The newly doubled-up Bryn Kenney, resplendent today in what could pass for royal purple and festooned with glittery diamondy jewellery, soon lost a few of those chips back. He seemed to have raised from the cutoff, and was facing a small blind shove from Casey Kastle when we arrived. Kenney thought about it quite seriously, but ultimately folded.
Kastle is still not in amazing shape on 40,000 or so, but it's better than the 27,400 he started the day with.
Reigning EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree won't be making it as far as the money this time around - she just smacked her into a tablemate's aces, and now faces the awful prospect of a few days enjoying the sights of Barcelona.
Team PokerStars Pro, Johnny Lodden has not had the best start to the day, having dropped around 20,000 of his starting stack of 53,500.
Having been moved to the back of the room on Table 1, Lodden opened to 2,800 from under the gun. The action folded around to Giuseppe Sammartino in the hijack seat, who paused for around twenty seconds before making a raise to 6,000. Everyone else folded so it was back on Lodden.
Lodden, hunched over the table with his rather fetching bluetooth Bose headphones firmly in place, glanced at his opponent's chip stack before making it 15,300 to play.
Sammartino was firmly focussed on Lodden and after a short pause, he made it 25,000 to play. Lodden went deep into the tank, so deep I felt like calling time on him myself and just short of five minutes later he emerged, only to muck his hand.
When Team Pokerstars Pro Leo Fernandez went to bed last night he must have been having happy dreams of EPT glory. His dreams must have been so sweet in fact that he overslept and missed most of the first level of the tournament. What a travesty you must be thinking at home? Well I bet Fernandez now wishes that he overslept just a few minutes longer.
Per Albin Linde opened the action in early position with a opening raise of 2,500 and Fernandez made the three-bet to 7,700 from the Big Blind. Both players had big stacks but Fernandez almost doubled the stack of Linde. Linde didn't take too long before making the four-bet to 17,200 and Fernandez five-bet shoved all-in and Linde called.
Linde:
Fernandez:
Board:
"Why didn't I wake up just five minutes later?" Fernandez told the table.
Team PokerStars Pro Ruben Visser has so far been the scourge of the short stacks at his table and now has almost twice the stack he started the day with.
The first time we strolled by his table on this outing to the floor, Visser's pocket tens were holding up against a shortie's to put him up to 65,000.
And when we passed by again on our way back to the press room, Visser's were not being outdrawn by another short stack's . Another one bit the dust, and Visser was up to 80,000.
Roberto Romanello finally ended the tournament of Ramzi Jelassi but it took him two attempts before the Swede finally succumbed.
In the first hand they were all-in pre flop with Romanello holding a pair of tens that seemed to tower of the pocket sevens of Jelassi. The flop was very kind to Jelassi and they split the pot thanks to a board.
Jelassi was not so lucky a few hands later when Romanello opened for a raise in the cut off to 2,700 and Jelassi shoved. Romanello asked for a count.
Poker can be a cruel game at times, as Claudio Piceci has just found out.
Dominic Nitsche was busy stacking a large pile of chips when he limped from early position, one player followed suit, as did Piceci on the button, but the small blind made it 8,300 to play. Two limpers quickly folded but Piceci decided to call.
Flop:
The small blind checked then insta-called when Piceci bet 25,000, more than enough to put his opponent all in.
Piceci: - for two-pair
Small blind: - for top two pair
The turn saw the make an appearance and when the peeled off on the river, the small blind had doubled up.
Up on the feature table, amiable American now resident in Alicante Danny Ryan has been eliminated. We're banned from going anywhere near the feature table, and there's no sound and limited vision on the screen we've got, but it looked as though Ryan met his end with against Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier's on a flop, with another on the turn for good measure.
Jairo Pasqual started the day near the top of the chip counts, and he's got even more chips now after finding pocket to knock out a player who open-shoved with in early position. Pasqual successfully reraised to isolate from the button, they proceeded to showdown, and following an ace-free board, Pasqual was up to 180,000.
2009 EPT Vilamoura champ Antonio Matias opened for 3,000 under the gun and faced a reraise to 8,500 from Juha Helppi in the cutoff. Matias eyed up Helppi's stack which consisted of just 16,000 behind, before making the call.
Matias checked the flop and Helppi bet 10,000, most of his remaining chips. Matias flat-called, and then bet out enough to cover Helppi on the turn. Helppi called all in, and they turned the cards over.
Helppi:
Matias:
Matias' speculative straight draw didn't come in on the river, and Helppi doubled to around 50,000.