The registration queue snaking out of the casino entrance downstairs, as well as our good old-fashioned clocks, tell us that we are just 40 minutes or so away from embarking on our second Day 1 odyssey.
Among the folks expected to take their shot at EPT glory today are Peter Eastgate, Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken and ElkY. This makes us all very excited. Sit tight, friends, because this is going to be awesome.
The official start time has come and gone and in true EPT tradition we can see no signs of actually beginning this tournament, but in the meantime a provisional player list has appeared.
Even for a Day 1b, this is impressive.
Further to the Team PokerStars Pros already mentioned, we have a veritable cornucopia of poker talent treats for you here today. Among the names-you-might-know-from-TV are Messrs. Freddy Deeb, Michael Greco, Jesper Hougaard, Maxim Lykov, Tony Cascarino, Juha Helppi, Tristan Clemencon, William Thorson, Marc Naalden... It goes on and on.
TD Thomas Kremser has just this moment taken the mic, so we will be starting any second now...
2.30 in the PM it may be here in Copenhagen, but it's clear that certain of our runners have only just crawled out of bed.
"I thought we were getting 30,000 for every tournament now, but I only have 10,000," complained young Swedish pro Ramzi Jelassi. Looking down at his chips, it was clear to even a casual observer that he was still in possession of his full 30,000 starting stack. "Er, that is 30,000," said your blogger. Jelassi looked back down at the yellow chips at the bottom of his stack. "Ohhh, those are 5,000 chips. I thought they were 1,000 ones."
An unhappy start for Alex Fitzgerald as he raised his button only for Kimmo Kurko in the small blind to reraise. Fitzgerald spent a moment sliding his cards around on the felt before calling, and deciding that he had invested enough to now sit up and pay attention.
Flop:
Kurko checked to Fitzgerald, who bet 1,100. Kurko made the call without much fuss, and they proceeded.
Turn:
Once more Kurko checked, and this time Fitzgerald bet 2,400. Again, Kurko called, and they saw a river.
River:
Kurko checked again and Fitzgerald now bet 4,200. This time, though, Kurko raised to 11,000. A disgusted Fitzgerald gave it some brief thought before folding his straight face up. Kurko smiled vaguely to himself as he raked in the large-for-level-1 pot.
If you've been keeping even half an eye on the nosebleed action online, you've heard of "Isildur1". The legendary and mythical figure dropped into the high-stakes realm from seemingly nowhere, pushing around millions of dollars and taking the online poker world by storm.
There's been a whirlwind of speculation among the railbirds and forum-ites regarding the real-life identity of Isildur, and the name most often thrown around is Viktor Blom, a 20-year-old Swedish wunderkind of sorts. Blom vehemently denies the rumors, but that hasn't exactly quelled the chatter.
We first bumped into Blom at the WSOPE last fall, and he has been absent from the tournament scene since then, as far as we're aware. It was a pleasant surprise, then, to see Blom's name atop the registration list for today's flight. He is indeed here, sporting a Rocky Balboa shirt and sitting at a table with Juha Helppi and Ricky Fohrenbach. We'll keep an eye on him today and hope to grab an interview, but we won't presume to guess he's ready to give away any information if he is indeed the newest nosebleed phenom.
Unexpected Welshman Roberto Romanello has had a pretty dreadful start to the day, and is down to around 12,000 already.
The particular hand we witnessed involved him betting out 2,500 on the turn of an board, and another 5,025 on the river. Anders Langset called both times, and Romanello had mucked his hand before Langset had even turned over his .
A rather better start has been had by tiny Frenchman Tristan Clemencon.
He raised to 250 under the gun and got three calls behind to see the flop. Three players checked around to Francesco de Vivo who bet 425; Clemencon and one other player made the call.
All three players checked the turn and they moved on to the river, at which point Clemencon bet out 725, looking incredibly intense. Duly, everyone folded, and Clemencon took the pot without a showdown.