John Duthie, Team Pokerstars Pro and all-round pillar of the EPT, seems to have started off well but just lost a reasonable pot building his young American-accented tablemate's chip pillars instead...
Under the gun raiser made it 300 to go, and Duthie alone on the button made the call. They saw a flop which brought an instant bet out of 425 from UTG, called almost as swiftly by Duthie. The turn saw UTG fire another nonchalant 825, again called. The river saw yet another speedy bet-out from UTG, this time 1,225 - at this point Duthie reached for red 1k chips and threw out four of them. His opponent made a face, but made the call with while Duthie could only flash the and muck, saying, intriguingly, "One all..." to which UTGPotWinner replied, "One all...?" History already, and only a level in, it appears.
So far, the British contingent are in various moods. Toby Lewis and Dan Carter have admitted to being a little worse for wear after enjoying much of a Vilamoura's nightlife while Paul Foltyn managed to see none of it. The latter somehow missing last night's welcome party by falling asleep at 7pm after a very early flight from Manchester and then waking up at 3am, having missed all the fun.
However all of them are keen golfers and one suspects they're equally excited about hitting the fairways later this week as they are for playing this tournament. The British had two winners on the EPT last year in Jake Cody (Deauville) and Liv Boeree (San Remo) and will be hoping for another winner here.
Andre Dias, who won a large tournament for €150,000 in this very casino in May 2009 opened preflop to 250 from early position. Team PokerStars Pro and EPT stalwart Alex Kravchenko made the call from the button as the blinds decided not to get involved at this early stage.
The flop came down and Dias fired a bet of 375, the studious Russian thought for a moment before making the call to see the turn.
Dias fired a second barrel, betting 800 this time and again Kravchenko called, but more quickly this time.
The river was the and Dias fired a third time, to the tune of 2,000. Kravchenko instantly called this time, but Dias turned over which was good enough to take a noticeable chunk out of the Russian's starting stack
Also among the runners today is self-styled "SerialPokerStarsQualifier" - and indeed officially PokerStars' Online Qualifier of the Year at the last EPT awards - Pierre Neuville. The last time that Mr. Neuville was in Vilamoura for an EPT, he came second for €257,681 - the crowning glory of an extraordinary Season 6 for the former toy magnate, in which he cashed in three Main Events and several side events. Neuville will presumably be looking to go one better than last year's result here this week, and we'll be keeping a close eye on him while he attempts to better his feat.
Michel Abecassis, in what looks to be a rather French-dominated section of the tournament area (it features Arnaud Mattern, plus Ludovic Lacay and Antoine Amourette sat next to each other) just lost a few early thousand with , although the scariness of the board may have worked to save him from a bigger confrontation with his in-position opponent... Abecassis had bet out 1,225 on a flop from the small blind, and got a fairly quick call. Both players then checked the turn but the river saw Abecassis check-call a bet of 1,600. His opponent flipped up the and received a quick flash of the Kings as they made their way straight into the muck.
This may not be the biggest EPT so far - we count 22 tables in here, and not every seat is full - but by golly if it isn't a good one.
Also among the folks who've managed to tear themselves away from the golf course so far are Antonio Esfandiari, Michel Abecassis, Yann Brosolo, Chris Moorman, Barny Boatman and Allan Bække. This is going to be fun.
Among the players just getting started with their 30,000 stacks are the following Team Pokerstars Pros:
Dario Minieri
Arnaud Mattern
Alex Kravchenko
Marcin Horecki
Henrique Pinho
Juan Maceiras
Vicky Coren
John Duthie
JP Kelly
Meanwhile André Coimbra is representing both Portugal and the Pokerstars Team Online today. and several more faces dotted around the room have graced major final tables on and offline within the last calendar year. Not least James Mitchell (Irish Open champ) who is part of a pretty large UK contingent who've drifted from British autumn to full-on summer here in Vilamoura including James Dempsey and other golf-favouring pros... more on the Felts and Fairways tournament anon.
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flop which brought an instant bet out of 425 from UTG, called almost as swiftly by Duthie. The 
turn saw UTG fire another nonchalant 825, again called. The river 
saw yet another speedy bet-out from UTG, this time 1,225 - at this point Duthie reached for red 1k chips and threw out four of them. His opponent made a face, but made the call with 
while Duthie could only flash the 
and muck, saying, intriguingly, "One all..." to which UTGPotWinner replied, "One all...?" History already, and only a level in, it appears.
turn.
and Dias fired a third time, to the tune of 2,000. Kravchenko instantly called this time, but Dias turned over 
which was good enough to take a noticeable chunk out of the Russian's starting stack
, although the scariness of the board may have worked to save him from a bigger confrontation with his in-position opponent... Abecassis had bet out 1,225 on a 
river saw Abecassis check-call a bet of 1,600. His opponent flipped up the 
and received a quick flash of the Kings as they made their way straight into the muck.