After yesterday's 234-strong field managed to boast a grand total of one - one - woman in the shape of Almira Skripchenko who did not, in the event, proceed to Day 2, today's tally of four women playing the tournament seems a little more respectable.
That's right, almost one whole percent of the field today consisted of female poker players - and weirdly, two of them are seated next to each other right now. Alexia Portal, the French actress turned poker player who narrowly missed out on a final table at EPT Deauville, has just been moved next door to Maria Maceiras, sister of Team PokerStars Pro Juan Maceiras and a successful pro in her own right. Portal has position on Maceiras, and right now has the chip advantage too - she's at 53,000 to Maceiras' 25,000 or so. Also at their table are Boris Becker and Khiem Nguyen.
The other two ladies playing Day 1b have had similarly mixed fortunes. Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo has fallen a little from her earlier 83,000 high point - but at 70,000 now she's still got around twice the average stack. Meanwhile Hungary's Kati Jerney, who made the last two tables at EPT San Remo in 2009, will definitely not be repeating the result here in Vienna - she's already busto.
Although identified by our excellent table draw as Constantin Ciprian Cirstea and Nima Ahary, the players involved in this hand could have shifted (and neither name is rewarded with a treasure trove of images on databases etc.). People who know the former may be able to identify him by this detail of dress: he's wearing the hood of a parka of moderate puffiness - but no parka. It looks truly odd.
Anyhow he just suffered a knock back to 31,500 (possibly further by now if the stack banging signs of tilt have led to its actualisation) despite having those nice-looking . The big river bet (8k or so) which he faced from Ahary he just flat called on a board which had come , showing his Aces in frustration while Ahary flipped . He said something not in English which is nevertheless easily translatable.
Yes we have a series going on here and the two stars are Peter Bosen and Andrew Schneider. If you remember last time Bosen was the huge Chip Leader at the table, Schneider took some chips off him during a hand and no-one on the table was allowed to speak. Well guess what? It has happened again.
Bosen makes it 750 from middle position and gets three callers, two behind him and Schneider in the small blind. The flop was and everyone checked very quietly. The turn was and Bosen bet 1,800 very quietly. Two people folded and then Schneider check-raised to 5,050. Bosen quietly made the call. The dealer laid the out on the deck and Schneider with ~18,000 behind bet 7,050. Bosen put his hand on his head in a "not again" type manner and folded.
Bosen's stack remains a formidable one though ~105,000
Ramzi Jelassi seems to have spent much of today reading a large tome in Swedish that we think is an accounting textbook. It's hard to say whether this has had had a positive or a negative effect on his stack - probably mostly negative as he was at just 13,000 or so when we found him just now - but either way we managed to witness him making a bit of a recovery.
Jelassi opened for 750 in the cutoff and Javier Garcia called form the button to see a flop.
Flop:
Jelassi bet out 1,000 and Garcia made the call. Turn time.
Turn:
This time Jelassi checked. Garcia bet 1,800 - but Jelassi now check-raised to 4,100, leaving himself less than 6,000 behind. Garcia quickly called, and they were at the river.
River:
Jelassi now quickly gathered up his remaining chips and pushed them all in a single stack into the middle. A swift fold from Garcia ensued, and Jelassi remains free to study for his accountancy exams at the poker table, with 20,000 in chips now.
There is a long way to go but for now a very tired looking Team Pokerstars Pro Daniel Negreanu is digging his heels in and is fighting his way back into this competition.
We caught some action when a player opened to 1,100 from late position and Negreanu three-bet from the button making it 3,000 to play. The Small Blind - who had ~13,000 behind - took some deliberation before folding and the original raiser made the call.
The flop was monotone . The original raiser who had ~30,000 behind checked and Negreanu bet 2,200 to take the pot down and his stack to 38,000.
While those with 60k+ are pulling even further away from the pack, it was hard to find major action in the centre of the Main Ballroom just now - maybe it should be renamed the Small Ballroom. A few chips went to Boris Becker as he raised preflop and took a pot with a stab at the but went right over to Khiem Nguyen when he moved from button to blind and called an under-the-gun raise from Nguyen. Both players checked the flop, and Becker tried a lead out (500) on the turn, but when the river came the he gave up, check-folding to Nguyen's 1,475.
Elsewhere the start of level five seems to have seen a lot more cautious play and small pots - maybe all the crazies busted out already in what was admittedly a pretty ferocious start today.
When Team Pokerstars Pro Marcel Luske was sat with Luke Schwartz earlier all of the noise was coming from their table's Chip Leader Costa Rican Brian Green - including a virtuoso singing performance when he had an opponent all-in earlier today.
That table has since been broken up but over on Green's new table little has changed. He is still the Chip Leader and is still doing a lot of chatter.
We joined the action with Green opening up from early position to 850. He received a call from behind him and the flop was dealt . Green checked and his opponent bet 1,100 and Green made the call. The turn was and they both checked. The river was and Green bet 3,000. His opponent launched his cards at the Dealer and Green took down the pot just as the European Poker Tour Sign nearly fell on the Dealers head. We are not sure whether or not it was the wind coming off the cards Greens opponent threw at the Dealer that caused the sign to nearly fall or the wind from Greens mouth.
JP Kelly opened for 750 under the gun but soon gave it up to a 1,975 reraise from Fatima Moreira de Melo and a four-bet to 4,200 from the gentleman in the cutoff. De Melo called the re-reraise to her reraise, and they were heads up to the flop.
Flop:
De Melo checked to her opponent, who bet 5,400. The expressions on their respective faces were de Melo - intense stary outrage; her opponent - innocent dopey nonchalance. De Melo made the call.
The facial expressions remained the same as they checked down the turn and river, and de Melo's opponent turned over . Triumphant, de Melo flipped .
"Why did you try to bluff me?" she demanded, but got no reply from her opponent - just a chunk of his stack instead.
Former Olympic gold medallist in field hockey de Melo was up to 83,000 after that.
The recent EPT London runner up has been eliminated when his pocket sevens ran into Big Slick. We are not sure how the action went down but know that the hand resulted in Juanda's elimination from the tournament.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. The big river bet (8k or so) which he faced from Ahary he just flat called on a board which had come 
, showing his Aces in frustration while Ahary flipped 
. He said something not in English which is nevertheless easily translatable.
and everyone checked very quietly. The turn was 
and Bosen bet 1,800 very quietly. Two people folded and then Schneider check-raised to 5,050. Bosen quietly made the call. The dealer laid the 
out on the deck and Schneider with ~18,000 behind bet 7,050. Bosen put his hand on his head in a "not again" type manner and folded.
. The original raiser who had ~30,000 behind checked and Negreanu bet 2,200 to take the pot down and his stack to 38,000.
but went right over to Khiem Nguyen when he moved from button to blind and called an under-the-gun raise from Nguyen. Both players checked the 
he gave up, check-folding to Nguyen's 1,475.
and Green bet 3,000. His opponent launched his cards at the Dealer and Green took down the pot just as the European Poker Tour Sign nearly fell on the Dealers head. We are not sure whether or not it was the wind coming off the cards Greens opponent threw at the Dealer that caused the sign to nearly fall or the wind from Greens mouth.
turn and 
.