EPT Dortmund Live Updates Day 1A

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01:55

Still time for one last great move from the imperious Mats Iremark. Tobias Reinkemeier bets 4,500 into a pot of . Iremark thinks before raising to 12,000. His opponent, deep in thought, eventually lets it go. Mats asks him what he thought he had before flipping over .

And a great way to end the first day's play. See y'all tommorow.

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01:43: The card room has now descended into a little bit of bickering and general slow motion low action play. With the end in sight nobody wants to be eliminated in the dying minutes so as guns are laid down we get ready for Day 1b where the fresh players will do it all again.

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01:32

Bodies everywhere now as the field shrinks to 77.

The battle of the German women was eventually won by Katya Thater, her all in with called by Christiane Klecz with and the flop of sends her packing with just under 20 minutes of play remaining.

The next hand, Juna Helppi who has played about one hand an hour all day pushes from the cut-off; but his is taken down by from the big blind to send the Finn 20 yards across the hall to a SNG seat.

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01:11

Tempers are flaring as the day draws to a fiery conclusion.

John Chua calls an all-in from Sevinc Neumann. Neumann's gave her Aces full on a board of but Chua was told she had 7,000 left after a 3,000 flop bet. But he was forced to pay 10,000 on the river as she had miscounted her stack. The floor manager was called but he was made to pay, much to his annoyance.

The roars from the cash tables are getting louder as more and more players fall by the wayside; enticing, but after getting up at 3am we wont be bestowing our chips upon any pros tonight.

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01:10: The cash games and SNGs in the card room do look rather good. We reckon a sit down after one of the EPT days of play is in order...

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01:04: Marek Kolk doubles up, getting it all in with on a high flop. He is looking good against his opponent's as he rakes in the chips.

Ulrika Skönnemark finds those sevens harder to crack however, getting it all in pre-flop with against Straßmann's , seeing no overcard peeled and no straight form. She declares 'nice hand' and gracefully leaves the tournament.
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00:47 Oh my oh my. It is the final level. This means sleep is near.

Level 8
	300/600 (75)
	86
	23,023

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00:36: On a flop of , Maz Nawab re-raises Steve Jelineck all in for 16.5k more (Steve has put 4k down). Steve calls with for middle pair and flush draw, and Maz shows for the lead. Jelinek turns extra outs with a but a river is useless and Nawab doubles up nicely. Brit on Brit is never fun in an EPT - but at least one of them didn't go. Come on the Brits!

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00:23

Kravchenko moves all-in with on a board of . On fire Tom Hansen calls with and turn and river cards let Hansen's nines hold up. And doesn't he know it as he lets out a roar which is heard in the press box two floors up. Kravchenko, who hadn't uttered a word all night, doesn't break that trend and walks quietly to the exit. Still, if you cashed over $1.8million dollars at last year's WSOP Main Event would you care about a poxy €8,000 buy-in?

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00:05: Veldhuis re-raises Walczewski all in. The stacks are pretty similar, though Veldhuis would be the one with potential to hit the rails should this situation blow up. After pain, Walczewski calls flipping . "JEEZ! What were you thinking about?' says a defeated Veldhuis with . He hits the rails to be bombarded by cameras wanting to interview him. Well, I can tell you what happened - he didn't want a call, but he got one anyway, then the hand played itself.

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23:55

Helppi complains to the dealer that he has been under-paid on a split pot before Mats Rahm defuses the situation by reminding the Finn he hasn't included his small blind in his calculations.

"I need a break" says the weary dealer.

"Then take a kit-kat" replies Tom Hansen, still bouncing from his recent triple-up.

The dealer then mis-deals the next hand, prompting frustration from Thater; Hansen adds "You should go take that break now." He's not the only one who needs it, Thomas.

All-ins all over the shop now, Leroy Soesmann and Marcel Cesarz were two lucky escapees when they turned over and respectivley to split a large pot.

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23:50: Another three way pot goes down on this flop: . Poleshchuk shoves all his chips in forcing both remaining short stacks to put their lives on the line or fold. Both oblige - Pavilicek with and a little less short than Pavilicek is Hancock with . Hancock doubles-and-a-halves-up with an insignificant turn and river, Pavilicek heads for the rails, and, like Kravencho, Poleschuk shrugs and moves on...

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23:45

The flop looks like this: and short stack Rahm pushes with , shorter stack Tom Hansen calls with , and Kravencho (not small at all) calls with . Hansen holds up and triples up, Rahm wins the side pot and Kravencho shrugs and moves on.

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23:42

Level 7
	200/400 (50)
	110
	18,000

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23:25

Marcel Luske is looking forward to playing tommorow and is looking extremely dapper in his customary suit. A class act even when he's not at the tables.

The Brits are dropping like flies but Mazhar Nawab is still flying the flag despite complaining of tiredness and a cold run of cards. Just bluff them, Mazhar, it's what everyone else is doing.

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23:10

Well played strong hands are worth respect just like the sick re-bluffs we've witnessed tonight. Brockmann somehow persauded Fishbein to call his all in with on a high board. I wish I could exude weakness when I had strong hands instead of grinning and giggling.

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23:08

I sat down with Michael Keiner, shook his hand, said 'Hi Michael Keiner, I'm Lucy' and proceeded to ask him about three questions in one confused sentence before he simply replied 'Deustch?'.

My complete and utter LACK of German (except I repeat 'danke schoen' to everybody here in an attempt to show some sort of effort) did not prevent me from working out that saying 'Nein Deustch, English?' would make sense here, and he laughed. Okay, so we were drawing dead here, so to speak.

I could pick out the occassional word in what he tried to tell me, such as 'live' and 'online' (I'm good like that) but we had to resort to other methods.

So we proceeded to do a 2 minute interview in alternative languages using drawings and hand movements.

The overall outcome of this interview, for your amusement, is that Michael didn't pay to enter the event due to sponsorship, and isn't particularly bothered about not getting thorugh to Day 2. In fact, he is going to go home and play online poker.

So there you have it - the language barrier is truly nothing. Okay, so maybe something, but 'texas hold em' is the same worldwide and that's all that really matters this week.

PS: Word of the day is quitoong = receipt :-D

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22:54

Kravchenko is on fire. His 2,000 to go from early position forces Alexander Jagodik all-in with from the big blind.

The Russian calls and turns over and a board of sees him proplel even further up the field.

Katja Thater then sees her 900 raise disappear as he makes it 2,500 to go from the small blind the very next hand. The German mucks. It's just not her day.

Speaking of bad luck, Tommy Hansen breathed a sigh of relief to be moved from the left of Mats Iremak's 30k stack, only to sigh in dispair as he is put bang in the middle of Helppi and that man Kravchenko. Could it be worse? Maybe if he bumps into Boris on day three.

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22:36

Level 6
	150/300 (25)
	124
	15,967

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22:21

Cameras galore as Kravchenko pushes but gets no caller. His metronomic Russian face hasn't changed since then as he re-builds his stack with meticulous precision. But we're sure Boris could play better. Got to be him on Negreanu's left tommorow for some German fireworks.

Meanwhile, aggression continues to rise as Ville Mattila's 600 raise is treated with disdain. Tommy Pavlicek puts in 2,000 from the cut-off but before he could put his chips over the line Ahmed Koc re-re raises to 5,000. Matilla lays down before Pavlicek thinks, and thinks...and thinks. The clock is called as he eventually lays down much to his anger and the tables suprise.

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22:16

Sorel Mizzi got his short stack all in with against , only to see a high flop. A quick standard 'are they tilting at the cash tables?' and 'are they staggering around the bar?' search yielded no results so we think Sorel has left the building.

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21:57

Boris Spotting

Number Of Boris Cover Mags In Press Room: Approx 35 at last count

Number Of Boris Cover Mags At Bar: Approx 19 at last count

Number Of Boris Cover Mags In Card: Approx 183 at last count

Yeah, they sort of like him here. I've started getting compulsive twitches when I see him staring at me from the cover of German Poker mag 'Ace'. Sometimes I have to turn the magazine over before I can continue functioning normally.

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21:39

144 players still going at it, but few will be topping Mats Iremark's stack. The Swede makes it 700 to go from the cut-off which is flat called by Hans Eskilsson. A flop of sees Iremark lead out for 2,000 and called. A on the turn and he bets the same amount, same result. The hits the felt on the river, and Mats faces a 3,500 bet. He thinks an eternity before calling with and his straight takes down Eskilsson's . Superhuman call which makes you realise how far behind us mortals really are.

Meanwhile, a potential blockbuster table building with Helppi, Klecz and Hollink joined by 2007 WSOP Main Event Final Tablist Alex Kravchenko.

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21:30

Level 5
	150/300
	135
	14,700

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21:19

Scandanavian whizz-kid (do they come any other way?) Erik Skarp faces a river bet of 800 from a pre-flop raiser on a board of .

Of course with he isn't folding and his opponent turns over a stone cold bluff. Is there any way to stop these Swedes?

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21:11

Today's final starting list complete with nationalities:

Full Name Country
Matias Tournier Argentina
Erich Kollmann Austria
Alex Leviev Austria
Jethro Wicha Austria
Dirk van Luijk Belgium
John Chua Canada
Trevor Fishbein Canada
Brent Gibson Canada
Michael McDonald Canada
Sorel Mizzi Canada
Tommy Pavlicek Canada
Martin El-Kher Denmark
Tommy Hansen Denmark
Kasper Nielsen Denmark
Peter Petersen Denmark
Daniel Sandau Denmark
Marek Kolk Estonia
Reijo Anttila Finland
Juha Helppi Finland
Ikka Koskinen Finland
Juha Jaako Lauttamus Finland
Tommi Lindfors Finland
Kenneth Ljungars Finland
Rino Mathis Finland
Ville Mattila Finland
Jarkko Paasisalo Finland
Mika Paasonen Finland
Ilari Sahamies Finland
Andreas Sarling Finland
Jordane Beraldin France
Chabot Cyrille France
Thibaut Durand France
Thomas Fougeron France
Laurent Iuncker France
Patrice Roussel France
Marcel Baran Germany
Jan Boye Germany
Henrik Brockmann Germany
Marcel Cesarz Germany
Senol Dede Germany
Stefan Ebbing Germany
Jörg Engels Germany
Horst Erfurth Germany
Thomas Ermer Germany
Stefan Fuchs Germany
Matthias Guetermann Germany
Stefan Hachmeister Germany
Andreas Hachmeister Germany
Kai Herold Germany
Franz Josef Josten Germany
Cort Kibler-Melby Germany
Ahmed Koc Germany
Adrian Koy Germany
Moritz Kranich Germany
Andreas Krause Germany
Markus Lehmann Germany
Angelika Mannsfeld Germany
Nils Mazeaud Germany
Peyman Mohammadzadeh Germany
Korosh Mollaie Germany
Sevinc Neumann Germany
Thang Duc Nguyen Germany
Marco Noll Germany
Herbert Otto Germany
Walter Porschen Germany
Marius Pospiech Germany
Tobias Reinkemeier Germany
Steve Roepke Germany
Sebastian Ruthenberg Germany
Maurice Schepp Germany
Andre Schneider Germany
Andre Schützenhofer Germany
Sandro Simon Germany
Haward Speer Germany
Johannes Strassmann Germany
Malte Strothmann Germany
Katja Thater Germany
Sebastian Till Germany
Christian Toboc Germany
Jan-Christoph von Halle Germany
Jens Vörtmann Germany
Christian Walczewski Germany
Ralf Werner Germany
Berd Westhoff Germany
Michael Wiertzema Germany
Waldemar Winke Germany
Sebastian Zink Germany
Kees Alblas Holland
Kuremszki Csaba Hungary
Szikrai Istvàn Hungary
Dalibor-Oliver Zjacic Hungary
Jacques Kieft Ireland
Gino Alacqua Italy
Christiano Blanco Italy
Vito Branciforte Italy
Simone Gallitti Italy
Mimmo Giacomelli Italy
Alessio Isaia Italy
Andrea Manganelli Italy
Daniele Mazzia Italy
Riccardo Mazzitelli Italy
Dario Minieri Italy
Roberto Monti Italy
Luigi Rizzi Italy
Giorgio Salemi Italy
Alberto Spigolon Italy
Carmello Vasta Italy
Sjoerd Bos Netherlands
Michiel Brummelhuis Netherlands
Xiaobiao Cai Netherlands
Joep Durkstra Netherlands
Cornelius Eldering Netherlands
Vincent Gosselink Netherlands
Olvedo Heinze Netherlands
Oguz Helvaci Netherlands
Timo Hendriks Netherlands
Rob Hollink Netherlands
Remko Kleijnen Netherlands
Dominik Kulicki Netherlands
Govert Metaal Netherlands
Ciric Morade Netherlands
Eric Toby Newton Netherlands
Yven Poortinga Netherlands
Daniel Ruiter Netherlands
Daniel Smidt Netherlands
Leroy Soesman Netherlands
Gijsbertus Spijkers Netherlands
Erban Tas Netherlands
Edwin Tournier Netherlands
Thierry van der Berg Netherlands
Steven van Zadelhoff Netherlands
Lex Veldhuis Netherlands
Nils Kristian Bratteteig Norway
Pål Hjertenes Norway
Maciej Mazur Poland
Daruisz Paszkiewicz Poland
Lukasz Wasek Poland
Alexander Kostritsyn Russia
Alexander Kravchenko Russia
Alexander Kuzmin Russia
Alexandar Milanov Russia
Vladimir Poleshchuk Russia
Andrej Nagy Slovakia
Oliver Berman South Africa
Roberto Kay South Africa
Markus Lifman South Africa
Antonio Amoros Spain
Victor Escudero Spain
Jose Miguel Espinar Spain
Juan Lapido Spain
Francisco Lopez Spain
Simon Munoz Spain
Diego Perez Marco Spain
Jose Luis Valero Spain
Yngne Anderberg Sweden
Anthony Chatelain Sweden
Hans Eskilsson Sweden
Mats Erik Iremark Sweden
Ramzi Jelassi Sweden
Simon Johansson Sweden
Henrik Kask Sweden
Johannes Korsar Sweden
Gustav Lundholm Sweden
Jonas Ödman Sweden
Rifat Palevic Sweden
Thomas Petersen Sweden
Mats Rahm Sweden
Erik Skarp Sweden
Ulrica Skönnemark Sweden
Johan Storakes Sweden
Nedzib Suman Sweden
Anton Allemann Switzerland
Rolf Marmann Switzerland
Phillip Marmorstein Switzerland
Claudio Rinaldi Switzerland
Mazlum Acar Turkey
Graham Clarkson UK
Jason Hackett UK
Steve Jelinek UK
Redmond Lee UK
Mazhar Nawab UK
Christopher Rossiter UK
Richard Teatum UK
Gareth Teatum UK
Julian Thew UK
Dan Walley UK
Derek Dix US
Richard Fohrenbach US
Carter Gill US
Christopher Hancock US
Stuart Hosen US
Scott McLeod US
Dustin Mele US
Ronald Falk US
Alexander Jagodik USA
Viet Hung Tran Vietnam
Bülent Karsli unknown
Christiane Klecz unknown

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20:50

Omaha specialist Rob Hollink is going well and called Christiane Klecz's 550 early position raise from the cut-off. Not convinced, Juha Helppi sticks in 2,500 from the big blind but Klecz is not to be messed with and comes over the top with another 6,000. Hollink and Finnish legend Helppi both quickly go away and the German adds to her commanding stack. That's girl power of the highest order.

Meanwhile, Sorel Mizzi goes into his dinner break to much on a Bratwurst and wonder how he is going to turn this one around. I'm sure he will find a way.

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20:29

We continue on Level 4 for the next half hour as half the field took a dinner break at the start, and have returned whilst the other half take a break.

No sooner have we finished our latest rant on Sorel Mizzi than we go downstairs to check on his progress and see just under 2000 chips sitting in front of him. Bemused, we don't have the heart to ask zangbezan where it all went wrong so we hover around the table for a few minutes until we find somebody with the full story on this quick demise.

Rinaldi raises to 600 from cut off. Mizzi re-raises to 1225 from his big blind. Rinaldi re-re-raises 2225 and an unconvinced Mizzi re-re-re-pops him all in. Rinaldi is pleased to call with and Mizzi less pleased with . The hand plays itself leaving Sorel in a sorry state.

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20:09

There's only one table to watch at the moment - even Michael Keiner is studying Mizzi, Iremark, Thater and Alex Leviev go at it.

Thater's back from her break but her 600 raise from the cut-off with couldn't change her luck and Hans Eskilsson's takes some more of her dwindling stack.

Leviev, spouse by his side, has been bullying the rest with his 22k stack for most of the level.

But Mizzi stands up to another huge raise by pushing and takes some much needed chips.

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20:00: Bad times for Mazzitelli who, with , calls short stack Valero's push with on the turn looking like this: . Of course, Valero rivers a to save his tournament life and leave Mazzitelli looking up at us shaking his head. We feel for him and give him a little nod. We've all been there Mazzi (just like we've all pushed when short, been called by the better hand and gotten lucky).

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19:55

Sorel Mizzi. Again. Carnage, aggression, etc. On his small blind with he bets out weak on the flop and is delighted when his opponent Haichmeister raises massively, committing himself to the board. Sorel promptly shoves a handfull of blue 1000 chips into the middle and his opponent chucks in his remaining stack, shaking his head when Sorel shows his better kicker to Haichmeister's . Sorel mounts his chips as Haichmeister hits the rails.

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19:48

Things are progessing well for former European Poker Rookie of the Year Mats Iremark.
He bets 750 into a board of before quipping "Do you have Ace-King?" to the pre-flop raiser. His opponent lays it down before Iremark flips over big slick himself.

Meanwhile sharing a table with Mineiri and Mizzi is all too much for poor Katja Thater, the German calling for the masseuse to ease her back pains. But she is struggling to relieve her oppenents of chips and has to go for a well-timed smoke to re-group.

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19:20

Level 4
	100/200
	174
	11,400

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18:50

Sorel Mizzi is thundering through the tournament with yet another perfectly timed raise. This time, on a board of , Sorel checked from his small blind, and after Eskilsson chucked in 800 Sorel took his time in throwing in exactly 3025. You really have got to love the random 25. A fold was the result and Sorel pulled another smirk as we were all left to wonder what he mucked (or, more specifically, if the crap he mucked was less crap than his opponnent's crap). Now that's when this game becomes an art and when I'm inspired to work on it.

A couple of familiar faces here are good to see - some British bloggers alongside some European bloggers PV have previously worked with. Of course, British pro Julian Thew is also here in Dortmund and I was personally rather chuffed when he told me he had enjoyed my random Year In Review piece, which was mixed amongst his and other pros blogs. $22 tourneys are where it's at. Or not. But they're pretty cool when you don't compare them to a €8000 EPT.

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18:21

Level 3
	75/150
	184
	10,645

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17:51

Sorel Mizzi moves all-in on a board of , and after much thought

Stefan Hachmeister folds, prompting a sly grin and wink from the Canadian. Cheeky.

On his right, little Dario Minieri does not look a happy bunny. He bets 100 on a flop of , which is flat called by Claudio Rinaldi. The arrives on the turn and Rinaldi bets 600, which Minieri promptly raises to 2,000. Instant call from the Swiss and the river sees the Italian fire out a whopping 3,450. Rinaldi calls and shows , and a red-faced Mineiri shows . Busted.

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17:14

Level 2
	50/100
	194
	10,206

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17:07

Markus Lehmann is in a spot of bother. Checked to him on a board of

he bets 800 into a pot of 1,250, which is flat called by Victor Escudero.

A on the river prompts Escudero to bet 1,500, forcing pre-flop aggressor Lehmann to back down. Perhaps caught with fingers in the till there.

But while he can nurse a short stack, four players are heading for the cash tables at the end of the first level.

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16:49

Well, no eliminations here but a lot of action. The first hand witnessed was a nice opener - a cheeky exposed on an board from middle position raiser Iremark. Under the gun bettor Mazia wasn't too pleased with his fold.

The second hand we saw was taken to showdown, with Anderberg betting UTG on every street and being called down by Lopez in the cut off. A board of was a joy for Anderberg's and Lopez mucked as a good half of his stack made its way to Anderberg.

No, it's not just the unknowns stirring up some action - Katja Thater made a monstrous raise from cut off (approx 5k) to Kasper Nielson's 1500 bet on the turn of this board: and looked neither happy or sad when Kasper mucked - nice poker face!

British legend Julian Thew had a good old think whilst looking at and a bet of 3500 from Simon Johannson. Julian chucked in 7000 and Simon made an instafold. And this is how the man becomes such a successful tournament player!

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16:20

Level 1
	25/50
	198
	10,000

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