Main Event
Day 1a Started
2010 PokerStars.net EPT Vienna
Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
2010 PokerStars.net EPT Vienna
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€2,935,000
Entries
587
Level
32
Blinds
150,000 / 300,000
Ante
0
Players Left 1 / 587
Filter
(1)
The eye-opening surroundings of the Kursalon right in the heart of Vienna city centre are about to welcome hundreds of poker players and distribute them around the tables for the first time in donkey's years as the EPT returns to this historic and beautiful city.
For EPT history you need to look back to 2004 and Season One, where an explosion in the poker world was in the process of boosting fields and bringing the game to a wider selection of people around Europe. Pascal Perrault was victorious then, taking €184,500 for the top spot and putting Vienna on the European Poker Tour map, but this event is the first time it will have returned.
The tournament can accommodate 600 players, and we're going to have a busy couple of Day Ones - the first swathe are going to be allowed in to the room shortly and we expect the first cards to be in the air at midday local time.
The tournament's not that near actually starting, but players are beginning to take their seats.
By the by, Boatman, Lellouche, Veldhuis and Coimbra are all seated at the same table. We expect early action from that corner of the room.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
"It is a pleasure for us having the EPT back in Vienna after six years! Welcome to the Kursalon!"
The schedules for the days here are being run through (side events are going to be running soon too, and you can play under the Kursalon's chandeliers from 10am until 6am, apparently) in both English and German. Tournament director Thomas Kremser, in his element, explains that today they will be playing nine one-hour levels with a 90 minute dinner break after Level Six. He also points out the fire exits. We are half expecting him to show us how to put on our life-vests.
The players are on their marks, set... shuffle up and deal!
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
The whistle is imaginary, but the start is very real.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
As Thomas Kremser cries "shuffle up and deal" an immediate silence permeates the air.
Barny Boatman find himself thick in the action immediately.
There was a raise to 250 from late position and a call in the hijack before the action came around to the Hendon Mobster on the button - he made the call and the small blind completed the action and there were four of them heading for their first flop.
The pot size was 2,500.
Flop: 
The action checked around and we were at the turn.
Turn: 
There were two checks and the the player sat in the hijack seat made a bet of 1,350. Boatman thought for a little while before making the call.
The pot was now 5,200 and this hand was getting interested.
Not for long though!
River: 
The player in the hijack fired his second barrel with a bet of 4,200 and Boatman mucked instantly leaving a little dent in his starting stack of 30,000.
The pulse of Italian Pokerstars Team Pro Pier Paolo Fabretti must have had an early rise as he found a rainbow flop of 
somehow pleased both him and his in-position opponent to the point where playing for stacks was a possibility. He'd check-raised a bet of 600 on the flop to 1,200, found his opponent quickly making it 3,600, at which point he raised again to 7,300. Suddenly the Big Question was asked of him - but he eventually laid his hand down instead of possibly becoming what would have been the first player to trade the comfortable seat at the table for standing room on the rail.
We join the table when the action has already reached the turn. The board is a very connected 
and there is 9,350 splashed in the centre of the table covering the Pokerstars logo.
Barny Boatman is again the man in the action. He is sat in the small blind and he is battling it out with the big blind. He checks the action over to the big blind who fires out a bet of 7,525.
Boatman counted his chips before placing them in the middle of the table in two evenly matched stacks - he was all-in. The big blind called and Boatman's tournament life was at risk on level 1.
The player in the big blind turned over 
and Boatman showed 
. They had both turned the straight but the player in the big blind had the flush draw for a free roll.
Boatman had one more card to sweat and it was the 
meaning that they shared the spoils and both survived to face another deal!
Like the Usual Suspects, there are several interesting line-ups here, with the random draw throwing together friends and old opponents. One trio sat in a row is comprised of Jake Cody, Michel Abecassis and Ruben Visser, which almost guarantees early action in that corner of the room.
Meanwhile friendly but highly competitive Frenchmen Nicolas Levi and Team Pro Arnaud Mattern have drawn the same table. Recently both went deep at the WSOPE with Levi making the final table of the Main Event, a feat which I seem to recall was made all the sweeter by, "doing better than Arnaud." He of course has had great success on the EPT, with a string of cashes bracketing his 2007 win at EPT Prague for over €700,000.
