€5,250 Championship Main Event Day 1b | 2008 PokerStars.com EPT - Prague

12-10-2008 12:39 UTC+2

Welcome Back.

[user76023]

It's Day 1B of the last EPT of the year as the second lot of players head downstairs to the lower level of the Hilton Hotel in Prague to do battle. Amongst the players in today are online stars Chris 'Moorman1' Moorman and Matt 'ch0ppy' Kay as well former EPT winners Mats Iremark and Pascal Perrault and WSOP bracelet winners Dario Minieri and Davidi Kitai.

Ludovic Lacay finished as the chip leader last night, setting the benchmark with 94,200 as the total to beat today. Play will begin in roughly 20 minutes or so.

12-10-2008 13:04 UTC+2

Warming Up

[user4144]

Players are now beginning to flood into the Hilton Hotel in their droves, the likes of Katja Thater, Jan Boubli and Anthony Lellouche already spotted making their way through the metal detector (I kid you not) and into the cardroom. At what tournament they experienced an 'incident' of metallic origin, I have no idea, but they're playing it very cautious here in the Czech Republic.

Also warming up and doing their stretches before taking on the metal detector are Swedes Ramzi Jelassi, Jonas Molander and former International footballer Tomas Brolin, as well as a small British contingent that includes Chris Moorman, Steven Devlin and EPT Budapest winner Willie Fry.

Play should commence shortly with recent WSOP hero Peter Eastgate starting proceedings with the traditional "shuffle up and deal".

12-10-2008 13:08 UTC+2

Slight Delay

[user76023]

Play looks like it'll start in about 10 to 15 minutes.

Level: 1

Blinds: 25/50

Ante: 0

12-10-2008 13:24 UTC+2

Star-Short

[user4144]

Scouring the cardroom, I could help but notice a severe lack of 'big name' players. No Greenstein, Hachem Negreanu, or Raymer, perhaps signifying that many of the stars are still recovering from an abruptly brief stay in Mexico or are tied up with the WPT in America.

Nevertheless, there are still plenty of celebrated names from the European circuit, including William Thorson, Roland de Wolfe, Dario Minieri, Noah Boeken and Christian Grundtvig, all of whom have been confirmed as present.

12-10-2008 13:25 UTC+2

Card in the Air

[user4144]

And like the eggs in my fridge... they're off!

"Shuffle up and deal!"

12-10-2008 13:50 UTC+2

"Sick!"

[user4144]

Although overused in the world of poker, the word 'sick' could be correctly applied to the following encounter as Davidi Kitai found himself all in with his tournament life hanging by the very thinnest of the threads.

With the board reading {8-Spades}

, Kitai slid his entire stack over the line with {8-Diamonds}

only to find himself hung, drawn and quartered by {10-Spades}

. But a stomach churningly cruel {8-Clubs}

on the river drew gasps a plenty from the rest of the table with cries of "sick" simmering through the cardroom as news of the day's first bad beat began to spread.

Tags: Davidi Kitai

12-10-2008 13:56 UTC+2

Nipped On The Table Of Death

[user76023]

Surveying the general area of play, it looks like Table 3 is the toughest of them all. WSOP Main Event Winner Peter Eastgate, Nicolas Levi, Thomas Brolin, Pascal Perrault and Peter Roche are all sharing the same table as well as the young Brit Stuart Rutter.

Just as I was walking past, Rutter realised he had no money on him and I had to lend the high-stakes player the cash. I now have no money for lunch. Sob.

Tags: Peter Eastgate Stuart Rutter

12-10-2008 14:00 UTC+2

The Action Corner

[user76023]

There are certain spots where you can guarantee a large amount of action is going to be. One such spot is over in the very middle of the tournament area where Dario Minieri is button to Mike 'Timex' McDonald's big blind. Expect a fair amount of action here...

Tags: Dario Minieri Mike McDonald

12-10-2008 14:03 UTC+2

Hit Squad Ambushes Prague

[user4144]

The Hit Squad are a well traveled bunch, but with the amount of poker festivity on offer in the UK, we didn't expect to see them in Prague this week. However, they're here in relatively full force with Praz Bansi, James Akenhead and team captain Karl Mahrenholz mixing it up at the tables. Meanwhile, they've brought along a couple of friends in the form of Javed Abrahams and Adam Stoneham, the latter a former GUKPT finalist.

For those that don't know the Hit Squad, they're a talented group based in London who boast an impressive set of results between them including bracelet gold when Bansi took down one of the $1,000 events in 2006.

However, if they plan to go deep, they may have to lock horns at some point as Bansi and Akenhead are currently seated next door to each other. They're a highly competitive pair, so there's unlikely to be any soft-play witnessed with the two sure to be vying for each other's blood as the tournament progresses.