2009 PokerStars.com EPT San Remo

€5,300 EPT San Remo Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info

2009 PokerStars.com EPT San Remo

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aa
Prize
€1,508,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€5,713,300
Entries
1,178
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
50,000 / 100,000
Ante
10,000

Old World Charm

San Remo Municipal Casino
San Remo Municipal Casino
Benvenuti a San Remo! The PokerStars.it European Poker Tour is coming to the end of an extremely successful fifth season with its penultimate tournament, EPT San Remo. This seaside city is nestled at the base of the mountains on the Italian Riviera in northwestern Italy, just over the border from France and Monaco. The air is fresh with the scent of the sea, as expansive views of the Mediterranean Sea are found all over town. More adventurous travelers can choose to stay at resorts at the top of the mountains (though we warn you that making the journey down the winding mountain road by motor coach was described by several people as "nerve-wracking" and "harrowing").

San Remo is a popular tourist destination at all times of year, but April is a delightful time to be here. The days aren't too hot and the evenings aren't too cool. It's the kind of weather that makes you want to have a lazy day in the sun smoking cigarettes and eating delicious, simple Italian fare, and then follow it up with a night of drinking and partying. That's exactly how we spent our day yesterday after arriving from Nice, France via train. Being in San Remo is like stepping into yesterday, a time when the Internet, mobile phones and constant communication hadn't taken over everyone's lives, a time when people still slowed down for each other and could spend ten minutes talking to a perfect stranger. The city is charming.

This is the second season that the European Poker Tour has included a stop in San Remo. Judging by the number of people at the opening party at Victory Morgana Bay last night, this stop has become extremely popular with the players. Rumors were floating around the party that the event, which features three separate Day 1 flights, might sell out. We won't know that for sure until we take our seats in media row on the tournament floor at 2pm local time later today, but if it does we would imagine the tournament organizers would be over the moon.

Day 1a starts in about two hours. PokerNews will have all of the tournament action from the first flop to the last river on Thursday. We hope you'll join us for the making of the latest EPT champion.

Any Minute Now

With 600 players to seat, not to mention issuing every one of them with a casino membership card and so on, it was always going to be a slightly delayed start. Most players seem to be in roughly the right place now, though, so please stand by for those magic words...

Shuffle Up and Deal!

After a bit of a delay getting everyone registered and seated (tournament organizers announced that although they do not have final numbers, they expect over 1,000 players for this event), cards are in the air.

Level: 1

Blinds: 25/50

Ante: 0

Melting Pot

Wow, it's a star-studded field out there today. Among the vast hordes of poker-playing ladies and gents spread across the three high-ceilinged and chandeliered old-school card rooms, an impressive number of familiar faces are evident.

Representing America, we have last year's winner Jason Mercier, Greg Raymer and Chad Brown. From Germany, Sandra Naujoks, Jan Heitmann, George Danzer and Benjamin Kang. From Scandinavia, there's Annette Obrestad, Albert Iversen, Andreas Hoivold and Jesper Hougaard, and France has turned out Arnaud Mattern and Antony Lellouche. No one seems particularly shy about getting their chips in the middle and playing some hands, so it should be a very interesting day.

No Personal Space

It's crowded out on the tournament floor. The tournament organizers have done their best to accommodate the massive number of players who have turned out for this event by putting more than 60 tables in play.

That's excellent news for the players, but it does make things a bit tight on the tournament floor. The "tournament room" is actually three different connected rooms. Two are separated by a drink-and-snack bar, and the third is around a corner. Poker tables are jammed in very close together, making it a bit of an adventure to walk the floor.

Early Action

We have an exit already. The unfortunate bustee left rather too quickly for the press to establish his identity, but the gent doing the busting was one Simon McDonagh, an Englishman by the sound of him.

Mr Now-Busto pushed on the {A-Spades} {6-Spades} {10-Hearts} flop with, as it turned out, {K-Clubs} {10-Diamonds}, and McDonagh called pretty sharpish with {A-Hearts} {K-Spades}. Zero help from the {3-Spades} turn or {4-Spades} river, and he now has a whole week to spend simply enjoying the sights and sounds of San Remo.

Tables of Potential Doom

Some tables are more prone to fireworks than others, and at the moment these interesting groupings are on our special watch list:

- Table David Saab/Alexander Kravchenko

- Table Jesper Hougaard/Atanas Gueorguiev

- Table Ludovic Lacay/Jason Mercier

Yikes.

Champions on the Felt

2008 EPT San Remo Champion Jason Mercier
2008 EPT San Remo Champion Jason Mercier
There are two former World Series of Poker Main Event champions in today's field. Greg Raymer, who has become one of the greatest ambassadors for poker since winning the Main Event in 2004, is seated at a table in the far corner of the tournament area. A few tables away is a player who accomplished the same feat as Raymer but more than 20 years earlier -- Tom McEvoy, who won the Main Event in 1983. Some of today's poker young guns weren't even born in 1983. As for the bling, McEvoy is wearing his bracelet. Raymer is not.

Last year's EPT San Remo champion, Jason Mercier is also playing today. Mercier pocketed €869,000 for taking down the inaugural San Remo tournament. We expect that this year's winner will take home even more.

The field is continuing to thin, albeit slowly. As we were making our way back to the media room, a dealer's voice cried out, "Seat open! Table 21."

Tags: Greg RaymerJason MercierTom McEvoy