someone who had never travelled outside of the United States before last weekend.

But, with his American and PokerStars passport well and truly in his back pocket it’s up to him where to play next. Copenhagen? San Remo? Monte Carlo? This is not the last we’ll see of Dustin.

The redraw has paired off some key players. Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater has been drawn across from Brandon Schaeffer; two French players Pascal Perrault and Paul Testud sit side by side and Annette Obrestad shares a table with Nicolas Levi.

Daniel Negreanu? He was late again. A quick dash to his chair and he’d be in business in no time. “This is me? No?” Wrong table. He’d find his place eventually, to polite applause... “No problem.”

Another key match up involves Marcel Luske and Mats Iremark. These two represents the complete opposite ends of the poker way. Mats, who won the EPT in Deauville back in season two, is something of the archetypical poker geek. Perhaps he leaves his computer screen sometimes, possibly to by designer clothes, but you suspect EPTs are Mat’s forced ventures into the outside world. Marcel on the other hand, well, I’m not convinced he owns a computer. Always in a suit, today with a salmon coloured tie, he talks freely with players, press and anyone who happens to walk by.

These are only superficial differences for their track records nail them down as world class players. So you’d expect them to keep out of each others way.

Not so. They both tangled, all be it with kid-gloves on in a pot. Mats had re-raised a bet which Marcel ultimately called before they both check-checked their way to a showdown, as if they'd accidentally found themselves in a hand together. Tangling with the wrong man can end in grief and long explanations. MArcel took the pot with a jack on the river pairing the one in his hand. Sixes for Mats but both seemed happy to let the hand go.

Tournament update –

Noah Boeken who began day1b with 10k started day 2 with exactly the same. But that made today a much taller order. He went out in the first level of play leaving just Katja Thater and Daniel Negreanu flying the Team PokerStars flag.

Photos © Neil Stoddart

We’re close to a just about honorable 100kmp on the autobahn out of Dortmund. The sun still refuses to shine and the wind chill seems to pierce our metal bus, but this is the way – the road to day 2 of the EPT Dortmund and 149 players are strapped in for the ride.

Past the mining pits, the TV tower and Westfalen Park it could be the ordinary commute to work millions face each morning. But at this stage of a tournament a poker players’ lifestyle isn’t far off - a day of hard slog awaits – for the successful at least. This poker lark may be considered a high-flying cocktails and burger lifestyle by some but things are only just starting. The obstacles are many – some will be overcome, others will make you feel stupid.

Nevertheless, pulling up to the Casino I decided to capitalize on on a newly discovered fondness for Germany by embarking on a part heroic, part insane venture outdoors in the cold, ignoring the advice of mothers everywhere to wear a hat. The countryside around the Casino Hohensyburg is among the best the EPT has to offer that doesn’t involve a beach. The views are something as well. Even as my eyes welled up from the breeze I could see the countryside racing for miles, towards the borders, between a mixture of chimneys, roads and railways hallmarking the industry this region is famous for.

Back on the casino grounds a few dirt paths run lead into dense woods and towards old looking buildings and presumably endless adventure. But I could feel the cold air closing off the fiddly bits in my lungs and the wind punishing me on each step, I headed back inside where I knew there was a waitress service and that someone somewhere would either turn the heating on or provide me with first aid. The paths tomorrow perhaps.

So right now we’re settled in for business. The newspapers today may write of politicians talking, of teams winning and business men quoting numbers I won’t fully understand. But today the center of the world is Hohensyburg and I know some other important numbers – 149, 40 and $933+k – starters today, paid tomorrow, winner’s cheque on Saturday.

If you missed the action yesterday get the round up of day 1b from Kara Scott...

How do things look at the start of level nine?

Chabot Cyrille -- France -- 111100
Claudio Rinaldi -- Switzerland -- 71300
Tyler Friederich -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 70900
Russell Carson -- Canada -- PokerStars qualifier -- 70400
Jioí Kulhánek -- Czech Republic -- PokerStars qualifier -- 66300
Michael Kwiek -- 62800
Peyman Mohammadzadeh -- Germany -- 60900
Daniel Negreanu -- Canada -- Team PokerStars Pro -- 59900
Ville Mattila -- Finland -- 57300
Andreas Sarling -- Finland -- 56500
Nicolas Levi -- France -- 56100
Markus Golser -- Austria -- 54600
Annette Obrestad -- Norway -- 50200
Mario Kühl -- Germany -- 49800
Christopher Rossiter -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 49200
Stefan Wrenger -- Germany -- 48600
Mats Erik Iremark -- Sweden -- 47700
Marcel Cesarz -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 47600
Diego Perez Marco -- Spain -- 47400
Manfred Bass -- Germany -- 46900
Daniel Zink -- Germany -- 45400
Andreas Manganelli -- Italy -- 44600
Edwin Tournier -- Netherlands -- PokerStars qualifier -- 43000
Jose Luis Valero -- Spain -- 42800
Henrik Brockmann -- Germany -- 42400
Christoffer Sonesson -- Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 41800
Gianvalerio Bindi -- Italy -- PokerStars qualifier -- 41700
Dan Walley -- UK -- 41400
Mazhar Nawab -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 40800
Riccardo Mazzitelli -- Italy -- 40700
Maik Brandau -- Germany -- 40400
Jonas Soerensen -- Denmark -- PokerStars qualifier -- 40300
Björn Enberg -- Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 40200
Carter Gill -- USA -- 39400
Marek Kolk -- Estonia -- 38900
Brandon Schaefer -- USA -- 37500
Benjamin Kang -- Germany -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 37300
Reijo Anttila -- Finland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 36700
Bernhard Damnik -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 36500
Phillip Marmorstein -- Germany -- 35500
Marciano Elie -- France -- PokerStars qualifier -- 35200
Richard Fohrenbach -- USA -- 34000
Thor Hansen -- Norway -- 34000
Daniel Carter -- UK -- 33900
Marcel Baran -- Germany -- 33800
Simone Gallitti -- Italy -- PokerStars qualifier -- 33800
Thibaut Durand -- France -- 33500
Daniel Ruiter -- Netherlands -- 33400
Tobias Reinkemeier -- Germany -- 31400
Marc Dötsch -- Germany -- 31100
Thomas Bihl -- Germany -- 30100
Marcus Tandler -- Germany -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 29100
Sevinc Neumann -- Germany -- 28800
Vikke Toumaala -- 28800
Pouya Pouya Majd -- Germany -- 28700
Sjoerd Bos -- Netherlands -- 28600
Carsten Joh -- Germany -- 28400
Torsten Haase -- Germany -- 28300
Marius Pospiech -- Germany -- 28300
Alexandar Milanov -- Russia -- 28200
Korosh Mollaie -- Germany -- 28200
Marcel Luske -- Netherlands -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 27600
Giorgio Salemi -- Italy -- 27500
Michael McDonald -- Canada -- 27200
André Santos -- Portugal -- 26900
Paul Testud -- France -- 25800
Ulrich Trautenberg -- Germany -- 25700
Jiri Vacek -- Czech Republic -- 25600
Pascal Perrault -- France -- 25300
Daruisz Paszkiewicz -- Poland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 25100
Eugen Frey -- Germany -- 25000
Andreas Gülünay -- Germany -- 24900
Mazlum Acar -- Turkey -- 24625
Daniel Bolton -- Ireland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 24600
Frank Werder -- Germany -- 24600
Jordane Beraldin -- France -- 24000
Daniel Ryan -- USA -- 23900
Steve Jelinek -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 23800
Redmond Lee -- UK -- 23400
Jan Heitmann -- Germany -- PokerStars sponsored player -- 23300
Stefan Rotach -- Switzerland -- 23200
Ralf Werner -- Germany -- 22900
Jameson Painter -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 22600
Szikrai Istvàn -- Hungary -- 22300
Sigi Stockinger -- Germany -- 22200
Christian Harder -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 21900
Jacques Zaicik -- France -- 21600
Aniol Alcaraz -- Spain -- 21000
Manfred Hammer -- Germany -- 20800
Mats Rahmn -- Sweden -- 20400
Nikolas Behling -- Germany -- 19900
Rolf Weißhaupt -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 19900
Kees Alblas -- Netherlands -- 1950
Jens Vörtmann -- Germany -- 19500
Katja Thater -- Germany -- Team PokerStars Pro -- 19000
Marco Liesy -- Germany -- 18900
Alexander Clauss -- Germany -- Freeroll -- 18500
Nazim Kicik -- Netherlands -- 18400
Hugo Marialva Felix -- Portugal -- 18400
Anders Henriksson -- Sweden -- 18300
Martin Hruby -- Czech Republic -- 18100
Thomas Petersen -- Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 17500
Aram Sargsyan -- Armenia -- 17500
Yngne Anderberg -- Sweden -- 17300
Sebastian Freudenberg -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 17200
Patrick Bueno -- France -- 17100
Stefano Busino -- Italy -- 17000
Scott McLeod -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 16900
Ramzi Jelassi -- Sweden -- 16500
Malte Strothmann -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 16500
Daniele Mazzia -- Italy -- 16400
Vito Branciforte -- Italy -- 16200
Dario De Angelis -- Canada -- PokerStars qualifier -- 16100
Vincent Courtois -- France -- 15400
Matthias Guetermann -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14500
Jarkko Paasisalo -- Finland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14200
Leroy Soesman -- Netherlands -- 14200
Christopher Hancock -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14000
Rolf Slotboom -- Netherlands -- 13600
Hardy Behling -- Germany -- 13300
Ahmed Koc -- Germany -- 13300
Jose Maria Puertas Nieto -- Spain -- 13100
Sasa Biorac -- Germany -- 12300
Sebastian Till -- Germany -- 12300
Sandro Simon -- Germany -- 12200
Thomas Ermer -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 12000
Kenneth Ljungars -- Finland -- 11800
Cort Kibler-Melby -- Germany -- 11100
Ronald Falk -- USA -- PokerStars qualifier -- 10500
Mika Turpeinen -- Finland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 10400
Noah Boeken -- Netherlands -- Team PokerStars Pro -- 10000
Andreas Zwickel -- Germany -- 9900
Michael Klimt -- Germany -- 9800
Vincent Gosselink -- Netherlands -- 9700
Raul Paez -- Spain -- 9700
Roy von der Locht -- Germany -- 9700
Tilmann Ebeling -- Germany -- 9500
Dominik Kulicki -- Netherlands -- PokerStars qualifier -- 9400
Vladimir Poleshchuk -- Russia -- 9100
Guillaume de la Gorce -- France -- 8900
Georgios Gatselos -- Greece -- 8100
Tomas Brolin -- Sweden -- 7800
Lukasz Wasek -- Poland -- 7800
Kasper Nielsen -- Denmark -- PokerStars qualifier -- 7400
Eric Larcheveque -- France -- 7000
Benjamin Zamani -- USA -- 6600
Johannes Strassmann -- Germany -- 6100
Tommy Dender -- Denmark -- 5850
Dustin Mele -- USA -- PokerStars Passport winner -- 4300

Frenchman Chabot Cyrille leads everyone at the start but at the back, but not forgotten, is PokerStars passport winner Dustin Mele, here with his girlfriend Tracey who will no doubt lead the cheerleading for her man in the tail end Charlie position. His task is most monumental but with that comes the potential to be most historic. He has his work cut out but we’ll be with him all the way.

Thomas Kremser picks up the microphone, he tells the dealers to deal six more hands, and being the disciplined staff they are they do just that, wrapping up day 1b at the EPT Dortmund. The last act was the exit of last year’s winner Andreas Hoivold, out in a showpiece hand, kings against the ace-queen of Nicolas Levi – Levi flopped trips and turned quads.

217 began today, up 19 on yesterday’s total, choosing poker over a day outside in the rain. Right now the remaining 83 are having their chips counted and bagged before buses, cars and taxis take people to places they can sleep in preparation for day two tomorrow. But first day 1b had its story to tell.

Two of those players are Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Noah Boeken. Of the two it’s Daniel in better shape, sat as he is with close to 60k, and all that after arriving late to the Hohensyburg Casino, wasting no time diving right in. Noah faces a struggle tomorrow but for now that is a few hours away.

The day started with the typically stronger field. As well as Team PokerStars the continents best professionals seemed to arrive in bulk – the likes of Marcel Luske, Ram Vaswani, Roland de Wolfe and Annette Obrestad sat dow to start their Dortmund campaigns, each with varying results.

We also saw EPT Prague winner Arnaud Mattern and last years winner here in Dortmund Andreas Hoivold. It had the hallmarks of a good day, and a volatile one too. The draw flung ElkY and Marcel Luske together; the two sparring well into the night with Marcel ultimately emerging best, doubling through ElkY on a hand that marked the begging of the end fo the PCA winner.

Ram Vaswani swung one way and then the next over the course of six levels. From the start he played with familiar fervor, doubling up inside the first hour, before ending it several hours later on a bluff gone wrong.

Whilst Ram joined the likes of Roland de Wolfe, Arnaud Mattern and Luca Pagano on the rail it was left ot Annette Obrestad, Daniel Negreanu and a few others to set the benchmark for the day. The same faces, the same story, one of dominance and expectation on the newer and older kids of poker.

It closes the first chapter of the EPT Dortmund. Chapter two promises even more and we’ll have chip counts of how things stand before the start of play tomorrow.

Until then, for anyone wanting to catch up on today’s posts, including video blogs of today’s action…

Same as it ever was on day 1b

ElkY and Marcel’s patch

Daniel Negreanu makes his entrance

Lots to see as we reach the first break

It can all turn so quickly

Highs and lows and that murky patch between

Falling short of the finishing line

Photos © Neil Stoddart

And so the mighty begin to fall. First it was Ram Vaswani, and now PCA Champion ElkY has lost his fight against terminal chip loss. With his stack on the ropes the money went in pre-flop on the back of ace-ten. A player in position called with pocket jacks for a flop that hit both player but giving ElkY the bruises – A-T-J-6-9

ElkY is out, taking with him the hopes of a back to back winner.

For more detail on current chip counts click here.

Photo © Neil Stoddart

***

But as mentioned earlier Marcel Luske is having a fine time, up to over 50k - the guaranteed life and soul of an event…

Whilst 132 German players made the trip to Dortmund for their home EPT one man’s journey here involved 16,000 miles across desert, ice capped mountains, oceans, more mountains and immigration control - albeit by plane. Kara Scott talked to Australian Kristoffer Myhre…

Into level seven and 117 players remain. The boys (and girl) most likely have continued at pace – Daniel Negreanu, Annette Obrestad and Arnaud Mattern are still here, as is Marcel Luske who not long ago doubled up through ElkY to give his stack some moral and physical support.

There are other notables - Brandon Schaeffer, the sometime forgotten tear-away of the EPTs first year, is putting in a typical bullish performance, minding his own business, nodding his head to the music in his headphones (the Proclaimers?), and using his 35k the way he does best.

Noah Boeken, another Team PokerStars Pro, has also had a quiet day – quiet compared to the high profile hands of Luske and Negreanu. Leaning back in his chair wearing a leopard skin print lined hoodie, Noah is on a slightly less wholesome 8k.

We started the day with the news that Ram Vaswani had doubled up almost immediately and later had found quads to add more muscle to his campaign. That was then. With the same hardcore madness he can slip that momentum in reverse just as fast. As he said in his interview earlier, you can never predict what will happen by then end of the day. So who would predict this – that Ram would lose his stack on a bluff and be on the rail in level 7?

Photos © Neil Stoddart

A split lunch and the field has joined together as one once more. Before the break though came a mammoth hand, a three way all in that left a trail of wreckage and two players on the rail.

PokerStars player George Danzer was one of them. The German pro is a stand out player. Sure, his ability stands out but it’s more his array of silk scarves that catch the eye. It’s not a standard item in the poker player’s uniform – no floral patterned hat and low slung jeans – George is a scarf and blazer man.

But its not the look he’s after, it’s the protection it offers from one of those difficult to hide tells, the throbbing neck vain that can be the end of a player in a make or break hand. Personally I like the original touch.

That said whether it helped him in this hand it’s hard to tell. –it began in earnest on a flop of 5-3-4 and a raise of 3k followed by an all-in from Marcus Tandler, followed by George calling the all-in. The original raiser, not to be outdone, also called.

It was time to see some cards. Marcus turned over pocket fours for a set, then George showed his hands, ahead with A-2 for the wheel. The original raiser, whose name was missed, was in with 5-6 – top pair and a straight draw. –it would all depend on the turn and river.

Make that the turn only…

Another three gave Marcus a full house and made the river card irrelevant. George Danzer was out, so too the man who had started it all in the first place.

Tournament update –

Daniel Negreanu has doubled up after a huge hand developed with Jens Lübbe. With betting and raising to the turn Daniel was unsure what course to take until his opponent happened to say something to him. Daniel asked him to repeat what he’d said but at the same time had made up his mind, moving all-in.

“You got me beat but I call anyway” said Lübbe. He was right. Queens for Daniel, K-J for –Lübbe and Daniel doubles up.

Keeping his own kamikaze pace is Ram Vaswani. He just had the good fortune of finding quads. And not to be outdone Annette Obrestad has also doubled up against Anders Henriksson. Raising almost all-in save for a few green chips post-flop Anders called with a set of fours, only to be outdone by Annette’s set of nines.

For latest chip counts from day 1b click here.

Photos ©, Neil Stoddart

***

The intention is naturally to make the money, then the final, and then take down the title of the EPT Dortmund and only one person knows how that feels. Kara Scott talked to last year's winner Andreas Hoivold...

With a break just a few minutes away it’s not difficult to see where the two unofficial feature tables are – that is if the crowd on the rail is anything to go by, and they happen to be next to each other.

On the one side is Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu whilst the other features wunderkind Annette (15) Obrestad who may feel she is more than capable of going one better than her runner-up finish at EPT Dublin. Ironically it also has on it one Arnaud Mattern, widely regarded as a player with plenty of potential and winner of the EPT Prague in December. With his back to the rail and a less than goliath ego he’s easy. But perhaps, like in Prague, it’s better to let the attention focus elsewhere.

I spoke to a few players at the break, notably Pavel Blatny who managed to double up three times since being reduced to a couple of hundred and now has 2k, and also Frederick Hostrup, back on the EPT trail after missing a few due to other commitments. The popular Dane recorded his first EPt cash here in Dortmund last year, a performance he went on to better a week later by making the final table of the EPT Warsaw.

One player not destined to win in Dortmund though is Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano. Luca took some hits early on and found himself all in with 8-3, making two pair from the board. His opponent however, had made a set, sending the Italian to the rail in much the same fashion as his countryman and friend Dario Minieri yesterday.

Still, these are the early stages and there’s plenty of poker still to go. But as Kara Scott reports you don’t need to be one of the big names to stand a chance of progressing in an EPT event like this...

If you're looking for something to pass the time while waiting for your next update from EPT Dortmund, why don't you check out the latest Two Plus Two PokerCast? This week, we hear from high stakes phenom Taylor Caby as well as about details on a brand new freeroll at PokerStars.

Check it all out on our Two Plus Two PokerCast page.

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu arrived slightly late to the tournament area, but he wasted no time in getting involved with a hand against a fellow Daniel – Daniel Pidun. On a rainbow flop of K-5-3, Daniel N bet with Daniel P calling. The turn was a deuce which Daniel P checked. “No, no, not that easy” said Negreanu, who had already mentioned the fact that he had nothing. He bet out 600 - called.

A ten on the river, no flush on the board. Daniel P made it 600 which seemed to surprise Negreanu a little. He’s one of the game’s best and skilled enough to make you wonder sometimes if he knows exactly how the hand will play out before the cards are even dealt.

“I think you have nothing” he says, “unless you have king-ten?”

Negreanu called and Daniel Pidun promptly showed king-ten. Negreanu down to around 7k.

Well, that's one version. You can see for yourself...

Popular for his singing, impeccable politeness and killer instinct at the tables, Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske lines up in level one a seat to the left of Team PokerStars Pro ElkY. Swapping Caribbean sun for European glum, ElkY's peroxide hair is fading slightly but you sense a man on top form. Marcel I’d imagine wouldn’t know what a bad patch looked like.

Talking of patches, (how’s this for a link?) Marcel sports an additional feature to his tailored suit, a Team PokerStars badge discreetly placed on his waistcoat. No, this is not first word of the newest member of Team PokerStars, more a friend, but it hasn’t escaped the notice of a few photographers and spectators.

Although the attention could have been caused by a hand - a slow hand typical of many I’ve seen featuring Marcel. A player acts first and Marcel keeps calling. It’s as if the original raiser is being pushed slightly, then a little more, until he has no choice - walking the plank with Luske giving the orders. It keeps on like this until the river – a bet, a call and Marcel takes the pot. The pattern continues and Marcel gets a nice early addition to his stack.

A few tables along sits Pavel Blatny. You might remember the Czech from our EPT coverage in Prague. Pavel is a former Chess Grand Master who has made the conversion to tournament poker with some success – success that served him well up to now, although it doesn’t look that way just this minute. I arrived at his table to see him all-in. He won the hand, that was good, but his stack was on the meagre side to begin with and the double up only boosted his hopes to the height of 300 chips. That was bad.

“Chip and chair” he says, and he’s right. It may only be a matter of time before he faces check-mate.

***

Meanwhile Kara Scott caught up with ElkY before play began to talk about his PCA win, his killer form and his hopes of a second win in a row...

Tournament update –

Hendon Mobster Ram Vaswani has made his traditional EPT start by doubling up inside the first level. On a board of 9-A-9-8 the money went in – Ram showing Q-9, Pelzner A-K. A blank river and Vaswani up to 20k.

Welcome to day 1b of the PokerStars EPT Dortmund...

What can you say about day1b that’s different to day 1a? The same structure, the same optimism at the start, the true feeling that everyone can win. And the same look of defeat on their faces if things go belly-up. We had all this yesterday and we’ll have it today. But there is one difference though – a kind of poker phenomena.

Not your mainstream phenomena like the aurora lights, red rain or the pyramids of Segonzano. This is one of those deeper mysteries that ordinary people have trouble believing are true – like tax refunds, Chinese poker and oompa-loompas. It has no official name, just something like ‘the day1b effect’. This is where the field at major tournaments such as these gets a hearty jolt of big name players that seemed absent on day 1a. Today is no different.

Among those playing today...

Thor Hansen
Anthony Lellouche
Nicolas Levi
George Danzer
Ben Grundy
Michael Durrer
Christian Grundtvig
Paul Testud
Peter Gould
Woody Deck
Thomas Brolin
Mikael Norinder
Rolf Slotboom

There are also a few of those with EPT pedigrees...

Pascal Perrault (EPT Vienna winner season one)
Roland de Wolfe (EPT Dublin winner season three)
Brandon Schaeffer (EPT Deauville winner season one, and Grand Final runner-up the same year)
Marcel Luske (EPT Grand Final – final table)
Frederick Hostrup (EPT Warsaw final table)
Andreas Hoivold (defending champion at the EPT Dortmund)
Markus Golser (EPT Prague final table)
Ram Vaswani (EPT Dublin winner season one)
Annette Obrestad (EPT Dublin runner-up)
Arnaud Mattern (EPT Prague winner)
Patrick Bueno (EPT Dublin final table season three)

And then there are the Team PokerStars pros out in force today, including the likes of ‘Kid Poker’ Daniel Negreanu, Noah Boeken, Luca Pagano, and recent PCA Champion ElkY.

It’s not strictly true that anyone can win – it does take something. Patience, stamina, guile and a hefty amount of skill will serve well. And whilst everyone has that to some degree it’s often lumpy and doesn’t flow all at once.

So that’s today about to begin. Low hanging cloud, fine mist then rain and now snow. It’s a good day to stay indoors, and if you’re in you may as well be in a casino.

The aim is to outlast your fellow travellers and make it through to day 2 to join the 70 who made it through day 1a, and that means playing into the early hours of the morning.

Who were those 70?

Chabot Cyrille -- France -- 111,100
Claudio Rinaldi -- Switzerland -- 71,300
Peyman Mohammadzadeh -- Germany -- 60,900
Ville Mattila -- Finland -- 57,300
Andreas Sarling -- Finland -- 56,500
Christopher Rossiter -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 49,200
Stefan Wrenger -- 48,600
Mats Erik Iremark -- Sweden -- 47,700
Marcel Cesarz -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 47,600
Diego Perez Marco -- Spain -- 47,400
Andrea Manganelli -- Italy -- 44,600
Edwin Tournier -- Netherlands -- PokerStars qualifier -- 43,000
Jose Luis Valero -- Spain -- 42,800
Henrik Brockmann -- Germany -- 42,400
Dan Walley -- UK -- 41,400
Mazhar Nawab -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 40,800
Riccardo Mazzitelli -- Italy -- 40,700
Carter Gill -- US -- 39,400
Marek Kolk -- Estonia -- 38,900
Reijo Anttila -- Finland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 36,700
Phillip Marmorstein -- Germany -- 35,500
Richard Fohrenbach -- US -- 34,000
Marcel Baran -- Germany -- 33,800
Simone Gallitti -- Italy -- PokerStars qualifier -- 33,800
Thibaut Durand -- France -- 33,500
Daniel Ruiter -- Netherlands -- 33,400
Tobias Reinkemeier -- Germany -- 31,400
Sevinc Neumann -- Germany -- 28,800
Sjoerd Bos -- Netherlands -- 28,600
Marius Pospiech -- Germany -- 28,300
Alexandar Milanov -- Russia -- 28,200
Korosh Mollaie -- Germany -- 28,200
Giorgio Salemi -- Italy -- 27,500
Michael McDonald -- Canada -- 27,200
Daruisz Paszkiewicz -- Poland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 25,100
Mazlum Acar -- Turkey -- 24,625
Jordane Beraldin --France -- 24,000
Steve Jelinek -- UK -- PokerStars qualifier -- 23,800
Redmond Lee -- UK -- 23,400
Ralf Werner -- Germany -- 22,900
Mats Rahm -- Sweden -- 20,400
Kees Alblas -- Netherlands -- 19,500
Jens Vörtmann -- Germany -- 19,500
Katja Thater -- Germany -- Team PokerStars Pro -- 19,000
Thomas Petersen -- Sweden -- PokerStars qualifier -- 17,500
Yngne Anderberg -- Sweden -- 17,300
Scott McLeod -- US -- PokerStars qualifier -- 16,900
Ramzi Jelassi -- Sweden -- 16,500
Malte Strothmann -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 16,500
Daniele Mazzia -- Italy -- 16,400
Vito Branciforte -- Italy -- 16,200
Matthias Guetermann -- Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14,500
Jarkko Paasisalo -- Finland -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14,200
Leroy Soesman -- Netherlands -- 14,200
Christopher Hancock -- US -- PokerStars qualifier -- 14,000
Ahmed Koc -- Germany -- 13,300
Sebastian Till -- Germany -- 12,300
Sandro Simon – Germany -- 12,200
Thomas Ermer – Germany -- PokerStars qualifier -- 12,000
Kenneth Ljungars -- Finland -- 11,800
Cort Kibler-Melby -- Germany -- 11,100
Ronald Falk -- US -- PokerStars qualifier -- 10,500
Vincent Gosselink -- Netherlands -- 9,700
Dominik Kulicki -- Netherlands -- PokerStars qualifier -- 9,400
Vladimir Poleshchuk -- Russia -- 9,100
Lukasz Wasek -- Poland -- 7,800
Kasper Nielsen -- Denmark -- PokerStars qualifier -- 7,400
Johannes Strassmann -- Germany -- 6,100
Tommy Hansen -- Denmark -- 5,850
Dustin Mele -- US -- PokerStars Passport winner -- 4,300

At one end Frenchman Chabot Cyrille on over 110k. At the other our Passport winner Dustin Mele, down on chips but not low on spirit. Dustin returns tomorrow with 4,300.

***

Kara Scott speaks to the two former EPT winners - Ram Vaswani and Roland de Wolfe with some brutal truths, depending on who you believe....

Tournament update -

As impressive as today’s list of runner is one name is missing, that of Tennis legend Boris Becker. Illness has struck the former number one with incredibly bad timing, keeping Boris housebound on the instruction of doctors who refused to let him fly. Alas, Dortmund was not to be and those eagerly waiting for his arrival on the European poker scene will have to wait a little longer. But time flies and the Monte Carlo Grand Final will soon be upon us where Boris will be back; ready to convert his monster serve into something at the poker tables.

Photo © Neil Stoddart

There was something about the moat theme at the beginning of the day – good for making this an isolated poker world, bad for making you feel trapped when your time came to exit. It’s not a moat as such that surrounds the Casino Hohensyburg, it’s more that the terrain is the type to cut short any escape by foot - although today 128 players may have wanted to try.

The dealers stopped, Thomas Kremser called for five more hands and day 1a was over. Of the 198 players who arrived here ready for action 70 of them conquered. For the rest, the short walk to the rail was just the first stage of the mourning period.

As we discovered today good fortune can strike when you least expect it, and its evil twin can cut short any chances you had of glory and celebration. Some play with these facts in mind, whilst others play like it doesn’t matter at all.

PokerStars qualifier Malte Strothmann was somewhere in between. Determined to enjoy his EPT experience regardless the 19 year old played his best and came out well at the end of it. He will be back on Thursday for day 2.

Katja Thater was one of just two Team PokerStars Pros lined up to play day 1a. She shared a table with fellow Pro Dario Minieri, but whilst Katja thrived Dario was hit hard early and was soon heading for the door.

We also heard of winning strategies music wise and of poker’s most inform player Julian Thew and whilst the early hours of Wednesday morning send players back to hotels for rest a new flight will arrive in just 12 hours time.

For anyone wanting to catch up on today’s events...

Ready to start in Germany

Shuffle up and deal

A winning formula between your ears

Sick, Sicker, Sickest

The view from the dinner break

Slow, steady folding

Finishing line in sight

Chips are being counted and bagged with a full list of how things stand available before the start of play tomorrow - day 1b.

83 players remain going into the eighth and last level of the day. One player quite happy to be here at the end of the day is Malte Strothmann, not least because earlier today the 19 year old from near Frankfurt was close to the door.

“I folded over pairs twice, which was heartbreaking even though they turned out to be good folds. But I’m really enjoying it here, playing with a lot of the German players I know. Even if I get knocked out I’d enjoy watching.

That was some time ago. Now, with an hour to go, his spirits are even higher.

“I had kings and the board came A-A-K-Q-Q. I folded my kings thinking he probably had an ace. But he had pocket aces so I was really pleased with the fold. It seems folding earlier today was a good thing! I’m up to 16-17k now. It would be nice to come back tomorrow.”

Tournament update -

One of those still playing today is Dustin Mele, also known as the PokerStars passport winner at his first event of his ten stop tour of the world...

The first five levels have thinned the field a little, from 198 to 123. The hour may have taken its toll as well as it gets late here in Dortmund and the effects of jetlag adds weight to heavy heads. The pace has definitely slowed on table five.

Here sit a few EPT regulars and a few PokerStars qualifiers to boot. Tommy Pavilicek, a PokerStars qualifier from Edmonton, Canada, has been nursing a short stack for some time now. The shaggy-haired Canadian is spending the winter skiing in France but breaks up his time on the slopes with EPT action, be it Prague or Dortmund.

Along from him is Marcel Baran. The German pro was buoyed by his third place finish at the EPT London this season and has been a feature on the EPT ever since. His stack is healthier than Tommy’s but not by much. Like Frenchman Thomas Fougeron next to him, Marcel has raised a few and settled for the blinds.

Fougeron will have fond memories of Dortmund. Last year the Parisian finished eighth - not a bad result in itself made even more spectacular by the fact that on the first day he had been half way to the door carrying a bag of expletives when he thought the miracle draw his opponent hit had sent him out. On closer inspection it turned out Thomas was left with one chip, enough for a never say die rally of chip-and-a-chair legend. First one double up, then another, all the way through until he was eliminated via the TV table.

That was then, this is now. Thomas rests his head on his hand as another hand is dealt. Next to him is Jason Hackett, the ninth place finisher in London, looking equally tired and along from him are PokerStars qualifiers Roberto Monte and Ville Mattila back in seat one. Two elderly gentlemen have pulled up chairs on the rail to watch in comfort, although there's not much to see. This is the table that people walk passed to get somewhere else.

Another hand, another tired slow closer to the end of day 1a. 113 players now left...

Tournament update -

I arrived on the tournament floor to first hear Lex Veldhuis going out, unhappy presumably at the guy who knocked him out, and then further up the room Alex Kravchenko exiting is near silence, except for the hoots and hollahs from Thomas Ermas who sounded quite pleased with himself.

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

Being described as aggressive in poker is non-negotiable if you’re to get anywhere. Better still you need some stronger words to help build your reputation on the rail. ‘Sick’ used to mean that but gets used so many times now that it’s lost its meaning. But when it comes to Finnish pro Illari Sahamies his dashing style of play goes beyond that to what one railbird labelled ‘Bubonic’. Fair enough.

Looking at Illari though as he twiddles a chip with his fingers, it’s hard to tell. In a clean white shirt and a clean shaved head and headphones there’s little to suggest this is the man tearing up pot-limit Omaha tables online. And his reputation goes beyond poker to world’s that can put even the most cast iron of bankrolls under threat – the world of coin flipping.

No, not the poker sum, I mean proper coin flips with a coin, the highest being $40k a go with Phil Ivey (if those people on the internet are to be believed). In Dortmund though he looks like a guest of the others just playing a few hands before his taxi arrives.

A champion of the school of pure gambling Illari cites his ability to not care about losing for his success. Sitting back in his chair his stack shows signs of this advanced laissez-faire technique - whilst I’d been coming up with words to describe his play a hand had taken him to the river and all-in. The board read 2-Q-3-T-5. He called all-in the raise from Thomas Ermer and showed A-4 of spades. Thomas showed the same hand in diamonds.

Polite early-level laughter from the rest of the table; Thomas smiled and the dealer split the pot. Only Illari remained straight-faced, slightly irritated perhaps, failing to see the funny side. He’s back to 3k, (which would soon become over 5k). He may well be waiting for a taxi, but not before around 2am tonight and by then we may have come up with some new words.

Most poker players arrive at tournaments with a standard armoury of trinkets and paraphernalia to see you through. Large and dark sunglasses are popular, hiding any weakness in the eyes; a baseball cap can disguise your face in the same way and headphones plugged into an MP3 player help break the monotony between moments of sheer terror. No doubt you could put together some sort of official study into precisely what kind of music best suits the tournament mood but for one player at least such time consuming research is unnecessary - he knows exactly what’s needed.

“The Proclaimers”.

Following a report in a British newspaper Graham Clarkson once revealed that the secret behind his EPT success (he came 8th at the EPT London in season two) was the singing duo from Fife, Scotland, who found fame with songs such as I'm gonna be (500 miles), I'm on my way,Letter from Americaand the rather appropriate cover of Hank Williams' Down to the River. These songs and more blocked out the table of top players ultimately helping Graham concentrate on his own performance - the result leaving him £14,000 better off.

Naturally I caught up with Graham here in Dortmund between hands, just to double check what he was playing on his Ipod...

“Madonna...”

Terrific. We’ve reached the first break in play at the end of level two.

Tournament update:

Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri lost 7k in one hand on a Gutshot straight draw. Dario bluffed on the river, called by an opponent with pocket jacks.

Players began taking their seats, signing TV waivers and examining their free card protectors, as a heavy guitar version of the song ‘Viva Las Vegas’ blasted over the sound system, the opening credits you might say. It was hard to place the version but it lacked the adrenaline of the Dead Kennedys and the panache of Elvis Presley, yet it did the trick. Then, to restore any latent fighting spirit, there quickly followed a few bars of Eye of the Tiger to complete the introduction along with the familiar tones of tournament director Thomas Kremser. Shuffle up and deal – 198 players on day 1a get the slightly delayed PokerStars EPT Dortmund underway.

Photo (c) Neil Stoddart

Some will tell you that Dortmund is the seventh largest city in Germany and that it’s one of the country’s most hi-tech. Others will tell you that Dortmund was for generations a centre for coal mining yet remains one of the greenest cities in Europe. Others will tell you of Dortmund’s three 13th century moated castles and of the Reinoldikirche, an eight century church with a gothic tower standing over 100 meters tall. But some, like me, will tell you that the Casino Hohensyburg, in the leafy outer suburbs of the Ruhr Valley will this week play host to a mighty battle of champions – from poker and beyond – as the European Poker Tour comes to town.

Here for the second year, the EPT Dortmund’s champagne-across-the-bow moment came last year when Norwegian Andreas Hoivold won the inaugural title ahead of a final table he ultimately dominated. His reward stood at over $880,000 – a figure that could well be topped this week. A seat here comes after the exchange of 8,000 crisp Euro notes and over 400 applicants for the position of champion have made their way here.

But to reach that mountain top position you must first start in the foothills, or day 1a as it’s also known. The moated Casino Hohensyburg stands amidst forest overlooking the Hengsteysee reservoir on the Ruhr river and alongside the quaint gingerbread village of Syburg. It’s the type of place you imagine is easy to get snowed into, where you’d need huskies to go fetch help, but with a 25 table poker room and adequate bar facilities you wouldn’t really mind.

Finding a route through day 1a will be Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri and Katja Thater who happen to be seated on the same table, as well as PokerStars sponsored players Sebastian Ruthenberg. EPT Baden winner Julian Thew is also here, fresh from his GUKPT win last week.

Table 7 stands out featuring as it does EPT winners and runners-up and WSOP bracelet winners and runners-up. Rob Hollink (EPT Grand Final winner season one), Juha Lauttamus (4th at EPT Prague), Juha Helppi (WPT winner and WSOP runner-up), Gino Alacqua (EPT Prague runner-up) and Alex Kravchenko (WSOP bracelet winner) will all spend a good part of the afternoon together. In between them are three PokerStars qualifiers getting an early test of mettel.

We start in the usual fashion – 25/50 blinds and an hour clock. Eight levels which should take us into the early hours - about to get underway.

Photo (c) Neil Stoddart

The bright neon discotheque setting of the Nightrooms nightclub PokerStars bade welcome to players on Monday night, arriving in town for the second EPT Dortmund. This was no ordinary welcome - up a flight of stairs from Street level guests were greeted by a woman in a close lace outfit swallowing fire as people shuffled in from the European cold. A few steps beyond fire woman was snake girl - a similarly clad young girl with a real snake looping around her arms and waist. the snake looked pale green under the burning lights of Nightrooms though admittedly few were brave enough to get close enough to double check.

With the night young and witness to such incredible sights, it was unfortunate there would be no pictures of the snake or the girl to prove it all. With club lights set to low it was too dark for conventional cameras and flash was forbidden in case it upset the serpent. None but the brave wanted to annoy it – not least the girl who for the time being had the beast under control.

Tomorrow Casino Hohensyburg, a few miles from here, plays host to its second EPT. Last year Norwegian Andreas Hoivold took honours in a slow but gripping final that saw him talk his way to a title and cheque for $880,572 This year a field equally considerable in number will be adorned by regular PokerStars qualifiers and Team PokerStars pros, among them a familiar face never before seen on the Poker circuit. A tennis legend of old now looking to smash his way onto the poker scene – Boris Becker makes his Team PokerStars debut.

But there would be plenty of time for the man nicknamed ‘Boom-Boom’ in his tennis heyday. First there was the party where the mildly weird circus theme continued after drinks and the buffet, the curtain coming up on Claudia, who arrived from stage left onto the dance floor... carrying five hula-hoops. Perhaps you managed to get a hula-hoop to stay around your waist a few times as a kid, but Claudia quickly demonstrated how she’d spent her spare time; swirling five hoops, then six, then ten, and finally 15 of the things wildly around her body, maintaining a professional smile as spectators clapped and cheered.

Then came the centrepiece act – a man, his head resting upside down on a glitter ball podium, first spinning, then juggling, balancing things on his legs, spinning them and then doing things most would think impossible. Marked clearly with the hallmarks of ‘Don’t try this at home’ players and PokerStars staff alike watched open mouthed as he went on, applauding the man as he added even more implausible elements to his act. It made any chocolate fountain look quite tame.

Among those moving their hips to the sound of loud music and with thoughts of hulas were local girl Katja Thater, PCA Champion Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and Marcel Luske who looked ready to single-handedly lead everyone to the dance floor.

It was the midpoint of a night of cheer for some - a late night in Dortmund spent sampling the local ale. For others, well tomorrow there is work to do. That goes for close to 200 players who will get the EPT Dortmund underway at around 3pm local time tomorrow. Among them will be Dario Minieri and Katja and a cast of hundreds. That makes day 1a ‘Boris Eve’. Mr Becker plays on Wednesday, along with fellow Team PokerStars Pros ElkY, Noah Boeken, Daniel Negreanu and Luca Pagano.

All that is ahead of us. Will Boris Becker transform his powerful serve into its poker equivalent? Can Katja Thater win on home turf? Could ElkY pull off the incredible and make it two in a row? We’ll wait and see...

The final Sunday in January was a big one all around. Folks in Italy saw two of their countrymen take home big prizes as ponente71 won $20,000 in the Sunday Hundred Grand and Dario Minieri won the $5,200 Freeze Out for $100,000. The big winner of the day was the United States' SNo0oWMAN, who banked more than $278,000 in the $530 Sunday Million. Congratulations to all of this week's winners.

Here are the final table results form this week's Sunday events.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and two-way deal

1. fridhem (Sweden) $85,943.04
2. Jackpot 7's (United Kingdom) $95000.00
3. TheBeat (United States) $43,917.54
4. gambelaro (United States) $34,690.00 75316997
5. JOEFFFFF (United States) $27,196.96
6. PAhakuutti (Finland) $20,120.20
7. skanky980 (United States) $14,569.80
8. apegod (Belgium) $9,158.16
9. girafou (Belgium) $5,411.64

PokerStars $5,200 Freeze-Out Results

1. Dario Minieri (Italy) $100,000

PokerStars Sunday High Stakes Showdown Results

1. supernova9 (Canada) $25,000.00
2. $tinger 88 (United States) $15,000.00

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results

1. ponente71 (Italy) $20,000.00
2. cwrector77 (United States) $10,000.00
3. Dudeyesyou (United States) $7,000.00
4. ticlinlinlin (Canada) $5,000.00
5. ashour111 (United States) $3,000.00
6. Javy28 (United States) $2,000.00
7. janikola (Norway) $1,600.00
8. nicosia35 (Israel) $1,300.00
9. blacdoggz (United States) $1,000.00

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results

1. SNo0oWMAN (United States) $278,502.00
2. roosterbill (United States) $140,607.60
3. batoelrob (Netherlands) $101,026.80
4. Kenjh (United States) $79,800.00
5. Suck My Ace (United States) $62,563.20
6. oogee (United States) $46,284.00
7. jonop56 (United States) $33,516.00
8. mjh0318 (United States) $21,067.20
9. Demonrob (Australia) $12,448.80

How about this? Let's just say you have an extra $7.50 sitting in your PokerStars account. Or, better yet, let's say you have 500 Frequnt Player Points and nothing to do with them.

Okay, now, let's just imagine you find your way into an EPT Steps tournament. Now, sure, there's a lot of good things that have to happen for this story to get good. But, let's just say those good things come to pass. The next thing you know, we could be writing about you on the PokerStars Blog...live from Europe.

After the resounding success of the Steps tournaments during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and Asia Pacific Poker Tour, PokerStars has just launched a new series of Steps tournaments. Winners of these events can work their way up the ladder and make a final decision. Play for EPT Warsaw and a $11,350 entry or play for the $19,250 package to Monte Carlo. Either way, it could turn out to be one huckava return on your investment.

To learn all about how you can make it to two of Europe's biggest poker events for next to nothing, visit the PokerStars EPT Steps tournament page.

Then, we'll see you in Europe.

If you didn't start listening to the Two Plus Two PokerCast, sponsored by the PokerStars VIP Club, during the PCA, now may be the time to start.

The boys from Two Plus Two have put together a tight little weekly show that is running here every week. You're bound to find an interesting interview or two (with the possible exception of that week that I was on the show) and all the news from the Two Plus Two and the rest of the poker world.

This week, PokerCast interviews one of Two Plus Two's own..Mr. David Sklansky. If you're at all familiar with poker, Sklansky needs no introduction. And if you are a poker fourm reader, you don't need to be told what recent dramabomb Sklansky has the inside track on. You'll hear about all of that and more on this week's Two Plus Two PokerCast.

Check it and all the archives out on our Two Plus Two PokerCast page.

At the end of the 2007, when PokerStars introduced the PokerStars Passport and opened it up to the top 100 players on the TLB, you just had to know big things were in store for 2008. Now, those big things are happening.

PokerStars has just made several updates to the TLB that make it more than a contest of pride and will. Now, every month, there's big money at stake. What's more, at the end of every year, there are prizes worth fighting for.

According to the updated Tournament Leader Board pages on PokerStars' website, the top 200 leaders of each monthly TLB contest will split up $30,000 in cash with $5,000 of that money going to the monthly winner. Then, then top 1000 players each month will have a shot at a $20,000 prize pool in the monthly TLB freeroll.

That's all pretty cool in itself. However, when you look at the yearly TLB contest, the prizes are something everybody will be looking to score. First off, the top 100 players on TLB out of the year will get a $100,000 freeroll. What's more, the top three TLB leaders will walk away with PokerStars Passports of their own. The first place player will get five trips and buy-ins to major events. Second place gets a three-trip passport. Third place will receive a two-trip passport.

Because the TLB is such a pretigious place to be, PokerStars has also created the Tournament Leader Board Hall of Fame. There, you will be able to find the players who have scored the highest points tallies on the Weekly, Monthly and Yearly TLBs. You will also find a breakdown of the PokerStars players who have won the Weekly TLB the most times since Jan ’05.

With Janaury still kicking and eleven months to go, there is still a lot of work to be done. However, by this time next year, we'll have a whole new group of PokerStars Passport holders to follow around.

Will one of them be you?

Tom, how was your PokerStars Caribbean Aventure?

by Tom McEvoy

I recently got back for the Bahamas where I participated in the 5th annual PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. For the first time, this was part of the European PokerTour. Already we have broken all previous records for attendance and prize money for a European Poker Tour event. This is quite impressive all by itself, to say the least. As a member of Team PokerStars Pro, I get to have a great vacation at the fabulous Atlantis resort and casino while competing for millions of dollars in prize money. I know, I know, it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. While there was some early speculation that the number of entrants would be slightly down from last year's record of 937, this was quickly proved incorrect. We beat last year's record by almost 200 players when 1136 players showed up to begin play. Opening day had to be spread over 2 days to accommodate the overflow, and some of the early added events had to be cancelled as a result.

When the smoke cleared a member of Team PokerStars Pro captured the main event and $2,000,000 in prize money. Bertrand Grospellier, better known as "Elky" on PokerStars, was the lucky winner and played tremendously down the stretch, especially at the last table. 2007 Player of the Year David Pham came to the final table with the chip lead, but eventually had his 2 pair knocked off by Elky's flush and had to settle for 4th. In addition to the main event there was 4 other events, with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. In the last event former marketing director of PokerStars Dan Goldman came in 2nd for over $30,000.

My own result was somewhat disappointing. I finished the first day with about $49,000 in chips. This was above average. Everyone started with $20,000 in chips with a great structure and relatively small blind increases every 75 minutes. I thought I was on my way to at least a money finish when I inched my stack up to around $63,000 on the 2nd day of play, but it was not to be. I lost a series of small pots and with the blinds getting higher and higher, I made one mistake on one hand and that was the end of my tournament.

The blinds were now $1,000 & $2,000 with a $300 ante. I was on the button with pocket 7's. There was a very aggressive player at the table who had been raising with a lot of marginal hands. He had just raised the previous hand for about the 3rd time in the last 4 hands. A player on my right called the initial raise of $4,500. I decided that now was the time to make my move. I was sure the player on my right would fold, as I had a rather tight image and he had been playing with me all day. It was just a question of whether the initial raiser, Mr. Loose Goose I call him, would fold or not.

When I re-raised I had about another $37,000 so I had fold equity. Unfortunately, he called rather quickly and I knew I was in trouble. The player on my right folded quickly as I expected and we turned are cards over before the flop. AAARRRGGGHHH this time he had a real hand, pocket kings. They held up and I got up. I had to settle for 270th place. Since they paid 120 I fell well short of the money. I kept thinking about last year when they decided to pay 180 players and I finished 182nd. I had AK vs 77 on a flop of K, K, 7, and failed to improve. Therefore, both years 77's were my unlucky hand. Oh well, I can hardly wait until next year's tournament. Next to the World Series of Poker main event this is my favorite tournament of the year.

It seems like the Sunday Million is settling into a new norm. In the past, it was great to see more than 6,000 players every week. The past few weeks, the Sunday Million has been rocking and rolling with more 7,000 people. This week saw 7,520 people sit down for the big event, good for a $1.5 million prize pool.

Here are this week's final table results for all the big Sunday tournaments.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Final Table Results

1. Murmelpapst (Germany) $103,792.70
2. Anbessa9 (United States) $52,948.10
3. Pekka3 (Sweden) $38,043.30
4. jonasof87 (Norway) $30,050.00
5. brehmer (United States) $23,559.20
6. RichardPL (Poland) $17,429.00
7. gango17 (Israel) $12,621.00
8. ElMastermind (United States) $7,933.20
9 . DANA1337 (Sweden) $4,687.80

PokerStars $5200 Freeze-Out Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and two-way deal

1. moumouth (France) $75,000.00
2. THE__D__RY (United States) $25,000.00

PokerStars Sunday High Stakes Showndown Final Table Results

1. Dario Minieri (Italy) $20,000

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and three-way deal

1. legulas (Germany) $14,633.35
2. metalspork (United Kingdom) $13,272.25
3. JAB11982 (United States) $9,094.40
4. PokerAgent80 (Austria) $5,000.00
5. JazzBassist (United States) $3,000.00
6. #1LEAFSFAN (Canada) $2,000.00
7. jalla79 (Sweden) $1,600.00
8. Marlee333 (United States) $1,300.00
9. Bc Acer (Canada) $1,000.00

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and three-way deal

1. StudMaverick (United States) $171,445.22
2. macthemac67 (United Kingdom) $117,783.72
3. BluStarZ16 (United States $104,819.06
4. spank01 (United States) $60,160.00
5. Pier85 (Italy) $45,120.00
6. goonertone7 (United Kingdom) $33,088.00
7. MagicCoin (Hungary) $23,312.00
8. Tiwo (United States) $13,536.00
9. mariaras (United Kingdom) $8,873.60

Last weekend, we learned who will spend the next year travel