The chip stacks of both Todd Brunson and Roland de Wolfe have been in the 20,000-30,000 range for the last hour or so. Both have been folding hand after hand, patiently waiting for their spot to double up.
Nicholas Ragot has been eliminated in a 120,000 chip pot. He held and his opponent . The board read . The action is uncertain, we arrived at the river when all Ragot's chips were passed to his opponent.
Rolf Slotboom raised to 5,400 from early position and the player to his immediate left made the call. A late position player put in a raise to 20,000 total. Action folded back around to Slotboom who carefully counted his chips, and analyzed the situation. After about 3 minutes, Slotboom pushed all in for roughly 20,000. The player who cold called Slotboom's raise folded and the re-raiser instacalled. Despite all the buildup, both men showed A-K. The flop matched neither player's suits and they chopped the pot.
Over a third of the 207 players that started today have been eliminated during the first two levels of play. 134 players are left in the running for the money. Some big stacks are developing with Eric Koskas leading the way on 185,000.
Eric Koskas and Jan Heitmann are the first players to move over 200,000 in chips. They have 215,000 and 203,000 respectively and Koskas has just been moved to the same table as Heitmann so there could be a massive pot if the right situation occurs.
Beppe Tarsia was just sent home when his couldn't hold up against the of 2007 EPT-Prague finalist Dag Palovic. The hit the flop and that was all Palovic would need to win the hand and send Tarsia home early.
With the current pace of rapid eliminations, tables are being broken and players are being moved quite frequently. In more notable matchups, William Thorson and Roland de Wolfe were recently moved to the same table and PokerStars pros Raymond Rahme and Dario Minieri are seated at the same felt.