We got to Kevin MacPhee's table just in time to see him doubling through Markus Golser.
MacPhee:
Golser:
Board:
"Hey Jim!" MacPhee called over to buddy Jim Collopy, waving a little handwritten note that said "Kevin - you know what time it is". "You sent me a beer and I doubled up first hand!"
Just a few hands after notching that double up, Kevin MacPhee tangled up with Luca Pagano in what would be the American's final pot of the evening. Under the gun plus one, MacPhee opened the pot to 2,500. Action passed all the way around to Luca Pagano's big blind, and he took pause for a moment as he stacked out a reraise. He settled on 7,500, sliding that amount of chips across the line. Before they had even come to rest, MacPhee slid his stacks into the middle on an all-in reraise. "Call. Call. Call," said Pagano.
MacPhee flipped up his , and he was in awfully bad shape against Pagano's . The turn gave a bit of sweat, but in the end, the board of sealed MacPhee's fate.
Until now, "ImaLuckSac" was in the hunt for back-to-back EPT titles after his win in Berlin earlier this month. It wasn't to be though, and MacPhee has headed off to the bar to enjoy the rest of his evening surrounded by frosty beverages and attractive blonde Alpine women.
Hanh Tran has had a very up-and-down sort of day, and just lately he's been on a major downswing.
He saw an flop and it seems that his opponent checked to him; either way, Tran bet 7,700 form the button, leaving himself 24,000 behind, but his opponent raised to 20,100 and Tran reluctantly folded.
There was a raise in early position and a call from Alfio Battisti on the button. Evelyn Ng shoved in the big blind and after a few moments of making her sweat the original raiser passed. Battitsti called though, and they were on their backs.
Ng:
Battisti:
Board:
Ng nodded and tapped the table, and then headed for the door. Battisti is up to 130,000.
While his girlfriend was being eliminated on the other side of the room, Lex Veldhuis was doing some work at Table 9. Under the gun, he opened to 2,400, as he is prone to doing from time to time. The table passed all the way around to the big blind where Anders Jensen flicked in the calling chips to see a flop.
It came out , and Jensen knocked the table. Veldhuis continued out with a bet of 3,500 before his opponent asked how much he was playing. Lex knew that he had 59,100 behind, and that's what he replied, but his opponent made him break the stacks down anyways. Finally satisfied by the count, he stuck in a reraise to 10,200 total. Veldhuis wasn't going anywhere though, coming back over the top with a third bet of 23,500 total. Jensen then moved all in, and Veldhuis quickly called to put himself at risk of elimination.
Showdown
Veldhuis:
Jensen:
Veldhuis leaned over the table to sweat the two cards that would make or break his tournament fate. The turn was safe, and so was the on the river, and that signals a big double up for Veldhuis and trouble for the rest of his table.
He's all the way up to 131,300, and in contention for the Day 1b chip lead now.
As we move into the last few hands of the day, there is no clear chip leader. The uber-stacks of a few levels back are no more, and although there are a lot of fairly big stacks around the room, it's not yet obvious who the top of the Day 1b chip count pops will be.
Current contenders include Ivo Donev (155,000), Luca Cainelli (150,000), [Removed:39] (140,000) Lex Veldhuis and [Removed:197] (130,000 apiece). Anything can happen in the last couple hands, though, so watch this space...
It's been another marathon Day 1 here in Hinterglemm, and a veritable herd of poker A-listers have been and gone. Among the notable busted today were Team PokerStars Sports Star Boris Becker, Team PokerStars Pros ElkY, Sandra Naujoks, Dario Minieri, Jan Heitmann and Pieter de Korver, as well as Evelyn Ng, Mark Vos and Nicolas Levi - a kind of metaphorical poker pro-locaust, if you will.
As the chips are bagged up, it looks as though [Removed:39] is flying the chip leader flag for the Netherlands on 162,200, with Ivo "Chess Master" Donev, EPT Berlin 11th-placer Luca Cainelli and Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis not far behind. None of today's stacks approach those of the Day 1a leaders, though - David Wintersberger's 290,200 is still easily the biggest stack going into Day 2, and indeed the top four stacks from Day 1a are all heftier than the biggest one from today.
Around 130 players were still in the running at the end of play, meaning that something in the region of 260 players will be returning to the Alpine Palace ballroom tomorrow. We'll be on the floor with cameras and notepads in hand from 2pm CET, so join us back here for all the action as we head towards the money.