£5,000 EPT London Main Event Day 1a | 2009 PokerStars.com EPT London

£5,000 EPT London Main Event

Day 1a Completed

10-03-2009 00:31 UTC+2

Day 1A Concludes

[user46298]

With the clock still on over 10 minutes, the tournament director paused play, cleared the floor of all press and spectators and announced they would play four more hands before the end of the day.

A couple of players wandered off at this point - possibly wanting to be first in line to be overcharged for drinks at the Hilton bar - but the majority knuckled down to not being eliminated at the 11th hour.

There's no runaway monster stack leading the pack as far as we can see, so it looks like Moritz Schmejkal with 200k is still up on top or near top of a field which has more than halved itself over the course of nine one-hour levels today. It seems that any stack is get-in-able regardless of structure, and the play today was aggressive and inventive right from the start.

Tomorrow it all starts again at noon local time, when another 300+ (my guess at least 450, if they can fit) players will descend upon the Hilton Metropole's huge ballroom to play Day 1b of the London EPT. 27 more are getting in through the satellite running this very minute, and a whole host of big names who took today off as a buffer between this one and the WSOPE will be taking their seats tomorrow afternoon.

Join us 12pm for continued live coverage on Pokernews!

10-03-2009 00:18 UTC+2

Football Legend And 14th Place Finisher In The WSOPE ME...

[user76023]

Teddy Sheringham talks poker to Gloria.

10-03-2009 00:11 UTC+2

Last Few Hands

[user76023]

Players are now on the final few hands for the day.

Decently sized-stacks include former EPT champions Arnaud Mattern and Roland De Wolfe, both have over 100,000 and are in the upper echleons of chip-based thievery.

10-03-2009 00:01 UTC+2

Exit Via Eastgate

[user46298]

Peter Eastgate just busted his right-hand-side neighbour, who was a Scandinavian gentleman who looked very familiar and was wearing a phenomenal rhinestoned T-shirt with a big picture of a skull with a sword through its head. If my camera hadn't run out of batteries I would have snapped a picture of him as he exited just for that...

Anyway, I saw a long dwell going on on the river of a {7-Clubs}

board. Exited-Skull-Tshirt-Guy had bet a little over 10k and Eastgate had plonked in enough yellow 5k chips to cover his opponent. Some torture was clearly being visited on him - he had about 30k left and the pot was now 43k, and he looked at his six chips and Eastgate's little tower of them for quite some time.

A genuine decision - the rest of the table sat patiently for a couple of minutes as an expressionless Eastgate waited for a decision to be made.

Finally he called, but mucked when seeing Eastgate's monstrous {A-Clubs}

house. Oddly, he then stayed by the table for a while amiably talking about the hand with his eliminator - I think someone said the two of them are friends - before finally heading railwards.

Tags: Peter Eastgate

10-03-2009 00:00 UTC+2

The Sad Demise Of Sida Yuen

[user76023]

Sida Yuen has gone from 120,000 or so to out in about an hour or so, much of it to Arnaud Mattern.

Mattern check-raised a 4,800 bet to 12,000 on a {9-?}

board before both checked the {J-?}

turn. On the {9-?}

river, Mattern bet 24,000 and Yuen called but mucked when he saw the Frenchman's {J-?}

, the latter having planned to check-raise the turn also.

Sida Yuen's last chips went in holding {Q-Diamonds}

on a

board against {4-?}

, the rollercoaster ride brought to an abrupt end.

10-02-2009 23:49 UTC+2

All Things Being Schmejkal... New Leader

[user46298]

There's a new big stack on table Yuen, which has been home to a chip leader through most of this Day One. It's Moritz Schmejkal, baby-blue jumper wearing 200k stacker.

If you've made the second half of the last level with over 150k, you're in the top 5, I'd reckon, while the short stacks aren't all that short if they've got over what they started with. Good old slow structure.

Counts as Day 1a draws near a close:

Mark Teltscher - 28,000
Sida Yuen - 66,300
Arnaud Mattern - 80,000
Michael Greco - 52,000
Nick Gibson - 19,000
Luke Patten - 100,000
Alex Kravchenko - 44,000
Chris Ferguson - 40,300
Vivek Rajkumar - 145,000
Florian Langmann - 32,500
Lex Maessen - 75,000
Maridu Mayrinck - 95,000

Ms. Mayrinck, incidentally, seems to have a very good attitude towards the swings and roundabouts of poker tournaments. I heard her say to some people on the rail, "I went from 130 to like 98k but I'm not complaining - life is good!"

Tags: Maridu Mayrinck Moritz Schmejkal