2008 PokerStars.net EPT San Remo

Day 1b completed

Posted 04-03-2008 14:32 GMT+2

Day 1b is a Wrap

That is it, Day 1b is over. The tournament staff are bagging and tagging the chips, racing off the 25-value chips at the same time. It looks like Anthony Lellouche will be the Day 1b chip leader, but we'll confirm all the chip counts when we get them from the tournament organisers.

Join us tomorrow from 3 pm (GMT+1) when the two Day Ones combine. Expect a flurry of eliminations during the first few levels as the short stacks gamble and the bigger stacks try to knock them out.

There are still a host of well-known players left in the tournament including Daniel Negreanu, Todd Brunson, Luca Pagano, Antonio Esfandiari, and Billy "The Croc" Argyros.

Max Pescatori More Than Doubles Up

After folding hand after hand for the past couple of hours, Max Pescatori finally took a stand on one of the final hands of play of the night. With a raise to 2,600 from late position, Pescatori reraised all in for 7,275 total from the button. The big blind thought for quite awhile before making the call and the initial raiser folded after slight consideration. The players showed:

Pescatori:
Opponent:

The flop missed both players and Pescatori had his opponent drawing dead by the turn. With that pot, he now goes into Day 2 with just over 18,000 in chips.

Tags: Max Pescatori.

Lellouche Gets Some Value From Esfandiari

The action before the river is unknown but there is 16,000 in the middle, the board reads , and Anthony Lellouche bets 10,000 into Antonio Esfandiari. The Magician had a long dwell and a gib crowd gathered round the table. Eventually he called but we did not get to see what he had, as Lellouche flipped for the nuts and Antonio mucked.

Anthony Lellouche is now vying for the chip lead with 94,000, whilst Antonio Esfandiari has 42,000 in chips to practice his magic with.

Tags: Anthony Lellouche, Antonio Esfandiari.

Marc Goodwin Check-Raises for a Win

With 6,000 in the pot from pre-flop action, Marc Goodwin checked a flop to the other player in the pot. When he bet 4,000, Marc's response was to put in a raise to 14,000 total. A brief dwell followed before the player folded and Marc Goodwin moved up to 34,000 chips.

Tags: Marc Goodwin.

Jostling for the Lead

Just as it was yesterday, the title of chip leader is being exchanged on a regular basis. Currently Jan Heitmann holds the lead with 92,000, but with 15 minutes to go that could easily change.

Tags: Jan Heitmann.

Juha Helppi Not Coasting to Day 2

With just under a half-hour left in Day 1b, many players are tightening up, trying to make Day 2. Juha Helppi is not one of them. He is mixing it up quite frequently, getting involved in many pots. Action folded around to a late-position player who raised to 1,600. Helppi called from the button and it was heads-up to the flop. The late-position player bet 2,700 on the flop and Helppi made the call. The dealer peeled the on the turn and Helppi's opponent slowed down, checking this street. Helppi bet 5,000 and got a timid call. Fifth street was the and again the late-position player checked. Helppi sat statuesque for over a minute before finally checking behind. The late-position player showed and Helppi grimaced, double checked his cards, then tossed them in. The Helsinki native is far from done for, however, as he still sits on almost 40,000 in chips.

Tags: Juha Helppi.

Ludovic Lacay Eliminated

Ludovic Lacay got all his chips in on a K-7-8 flop and found himself drawing to runner-runner quads when his opponent turned over pocket kings. The big hand against John Kabbaj reported earlier was the first in a series of bad beats and coolers for the enigmatic young French player. He lost with A-Q against A-J all in pre-flop and also lost with 10-9 against A-2 on a 10-4-5 flop before his exit hand happened.

Tags: Ludovic Lacay.

Roberto Gives Some Back

Roberto Romanello just got involved in a three-way all-in with pocket eights. He was up against J-J and A-K. There was both an ace and a jack on the flop, which tripled up the player with jacks and the A-K player made a small profit on the side pot. Roberto is not too despondent as he still has 83,000 in chips left.

New Chip Leader

Welsh poker player Roberto Romanello has the biggest stack in the room at the moment with 94,000 chips. He is a lively player who has some success on the UK poker scene.

Tags: Roberto Romanello.