Main Event
Day 1a Started
2010 PokerStars EPT Vilamoura
Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2010 PokerStars EPT Vilamoura
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€1,862,400
Entries
384
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
5,000
Welcome to the PokerStars EPT Vilamoura!
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
As summer begins to end, the poker season begins to hit a second wind. The WSOP may have finished, albeit temporarily, but as we hit September there's a second purple patch. EPT Vilamoura is the starting point for the month as the world's best poker players head across to Europe for this tournament as well as the WSOPE and EPT London, it's going to be a busy month.
The return to Vilamoura is a little earlier this year but the weather remains equally beautiful as we find out who will succeed Antonio Matias as the EPT Vilamoura champion. After Arnaud Mattern came incredibly close to making history in Tallinn but could only manage third, the EPT continues with the unique concept of never having a double EPT winner. Can season 7 of the EPT change this circumstance?
Daniel Negreanu makes his first appearance in the new EPT season as September's hectic poker schedule begins to take shape. As well as the Canadian superstar, there are many others here to enjoy the Portuguese festivities including EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee, Arnaud Mattern, Dutch Team Pokerstars Pro Lex Veldhuis and JP Kelly, the latter hosting a special EPT golf & poker tournament over the latter few days of the tournament.
However, photography will be difficult during the event as Portuguese law states that we will cannot take photos during the tournament. All photos taken will be from outside the casino during the tournament's play.
Today's tournament will start at 12pm local time (GMT).
On the Outside
As we said, photography is banned inside the Casino Vilamoura itself - so we will have to head out into the sunshine periodically if we want to provide you with any photos. What a pity.
On Your Marks, Get Set...
The doors have just opened letting in a torrent of players of every nationality, who'd been penned in the casino, but are now taking their seats in the impressive ballroom/theatre/starry-ceilin ged tournament area in anticipation of the start of play. Breakfast at the players' main hotel, so new it's practically shrink-wrapped, has been extended until the poker-sympathetic time of noon, so everyone, regardless of the lateness of their attendance at last night's Pokerstars party, could grab some coffee before their cards.
Thomas Kremser is urging a prompt seating so that the tournament can get underway, and it looks as if it's only a matter of minutes until the start.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
Shuffled up and Dealt
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.
Small, But Perfectly Formed
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.
Crying Call for Cowboys?
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.
Neuville Going for Gold
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.
Andre The (slowly building towards being a) Giant
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