Day two at the EPT Copenhagen. From the tournament room it looks grey through the windows and a trip outside for Danish fresh air requires a coat, a scarf, a hat, some kind of heater for your return and perhaps a shot of something to warm the bones. Luckily for a lot of players returning today their journey to Casino Copenhagen involved little more than pressing the right floor number in the elevator.
Having heard so much about it I was wondering if the ‘sick/aggressive’ tag lumbered on any Scandinavian players on the tour was really true. After all it literally implies a horrifying image, more than just coughing and sneezing, of something more sinister – a rabid disease that turns someone a little psychotic – at least in poker player form. It’s a serious allegation.
So what does the overnight chip count tell us? Well from 170 players seven of top 10 are Danish. 12 of top 20 are Danish and another four of those 20 are Swedish. The leading PokerStars qualifier is Tommy Pavlicek, a young Canadian from Edmonton who, well, looks Scandinavian. So the implied dominance of cliché seems to be true. Then again from 460 starting players 290 came from the three Scandinavian countries.
As you go down the list the first player from somewhere else is Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano, who with a touch of Italian elegance represents a good bet for at least another cash finish. He might not thank me for saying that as anything can happen in the next 24 hours and there are plenty of others who will feel today is their day. Just ask Markus Golser on 54,800; Alex Kravchenko or Team PokerStars Pro Bill Chen both on just over 40k.
We could have our first Afghani EPT winner in Janno Cazemier – he has 37,500. Or an Icelandic – airline pilot Runar Runarrson sits further back but with 25,400 chips to set loose on the field. We could yet have the first double EPT winner – Mike McDonald of Dortmund success has 32,500; Andreas Hoivold, Dortmund winner the year before him has 23,600; and Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken and Prague winner Arnaud Mattern are here for day two, albeit with less than 10k.
There are countless other scenarios to produce new records and I could go on and on. But today the focus is on 40 – 40 players will be paid at the EPT Copenhagen and we have only 134 players, with thick stubborn streaks and no taste for an evening off, to eliminate to get there.
Denmark’s Peter Eastgate leads the field on 79,700 whilst 169 places below him is countryman Jannick Wrang on 4,300. Play begins shortly. For a full run down of chip counts click on the link on the PokerStars blog throughout the day, or simply click here.
All photos © Neil Stoddart
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