2009 PokerStars.com EPT San Remo

€5,300 EPT San Remo Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info

2009 PokerStars.com EPT San Remo

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aa
Prize
€1,508,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€5,713,300
Entries
1,178
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
50,000 / 100,000
Ante
10,000

Onwards and Upwards

Ljubomir Josipovic - Official Day 1b Chip Leader
Ljubomir Josipovic - Official Day 1b Chip Leader
After two action-packed Day 1s, we've made it to Day 2 of the 2009 PokerStars.it European Poker Tour San Remo event. Once the stacks were counted down at the end of Day 1b, it turned out that Ljubomir Josipovic just barely edged out Vincenzo Spinelli for the overnight chip lead. They both trailed Day 1a chip leader Dragan Galic.

Of course, that overnight chip lead doesn't mean much at this stage of the tournament. With 469 players left in thefield, we're still more than a day away from the money and several days away from the final table, where the big payouts await the players skilled enough and lucky enough to make it that far.

The action is scheduled to kick off in about forty minutes, at 2pm local time. The last two days, players were only allowed into the tournament room at 2pm. If the same holds true today, we'll likely wind up underway closer to 2:30pm.

Stick around for all of the action live from the San Remo Municipal Casino on PokerNews.com.

Level: 9

Blinds: 400/800

Ante: 100

Jason Mercier Eliminated

No Mercier
No Mercier
Jason Mercier, coming back today with just 8,100, is busto already. It folded around to the small blind who pushed. Mercier woke up in the big blind with {A-?} {7-?} and called, but his opponent had {A-?} {8-?} and with no help from the board, we are down one reigning champion.

Tags: Jason Mercier

Dropping Like Flies

Less than thirty minutes into the first level of play and already ten percent of the field has been vaporized. Nothing like a night of sleep to encourage the short stacks to get their chips in the middle.

Tom McEvoy was responsible for one recent elimination. His {A-?} {Q-?} out-raced an opponent's pocket sevens, hitting his queen twice on a board of {Q-Diamonds} {3-Clubs} {5-Clubs} {Q-Hearts} {6-Diamonds}. That elimination broke McEvoy's table, but not before pushing his chip count to 40,000.

One player thought he was eliminated but turned out to have his opponent barely covered after losing an all-in confrontation. Massimo Reynaud had to be called back to the table -- "Hey, you've got chips still!" one player said -- after he had his opponent out-chipped by 1,600 chips. He was already on the rail, gesticulating and speaking rapid-fire Italian to a railbird friend who could only shake his head. Clearly a bad-beat story.

Tags: Tom McEvoy

Another Player Down

Eric Koskas moved all in from early position for 7,600 chips and was called by Soveh Deusen. Koskas tabled a hand that definitely needed to improve, {4-Hearts} {3-Hearts}. The bad news was that Deusen had hearts covered with {A-Hearts} {9-Hearts}. It was Deusen in the end on a board of {2-Spades} {Q-Clubs} {2-Hearts} {J-Spades} {A-Spades}. He scooped up the pot and sent Koskas out into the streets of San Remo to find something else to do.

Tags: Eric KoskasSoveh Deusen

Wrang Puzzled

Jannick Wrang started the day in the upper reaches of the chip counts. He's still up there, but he's a been a bit puzzled by the play of Jonas Danielsson.

"That was exciting," said Wrang after a recent pot. "That made sense." He had reraised to 9,800 after Govanni Vicinanza opened for 2,800 and was called by Danielsson. Vicinanza folded to the reraise in short order, but it took Danielsson almost two full minutes to fold {4-Clubs} {4-Spades}.

"You can just push," Wrang told Danielsson. "But I'm calling. It would have been fifty-fify."

Tags: Jannick WrangJonas Danielsson

Carnage

A selection of our early bustees:

- Bruno Soldini

- Romain Despres

- Anthony Spinella

- Johan Storakers

To be honest, the echoing calls of "Seat open!" around the card rooms are becoming confusing, being so numerous. In just forty minutes of play we're down to 405 runners.

Hedlund Not Well

You don't want to see his hand
You don't want to see his hand
Another player who is in considerable trouble, but still refusing to bow to the inevitable, is garrulous Peter Hedlund. Down to just 2,500, he still managed to fold his big blind to a raise, showing the {3-Diamonds} and then going back through the muck after he'd handed his cards to the dealer trying to find whatever other raggy piece of unplayable filth he'd had. He also passed his small blind the next hand. Now all he needs is several quadruple-ups in a row and he'll be back in the game.

Tags: Peter Hedlund

O'Shea Takes a Player Down

John O'Shea knew what he had to do when the button player raised his big blind to 3,100. O'Shea peeked down at {A-Diamonds} {Q-Clubs} and moved his chips into the middle. His opponent emphatically called all in for less with {Q-Spades} {10-Spades}. A flop of {7-Spades} {A-Spades} {Q-Diamonds} hit both players, giving O'Shea two pair and bringing a flush draw for the button. Everyone loves a good sweat, right? The turn {3-Hearts} changed nothing, nor did the river {10-Diamonds}. Each player made two pair, but O'Shea's aces and queens were the best hand. He eliminated the button and chipped up to 36,000.

Tags: John OShea