€7,700 + 300 German Open Main Event Day 1a | 2008 PokerStars.net EPT4 German Open - Dortmund

01-29-2008 20:04 UTC+2

Minieri Eliminated

Poker prodigy Dario Minieri had a rough day and was eliminated after two hours of Day 1a. He was seated on a very tough table, with Thater, Mizzi and Eskilsson, and as there was a lot of action on his table, someone had to go.

Tags: Dario Minieri Hans Eskilsson Katja Thater Sorel Mizzi

01-29-2008 19:45 UTC+2

Jelinek Wins Monster Pot

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Refat Schuman from Malmo in Sweden flopped a set with {5-Clubs}

on a

flop, and Englishman Steve Jelinek, who raised from the button pre-flop, made an open-ended straight draw with {4-Diamonds}

. Schuman check-called Jelinek's 400 bet and then check-raised to 2,200 when the turn came {A-Clubs}

. Jelinek just called despite hitting the nuts. The river was the {9-Diamonds}

and Schuman bet 6,000, Jelinek went all-in for 11,000 and Schuman called after a couple of minutes in the tank, losing the pot to Jelinek, who is now up to 28,000. Schuman is still in okay shape with 9,000.

Tags: Steve Jelinek

01-29-2008 19:05 UTC+2

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

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Gino Alacqua, runner-up in Prague in December, has been struggling from his seat between Juha Helppi and Alex Kravchenko. The Finn has built his stack to 17K and so has the Russian, who became European Player of the Year in 2007. Gino will have to be lucky and strong to come back and reach his second final table on the EPT.

Tags: Alex Kravchenko Gino Alacqua Juha Helppi

01-29-2008 19:03 UTC+2

19-Year-Old in the Lead in Dortmund

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Andreas Sarling from Åland has taken an early lead in the PokerStars EPT German Open. The youngster born in 1988 has built his stack up to 27K during the first two hours. This is Andreas' first big live tournament after qualifying online.

01-29-2008 18:11 UTC+2

Canada vs. Italy

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Among the pros on location in Dortmund, two young superstars are seated next to each other: Dario Minieri from Italy and Canadian Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi. So far, Dario has increased his stack to 12,500, and Mizzi has come back from an early setback and now has 11,000 after winning a 5,000 pot just recently.

Tags: Dario Minieri

01-29-2008 18:03 UTC+2

Death Row in Dortmund

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Juha Helppi, Gino Alacqua and Alex Kravchenko

One of the toughest tables in the room has three big names seated next to each other: Juha Helppi from Finland, Italian Gino Alacqua of Italy (second in EPT Prague) and Russian pro Alex Kravchenko. So far they have played many pots between them, but no major ones and they are all still around the starting stack of 10,000.

01-29-2008 17:38 UTC+2

Mizzi and Eskilsson in Early Action

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Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and Hans Eskilsson had a tough confrontation at table 17 ten minutes after the tournament started. On the flop of {7-Hearts}

, Mizzi checked holding {6-Clubs}

and Eskilsson checked with {A-Diamonds}

. On the turn {A-Hearts}

, Mizzi bet the pot and Eskilsson called. When the river showed {5-Clubs}

Eskilsson called a 1,350 bet from Mizzi, and his straight beat Mizzi’s set. Eskilsson is now up to 14,500 and Mizzi is down to 7,000.

Tags: Hans Eskilsson Sorel Mizzi

01-29-2008 17:15 UTC+2

198 players on Day 1a

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After the one-hour long delay, 198 players finally got dealt their first cards of the tournament. The most interesting table in the room seems to be table 17 with Katja Thater, Sorel Mizzi, Dario Minieri and former soccer pro Hans Eskilsson.

Tags: Dario Minieri Hans Eskilsson Katja Thater Sorel Mizzi

01-29-2008 17:03 UTC+2

Shuffle up and Deal

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Tournament director Thomas Kremser from Austria announced that the game is on by saying the classic words "Shuffle up and deal!" The PokerStars EPT German Open has now begun.

Tags: EPT PokerStars Thomas Kremser

01-29-2008 16:59 UTC+2

ElkY Happy to Be in Germany

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With minutes to go before the tournament begins, PokerNews talked to one of the hottest names in Poker today.

PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the PCA in the Bahamas a couple of weeks ago, and he is one of the favourites to win this week’s event in Dortmund. “I still have a buzz from the win in the Bahamas. It was of course a great tournament for me, but I was really worn out after that week. Now I am back in good shape and ready to play,” says ElkY.

Bertrand used to live in Korea, but now he has come back to Europe.
“I have moved to London so I can reach all the EPT tournaments easier. The trip from Korea was just too long,” says the Frenchman, who moved to Asia due to being a video game (StarCraft) pro for many years.

We will follow Bertrand the whole week here in Dortmund. He is certainly one of the guys to beat at Casino Hohensyburg.

Tags: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier