Luca Pagano appeared in the last level, sitting at the next table to Dario Minieri's, both of them in the five seat. We had to double-take to make sure Italians were not weirdly morphing into one another. They are, though, separate and discrete individuals, and the laws of physics and nature continue to operate as expected.
Thierry van den Berg lost a relatively hefty pot when his opponent turned over on the river of a board. Van den Berg declined to show, but merely commented, "Nice river."
However, the joys of picking up some early pots mean that he's still on an above-average 35,000.
Jeff Sarwer
Jeff Sarwer, who came 10th at EPT Warsaw and third at EPT Vilamoura, seems to have had a miserable couple of levels.
Down to just 10,000 already, he picked up a smallish pot now to bump his stack up a little. With the flop reading , the gentleman in the big blind checked to him and he bet 600. Mr. Big Blind now check-raised to 1,500 - but Sarwer made it 3,000 and the big blind folded.
Martin Vallo
Add Martin Vallo to the list of early chip leaders. On a raggy nine-high flop, Vallo called an all-in raise from the man to his left. His opponent showed up pocket tens, an overpair to the board. But it was no good; Vallo turned over his two kings, and a rag apiece on the turn and river improved his chip count to 55,000 and sent another early victim to the rail.
Just appeared at the felt is the unluckiest player on the EPT circuit, Praz Bansi. Despite often amassing a sizable stack in the first day or two, he has so far failed to cash, and will be hoping to break his curse this week...