First faller: Peter Gould
by Simon Young

We’ve been playing for nearly an hour, and already lost two players. First out of the door was England’s Peter Gould, whose pocket jacks bit the dust leaving him with just a handful of chips to play with. He lasted two more hands. But he was philosophical in defeat, telling me: “Oh well, if you are going to go you may as well go early. Just a pity we are not near a nice beach.”

Play has been entertaining so far. Over on Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman’s table, two players got a little confused during a particular hand. Turns out one had K-K, the other A-A. Pre-flop raises and re-raises were called, followed by more betting on a J-4-J flop. Both slowed on the 7 turn then after the river 8, Mr K-K threw in two black 100 chips into a pot of 7,000 or so – a strange bet, explained when he said: “Oh, I thought they were 1,000 chips. Can I change it?” Of course not, and the bet stood. Called by sceptical Mr A-A, who was given the pot. But he then said: “What, is that for me? Wasn’t there a K on the flop?” Er, no! Ross Boatman is licking his lips.

Watching the confusion: Ross Boatman

Strong-willed: Magnus Petersson
More K-K action elsewhere, this time on Magnus Petersson’s table. The Swede, who won in Copenhagen’s EPT in January, is sporting PokerStars colours here and got into a bit of a pot with aggressive Dane Martin Wendt. On an ace-high flop Wendt threw in a decent pot-sized bet, but faced a minimum re-raise from Petersson. The Dane went into the tank and reluctantly folded, very possibly with an ace. Petersson showed the K-K – a great bet to knock Wendt off? We may never know.

Ace up his sleeve?: Martin Wendt
At the next break, Petersson let me into his thinking: “Martin is a very good player, and I knew that if he had a weak ace he would have to fold. It is likely he had one, so I was pleased he put it down!”

Meanwhile Britain’s “Mr Cool” Marc Goodwin is already providing some entertainment on his table. After warning a player not to raise because he was on the button, Goodwin duly called when he did up the stakes. The flop brought two kings. Goodwin then produced some great speech play designed to make it look like he was bluffing about holding a king. His opponent fell for it, called the bets – and Goodwin duly showed the king for pretty-looking trips.

Cool customer: Marc Goodwin
Entries for today has been confirmed at 257, which added yesterday’s 237 makes a total field of 494 – easily the biggest EPT entry so far.

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