1.47pm: Break time
That’s the end of the level. Players are now on a 15 minute break.
1.46pm: De Meulder forced to chop
What’s in your average young player’s three-betting range? Well, it turns out it’s pretty much identical to your average EPT San Remo’s cold-calling range. Julien Riou raised to 2,800 in the hijack and Mattias De Meulder three-bet to 8,600 from the small blind. Riou’s call took them to a flop of J♣ 10â™ 7♦ and then it kicked off. De Meulder checked, Riou made it 11,000 and De Meulder moved all in. Riou called and they turned over …. the same hand. De Meulder had been three betting with Jâ™ 10♥ ; Riou had J♦ 10♣ . Chop it up. — HS
1.45pm: ElkY regains chip lead
ElkY has now taken the chip lead, scooping another big pot. This time it was Jorma Nuutinen, a PokerStars qualifier from Finland who got on the wrong end and is now out of the tournament.
They had seen a flop of Qâ™ 6â™ 2♥ and ElkY bet 6,700 getting a call from Nuutinen. Both then checked the 9â™ , but on the 2♣ river Nuutinen checked and ElkY put in a tower of yellow 5,000 chips – about 90,000 which more than covered Nuutinen’s remaining 22,200.
The man from Finland thought for a minute or two and called, only to be shown Aâ™ 2â™ for the nut flush. Nuutinen mucked, but seemed to suggest to a neighbout he had pocket jacks. — SY
1.40pm: ElkY restraints
ElkY’s arms are huge. That’s the opinion of most people watching him. The magic man has been bulking up and his upper arms are ripped – I think is the expression. He wears a metallic bracelet around his wrist, about an inch and a half wide, that sparkles and shines like his sunglasses and peroxide hair. It could be to stop his arms lifting up into the air by themselves.
The space-aged champion is unstoppable this afternoon and evidently the aura of wonder is still here. A few hands ago he leaned forward to count the chips of an opponent who leant back so ingratiatingly he nearly handed over his chips without a fight. Like big spiders, or Darth Vader, people know to keep out of the way.
ElkY opened for 3,500 which Vitali Babich called for a flop of 3♥ A♦ J♦ . Both checked that for a K♦ turn. Babich made it 4,000 and ElkY called as easy as the rest of us yawn. The river came 10♥ . Now Babich checked. ElkY peeled off 6,600. Babich counted out the call and paid to see whether or not ElkY had something. He did. Aâ™ 10â™ , better than anything Babich could show. ElkY up to 250,000. — SB.
1.38pm: Left his luck in Ireland
James Mitchell, who won the Irish Open Poker Championships over Easter weekend, had been eliminated. All the chips went in pre-flop with Mitchell holding J♥ Jâ™ to Cesar Pimenta Caio’s A♥ K♦ . The board ran 3â™ Q♣ J♦ 9♦ 10♥ to make a set for Mitchell but Caio rivered a gutshot straight to claimm the pot and Mitchell’s curly scalp. –MC
1.35pm: Good win for Marc
After a seemingly bad start Marc Goodwin has got his stack going back in the right direction with a double-up to 48,000. Fabrizio Ascari raised to 4,500 before Goodwin shoved for 22,500. Call. Showdown:
Ascari: Q♣ 10♣
Goodwin: 7♠7♣
The board ran 9â™ 9♦ 4♣ 6â™ 7♥ . Full house good for the Brit’s double. -MC
1.30pm: Blind battle
Luke Keay’s stack has been heading south since the start of play. Earlier he bluffed off some chips to Noack Dirk with king high and now he’s handed some to Swedish neighbor Jakob Karlsson.
They were in the blinds and the river was out and 40,000 was already in the middle. Keay had 25,000 chips over the line and Karlsson was thinking about the call. He did call and Keay revealed Kâ™ 7â™ . Karlsson opened A♦ Aâ™ and took the pot. Keay down to 40,000, Karlsson up to 140,000. — MC
1.27pm: Akkari out
Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari is out. Details to follow (hopefully) — SY
1.25pm: Spina spins up
Stefano Spina, a PokerStars qualifier from Italy, opened for 3,200 and Daniele Amatruda, who had already tangled twice with Jason Mercier to his left, raised to 8,000 from the button. Call. On the 7♥ Qâ™ A♥ flop Spina made it 10,200. Call. The turn was 7♦ and this time Spina made it 20,000 – too much for Amatruda.– SY
1.20pm: Not this time, Fatima
Team PokerStars Pro Fatima Moreira de Melo called a 3,700 raise from Biagio Morciano. They saw a K♦ 8♣ 9♥ flop, and Moreira de Melo mucked when Morciano continued with a bet of 5,200. — SY
1.15pm: Bust outs aplenty
As usual there is an early run for the exit as the short stacks try to get busy. This time it was Oleh Okhotskyi all in with A-Q against Dutchman Henk Lindeman with 8-8. The board ran a Dutch-friendly 5-3-J-6-7 and the man from Ukraine is out. — SY
1.10pm: Baekke getting busy
Emiliano Conti raised under the gun to 2,700 and got calls from Marcello Scaglione, Vitali Babich in the small blind and EPT Snowfest winner Allan Baekke in the big. The flop was 3♦ 5â™ 8♣ , Scaglione checked and Baekke bet 6,500 to take the pot. He has ElkY for company at the table, which will surely be one to watch today. — SY
1.05pm: RasZi down
Lex Veldhuis is out. He raised to 2,600 from the hijack and Luca Cainelli re-raised to 8,000 from the button. A three bet is simply an invitation for a four bet to Veldhuis, so he shoved all in for his 30,000-odd. Cainelli called with his aces – why not? – and Veldhuis’ A-10 couldn’t catch up. — HS
1pm: De Meulder on the march
Mattias De Meulder seemed to learn enough from his first day at EPT San Remo to know that what looks strong isn’t necessarily so. He was a non-believer in a recent pot against Mauro Palazzo – and he was right to be doubtful.
De Meulder raised to 2,800 from early position and Palazzo called from late position, as did Roni Molchansky in the bid blind. The three of them went to a flop of 3♥ 6♣ 9♦ and Molchansky checked. De Meulder bet 4,100 and then Palazzo announced a raise, making it 10,600 to go. Molchansky folded but De Meulder called and they were heads up to a Q♣ turn.
De Meulder checked and then Palazzo bet 7,000. De Meulder didn’t find anything suspicious about the small bet and called. The river was 10â™ and after De Meulder checked, Palazzo also gave up, tabling 5♣ 5♥ . De Meulder checked whether that had connected in any way and after he had established that the answer was “No”, he tabled K♦ 9♣ . His pair of nines were good. — HS
12.55pm: Tough table, tough start
Team PokerStars Pro and organizer of EPT San Remo Luca Pagano wasn’t able to pull any favours to ensure an easy table draw today. He has Team PokerStars Online member Alfio Battisti sat directly to his right and further in that direction are Joe Serok, Andrew Chen and Roger Spets. It wasn’t long before he tangled with two of them as well to the detriment of his stack.
Andrew Chen opened the pot with a raise to 3,000 and was called by Joe Serok in the cut-off and Pagano in the big blind. All three checked the 10♣ 8â™ 7♣ flop to see the Q♦ turn. Serok bet 6,500 when checked to him and only Pagano called to go to the 2♣ river where he check-called a 14,000 bet from the American. Serok tabled Kâ™ Q♣ and Pagano mucked. Pagano down to 32,000, Serok up to 91,000. –MC
12.50pm: Minieri busted
Dario Minieri is out. The local hero was crippled in a hand with king-queen. Minieri had draws up to the eyeballs but missed them all against an ace-nine top pair. Then, finding pocket jacks, Minieri moved all-in only to be called by ace-king which caught the board. With a “good luck everyone,” Minieri was on the rail. — SB.
12.45pm: Berg on ice
Frenchman Michel Abecassis was staring at the flop of 8♣ 5♣ 6♦ . He’d checked, Johan Berg checked but Riku Koivurinne had made it 4,200 to play.
Abecassis thought for a while before raising to 14,800. The dealer seemed to want to know how much it was but Abecassis shrugged and suggested he look. Berg didn’t want to look and folded immediately, and after a minute Koivurinne did the same. Abecassis wins a pot worth 15,000 in the first few hands. — SB.
12.40pm: Nacho Nacho
Nacho Barbero’s day has got off to the best start possible – a double up in the first level. Sanzio Camagni raised, Barbero shoved, Camagni called. It was pocket fours for Camagni and ace-king for Barbero. Two aces on turn and river decided it in the Argentinian Team PokerStars Pro’s favour. — HS
12.35pm: Full prize structure announced
As hinted at below, the full payout structure for EPT San Remo has now been announced. The best place to find full details is the payout structure and prizewinners page. — HS
12.32pm: Early match ups
As usual the table draw has thrown up some interesting groupings. Team PokerStars Pro Lex Velduis shares the same table as fellow Team Pro Jose Barbero. Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo sits alongside Stefan Mattsson and the elderly Italian statesman Gianni Giaroni.
In the main tournament area we have two former EPT champions in Italian favourite Salvatore Bonavena (Prague two years ago) and Christophe Benzimra (Warsaw this season).
Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari – here all the way from Brazil – shares the same felt as EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee.– SY
12.30pm: We’re off
Play is now under way. What’s more, the prize pool has just dropped. The winner here will get a rather handy €1,250,000. Wow. — SY
12.20pm: Hold on
Yes, yes. We know we were supposed to start at noon. But come on, this is Italy. Players are still wandering in, bags are still being unpacked. We expect to be under way in around ten minutes. Possibly. — SY
11.30am: Back to the grindstone
Through two day one flights, yesterday and the day before, 620 players battled through nine hours of play to keep themselves afloat in San Remo. But for them, just like for the masses of media and supporters, the job has barely even started. Today is day two, of a scheduled seven, and the competition will only get more fierce.
As I write, the scene inside Casino San Remo is one of peculiar calm. A couple of tournament staff are carrying bags of chips to tables; one person is mopping the floor. Outside, two security men wearing berets (and possibly packing heat) are holding up the hundreds of anxious participants awaiting their opportunity to come inside and pace nervously, riffle chips and grow scared.
Play is due to begin at noon, so expect a resumption at about 12.30pm. In the spare time, take a look back at wraps from yesterday’s day 1B and Thursday’s day 1A to learn how Michael Eerhart, ElkY, Alexey Rybin, Manuel Coppola, Dermot Blain all amassed stacks larger than 200,000. Then look at the chip count pages from day 1A and day 1B to see who is in the chasing pack, and who needs to get busy soon-ish.
There is a day two storm brewing that will be with us very shortly. It’s coming down these roads. On scooters.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in San Remo, in order of ‘Fruit Joy’ (Con Succo di Frutta) sweets eaten: Simon Young, Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey and Howard Swains.
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