Welcome to day 1b of the PokerStars EPT Dortmund…
What can you say about day1b that’s different to day 1a? The same structure, the same optimism at the start, the true feeling that everyone can win. And the same look of defeat on their faces if things go belly-up. We had all this yesterday and we’ll have it today. But there is one difference though – a kind of poker phenomena.
Not your mainstream phenomena like the aurora lights, red rain or the pyramids of Segonzano. This is one of those deeper mysteries that ordinary people have trouble believing are true – like tax refunds, Chinese poker and oompa-loompas. It has no official name, just something like ‘the day1b effect’. This is where the field at major tournaments such as these gets a hearty jolt of big name players that seemed absent on day 1a. Today is no different.
Among those playing today…
Thor Hansen
Anthony Lellouche
Nicolas Levi
George Danzer
Ben Grundy
Michael Durrer
Christian Grundtvig
Paul Testud
Peter Gould
Woody Deck
Thomas Brolin
Mikael Norinder
Rolf Slotboom
There are also a few of those with EPT pedigrees…
Pascal Perrault (EPT Vienna winner season one)
Roland de Wolfe (EPT Dublin winner season three)
Brandon Schaeffer (EPT Deauville winner season one, and Grand Final runner-up the same year)
Marcel Luske (EPT Grand Final – final table)
Frederick Hostrup (EPT Warsaw final table)
Andreas Hoivold (defending champion at the EPT Dortmund)
Markus Golser (EPT Prague final table)
Ram Vaswani (EPT Dublin winner season one)
Annette Obrestad (EPT Dublin runner-up)
Arnaud Mattern (EPT Prague winner)
Patrick Bueno (EPT Dublin final table season three)
And then there are the Team PokerStars pros out in force today, including the likes of ‘Kid Poker’ Daniel Negreanu, Noah Boeken, Luca Pagano, and recent PCA Champion ElkY.
It’s not strictly true that anyone can win – it does take something. Patience, stamina, guile and a hefty amount of skill will serve well. And whilst everyone has that to some degree it’s often lumpy and doesn’t flow all at once.
So that’s today about to begin. Low hanging cloud, fine mist then rain and now snow. It’s a good day to stay indoors, and if you’re in you may as well be in a casino.
The aim is to outlast your fellow travellers and make it through to day 2 to join the 70 who made it through day 1a, and that means playing into the early hours of the morning.
Who were those 70?
Chabot Cyrille — France — 111,100
Claudio Rinaldi — Switzerland — 71,300
Peyman Mohammadzadeh — Germany — 60,900
Ville Mattila — Finland — 57,300
Andreas Sarling — Finland — 56,500
Christopher Rossiter — UK — PokerStars qualifier — 49,200
Stefan Wrenger — 48,600
Mats Erik Iremark — Sweden — 47,700
Marcel Cesarz — Germany — PokerStars qualifier — 47,600
Diego Perez Marco — Spain — 47,400
Andrea Manganelli — Italy — 44,600
Edwin Tournier — Netherlands — PokerStars qualifier — 43,000
Jose Luis Valero — Spain — 42,800
Henrik Brockmann — Germany — 42,400
Dan Walley — UK — 41,400
Mazhar Nawab — UK — PokerStars qualifier — 40,800
Riccardo Mazzitelli — Italy — 40,700
Carter Gill — US — 39,400
Marek Kolk — Estonia — 38,900
Reijo Anttila — Finland — PokerStars qualifier — 36,700
Phillip Marmorstein — Germany — 35,500
Richard Fohrenbach — US — 34,000
Marcel Baran — Germany — 33,800
Simone Gallitti — Italy — PokerStars qualifier — 33,800
Thibaut Durand — France — 33,500
Daniel Ruiter — Netherlands — 33,400
Tobias Reinkemeier — Germany — 31,400
Sevinc Neumann — Germany — 28,800
Sjoerd Bos — Netherlands — 28,600
Marius Pospiech — Germany — 28,300
Alexandar Milanov — Russia — 28,200
Korosh Mollaie — Germany — 28,200
Giorgio Salemi — Italy — 27,500
Michael McDonald — Canada — 27,200
Daruisz Paszkiewicz — Poland — PokerStars qualifier — 25,100
Mazlum Acar — Turkey — 24,625
Jordane Beraldin –France — 24,000
Steve Jelinek — UK — PokerStars qualifier — 23,800
Redmond Lee — UK — 23,400
Ralf Werner — Germany — 22,900
Mats Rahm — Sweden — 20,400
Kees Alblas — Netherlands — 19,500
Jens Vörtmann — Germany — 19,500
Katja Thater — Germany — Team PokerStars Pro — 19,000
Thomas Petersen — Sweden — PokerStars qualifier — 17,500
Yngne Anderberg — Sweden — 17,300
Scott McLeod — US — PokerStars qualifier — 16,900
Ramzi Jelassi — Sweden — 16,500
Malte Strothmann — Germany — PokerStars qualifier — 16,500
Daniele Mazzia — Italy — 16,400
Vito Branciforte — Italy — 16,200
Matthias Guetermann — Germany — PokerStars qualifier — 14,500
Jarkko Paasisalo — Finland — PokerStars qualifier — 14,200
Leroy Soesman — Netherlands — 14,200
Christopher Hancock — US — PokerStars qualifier — 14,000
Ahmed Koc — Germany — 13,300
Sebastian Till — Germany — 12,300
Sandro Simon – Germany — 12,200
Thomas Ermer – Germany — PokerStars qualifier — 12,000
Kenneth Ljungars — Finland — 11,800
Cort Kibler-Melby — Germany — 11,100
Ronald Falk — US — PokerStars qualifier — 10,500
Vincent Gosselink — Netherlands — 9,700
Dominik Kulicki — Netherlands — PokerStars qualifier — 9,400
Vladimir Poleshchuk — Russia — 9,100
Lukasz Wasek — Poland — 7,800
Kasper Nielsen — Denmark — PokerStars qualifier — 7,400
Johannes Strassmann — Germany — 6,100
Tommy Hansen — Denmark — 5,850
Dustin Mele — US — PokerStars Passport winner — 4,300
At one end Frenchman Chabot Cyrille on over 110k. At the other our Passport winner Dustin Mele, down on chips but not low on spirit. Dustin returns tomorrow with 4,300.
***
Kara Scott speaks to the two former EPT winners – Ram Vaswani and Roland de Wolfe with some brutal truths, depending on who you believe….
Tournament update –
As impressive as today’s list of runner is one name is missing, that of Tennis legend Boris Becker. Illness has struck the former number one with incredibly bad timing, keeping Boris housebound on the instruction of doctors who refused to let him fly. Alas, Dortmund was not to be and those eagerly waiting for his arrival on the European poker scene will have to wait a little longer. But time flies and the Monte Carlo Grand Final will soon be upon us where Boris will be back; ready to convert his monster serve into something at the poker tables.
Photo © Neil Stoddart
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