Morten Mortensen check-raised a 1,500 to 3,800 on a 
flop against Tadas Grigaitis and was called before the Dane checked the 
turn. Grigaitis fired 7,500 and Mortensen this time elected to call to see the 
river.
Again the Dane checked and Grigaitis moved all-in, Mortensen was slightly flummoxed but called nonetheless and Grigaitis showed 
having turned his hand into a bluff and Mortensen flipped 
to scoop the pot.
Claus Nielsen is up to 58,300, one of the early leaders as the first break approaches. His table's seat 1 is empty - that should be the place of Carlos Batista Rodrigues. His absence explains the stack of Nielsen.
Two tables away Rene Scheptel has doubled to just under 50,000. The field has lost just one table in the first two levels.
A full board reading 
was out on the felt when we arrived, and Luca Falaschi was betting out 11,000 into a pot well over 20,000, leaving himself a mere 6,000 behind. James AKenhead across the table tanked up for a while looking rather unhappy and duly he folded, dropping to 21,500 in the process.
Falaschi is up to 48,000.
A big preflop laydown was performed recently by Afshin Alikhani, giving Mikhail Lakhitov respect for a preflop four-bet. Alikhani, in the cutoff, had repopped it to 1,250 only to find initial raiser Lakhitov making it 4,000 to go. There followed a lengthy think, which culminated in a face-up throw of 
. If he was hoping for a reciprocal flash of a hand, he was disappointed.
The early levels have not been kind to Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern - he's down to under half his 30k starting stack after getting involved with the rockets to his cost.
He'd been tricky and slow pre-flop (having a good player in position on him, apparently) and the flop couldn't have been kinder: 
. He checked, and the two others who'd made it to the flop checked behind.
The turn brought a 
and now one of his opponents made a 500 bet. Mattern raised to 2,000 and dislodged the player on the button but not the original bettor. The river was a 
and now Mattern considered the bet of just over 2,000 which faced him. Confident in his hand, there followed a raise and a re-raise - the upshot was a loss of half his stack to the 
which had comfortably rivered the straight.
There was around 15,000 in the pot when we arrived, and the two players in the hand, EPT Tallinn winner Kevin Stani in the big blind and Robert Scott two seats to his left, had got as far as the turn, the board reading 
.
Stani bet out 6,800 as we arrived, leaving himself a scant 11,000 behind. Scott pondered for a while before making the call.
The river was the 
and this time Stani checked. Scott checked behind and turned over pocket 
- but Stani revealed pocket and took the pot, putting him up to around 40,000.
"Good thing you didn't raise before the flop," chuckled Stani - Scott may be down to 19,000 and looking rather crestfallen, but he did well not to go broke there.
A multiway pot saw a board of 
was checked around to one player who fired out 1,200 before James Akenhead check-raised to 3,600 from the small blind. Everyone folded except the bettor who made the call to see a 
turn which completed both draws.
Akenhead checked and his opponent quickly fired out 5,000 which the Brit called in fairly speedy fashion. Both players then checked the river and Akenhead turned over 
for a small flush to scoop the pot and propel his stack over the 40,000 mark.
Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgensen has dropped down to 20,000 after somehow managing not to lose most of his stack with 
on a board to Simon Persson's 
for a hefty pot.
Christmas has come late for Charles Kassin after a near-full double through right at the end of Level One. The damage done to opponent Rami Taqtaq proved fatal - and we lost one of our first competitors to the nuts on the turn.
A modest pot had grown between the two of them on a board of 
, but by no means close to the 20k+ in front of Taqtaq. The betting went crazy on the turn (details missing, unfortunately) with the final shove being called immediately by Kassin who showed . Taqtaq showed 
and watched the river seal his fate and hand a 50k stack to the young American.
The rest of the table looked fairly stunned, and watched enviously as Kassin stacked his leading towers. "Nice start!" said one player.
"It's better to finish good than to start good," replied Kassin, sagely.
Tablemate Annette Obrestad looked amused by the development in the hand as it was briefly discussed in its aftermath.
"I didn't want to make it too obvious but I just figured, screw it," noted Kassin, before letting everyone in on his ultimate goal: "Just win this, and retire from poker."
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