2009 PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw

Day 1b completed

Posted 10-21-2009 21:48 GMT+3

Day 1b in the Books

That's right folks, it's all over for today. Day 1b of the PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw Main Event saw 115 entrants take to the felt, with 84 of them moving on to Day 2 according to the tournament clock as play wrapped up. Combining with the 64 that made it through from yesterday's flight, 152 players will return on Thursday.

Members of Team PokerStars PRO that signed up to play today included Dario Minieri, Thierry Van Den Berg, Katja Thater, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Sebastian Ruthenberg, William Thorson, and Florian Langmann. Most of them made it to the bag-and-tag portion of the night, but Thater, Thorsen, and Langmann all came up a little short.

Antony Lellouche began the day rather quiet, but soon amassed the biggest stack in the room. Lellouche put the pedal to the floor in the last couple of levels with constant aggression to keep his stack growing. He finished with 131,475 chips. That's enough to put him in second place on the combined leaderboard, but still a ways behind Day 1a chip leader Carter Phillips. If you followed the event last year, Lellouche emerged as the chip leader after Day 1a, but failed to make it to the money. He'll be looking to better that outcome this year.

The tournament will resume tomorrow at 12:30pm local time (CEST) and the plan is to play five levels. That plan is very tentative, as the day might be cut short if too many players are sent packing early on. The levels will be increased to 75 minutes from here on out as well.

Thanks for following PokerNews.com and be sure to return tomorrow as we continue our live coverage of the 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw!

Tags: Antony Lellouche.

Give Me Five!

The tournament staff has paused the clock and announced that the players will be playing five more hands before bagging and tagging.

Rinaldi Takes a Chance with Ducks

Claudio Rinaldi flat-called a raise to 1,700 from the player to his immediate right before the button moved all in for 11,000. The preflop raiser folded and then Rinaldi went into the tank. He decided to make the call, asking the all-in player if he held a pair.

The player responded by tabling and then Rinaldi showed . The board ran out and Rinaldi earned the elimination to move up to 55,000 chips.

Tags: Claudio Rinaldi.

Bendik Goes House

Jan Bendik limped in before Yulius Sepman raised to 1,900. The player in the cutoff called and Bendik called as well. The three players then witnessed a flop of laid out in front of them.

Bendik checked and Sepman fired 1,900. The cutoff folded, but Bendik made the call.

The turn paired the highest card on board when the came. Bendik checked again, with Sepman checking right behind.

The river was the . Bendik fired out a hefty bet of 7,000. Sepman looked pained by the bet and tanked for several minutes. He counted out the bet amount and the rest of his stack in two separate piles in front of him while thinking. A few moments later, he made the call.

Bendik rolled over for a full house after having flopped a set. Sepman looked as if he was about to table his hand, but then realized Bendik's hand was a lot more powerful than it started out to be. He mucked his hand, slipping to 13,000 chips. Bendik moved up to 82,000 chips.

Tags: Jan Bendik, Yulius Sepman.

Thierry Earns a New Nickname

Michelle Orpe was moved to Thierry Van Den Berg's table a couple of levels back and can now see first hand that Van Den Berg tends to have a lot to say at the table. Orpe mentioned to Van Den Berg that he talks a lot and she is going to refer to him as "Mr. Mouth" from now on.

"I like that." he repsonded. "I like it a lot."

Tags: Michelle Orpe, Thierry Van Den Berg.

Sarwer Shrugs Off Mizzi

Jeff Sarwer opened the pot with a raise to 1,525, and both of the blinds called to see a flop.

It came . Vitaly Tolokonnikov and Sorel Mizzi check-checked, and Sarwer continued out with a bet of 2,800. Tolokonnikov quickly ducked out of the way, but Mizzi called after a minute or two.

Heads-up now, the turn brought the . Sarwer watched Mizzi check again, and he shrugged and put another 5,600 into the pot. Mizzi considered for several more minutes before kicking in his cards, choosing to save his remaining 16,000 chips for a better spot.

Tags: Jeff Sarwer, Sorel Mizzi.

Deeb Clawing Back

Action folded around the table to late position where a middle-aged gentleman stuck in a raise to 1,700. Shaun Deeb called from the button, and Wojciech Polak came along in the big blind.

Three-handed to the flop, the dealer spread out . All three players checked to the turn. Polak led out into the pot with a bet of 2,500, enough to fold the original raiser. Deeb wasn't so easily pacified though, thinking it over for a couple minutes before flicking in the call.

The last card off was the . Polak checked this time, and Deeb asked to see his opponent's remaining stack. Both players had around 15,000 left apiece, and Deeb fired a bet of 4,125. That was enough to win the pot outright as Polak returned his cards back to the dealer.

"You checked to the wrong person," said Deeb with a chuckle. After a shaky start to his day, Deeb has rebounded to about 24,000.

Table mate Dario Minieri is also on the rise; he's back up to 52,000 after a similarly rough first few levels.

Tags: Shaun Deeb.

Shaun Deeb Interview

Eric fills in for Gloria to interview Shaun Deeb on one of the breaks in the action. Deeb talks about getting to Warsaw, his table draw, and even learns how to say "all in" in Polish. Check out the video.

Tags: Eric Ramsey, Shaun Deeb.

Back In Action

The players are onto their final level of the day. Antony Lellouche is the chip leader with approximately 130,000 chips going into the final level.

Tags: Antony Lellouche.