I counted four players sitting with unlit cigarettes in their mouths as the clock struck down; one even lunged passed me towards the door whilst hands at his table were still being playing – but when people are ready to go nothing will slow them down, and I’ve learned that standing in the way of a smoker can be seriously bad for your health. The relief of a day played is great; the urge to get to somewhere else even greater and like kids waiting for the end of day bell few players needed time to grab belongings as day 1b came to a close.
Whilst 84 players survived day 1a yesterday a slightly higher 90 made it the same distance today, two players eliminated on the very last hand. There was a sense that today would be slower and somehow it was – whether it was a different field, the effects of jetlag, or my imagination.
The second half of the sold out Copenhagen field played with a mixture of panache, panic and paranoia, in varying quantities making for highs and lows in play. Flying the flag for Team PokerStars by the close was Luca Pagano. Luca was drawn against Andy Black first thing, a matchup he was wary off given his previous with the Irishman. But whilst Black battered the game where he could he was unable to last deep into the day, eliminated before the dinner break whilst Luca rose steadily, amassing a stack of over 40k by level eight.
Luca’s fellow Team PokerStars Pros Katja Thater and Tom McEvoy were unable to emulate the Italian. First Katja fell to a nasty river card that gave her opponents trips and stranded Katja with her aces. McEvoy meanwhile, making his second appearance in Copenhagen wearing the PokerStars colours, lasted only a short time longer.
Gino Alacqua, making a name for himself these days since his runner-up triumph in Prague, steered his way through varying degrees of opposition toughness. Sat with a round table of youngsters to begin with he soon found himself up against talented Dane Theo Jorgensen and others but wound up the day on 75,900 – the leader on the day.
Tony G, in his first EPT event, was unable to make it the two hours to the first break. The man of reputable might, Tony gave the vBlog a few things to ponder to as he always does. We’ll have to hope he returns for more EPT stops to hear more.
By the dinner break it was Frenchman Nicolas Levi who was out ahead. Following the likes of Luca Pagano and Steve Jelinek he gave his thoughts to the vBlog team before play began, citing caution when it came to the volatile nature of the locals. Yet for the first half of the day it was these southern and western Europeans parting the waves. Where were these ‘sick’ and ‘aggressive’ kids we’d heard so much about?
Swede Peter Hedlund provided the comic relief, caught in part by the vBlog team, whilst fellow Swede William Thorson joined the mighty ranks of professional poker playing railbirds. Their less famous brethren, including PokerStars Passport winner Dustin Mele and St Louis native Timothy Vance, were in brighter moods. Vance, playing with his daughter’s picture tucked inside his cap, was down to perilous at the last break but returned from a cigarette break with extra wind in his sails, climbing as high as 39k before settling around the 28k mark.
Dustin meanwhile found his double up moment in a hand against Omar Adel, his A-J getting the better of Adel’s A-6 to leave him with chips for tomorrow. You might remember that Dustin returned as the short stack for day two in Dortmund so this stands as progress, and the young New Yorker is not one to lie down and give up.
That was then, this is now. 90 players bagged up and are gone, or have left the tournament room at least. They may form part of the low rumble coming from the lobby bar. In terms of today’s chip leader that role lies with Theo Jorgensen but overall the position is held by Sweden’s Peter Eastgate who finished yesterday slightly better off on 79,700. Maybe the locals are in charge after all.
For a full run down on combined chip counts from both day 1a and day 1b click here.
And for anyone who may have missed posts form today’s play you can catch up here, including the vBlogs featuring Tony G, Nicolas Levi, Luca Pagano and classic Peter Hedlund…
Players ready for the start of day 1b
Chip counts and changes at dinner
The qualifier road to Copenhagen
A long way to come not to have fun
The Hedlund system in action on day 1b
The good, the bad, the double ups
Day 2 will start tomorrow afternoon at the usual time of 2pm local time. Until then here’s a final wrap up for day 1b by the vBlog team…
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