Main Event
Day 1b Started
2012 PokerStars.com EPT Madrid
Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info
2012 PokerStars.com EPT Madrid
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Entries
477
Level
31
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
10,000
Players Left 1 / 477
Filter
(1)
We're back for the second start day of EPT Madrid where we're expecting a larger field than yesterday's 125. We've already heard that the 11am bus from the centre of Madrid was full and players were not able to get on the bus and will be late for the event.
On our own bus which we shared with the poker dealers from a much closer hotel, we spotted Eli Elezra near the back, perhaps times are so hard he's now going to be dealing the cards? (Or more than likely he's chosen the option of a nearby hotel rather than the 45 minute drive to the centre of town).
Among the players expected today include Team Pros Nacho Barbero, Leo Fernandez, Nacho Barbero, Sandra Naujoks, Richard Toth, ElkY, Johnny Lodden, Theo Jorgensen, Fatima Moreira de Melo and Eugene Katchalov as well as former EPT winner Kevin MacPhee, Davidi Kitai, Nicolas Levi, Toby Lewis, Rupert Elder, Jake Cody and the currently-on-a-hot-streak Steve O'Dwyer. We'll be starting very shortly and playing eight levels straight through with no dinner breaks.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The cards have gone in the air, and Day 1b is a go. We've got a full house today and more players on the way.
| 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 | |
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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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Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
Most of the tables have started five- or six-handed as the empty seats continue to fill in. Even with the sparse crowd, though, a number of interesting table pairings and trios have already appeared.
We start with Table 5 along the far side of the room, and there we find Walid Bou Habib in the five seat and Mickey Petersen in the seven. Petersen is the tour's most recent champion, besting the 299-player field at EPT Copenhagen to win his first live title. He's looking for an unprecedented double-dip here in this encore event.
Across the aisle is Table 11, and it contains Joep van den Bijgaart (Seat 2) and Tristan Clemencon (7). At Table 17 are Theo Jorgensen and Andrey Pateychuk sitting next to each other in the two and three seats, respectively. Jorgensen is a Team PokerStars Pro from Denmark, and Pateychuk wins (or nearly wins) practically everything he plays. In 2011, he finished 15th in the WSOP Main Event, won EPT San Remo, and won WPT Prague. Yikes.
And a pair of trios, too. We find a very tough table over by the windows, Table number 14. The hot-running Steve O'Dwyer is in Seat 1 there, and he's joined by Fatima Moreira de Melo (3) and Todd Terry (6). And near the exit door is what looks to be the toughest table in the room, Table 15. EPT6 Grand Final champion Nicolas Chouity is in Seat 3 there, joined by two familiar members of the high-stakes community. Eli Elezra and David Benyamine have both made the trip over to Madrid, and they're sitting there in Seats 5 and 7, respectively.
The upstairs room, scene of Ivan Freitez' triumph last year in the Grand Final, is also in use today. It's a little difficult to get to behind a queue of about 20 to 30 players still registering to get involved but we've spotted Olivier Busquet, the pink-haired Guillaume Darcourt and former EPT Copenhagen winner Michael Tureniec. There's already over 300 players invovled and still people are registering.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
Richard Toth has position on former EPT winner Anton Wigg, but when he looks to his left he sees the in-form Faraz Jaka and Kevin Iacofano lying in wait for him.
He avoided those two to win a nice pot to get him off to a good start. Jose Luis Cordero opened to 250 and called when the Team PokerStars three-bet to 650. The flop fell 
and Cordero check-called a 800 bet. The turn came 
and Toth bet 1,750 when the action was checked to him again. Call. The river was 
and both players checked.
Toth tabled 
and took the pot as Cordero opened 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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34,800
4,800
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4,800 |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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A flop of 
was checked around to former EPT finalist Rasmus Nielsen who fired out a bet of 1,125, the big blind made the call before John O'Shea check-raised to 3,550. Nielsen flicked out a call and the big blind folded to see the 
turn.
O'Shea didn't let up with the aggression and bet 6,500, Nielsen made the call for a sizeable portion of both players' stacks to see the 
river. The Irishman thought for about fifteen seconds and then moved all in for his remaining 20,000 or so, Nielsen snap-folded without even so much as a second thought.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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41,000 |
Level 2
: 75/150, 0 ante
James Sudworth hasn't had the greatest start today, he was tanking against an 8,000 bet on the river of a 
board. Finally, Sudworth made the crying call and simply said, "Nice hand," when his his opponent turned over for aces up. Sudworth has dropped to about 16,000 as a result.
