Yesterday evening, as is customary, the EPT kicked off with a media tournament where all the visiting press takes a couple of hours from their hectic schedule of heavy drinking to play some poker. In truth – and I say this as a member of the press pack myself – journalists are far better drinkers than they are poker players. The standard in these media tournaments is (how can I put it?) not the best.

Until we reached Scandinavia, that is. Last night was something different. Blind stealing, check raising, rub downs, bad beats. Not only did everyone actually know the rules of the game but they knew how to exploit them. It was actually like a real poker tournament – surely an exclusive scoop worthy of any front page.

And there’s more. The winner of last night’s event earned themselves a seat in today’s main event. That man was Peter Holst, who won through from a final table that featured three players from Sweden, four from Denmark and two representing Team PokerStars: Isabelle Mercier and Chris Moneymaker.

Holst has taken his place on table one this afternoon, two seats along from The Sun’s Simon Young and sandwiched between Gunnar Osterbrod, the Scandinavian poker superstar, and Stig Tofting, the Scandinavian soccer star. Plenty for the gossip pages there.

Peter Holst, left, the media tournament winner, with Stig Tofting, Denmark international football player

At the first break, Holst is among the chip leaders. He has 20,000+. Hold the front page.

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