Two of the first ladies of the EPT were drawn opposite to one another on table 10 this morning. Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier, a fully signed up member of Team PokerStars, is three seats around from Anina Gundesen, sixth in Copenhagen after qualifying in a $13 re-buy tournament. That finish made Anina the top-placed female finisher in the EPT’s two season history – and 400,000 Danish Kroner richer.
Anina Gundesen confers with Isabelle Mercier…
The early news is that Anina’s record may be under threat – potentially either by herself or her table-mate. Anina is sitting with just over 25,000 (“How did you get those?” “Aces”) while Isabelle is the likely tournament chip leader with more than 40,000.
…before Isabelle has some chip stacking to do
Victoria Coren, British journalist and broadcaster, is also in the field and just moved up to around the 20,000 mark after flopping trip fives and finding Iwan Jones with top pair to pay her off. Neil Channing, a well-known London-based pro, has just seen his tournament end when, according to him, the first trips he has seen in a major tournament for a year, ran into a higher set. Twos versus threes, for the record.
Meanwhile, the defeated and departed former World Champion Greg Raymer is back. He’s calling the feature table and arrived just in time to see Patrick Bruel, French superstar, survive a flirtation with elimination.
Nervous moments for Patrick Bruel
Bruel was all in with jacks, his opponent calls with queens, but the jack on the flop kept the singing sensation in the mix.
Greg Raymer arrives in time to congratulate Bruel on his outdraw
