Mikael Lundell

But breathing down Lundell's neck is a real EPT heavyweight: Sebastian Ruthenberg, who has been a PokerStars sponsored player for years and then became a PokerStars "Shooting Star" during a promotion to unearth the talents in central Europe. Ruthenberg was an obvious choice and paid back the faith with a bracelet in Vegas this year and a huge pile of chips in Barcelona. He also has more than 100,000.

PokerStars sponsored player Sebastian Ruthenberg

Frenchman Brice Cournut, who had 70,000-odd for about seven hours, is also right up there. He added an extra 20,000 to his stack in the final couple of levels and has about 95,000.

You'll notice that this is probably the first time in an EPT end-of-day wrap that we've got three paragraphs in without mentioning Team PokerStars Pro. Well, after some terrific performances throughout the past few years, this day has been a shocker. Nine started, nine perished. It was goodbye to Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Griffin, Isabelle Mercier, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Dario Minieri, Luca Pagano, Raymond Rahme, Katja Thater and William Thorson. Mercier went out first; Minieri went out last, but Thorson has the worst story. He got one-outered mid-way through the day, which is kind of tough, if you'll forgive the understatement.

The last of Team PokerStars Pro to fall, Dario Minieri

But tomorrow the field from both day ones converge, when we'll be welcoming back Chad Brown, Alexander Kravchenko and Andre Akkari, who'll be attempting to slog it out to a final 32 or so. About 110 finished tonight, about 110 finished yesterday, thinning a field of 619 original starters. The full figures will all be known later, once someone calculates it all overnight. But the main statistic is this one: the first prize in Barcelona will be €1,361,000. Try sleeping and forgetting about that.

Team PokerStars Pro ElkY talks to the video blog team...

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Day 1B Bertrand Grospellier on PokerStars.tv

That, however, is the plan for the coming few hours, at least. But you can still catch up on the day that has just passed. An approximate chip count, taken at the end of the eighth level, can be found HERE.

A run-through of today's action in Spanish can be found HERE. In German? Well, that'll be HERE. If you like small circles on top of your letters, you can find the Swedish coverge HERE. And the hot-blooded Italian action is all detailed HERE.

If you're a resigned monoglot and restricted to English, like the best of us, you can click any of these shiny hyperlinks for a refresher:

Days open for day 1B
Another fine bunch
ElkY ditches joker to shine in Spain
Rogue hand for Rahme
Scratch one Negreanu
Champions
What they're playing for
The fallen
Rahme and Griffin sent to the rail
Pagano pounces, not out yet
Ashby on the rise
King of qualifiers
Old rivalry, but Dario still on top
The last break of the day
The rail gets smaller and smaller
Minieri busts in level 8

Here's a look at the day with an Olympic touch by our video blog team, and there are plenty more where that came from over at PokerStars.tv.

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Day1A Olympics on PokerStars.tv

That's it for the two day ones. Play begins tomorrow at 3pm CET. Please join us then.

*They invented it, by the way. And you can thank Holland for Big Brother.

The last flag bearer for Team PokerStars has fallen. Dario Minieri, who flashed his aggression around today as easily as he did his World Series bracelet, finally succumbed to a lack of chips, finding himself short stacked on a table that featured the two chip leaders, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Mikael Lundell, both on approximately 110,000.

The end came with T-6. Dario did what he could with it but the board was cruel, delivering two queens to match the one in his opponent's hand. There was a handshake, the gathering of possessions and the young Italian was gone.

With a level and a half to go the tournament area has shrunk considerably, the rail edging its way towards the far end of the room.

All but one of the Team PokerStars Pros has been eliminated today, the exception being Dario Minieri, who still shares his table with Dag Palovic.

Further along Richard Ashby remains alongside Alan Smurfit and Sebastian Ruthenberg, whilst Julian Thew, who won the EPT Awards for both Best Individual Performance and the Poker Writers Award, finds himself on a tricky table alongside Thierry van den Berg and Million Dollar Man Peter Eastgate.

Finally, towards the back wall, an all-Gallic encounter pits EPT Prague winner Arnaud Mattern against former French international footballer Vikash Dharasoo. On the next table Michel Abecassis shares his table with English Pro Surinder Sunar.

Also close to the top is the Spanish player Aniol Alcaraz, who neatly stacked about 50,000 before the break. Stevie Chidwick has made a surge back from less than 5,000 to nearer 25,000 while the final Team PokerStars Pro in the field, Dario Minieri, has around about 29,000.

The fact that Minieri is flying solo means that all of Katja Thater, Luca Pagano and William Thorson have departed on a brutal day for the Team.

But some of the other leading lights in European poker are cosying up on table 10. There, the double EPT award winner Julian Thew is chatting away to Thierry van den Berg, a player of the year nominee after becoming a fixture on final tables last season. They're also joined there by the Million Dollar Man Peter Eastgate, one of two players from that World Series final table keeping in shape here in Barcelona.

Million Dollar Eastgate

Thew doesn't have many chips - about 5,000 - but Van Den Berg and Eastgate are faring better. Each has the right side of 25,000.

The last time Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri and Slovakian Dag Palovic met it was on the final table of the EPT San Remo in the spring of season four. It was perhaps the quickest final table in EPT, lasting less than three hours despite being a finale laden with poker talent, including Jason Mercier, William Thorson, Anthony Lellouche and Johannes Strassmann.

Different circumstances here though. Palovic labours to keep his stack above the water line whilst Dario enacts a steady trend of chip building. The two would only clash briefly in level six though, Dag raising and winning the pot uncontested, after losing one a few moments before.

Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri

Palovic had been raising on a king-high board with pocket tens, only for his opponent to call him down with another of the kings, a hand Palovic found hard to conceal his frustration with.

Dario meanwhile was intent to pick up pots wherever possible, picking spots to unleash his brutal and unpredictable style of poker with seemingly little concern for those getting in his way.

A middle position raise of 800, re-raised by Minieri to 2,350. Called.

The flop came As-Jc-7c. It was checked to Dario who, with WSOP bracelet glinting, shoved in another 2,350, too much to contend with for his opponent. Minieri is flying the flag for Team PokerStars Pro, with more than 24,000.

It was not such a bright story for his team mate and countryman Luca Pagano. The EPT Player of the Year was unable to sustain a post-dinner come back, crashing out a short time ago.

Stevie Chidwick, from Kent, England, is pretty good at PokerStars satellites. How good? Well, while most people would probably be happy with winning one seat for the World Series main event, Chidwick saw no reason to stop there. He played again, qualified again, and why stop there? He played again, qualified again, and why stop there? He played again, qualified again and why stop there?

Stevie Chidwick: One one of about a million seats

In order to save my typing fingers, I'll flash forward a few paragraphs. For this year's World Series, Chidwick won 102 seats through PokerStars steps satellites: that's a million dollars worth of qualification. And onto the EPT. For last year's EPT San Remo, he won 20 seats. For the EPT Warsaw event? Ten seats for that one. He won six for EPT Barcelona; four for EPT London; four for LAPT events and 28 entries into World Series of Online Poker events.

Last week, he won the $100 re-buy on PokerStars ... tired of hearing this yet?

Of course, you can only sit in one seat at any one time in the world away from the multi-tables of PokerStars. And if you're 19, as Chidwick is, you can't even sit in a single seat in Las Vegas, which means he cashed in all of those WSOP seats. But he's here in Barcelona where he's having the time of his life. And the very good news is that Chidwick remains amazingly humble despite his qualification prowess; humble enough to get properly impressed by a double plasma screen TV, and a huge bathtub in the hotel room afforded to PokerStars Supernova elites.

Actually he's a PokerStars Supernova elite two times over if you're interested, and has in the region of 7.5million frequent player points. Enough? It's never enough.

If there's a table today to counter the feature table-elect of yesterday (EPT winners Mike McDonald and Jason Mercier) it would be along the far wall and features two WSOP bracelet winners in PokerStars Sponsored player Sebastian Ruthenberg and Irish pro Alan Smurfit. Also here is pot-limit Omaha specialist Richard Ashby, better known as "CHUFTY" online, and French actress turned poker player Alexia Portal.

Stand around here for a while and a hand is bound to break out, this one coming on a Jd-Jh-9h flop. The seat three player in the cut-off bet and was called by Ashby who then checked the deuce on the turn before the cut off player fired out 1,300, announcing it to Ashby as he did so. Ashby called without much delay.

Both players checked the seven on fifth street and turned over their cards. 9d-7h against Ashby's pocket tens. The tens were good. Richard Ashby up to more than 18,000 now.

With his half of the playing field returned from the dinner break Luca Pagano was no doubt aware that time was running out for a climb out of the cellar and back into fighting shape. Equipped with a little more than 3,000 it was only a matter of time.

He made his move from the small blind behind a raise from the cut-off player. Nothing more than a casual flick of the wrist to send his chips in, an insta-call and showdown.

Luca was marginally ahead, K-Q to his opponent's K-J.

Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano

T-4-Q on the flop. "Stop!" joked Luca but he needn't have worried with the king on the turn doubling him up. Only to 7,000 though. Still work to do.

Elsewhere another Team PokerStars Pro has been banished ot the rail. William Thorson fell victim to a one-outer when holding A-Q a Q-Q-4 flop eventually proved not good enough. When the turn came an ace it was all over for Thorson who's opponent held pocket aces. the money went in on the turn to cut short the Swede's day.

Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson

Amidst the blur of tournament action it's not always possible to keep track of everyone. A combination of players moved, sudden changes in circumstances or just a bad hand can send a player out regardless of any high flying earlier. Unfortunately Raymond Rahme is the next to be banished rail-side before the dinner break.

He joins fellow Team PokerStars Pro and former EPT Grand Final champion Gavin Griffin there. He was eliminated earlier today but earlier today spoke to the video blog team about his chances...

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Day 1B Gavin Griffin on PokerStars.tv

There were a couple of other previous winners who did manage to last the day, and both finished with pretty good stacks: Jason Mercier and Glen Chorny. And today, there are another handful: Gavin Griffin, Julian Thew, Tim Vance, Sandor Lylloff, Arnaud Mattern and Mats Iremark.

Gavin Griffin: Out

Unfortunately for the Team PokerStars Pro Griffin, his challenge is over. He was seen sitting beneath a white hat on the same table as the PokerStars ambassador Mats Sundin, but Sundin confirmed a moment ago that Griffin was out. We don't have the details, but Griffin rarely hangs around when day is done.

Julian Thew was seen heading to the buffet queue with rare purpose, pausing only long enough to confirm that he was still in but relatively short stacked. Iremark was twiddling with a Rubicks cube, Vance was beneath a pork pie hat Lylloff was sitting back and chewing the fat; Mattern was getting a massage. Just another day on the EPT.

Daniel Negreanu's hopes for a first EPT win (and a Triple Crown) have ended. The first indication of something amiss was the loud thumping noise as a player began hitting the table with his hand in an audible victory ceremony.

Daniel had min-raised from under-the-gun plus one to 300 holding Kc-Tc and found four callers for a flop of Q-T-2 with two clubs. Now Daniel made it 800 only to be re-raised to 2,500. Daniel pushed for 8,000 and was called by the middle position player holding pocket deuces. Cue table slapping.

Daniel Negreanu

It was a double whammy for Daniel, first losing the hand and busting, and then standing back as the table vibrated to the hammer blows of victory. Daniel out in level three.

***

Scotty Nguyen is another faller today. The 2008 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. champion found himself all-in with A-Q on a board that came J-J-T-K-x to give him a straight, but his opponent's pocket tens made him the house and sent him to the rail.

Scotty Nguyen now found on the rail

Raymond Rahme saw off the end of season four with two cashes in succession in San Remo and Monte Carlo making his trip from South Africa a profitable one. He just made an early first step toward making the start of season five as equally profitable. It didn't take a monster hand.

On a flop of 8s-5s-Jc Raymond checked from the big blind as his opponent in middle position made it 425. Called by the South African. Raymond was quick to check the four on the turn as well as again he faced another bet, 1,100 now which he wasted no time in calling.

Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Rahme

The river was an innocent looking 3d but by now the adrenaline had left the hand. Both players checked with the raiser turning over A-K. Raymond though revealed he'd been on a flush draw but also had caught a lucky river, turning over Qs-3s.

Good for a laugh as far as Raymond was concerned. He inches ahead to 11,000.

He wasn't even the Team PokerStars Pro to be eliminated. That dubious accolade went to Isabelle Mercier, who was spotted early on but is now nowhere to be seen.

Isabelle Mercier: she was here, and now she's gone

No tables have been broken and no players have been moved so it must be assumed that Mercier is out. She's in good company. In addition to ElkY and Mercier, the footballer turned poker player Tony Cascarino is also gone. Fresh from a victory in a major British tournament last week, Cascarino could last no longer than half an hour here when he flopped two pair, but was called by an opponent who had made bottom pair threes on the flop. Cascarino bet on every street and was all in on the end, by which point there was also a king on the board and the player's K-3 had made a better two pair. Ouch.

A couple more names to add to the list of notables:
Sebastian Ruthenberg
Alan Smurfit
Surinder Sunar

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier has ditched the joker regalia he fashioned in Macau but still has a metallic veneer, his silver blond hair making him look like he was designed and built in a virtual reality machine. It's a level of flash that suits his effective style of play. First a modest pot taken from a player in an Arsenal FC bandana. Then this.

Team PokerStars Pro ElkY

It kicked off with a 6s-7d-5s flop and a bet of 425 from ElkY from his under-the-gun position. By now only the button player and big blind were still involved but to make matters interesting the button's re-raise, 1,500 in total, gave the big blind his cue to fold.

ElkY sat riffling chips and then called. The turn, a 4h, brought even more straight possibilities. ElkY led out, 2,150 this time, whilst the button player called. If either player had made their straight it was hard to tell but on the river card 9h ElkY moved all-in.

It was close to 7,000 and left him with nothing to riffle. That didn't last long though. His opponent mucked and ElkY was soon playing with chips again; he has a stack worth 15,000 in front of him now midway through the first level.

That will likely mean more than 300 players today, bringing us close to, or indeed past, the 600 total players from days 1a and 1b. That means a lot of prize money too, the full details of which will be with us sometime today.

We've just taken a quick sweep of the tournament floor and here are some of the notables who have taken their seat today:

Team PokerStars Pros
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
William Thorson
"EPT Player of the Year" Luca Pagano
Isabelle Mercier
Dario Minieri
Katja Thater
Raymond Rahme
Gavin Griffn
Daniel Negreanu

PokerStars ambassadors
Mats Sundin
Sergei Bruguera

PokerStars qualifiers
Thierry van den Berg
Jonathan Van Fleet
Stefan Jedlicka
Adam Junglen
Hafiz Khan

PokerStars players
Shaun Deeb

Other notables
Scotty Nguyen
Denis Plejdrup
Julian Thew
Per Ummer
Tim Vance
Freddy Deeb
Nichoas Levi
Patrick Bruel
Bruno Fitoussi
Sorel Mizzi
Steve Frezer