PokerStars EPT Warsaw Main Event Day 1a | 2008 PokerStars.net EPT Polish Open

03-11-2008 19:11 UTC+2

Gino Alacqua Starts Well

Popular Italian Gino Alacqua has gotten off to a good start as he tries to go one better than his runner-up placing at EPT Prague. He has steadily climbed up to 17,000 chips in the first few levels.

03-11-2008 19:05 UTC+2

Honeybone Spikes Two-Outer; Cripples Henriksson

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New Zealander James Honeybone let out a miserable grunt after seeing that his pocket kings were well dominated against the pocket aces of T6 pro Anders Henriksson in a pre-flop all-in confrontation.

Fortunately for Honeybone, a merciful king on the river gave him new life in the tournament and hoisted him to the top of the leaderboard with just over 26,000 in chips.

Henriksson fell to 650 after taking the hit and is now on life support with the blinds at 100-200.

Tags: Anders Henriksson

Level: 4

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0

03-11-2008 18:38 UTC+2

Climber of the Day:

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Usually this post would come a bit later in the day but Julian Thew has managed to get back from his low of 700 chips up to 10,500. The biggest pot was doubling from 3,000 to 6,000 when his AK outraced TT.

Tags: Julian Thew

03-11-2008 18:31 UTC+2

"Hey! Hey! You! You! I could be your girlfriend!"

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Stewart Chantler and his portable stereo

You've seen Greg Raymer's lizard glasses, Humberto Brenes' light-up sharks and you've heard Mike Matusow's famed mouth - all gimmicks intended to get in the heads of opponents on the felt.

Allow me to introduce you to Stewart Chantler of Toronto, Canada. Stewart has a small pair of headphones hung around his neck which are connected to a bright blue iPod. Nothing unusual about that, you say, but it's the sound blaring from the headphones that makes this situation bloggable.

From across the table - the room even - one can hear Stewart's music and it's quite an interesting choice: Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." Gimmick or not, Chantler has managed to get inside at least one head... unfortunately, it's mine.... "Hey! Hey! You! You! I know that you like me... No way! No Way! No it's not a secret..."

Tags: Stewart Chantler

03-11-2008 18:17 UTC+2

Trond Erik Eidsvig All In

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With a board reading {9-Diamonds}

, Trond Eidsvig faced a bet of 2,600 from his opponent. There was already 8,000 in chips in the middle. Trond got his opponent to count his chips before deciding to move all in. Trond had him well covered and eventually, after repeatedly looking back at his cards, his opponent opted to fold and save the few thousand chips he had left.

Trond is now on 23,000 and as usual becoming a contender early in an EPT.

Tags: Trond Eidsvig

03-11-2008 18:13 UTC+2

Katja Thater On The Up

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PokerStars professional Katja Thater is off to a decent start. With 5,000 chips already in the pot, her 3,500 bet on a {J-Clubs}

board was good to take her up to 16,000 chips.

Tags: Katja Thater

03-11-2008 18:08 UTC+2

Hubertz Stacks Opponent

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Torben Hubertz, founder of T6Poker.com, has just eliminated an opponent from the tournament after winning a race holding pocket nines against his opponent's Big Slick.

All of the money went in pre-flop and the board filled out {7-Diamonds}