PokerStars EPT Dublin Main Event Day 1b | 2007 PokerStars EPT - Dublin

10-31-2007 15:58 UTC+2

PokerStars.com EPT Dublin Day 1b

[user38449]

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening - depending on where you are in the world. We're here in Dublin, Ireland where the local time is 1:57 p.m. The scene is quite relaxed inside the Royal Dublin Society as players are meandering in to locate their seats.

We expect a bigger starting field today than yesterday, but the plan is to play seven one-hour levels of poker. Today's field features WSOP Europe Main Event winner and online poker superstar Annette 'Annette_15' Obrestad, who looks to post her first ever cash in an EPT event. Last year's Dublin EPT winner Roland de Wolfe is also expected to play this afternoon.

Stay with us - we're moments away from getting underway.

Tags: Annette Obrestad

10-31-2007 16:27 UTC+2

Tournament Specs

[user38449]

The unofficial player count for Day 1b is 136, which would create a total field of 225 players. We'll bring you the official tally and prizepool information as soon as we get it.

We've spotted a number of names you might recognize throughout the field, including Thor Hansen, Juha Helppi, Age Spets, William Thorson, Ben Grundy, Surinder Sunar and an always animated Thomas Wahlroos.

10-31-2007 16:30 UTC+2

Shuffle Up and Deal

[user38449]

Tournament director Thomas Kremser has just announced, 'Shuffle up and deal!' and we're officially underway.

Level: 1

Blinds: 25/50

Ante: 0

10-31-2007 16:45 UTC+2

Tough Field

[user38449]

After completing our initial walk through of the tournament area, it's apparent that today's field is significantly tougher than yesterday's. You'd be hard pressed to find a table that didn't have at least one or two big name pros at it; one table in particular features Ram Vaswani and Juha Helppi sitting directly next to each other.

We've also noticed that some of the dealer buttons are engraved with the name: Liam Flood. We've got some investigating to do . . .

Tags: Liam Flood

10-31-2007 16:47 UTC+2

Leprechaun Spotting

[user38449]

A German, beer drinking, poker playing Leprechaun! Who'da thought?

Come on . . . did you really think we could spend a week in Ireland without finding one of these guys? This one is actually a German import, who goes by the name of Jan Veit. Jan posted a 14th place finish at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo, earning € 49,770 for his efforts.

Tags: Jan Veit

10-31-2007 16:48 UTC+2

Irish Table Of Death!

[user50492]

There are many more local Irish players in the field today. Four of them are concentrated on one table. Irish Open champion Marty Smyth, Liam "The Gentleman" Flood, Roy "The Boy" Brindley and former Irish soccer star Tony Cascarino.

Tags: Marty Smyth