By the by, the official numbers are now in. Day 1b managed to get 372 players - almost double the 191 we got yesterday, bringing the total field to 563 - only a little shy of last year's 584. Good work, everybody.
The prize pool is being calculated now, we'll publish that information as soon as we get it.
Roberto Romanello is running the show on his table, mirroring the recent EPT Barcelona where he basically never shut up! If you followed the action from Spain a couple of weeks ago, you will recall us singing the praises of Romanello for using table talk to his advantage.
Today has been no different, with the Welshman's constant chatter and jokes keeping his table in good spirits. Not only is he a comedian, but he can also read poker hands pretty accurately too!
Jonas Klaussen got the ball rolling with an opening raise to 725 from early position. Next to act, Romanello put in another raise, making it 2,100 to play. On the button Paul Berende four-bet to 6,075, forcing out the blind, the initial raiser in Klaussen but Romanello made the call.
The flop was an action killing and it was unsuprising that both players checked. If that wasn't bad enough the turn was another ace, this time the and again both players checked. The on the river saw both players check again.
"Your queens are good," informed Romanello before Berende turned over
Klaussen said that he would have won the hand had he called preflop as he held but you have to be in it to win it in this game.
Romanello drops to around the 78,000 mark, whilst Berende climbs to 63,300
One player doing steadily well in these mid levels is Peter Roche, rarely spotted at the tournament felt, but up over 65k and proving the point that he's on the up by winning a strangely large pot on the flop right as we passed his table.
Friedrich Paul Raz had started off with an early-position limp, raised to 1,200 by Artur Wasek. Small blind Roche repopped it to 5,000 and rather surprisingly, perhaps, received two calls.
The flop: . Roche instantly bet out 10k even. Raz sort of slap-folded his hand with a sigh of apparent annoyance and Wasek soon followed suit.
ended up on their backs as the pot went to Roche, a legitimate hand indeed.
Dag Palovic's brand new hairdo is complete, and he will be a walking advertisement for his favourite poker site for the foreseeable future. Or at least until he washes his hair.
Thanks to our roving reporter Jon Raab for filling us in on the demise of young Brit Javed Abrahams. The chips went in on the river, but it was the flop that was of interest to both parties involved - Abrahams held , but his nemesis was holding pocket deuces.
You always know when a player is severely short stacked as the bloggers / reporters / whatever you want to call us begin circling around them like vultures.
At present there are around five such birds of prey flying around Team PokerStars pro Dario Minieri, who finds himself down to just 4,500 chips. He's been all in preflop three or four times so far and it cannot be long before someone snaps him off and sends him to the rail.
Quite unlike yesterday's early risers in the chip tower department, Giuseppe Pantaleo has accrued an enormous stack for Level 5 - over 125,000 (with fluctuations, of course). Several others look to have topped the six-figure mark by the dinner break (a level and a half away) but every time we pass his table, Pantaleo's stacks have crept further towards his chin.
His most recent pot: Lukasz Wasek and Andreas Bauer both called Pantaleo's preflop raise to 700. Bauer checked the flop and Pantaleo bet 1,175, called by Wasek in position and Bauer out of it. The turn was the and the same pattern of check-bet occurred - but this time neither of his opponents called Pantaleo's 3,850. Another drop in the ocean...
The impeccably Marcel Luske has been eliminated at the hands of Kevin Stani, the winner of the 2010 EPT Tallin.
With the board reading Luske check-called a 3,700 bet from Stani and then lead out for 4,000 chips when the peeled off on the turn. Stani quickly moved all in, and after counting out his remaining 4,000 chips, Luske called.
The gentleman in the hijack opened to 700 and Lennart Holz in the cutoff re-popped to 2,050. Over to Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in the small blind, who went all in for 4.625. The hijack folded, but Holz called, and they were on their backs. It was looking pretty good for ElkY.
ElkY:
Holz:
Looking even better on the flop:
Still very much in the lead on the turn:
Disaster on the river:
ElkY laughed as he took his leave, but it really was an extremely bad beat. Holz was laughing harder than ElkY, and well he might - he's among the chip leaders on 85,000.