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

01-30-2008 23:39 UTC+2

Hansen Enjoys His New Table

[user52009]

A short-stacked Thor Hansen was moved to table 1 after the dinner break, with only 11,000 left. Since arriving, he has eliminated one opponent and crippled another, and is now up to 29,000.

“In this last hand, I was all in and wanted a call since I had top two pair. I think the air is better in this corner of the room,” says the friendly Norwegian poker legend with a big grin.

Tags: Thor Hansen

01-31-2008 00:07 UTC+2

34 Countries Represented in Dortmund

[user52009]

411 players came to play in PokerStars EPT German Open from 34 different countries. This is the top-15-list:

Germany 131
Holland 39
Sweden 29
France 25
USA 24
Italy 22
England 21
Spain 15
Canada 12
Finland 12
Austria 9
Denmark 9
Norway 6
Switzerland 6
Russia 5

01-31-2008 00:10 UTC+2

Vaswani Eliminated

[user52009]

After being among the chip leaders throughout the day, English poker pro Ram Vaswani has been eliminated. After losing several big pots in a row, he was caught bluffing with the last of his chips, and he has now left the poker room.

Tags: Ram Vaswani

Level: 7

Blinds: 200/400

Ante: 50

01-31-2008 00:17 UTC+2

Two Levels Left

[user52009]

With only two levels still to go on Day 1b, 122 players remain with the chance to reach Day 2 in the PokerStars EPT German Open. The blinds have gone up to 200/400 with a 50 ante. Day 1b will finish at around 1:20 AM, local time.

01-31-2008 00:36 UTC+2

Annette Closes in on 50k Mark

[user52009]

After winning the WSOP Europe Main Event four months ago, and then being runner-up in EPT Baden two weeks later, Annette Obrestad has been the most popular female player, together with Germany's Katja Thater. In Dortmund, she continues to impress the audience by being among the chip leaders with one hour to go of Day 1b, as she now has close to 50,000 in chips stacked in front of her.

Tags: Annette Obrestad

01-31-2008 00:48 UTC+2

Kulhanek New Chip Leader

[user52009]

With a little more than one level to go on Day 1b, there is a new sheriff in town. His name is Jiri Kulhanek and he is the new chip leader with 81,000. He sits two seats to the left of ElkY, who was moved when they broke table 14. ElkY has continued to fall and is now down to 7,000.

Tags: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Jiri Kulhanek

01-31-2008 00:59 UTC+2

Toumaala Doubles Up

[user52009]

T6 Poker qualifier, Vikke Toumaala from Finland, has the best-looking beard in the Casino Hohensyburg. He was down to a mere 5,500 a couple of hours ago, but is now way back up there after eliminating an opponent who had just a slightly smaller stack than the Finn. After the flop of {9-Hearts}

, Toumaala bet out, his opponent went all in with {J-Clubs}

, and Vikke called with his {K-Hearts}

. No jacks on turn or river and "The Beard" is now back for real in the tournament with 28,000.

Tags: Vikke Toumaala

01-31-2008 01:04 UTC+2

Negreanu Up to 35k

[user52009]

One of the most important things in poker is to adapt your play to the size of your stack. Being down to 6,000 early on, Negreanu adjusted, played it cool, and has now gone all the way up to 35,000.

"I think the extra hour of sleep this morning was well-invested time," says the PokerStar pro, as he fires off the biggest smile of the day.

Tags: Daniel Negreanu

01-31-2008 01:18 UTC+2

One Level to Go

[user52009]

We have now entered the last level of Day 1b, and less than half of the players has survived this far. 213 players started the day and there are now 104 players still remaining. The blinds have gone up to 300/600 with a 75 ante.