[user75032]
Blue skies and blue water await the busted players.
The window curtains are open in the main tournament room of the Monte Carlo Bay Resort Hotel, where the tournament room is taking shape for Day 1b of the 2009 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final. With blue skies visible outside, dealers inside are counting out starting stacks of 30,000 in an array of yellow, red, purple, black and green chips.
Yesterday 396 players filled the room for Day 1a, with Lee Nelson ending the day at more than 200,000 chips and high above the leaderboard. Today we expect closer to 500 as a result of the typical "last Day 1 flight" surge. The room was packed with poker talent yesterday; even more of the big names should be in the field today.
Play is set to begin just after noon local time, in about twenty minutes. Keep your browser on PokerNews.com for all of the action
[user75032]
After some lengthy announcements from TD Thomas Kremser, EPT Executive Host Neil Johnson and Season 3 Monte Carlo champion Gavin Griffin, cards are in the air.
[user46392]
Yesterday was pretty impressive, but today really is like a who's who of international poker.
Among the glittering field and the occasional unknown but potentially dangerous qualifier, we have John Juanda, Barny Boatman, Vicky Coren, Vanessa Rousso, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in all his bling, Boris Becker (this year sans the completely unnecessary bodyguards who prevented the press from counting his chips during last year's tournament), Brian Townsend, Ivan Demidov, Juha Helppi, Devilfish, Phil Laak... The list goes on, and on, and on. This is going to be great.
[user46392]
Players are still trickling in, and of course the really cool kids are always late, but at the moment I am declaring one table the British Table Of Doom.
One player at the table is the very American Phil Laak, but three of the others are well-known Brits -- Devilfish, young poker pro and scarf enthusiast Stuart Rutter, and Will Kassouf, who recently went deep at the Irish Open. Throw into the mix Slovakian poker legend Dag Palovic, and what you have is one fearsome table.
[user46298]
They're all over the shop today, from Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem, previous World Champions, to previous EPT winners like Will Fry, Vicky Coren, and of course last year's Grand Final winner, Glen Chorny. Many a bracelet could be seen in the room if the owners chose, too.
The UK's sent over a last-minute contingent too, from Keith Hawkins, Julian Thew and Barny Boatman, to Alan Smurfit, John Dwyer and John Shipley. Hard to miss in bright purple are also Michael Greco and Tony Cascarino, who are both quite hard to miss in any case.
[user75032]
Players are still getting settled into their seats but in addition to all of the players already mentioned, here's a few of the more esoteric names:
Julius Colman and 2009 Aussie Millions High Rollers champion David Steicke;
Marco Traniello, who gets special mention due to our glaring gaffe in San Remo last week;
Liz Lieu and Evelyn Ng;
Casey Kastle and 2008 APT Manila winner David Saab.
There are, of course, far, far more players in the field than we've let on so far. We're still making our rounds and they're still settling into their seats.
It's worth pointing out that in a tournament room of a shade more than 500 players, we are already tracking 60 notables. It's a deep field.
[user46298]
Besides the common beige or black Pokerstars caps which dot the main tournament area (as sported by Vanessa Rousso et al.) there are some people who catch the initial roving eye because of their headwear - Isabelle Mercier has a pinstripe fedora, while Rolf Slotboom has his traditional snug enormous wooly hat. The winner has to be Katja Thater who was actually being complimented on her bizarre tan furry lampshade as I walked past her table.
That's one way of standing out and catching the eye of the many camerapeople who are multiplying daily here. The other is to be Boris Becker.
[user46392]
It would have taken more time to buy a car or similar -- less than half an hour into the tournament and we are down young Brit Adam Stoneham. He moved in on the river of a board and got himself called by one Greg Merson; Merson turned over pocket fives for the house, Stoneham mucked, and strolled towards the door and the Monte Carlo sunshine, hands thoughtfully wedged in his pockets.
[user75032]
There are two tournament room that have been commandeered by the EPT for the Grand Final tournament series. The main tournament room is where most of the Main Event tables are set up. However, the "Battleship Room", where players have been playing Battleship poker in addition to some sit-n-goes, satellites and other side events, is also in use today. There are four full tables in that room. They seem a bit lonely (and with much less ambient noise than in the main room). Players we spotted in the Battleship room include Hevad Khan, Sam Chartier, David Williams and rap icon Nelly.
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