End of day 1

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EPT Update No. 14

Day 1 is over. Out of 211 runners, we've got 122 players left. According to the figures I have gotten, young Swede Alexander Stevic is in the chip lead with almost 50,000, and well-known names like Barny Boatman, David Benyamine, Robert Mizrachi and Anthony Lellouche and a few others all have 35,000+ stacks. The average stack is about 18,500 now. Names and chip counts (with thanks to casino management, Brad "Otis" Willis and Blondepoker's Tony Kendall):

Ken Lennaard 9,600
Atlani Maurice 25,000
Tony G. 26,000
David Lloyd 2,500
Martin Vallo 8,300
Yevgeniy Kafelinov 5,500
Alan Betson 13,000
John Wechar 1,700
Simon Nowab 24,000
Noah Boeken 7,700
Abdullah Abdulaizz 6,000
Michael Lubba 9,700
Ovadia Ofer 24,000
Brandon Schaefer 28,000
Dan Tierney 17,000
Eugene Catchalot 14,300
Willie Tann 22,000
Peter Chung 13,400
Carl Yeborn 9,800
Markland Elie 31,000
Luca Pagano 6,000
Angel Blanco Puras 9,600
Greg Serjak 19,000
Justin Bonomo 4,000
Martin Seagull 3,000
Will Clark 14,000
Geika Nordunstein 12,500
Roland Warz 6,100
Alex Jacob 34,000
Danny Ashman 37,000
Barny Boatman 43,000
Mads Andersen 33,000
Erich Kollmann 16,200
Nethanel Kelly 18,600
Sammy Adkins 6,900
Bush 19,300
Eric Olberry 9,000
Ryan Walters 19,600 (the former chip leader)
Pebka Salmi 16,800
Sergey Suckhutin 6,200
Boaz Lavie 6,500
Jan Heitman 25,300
Declan Barker 6,500
Patrick Curzio 8,000
Michel Abecassis 20,000
Eoughan O'Dea 21,300
John Shipley 35,000
Peter Gunneson 10,000
Robert Cohen 15,300
Steve Stolzmann 18,400
Feriolo Roman 18,000
Vincent Soklask 7,600
Brent Wilder 39,000
Julian Thew 12,000
Osman Mustanoglu 29,000
Macha Knapc 41,000
Jonathon Moy 14,300
Christian Grundtrig 29,000
Bjorn Arvidsson 3,500
Yousef Massouedm 7,400
Hong Iljon 8,750
Markus Golser 36,900
Robert Mizrachi 35,050
Bolliger 5,900
Patrick Bruel 40,300
Desmond Portano 11,250
Gus Hansen 17,350
Joel Harwood 19,700
Niam McNamara 4,300
Kirill Gerasimov 15,850
Brian Jensen 12,150
Marcel Luske 15,250
Jani Sointula 25,325
Bill Edler 9,625
Manriique Quesada 16,175
Andrew Pichee 4,125
Gavin Simms 24,650
David Benyamine 41,200
Ravi Sharma 4,425
Luis Jaikel 17,225
Martin Wendt 7,975
Isabelle Mercier 17,550
Bengt Sonnert 24,175
Ben Sprengers 25,625
Xavier Laizcz 11,550
Morten Bughjensen 32,400
Henrik Olsen 7,700
Henry Terranova 18,275
Andy Brown 15,025
Steve Vladar 5,235
Mikhail Ustinov 21,100
Howard Chow 10,500
Harry Fitzpatrick 22,625
Matthew Figglestholer 16,075
Bruce Leech 4,600
Russ Cawrey 3,350
Eugene Katchakov 14,300
Gilles Haddad 13,075
Tobia Persson 20,750
Fanning 38,900
Peter Gould 12,700
Anthony Lellouche 35,275
Jonathan Senn 31,275
Martin Deknijff 16,350
Julian Gardner 27,425
Tom Tuft 10,950
Jeff Aaron 2,725
Kevin Seeger 33,075
John Kabbaj 18,800
Eric Koppel 12,000
K. O'Connel 10,750
Brandon Moran 20,400
Alex Stevic 48,950

Tomorrow there will be a redraw for seats, and we will probably play down until the final 27 players. Levels will start at 150 and 300 blinds, with a 25 ante. Anyway, I am going to bed now, guys. Hope you all liked the updates, and I will be present again tomorrow, 2 p.m. local time.

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EPT Update No. 13

Down to 127. We have lost some of the biggest names in poker: Erik Sagstrom, Joe Beevers and the Devilfish. Barny Boatman has accumulated a large stack, and has close to 50,000. Twenty more minutes, and then day 1 of this Grand Final is over. I will try to have names and chip counts ASAP.

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EPT Update No. 12

Another important elimination. Simon Trumper, down to just a few chips on table 15, is out. He had been struggling for quite some time, and a few moments after I had just photographed him during this struggle of his, it was over. For those interested in the performance of the Dutch: they manage to hold their own, but it's not like they have amassed any large stacks. Noah Boeken 7,000, Erik Vandenburg 12,000, Marcel Luske 15,000, Rob Hollink 17,000. As I am writing this, we have lost Peter Dalhuijsen, my very own webmaster, and unless I have missed one Dutchman, we are now down to four.





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EPT Update No. 11

Three more exits. We have lost Martin Pollak on the featured table, Dave Colclough is out, and Vicky Coren has also been unable to survive. 140 players left. Blinds move up to 150-300 now, for the fifth and last level of the day. Both Luca Pagano and Noah Boeken have stacks of under 5,000, while another young gun Alexander Stevic, winner of the first ever EPT event in Barcelona, has over 35,000.

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EPT Update No. 10

The transfer to the televised table has paid off well for the Devilfish. All-in with a dominated hand (AJ vs. AQ), he managed to hit not one but two jacks to stay alive. He's still got a lot of work to do though, as he's still got just slightly less than 10,000, for a well-below-average stack. Because table 2 and 3 have switched, table 3 is now the featured table. This transfer didn't work out too well for World Champion Greg Raymer, who was a bit low on chips after losing that pot before with AA vs. JJ. He did get his money in with the best of it yet again - but as we all know, in poker, that's not always enough. On just the first day, we have lost two WSOP champions, and there are now 159 players remaining. Also, a big hand on table 4. Luca had aces, and had gotten his opponent all-in with kings, the total pot about 20,000. With the final board AQJTx, the Italian's three aces were beat by a straight, and Luca is now down to a very small stack.






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EPT Update No. 9

A few random chip counts (well, not completely random of course);

Brandon Schaefer 18,000 (table 25)
Luca Pagano 14,000 (table 4)
Dave Ulliott 7,000 (table 3)
Isabelle Mercier 13,000 (table 9)
Simon Trumper 5,000 (table 15)
Marcel Luske 11,000 (table 10, he is sitting at the same table as his buddy Kirill, who holds a good-sized stack)

Some other noteworthy exits are Chris Moneymaker, our former World Champion, and Pascal Perrault, the winner of the EPT Vienna.

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EPT Update No. 8

The name of our current chip leader is Ryan Walters, and indeed he is a young online qualifier. Ryan is holding about 35,000 in chips. He is sitting on table 19, a table that will probably be broken within two or three hours or so. We will play down to five levels today. We are currently still at level 3, with blinds of 75 and 150, no antes. In 20 minutes, we will go to level 4 with 100 and 200 blinds.
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EPT Update No. 7

With the players enjoying a nice little dinner break, I decided to check out the tables to see who's hot, and who's not. Tables 22, 23, 24 and 25 have been broken. 11 players right now have stacks of 24,000 or more. The biggest stack is sitting on table 19, seat 3 with exactly 34,575 in chips. If my information is correct this is (once again) a young online qualifier, but I will try to find out who this person is exactly. Well-known players with decent stacks are Martin Deknijff (on table 3 with 28,000), Kirill Gerasimov (on table 4 with 26,000) and Gus Hansen (on table 14 with 24,000). In good shape are also Rob Hollink and Julian Thew, both with about 15,000. On the televised table, there is quite a bit of action but not a lot of big pots. "Fossilman" Greg Raymer lost a big pot with aces against jacks (a jack on the flop) and is now down to about 6,000 in chips; Yevgeniy Kafelnikov is doing pretty well here with about 15,000. Because of some late appearances, the final number of entrants is 211, and there are still 171 left. Play will resume in thirty minutes.

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EPT Update No. 6

A few interesting developments. Kirill Gerasimov has got a big stack, and Devilfish had a big stack, but after losing a big pot against Martin Deknijff, he is now holding an average stack again. "Bad Girl" Xuyen Pham is out. At the dinner break, there are 171 players left, meaning the average stack is now about 12,000. We can expect the action to start heating up in a couple of hours or so, once antes will be added. For now, the blinds remain at just 75-150 at least for a litle while.












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EPT Update No. 5

Table 25 has just been broken, and I expect the tables to break in the following order: Table 24, then 23 etc., until the entire Right Room has been cleared. On table 2, Tony G. and especially Greg Raymer are in a lot of hands, and table 3 is at least as exciting with lots of big gunners. On this table, Julian Gardner has just won a big pot with kings against aces by catching a king. It needs to be said that Julian had his opponent covered, though. We are still at level 2 with 50-100 blinds, and in about 25 minutes we will move to level 3, blinds of 75 and 150. We've still got 195 players remaining, and almost all favorites are still in - in fact, almost all of them are at least in reasonably good shape. Only one favorite has left. If my information is correct, and I'm fairly sure it is, "Crazy Horse" Ram Vaswani has just busted out. We're having a little break now - see you guys on the next update.

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EPT Update No. 4

OK, let's do a short "who's sitting who":

Main Room

Table 1-
Seat 1: Alexander Stevic (winner EPT Barcelona), Seat 8: Ram Vaswani

Table 2 (televised)-
Seat 6: Tony G. (the dangerous trash-talker), Seat 7: Greg Raymer (WSOP 2004 champion), Seat 8: Martin Vallo, Seat 9: Yevgeniy Kafelnikov (former tennis pro, now high-stakes poker player)

Table 3-
Seat 3: Dave Ulliott, Seat 4: Martin Pollak, Seat 8: Martin Deknijff, Seat 9: Julian Gardner

Table 4-
Seat 2: Willie Tann, Seat 7: Luca Pagano, Seat 8: Angel Blanco Puras (winner World Heads Up 2004 in Barcelona)

Table 5-
Seat 1: Barny Boatman, Seat 2: Surinder Sunar

Table 26-
Seat 2: Alan Betson, Seat 4: Noah Boeken (winner EPT Copenhagen)

Table 6-
Seat 7: Rob Hollink (who has already laid down kings before the flop!)

Left Room

Table 7-
Seat 2: Markus Golser, Seat 4: Robert Mizrachi (winner Main Event 2004 Master Classics), Seat 5: Pepe Klinger

Table 9-
Seat 1: Rumit Somaiya, Seat 3: Peter Dalhuijsen, Seat 5: Pascal Perrault (winner EPT Vienna)

Table 10-
Seat 3: Melanie Lofthouse, Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov

Table 11-
Seat 4: Dave Colclough

Table 14-
Seat 7: Gus Hansen

Table 15:
Seat 1: Simon Trumper, Seat 9: Steve Vladar

Right Room

Table 17-
Seat 2: Patrick Bruel (the famous singer), Seat 9: Joachim Sanejstra

Table 18-
Seat 8: David Benyamine, Seat 9: Joe Beevers

Table 19-
Seat 3: Vickey Coren

Table 20-
Seat 1: Justin Bonomo, Seat 4: Erich Kollmann

Table 21-
Seat 4: Xuyen Pham, Seat 8: Erik Vandenburg, Seat 9: John Gale

Table 22-
Seat 4: Erik Sagstrom, Seat 8: Marcel Luske, Seat 9: John Kabbaj

Table 23-
Seat 4: Andreas Harnemo

Table 24-
Seat 9: Isabelle Mercier

Table 25-
Seat 3: Garry Bush, Seat 8: Ross Boatman, Seat 9: Daniel Larsson

Apologies in advance for any important names that I may have missed - I can only hope that it won't be many. Also, all tables are nine-handed. Anyway, back in a moment.

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EPT Update No. 3

With no less than 206 entrants, the first EPT Grand Final can already be considered a success. All the big names in European poker are here for this prestigious happening, creating a total prize pool of about 2 million euros. With if I'm not mistaken 32% for first place, winning the title should be rewarded with over €600,000 - not bad for just a couple of days' work. What's more, in addition to the prize money, there's fame and prestige to be gained - not to mention some huge sponsorship deals for those who manage to do well here. We have started with 10,000 in chips, and the blinds are relatively small at 25 and 50. Of course, this is a freeze-out, and levels will be increased every 90 minutes.

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EPT Update No. 2

We are just two hours away from the start of the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. The weather herre is superb, the girls are looking great (outside of the casino as well as inside; Monaco just seems to get them all in top shape), and we already have a long line of players waiting to register for the event. World champion Greg "FossilMan" Raymer is here again, some of the best players in Europe like Marcel Luske, Devilfish, Kirill Gerasimov and a large group of top Scandinavian pros have gathered here, and the winner from the Deauville event, soft-spoken American Brandon Schaefer, has not just brought his buddy Carl Olson, but also his very own mother to join him. The venue of this final has three rooms. The main one has a large televised stage, a small space for the tournament directors and members of the press, and a total of seven tables, including the televised one. Both on the left and right of this room there's an open entrance to the other rooms, where the walls are decorated with pictures of some well-known tournament stars, and that carry an additional 19 tables. If my information is correct, the number of entrants is limited to 260. Now, I don't expect we will get that many entrants, but anywhere from 150 to 200 players should be possible I guess, creating a prize pool of over 1.5 million euros probably. In an hour or two, you guys will hear from me again.

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EPT Update No. 1

Just a couple of days ago, you guys could follow my reports on the EPT from Vienna in this place. Now, we have all gathered in Monaco for the Grand Final of the European Poker Tour season 1. All winners of the first six EPT events are here, as they have automatically qualified for this final because of their win. In fact, if my information is correct, all runners-up have automatically qualified as well. In addition to these players who have already proven their abilities in earlier events, we have a large group of experienced pros, and also many people who may be a bit less experienced, but who want to test their abilities against the best pros or are here simply to try and "take a shot". The buy-in for the Grand Final is no less than €10,000, which is quite drastic for European standards, but we can expect a rather large field nonetheless. In fact, I would be very surprised if despite this large buy-in we will not have 160 or 170 entrants, and in fact about 200 players may be a more reasonable estimate.

So, we are all in Monte Carlo, Monaco now, a beautiful place I had never been before. The place is luxurious and obviously attracts the wealthy people and the nouveau riche, but it is also very easy to feel at home here, because it is so small and everything is within walking distance. The event is not staged at the beautiful casino, but in a large place located immediately next to it: a great choice, as the room is large and there is more than enough space to host the large number of players we are expecting. The stage for the Televised Table has been set already, and right now there are some satellites going for tomorrow's event. Day one of the Grand Final will start at 2 p.m local time. It will be played over four days, the final being Saturday 19th, 5 p.m. local time. As before, I will try to keep you informed about the players, the hands and the stories, and again as before, I will try to be as fast and as accurate as possible. From Monte Carlo, I say: Good night, see you all tomorrow.