2010 PokerStars.it EPT San Remo

Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info

2010 PokerStars.it EPT San Remo

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
55
Prize
€1,250,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€6,014,000
Entries
1,240
Level Info
Level
34
Blinds
150,000 / 300,000
Ante
0

EPT San Remo is Here!

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team extends you a good morning and a warm welcome from our spot along the Italian Riviera. The PokerStars.it EPT San Remo has arrived, an event which doubles as the Grand Final for the Italian Poker Tour.

There are several burly security guards keeping everyone out of the casino for now, so we'll have to tell you what we can see from the outside. Starting with the outside, in fact. The casino renovation project that had the old building fully ensconced in scaffolding last year appears to be wrapping up. Just one side of the building still has buckets and ladders obscuring its beauty, and the other three sides look stunning in the mid-morning sun.

As far as the players go… well, there are going to be a lot of them. No other event on the EPT schedule draws as well as this one does, and we fully expect to give the 1,200-player cap a run for its money by the time the registration cards are all tallied and punched tomorrow. The streets below the casino are a bit more crowded than usual, and we've already spotted a few familiar faces amongst the pizzerias and coffee shops.

Jesper Hougaard has been mulling around the sidewalk for a while now, and Pierre Neuville is having an extended conversation with the guards atop the stairs. EPT Snowfest champion Allan Bække was around here just a few minutes ago, looking as smiley as ever. We also saw Gus Hansen enjoying some gelato down the street, so we'd anticipate seeing him in our field on one of these two starting days.

Speaking of starting days, today is the first of two, and we're scheduled for a noon kickoff time. That's about 90 minutes from now, so you've got a little time to kill. Grab yourself a cup of coffee, fire up a few tables on PokerStars, and sit tight. We'll be back when things look like they're getting ready to roll.

Not Yet, But Soon

With approximately a million runners (ok, well, probably 600 or so) today, it comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone that kickoff is going to be a little later than the advertised 12 noon.

Players are just now beginning to trickle into the vast tournament area, so we estimate that we'll be getting this party started in around half an hour.

Who is Here?

It's a human jungle in the tournament area today, the tables tightly packed with only the minimum "squeeze-through" allowed.

Nevertheless a few famous names have been spotted among the (literally) hundreds of qualifiers. Mike "Timex" McDonald has clearly decided to not take a sabbatical just yet. A beaming Chad Brown was walking around lost in the maze while Arnaud Mattern had managed slightly better, taking a seat near the media room.

Level: 1

Blinds: 50/100

Ante: 0

Let's Do This

Well, 12:20 is practically noon by Italian time standards. Not too late after all, the cards are in the air, and Day 1a is a go!

We Don't Do Smallball...

Ludovic Lacay does not do slowly slowly grindy monkey. He goes fast, sometimes recklessly so but it often can reap rewards.

Lacay raised to 250 and an Italian player in the big blind reraised to 700 and the Frenchman made the call in position.

The flop came an interesting {7-Hearts} {6-Hearts} {5-Clubs} and the big blind led out for 1,125. Lacay quickly raised to 3,250 before the Italian decided to repop it back to 6,000.

Lacay responded with a third raise, making it 16,000 making himself look committed. The big blind folded and tapped the table but Lacay showed {A-Spades} {10-Clubs} for a complete bluff.

Reports From the Frontier

The low-numbered tables are situated about as far away as you can walk in this casino and still be in the casino. We packed a lunch and ventured to the far reaches of the building to see if we could find some notables. And we could. Here's just a smattering of the field in the far corner of the room:

David Steicke
Dragan Galic
Marc Naalden
Andrew Chen
Michel Abecassis
Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick

And Team PokerStars Pros Humberto Brenes, Chad Brown, Michael Keiner, Irene Baroni, and Nicola Fedeli.

Phew. Plenty more names to come as we continue to explore the field.

Who Else Is Here?

Well, to be honest, there's loads and loads and loads of people.

Among the hordes, we have spotted the following folks:

- Team PokerStars Pro and aviator shades enthusiast Arnaud Mattern
- EPT Warsaw winner Joao Barbosa
- EPT Prague final tablist Stefan Matsson
- EPT Kyiv winner Max Lykov
- Team PokerStars Pro and all-round Russian legend Alex Kravchenko
- Amiable New Zealander Richard Grace
- WSOP bracelet winner and, more importantly, PokerNews Cup Alpine winner Marc Naalden
- EPT Prague winner and serial EPT do-weller Jan Skampa
- Humberto "SHAAAAAAAAAARRRRKKK!!!" Brenes
- Amsterdam Master Classics winner Kristoffer "sumpas" Thorsson
- Hendon Mobber Barny Boatman

Huge though this field may be, it's got itself some pedigree.

Great Scott

Andrew Scott has just picked up a small early pot.

From the big blind, Scott saw a flop in a three-way pot. The dealer spread out {K-Spades} {9-Hearts} {4-Clubs}, and the blinds checked. A bet of 525 from the third player drew a check-raise to 1,625 from the small blind. Scott called from the big, while the bettor folded to leave the blinds heads up the rest of the way.

They watched the {Q-Diamonds} hit fourth street, and the small blind put out another 4,000 chips. Scott called rather quickly, and the {A-Spades} filled out the board. This time the small blind checked, and his slid his cards into the muck when Scott checked behind. There was no need to show the winning hand as the pot was pushed to Scott, moving him to about 37,000.

Tags: Andrew Scott

Volcano Eruption May Affect Tournament

It's not a headline we'd ever thought we would use.

With the volcano activity in Iceland causing massive ash clouds to sweep south, this has caused most of the UK's flights to be suspended today.

This means players such as James Akenhead, Chris Moorman, Lex Veldhuis, and Anthony Roux might not to be able to reach the tournament in time. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the trains in France are on strike so getting here from Northern Europe is nigh on impossible.