Well, that's your lot for Day 1b. How time flies when you're having fun, eh? 203 players started today meaning that this EPT has now broken all records for a poker tournament in Portugal. The biggest tournament Portugal had ever seen before this week had 326 runners; with 384, this one blows that record away, and it is by far the richest tournament ever held in this country with a €1,862,400 prizepool and €467,835 going to first place.
Chip leader as the chips went into the bags was Russian online qualifier Leonid Bilokur, who won the €2,000 NLH side event at EPT Berlin earlier in the year. With 161,200 in his bag, he will be the overall chip leader when we come back tomorrow for Day 2.
Also near the top of the counts from today are Sam Trickett, Sorel Mizzi and Danny Neess. On rather more modest stacks but still in the running are Luca Pagano, Lex Veldhuis, Max Lykov and Liv Boeree. Those who did not make it through and instead get to spend the rest of the week on the beach include ElkY, Andy Black, Daniel Negreanu and both of the de Meulder twins.
The number on the board as the last few hands were called was 121, so we suspect that that is roughly the number of Day 1b survivors who will be joining the 102 Day 1a veterans in the Casino Vilamoura at noon GMT+1 tomorrow for Day 2. We'll be bringing you all the action from the tournament floor and the smoking balcony alike, so join us back here then.
Until tomorrow, it's boa noite from all of us here in Portugal.
No sooner had we finished typing that up than William Thorson dropped back down to 45,000 or so - he doubled Michael Hull who was fortunate enough to find aces against Thorson's pocket sixes.
We arrived just in time to see a third player folding on the flop; only William Thorson and Kevin Stani made it to the turn when Thorson bet out 5,500 and Stani called.
The two of them continued on to the river and Thorson bet out again, this time to the tune of 10,400. Stani tanked up, jiggling his leg and rubbing his face, long enough for a couple of players at the table to look as though they were considering calling the clock - but before they got around to actually calling the clock, Stani made the call. Stani followed up this action by promptly mucking to Thorson's for a flopped set.
Brandon Cantu opened from the hijack to 2,200 and Joe Ebanks reraised to 6,100 from the cutoff. Then John O'Shea cold 4-bet on the button to 18,000 and Cantu folded.
Ebanks, "You have me covered right?" O'Shea slid out his large stack of 5k yellow chips as an affirmative. A minute later and Ebanks moved all-in and O'Shea called.
Ebanks:
O'Shea:
Ebanks was all-in for a total of 68,300 meaning whoever won this hand would either be chip leader or very close. The board came and Ebanks' knaves held to put him to 140,000. John O'Shea dropped to below 20,000.
Rob Hollink has just disqualified himself from the Grinder of the Day Award deliberations because he just received a full double up to over 70k in the last level of the day. The dented stack was that of Andrew Malott, it looked like, and we caught the board standing . Hollink had a house with and a full 34,600 was being counted down by the dealer.
We only caught the tail end of the action, but the bits we missed were relayed by the hapless Christophe de Meulder to our friends at pokernews.nl who then translated the gist of it into English for us.
The gentleman on the button had raised and his neighbour in the small blind reraised before de Meulder pushed for 23 big blinds in the big blind with . He got a call with and although the flop was good for de Meulder and the turn was even better, the on the river was disastrous as it made his opponent a straight, and we are down to a total of zero de Meulders in this tournament.
Meanwhile the man who earlier cost de Meulder most of his stack, Dmitry Stelmak, is no longer in a happy place, chip-wise - he's somehow taken a big hit and is down to around 20,000.
Alexios Zervos opened to 1,500 from UTG and Leonid Bilokur flat-called two seats down.
The flop came and Zervos fired out 2,100 and Bilokur made the call. The turn was the and now Zervos checked and Bilokur bet 2,500 to which Zervos snap-called.
Both players then checked the river and Zervos turned over to win the pot as the chip leader Bilokur simply mucked, the latter still has about 135,000 remaining but Zervos has got himself back over the 40,000 mark.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop; only William Thorson and Kevin Stani made it to the 
turn when Thorson bet out 5,500 and Stani called.
river and Thorson bet out again, this time to the tune of 10,400. Stani tanked up, jiggling his leg and rubbing his face, long enough for a couple of players at the table to look as though they were considering calling the clock - but before they got around to actually calling the clock, Stani made the call. Stani followed up this action by promptly mucking to Thorson's 
for a flopped set.
and Ebanks' knaves held to put him to 140,000. John O'Shea dropped to below 20,000.
. He got a call with 
and although the 
on the river was disastrous as it made his opponent a straight, and we are down to a total of zero de Meulders in this tournament.
and Zervos fired out 2,100 and Bilokur made the call. The turn was the 
to win the pot as the chip leader Bilokur simply mucked, the latter still has about 135,000 remaining but Zervos has got himself back over the 40,000 mark.