You may remember excitable Italian Fabrizio Ascari from his shenanigans at EPT Vilamoura, where he finished in 10th place. His English (the official language of this tournament) wasn't fantastic back then and although it's improved a little since last summer, it's still somewhat idiosyncratic.
We found him just now negotiating a massage. He and the masseuse were haggling over the price. Eventually Ascari seemed satisfied.
"I call," he told her. She looked confused. Then, very loudly and clearly, "Yes."
Luca Pagano opened to 250 in the very first hand from late position but the big blind made it 800 to go.
The Italian Team PokerStars Pro flat-called to see a flop where the big blind continued the aggression with a bet of 1,200. Pagano flat-called to see a turn where his opponent now checked and Pagano quickly led out for 2,300 only to be check-raised to 7,500.
The ever-amiable German pro Jan Heitmann is already getting involved while signing his player release form and getting to know his table. For some reason they've included a rather odd gambling-related questionnaire with a strongly agree-strongly disagree scale. As most people are, he's bemused by it.
"As a gambler, you must be able to identify swings. Strongly agree, strongly disagree - I'm not sure!" he chuckled. "I think there should be a golf question."
Heitmann is one of few Team PokerStars Pros to grace the downstairs (normally cash game) area at the moment. Those who didn't make it quite in time for kickoff at noon are still lining up neatly in the stairwell waiting to get their seat assignments. Among them a patient James Keys waiting to join a strong British contingent including Praz Bansi, James Akenhead, Jake Cody and JP Kelly.
We're back for the second flight of what is expected to be a very busy day here at EPT Berlin. We overheard the floor staff mention to the dealers that they already have 43 tables in use which would mean that number of runners is already around the 380 mark.
It's possible today also that if the tournament has a real late influx of players then we might have to go ten-handed in an emergency. We also might be using three floors for the tournament today, the ground floor as well as the first and second possibly in use.
Players playing today include Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and JP Kelly while Team PokerStars SportStars Fatima Moreira de Melo and Boris Becker as well as last year's winner Kevin MacPhee and we will be starting in around 30 minutes.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop where the big blind continued the aggression with a bet of 1,200. Pagano flat-called to see a 
turn where his opponent now checked and Pagano quickly led out for 2,300 only to be check-raised to 7,500.
