European Poker Tour – Barcelona Open, Day 1 'B'

European Poker Tour – Barcelona Open, Day 1 'B' 0001

Day One 'B' of the European Poker Tour's Barcelona Open settled into its rhythm much quicker than day one 'A' did, as nearly right away cards were in the air, and the players were down to business.

Today was also a much brighter day for the stars of poker to come out. Today's entrants included Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow, fresh from playing in the same U.K. version of High Stakes Poker that day one 'A' late arrival Phil Ivey had played in. Matusow looked anything but fresh as he showed up late, and couldn't get in to the casino because he had (reportedly) left his passport in Noah Boeken's apartment.

Players that did show up on time included Kenna James, 2005 WSOP champ Joe Hatchem, Marcel Luske, Gus Hansen, Andy Black, John Gale, Mel Judah, defending champ Jan Boubli, Isabel Mercier, Carl Olson, Terrance Chan, and David Plastik.

Upon Matusow's arrival, the player sitting behind him tapped him on the shoulder. It was David Plastik, and the corner of the room that held the two tables Matusow and Plastik were sitting at was dubbed the 'Loud Corner' for the next few hours, as the two players exchanged chit chat at a volume level that only Matusow and Plastik are capable of.

It was not to be for the Mouth this day, however, as by the end of level four, Mike was calling "Rebuy!" every five minutes or so, and was out soon thereafter. Other early exits on this day included Marcel Luske, Isabel Mercier, and John Gale.

With more notable players in the field, the buzz in and around the room was much more significant than the day before, and as the day wore on, Tournament Director Thomas Kremser and his staff spent more of their time shooing spectators out of the tournament area than anything else. The spectators, combined with the large press presence here resulted in nearly every player having a person, or persons right on their back as they played. Nearly all of the players took it in stride, but it will be interesting to see what happens today, especially when play gets down to just a few remaining tables. The crush of people right on top of the players reminded me a lot of the WSOP in 2005, where once play got down to about 15 tables, there were literally more press in the tournament area than players. This was one of the factors that led to the "streamlining" of the media rules for the 2006 WSOP.

Big movers on day one 'B' included Andy Black, sporting a new shaven, no sunglasses look complete with long, beaded necklaces that was fitting for the Spanish Coast. The relaxed look must have translated to the cards, as Black hit a two outer with AK on a King high flop against pocket Aces to take a huge pot. Andy was well over 40k in chips for most of the day, and ended the day on about 43,000.

Another player who had chips all day is Gus Hansen. The recently crowned newest member of 'Team Full Tilt' was up really quickly to about 35,000 chips, and that is where he stayed most of the day, with a couple momentary blips into the mid forties range. Gus finished the day with 33,200.

Two players that grinded it out all day, only to fall at the end were Joe Hachem, and Kenna James. Both were at the same table all day, and had a really tough table draw, with Carl Olson, and respected U.K. pro Mickey Wernick all on the same table. Hachem got up to maybe 25k at one stage, but slowly got grinded down, and finally took an exit with about 30 minutes to go in play. Kenna James also had a fairly up and down day, only to make a move late with a weak Ace, and run into Kings in the big blind.

Wernick was part of the biggest pot I saw all day, which had to approach 100,000 chips. Mickey and a player from Finland got two huge stacks all in on an eight high board. The young Fin, Ilari Sahamies showed Kings, and Wernick turned over Queens. That put Sahamies, who had been moving chips around all day well into the chip lead. Sahamies was the day 1 'B' chip leader with 109,500.

'I was already in the cab'.

The miracle of the day was bestowed upon American David Plastik. David made a standard raise preflop, and was called in three places. David moved in on a 10 high board with two diamonds showing, only to get called by Kenna James, and the player to his left. With the apparently psychic Noah Boeken at the next table saying 'runner runner' (but no hands revealed yet), the turn and river came both diamonds. Plastik turned over pocket eights, with the eight of diamonds, and Kenna mucked, simply saying 'no diamond'. The last player turned over two diamonds, the six, and the seven, which were no match for David's 8 high flush. David nearly quadrupled up in the hand, and went from being on life support with about 5k to just under 20k. All David could say was 'Man, I was already in the cab – I had called the cab, it had picked me up, and I was about to shut the door.' Now, David gets to come back, and play day two. With only 18,000 in chips, however, David may want to have that cab waiting outside.

All in all, 89 reportedly survived from day one 'B' into day two. They will join the 80 or so survivors from day one 'A' back here today. Today is going to be a ridiculously long day, with upwards of 160 players having to get down to 9 for the final table. It will be interesting to see if they can even finish. Spanish law doesn't allow admission to the casino until 3pm, and everyone must be out of the casino by 5am. So, staying late today, or coming back early to play down to 9 on day three isn't really an option.

Chip Counts Entering Day Two:

Dan Pedersen 118,400

Ilari Sahamie 109,500

Javed Abrahams 99,700

Johan Nord 84,400

Matt Tyler 82,600

Ian Marmion 79,100

Robin Keston 76,000

Andras Karkus 71,900

Kristian Ulriksen70,300

A. Helland 69,700

Alexander Stevic63,900

Philip Thorel 57,600

Peter Dalhuisen 57,300

Andre Akkari 56,600

Michael Keiner 53,600

Ross Johnson 51,700

Abel Meyberg 51,500

Bo Sehljtedt 50,300

Abu Davas 49,800

David Gregory 49,800

Bill Fitzpatrick 48,400

Andres Osberstrom 47,800

Juha Helppi 47,600

Johnny Lodden 47,100

Ian Woodley 46,700

Bjorn Erik 45,700

Roland De Wolfe 44,700

Seval Hageland 44,700

Andrew Black 42,900

Adam Stoneham 42,600

Brice Van der Vollen 42,600

Peter Roche 42,400

William Thorson 41,800

Fuat Can 41,000

Teemu Lahtinen 40,600

David Daneshgar 39,900

Alan Otte 39,900

Nick Gibson 39,500

Mikael Westerlund 39,500

Pierrard 38,500

Alex Kravchenko 38,200

Jin Cailin 37,800

Peder Kjeller 36,400

Anne Schodorff 36,000

Katja Thater 35,800

Aukaham Eytan 35,500

Jeff Lisandro 34,600

Joel Forsberg 34,500

Dario Alioto 34,400

Leslie Kerrigan 33,500

Ryan Fronda 33,200

Gus Hansen 33,200

Paul Testud 33,200

Julian Gardner 33,000

Pascal Perrault 32,500

JP Kelly 31,800

Paul Parker 31,800

Chuc Hoang 31,600

Andrew Rabl 31,300

Peter Gould 31,200

Noah Boeken 31,100

Jaka Faraz 31,100

Jon Dull 31,000

Bernard Stoddard 30,400

Marc Pickett 30,200

Terry Cook 30,000

Tess Merkel 29,200

Hans Eskilsson 28,800

Angel Blanco 28,600

Laxani 28,600

Frederik Pedersen 28,300

Daemimukx 27,900

Humberto Brenes 27,000

Markus Boudewijn 26,900

Tony Chessa 26,600

Hubert Attali 26,200

Petri Pietila 26,200

Raul Mestre 26,100

Thierry Cazals 25,700

Emile Petit 25,700

Mikael Lindback 25,500

Daniel Elkeslassy 25,400

Cato Eriksen 25,100

Peter Jetten 25,000

Greger Aktell 24,900

Shajan Salchi 24,900

Phil Ivey 24,800

Robert Cohen 24,700

Patrice Boudet 24,300

Johan Bergquist 24,000

Aki Pyysing 23,700

David Lundberg 23,600

Michael Kindle 23,100

Imtias Khiffsh 22,900

Thomas Wahlroos 22,900

Frank Silverstein 22,700

Anton Doraminson 22,100

Ben Grundy 22,100

Elie Marciano 21,500

Michel Alberti 21,000

Max Kraanen 20,400

Aki Huttunen 20,300

Erik Lindberg 20,200

Stephan Rotach 20,200

Paul Zimbler 20,200

Joakim Geigert 19,800

Mike Halioua 19,500

Markus Golser 19,400

Nemeth Akos 18,800

Peter Bertelsen 18,800

Guillaume Cavret 18,700

Luca Pagano 18,600

Vincent Van Rooyen 18,600

Konstantinos Tsalis 18,500

Vladimir Temelkovski 18,300

Gustav Bjornsson 18,200

James Davenport 18,000

David Plastik 18,000

Iago Lopez 16,800

Martin Olsson 16,700

Stefan Mattsen 16,300

Peter Vlemmiv 16,000

Leopold Chow 15,400

Per Strom 15,000

Greg Hobson 14,900

Gusten Sjoberg 14,800

Jerome Duarte 14,200

Dag Martin Mikkelsen 13,700

Vivi Sathern 13,200

Jean-Pierre Thabet 13,200

Vegard Nygaard 13,100

Willie Tann 12,800

Jorgen Kjerkol 11,800

Lasse Luukkarinen 11,600

Andreas Hurtig 11,100

David Palmstahl 10,900

Alan Sass 10,900

Antoni Romanello 10,800

Thierry Passeron 10,700

Thomas Billum 10,500

Anthony Nicholis 10,300

Trond Manger 10,200

Thierry Mulin 10,200

Bernd Stadlbauer 10,100

Marga Gonzalez 10,000

Ouri Cohen 9,600

Nichlas Mattsson 9,100

Ian Smith 9,100

Mattia Daverto 9,000

Mauro Guanti 8,900

Andreas Hagen 8,700

Stephen Pearce 8,700

Joao Marcello Lima 8,300

Allan Dyrstad 8,000

Tony Lindstedt 7,700

Thomas Peterson 7,100

Manuel Cuberos 6,900

Birgitta Joahnsson 6,700

Nic Szeremeta Nic 6,500

Jules Kuusik 5,100

Franck Bensimon 5,000

Ed Note: The Poker Stars WCOOP starts tomorrow. Get in on the action.

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