PokerStars.net EPT Warsaw, Day 1b: Pedersen, Schulze Top Day

Day 1b at the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Polish Open featured an even more star-studded field than Day 1a, with former World Champion Greg Raymer joining his Team PokerStars teammate Luca Pagano and European tournament stars such as Thor Hansen, Dave 'El Blondie' Colclough, Pascal Perrault and Thomas Wahlroos for play at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Warsaw. The 2008 field for the EPT Polish Open totaled 359 players, well above last year's field of 284, making for a big top prize and a tough field.

Raymer experienced that toughness early and found himself crippled near the end of Level 2. Raymer held pocket tens in a three-way pot when the flop came down . The player in the cutoff fired at the flop, and Raymer raised. Simone Rossi re-raised all in, and Raymer called when the cutoff folded. Raymer tabled his overpair, but Rossi turned over pocket eights for a flopped set. The turn brought the , giving Raymer a flush draw with his , but the on the river doubled Rossi up and left Raymer crippled. Raymer was eliminated a few hands into Level 3.

Raymer's Team PokerStars mate Luca Pagano joined him on the rail soon after, along with other notable eliminations such as Thor Hansen, Rolf Slotbloom and Colclough. Sorel Mizzi ran into tough hands back-to-back to end his tournament, first when his encountered Melek Ertas' pocket Kings and failed to improve, leaving him crippled. In the very next hand, Mizzi moved the last of his chips in with against an opponent's pocket fives. The board ran out K-high and Mizzi was eliminated. EPT Prague winner Arnaud Mattern was eliminated when his pocket kings were outflopped by A-Q after all the chips went in preflop.

Andy Black continued a strong 2008 with his Day 1b performance. Black rode a chip rollercoaster for much of the day before solidifying his spot in the top ten chip stacks as the day drew to a close. Black's active style continued throughout the day, as his chips slowly built up after dinner until he doubled up a short stack just before the end of Day 1b. In that hand, Black raised all in preflop with Q-10 and got a call from a short stack with A-Q. Nothing unexpected happened and Black doubled up the short stack.

Dan Pedersen took over the chip lead as Day 1b drew to a close, amassing the first chip stack over 100,000 on the day before slipping just under that mark by day's end. Other notable players who made it through Day 1b included Mel Judah, Liz Lieu, Johnny Lodden and Thierry van den Berg. The top ten chip counts of Day 1b action:

Dan B. Pedersen — 98,500
Michael Schulze — 87,900
Keith Donais — 76,200
Hecham El Sayed — 66,700
David Robinson — 55,800
Theo Jorgensen — 50,300
Henrik Gwinner — 48,500
Dennis Petronack — 48,100
Sebastian Ruthenberg — 45,100
Andy Black — 42,400

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