The total number of players has increased by one this level to 102, but the number still active has decreased to 100. It took a while to lose the first player of the day I heard a cry of, “seat open table four,” looked up to see the tournament clock displaying 24 minutes 41 seconds left in level two. The eliminated player walked past me, I diplomatically asked him for his name, but his reply of: “it’s not important,” was, given that he’s just been knocked out of an €1,100 tournament, fair enough and I didn’t press him further.
But there are some ‘names’ and indeed notables alive and kicking in this tournament, one of them just happens to be the early chip leader. Step forward Georges Yazbeck, the Lebanese player is no stranger to success on PokerStars tours, you only need to go back to March this year for his last victory as he took down event #16 at EPT London. That victory did no harm in helping Lebanon retain their status as the EPT country of the year. He also has a victory in a €2,000 no limit Hold’em side event at the 2009 EPT Grand Final and made a deep run at the EPT7 Grand Final in Madrid. He’s clearly no stranger to big buy-in tournaments then. He’s up to 57,000 here in Croatia, nearly triple the starting stack.
Whilst the triumvirate of Team PokerStars Pros may be keeping their powder dry until tomorrow due to the SCOOP main events that take place online today, ironically enough a member of Team Online is in the field today. Dale Philip has made the trip, he’s had a good first couple of levels, I’ll let him tell you about it. He’s travelling round the world this year playing poker tournaments, nothing that ground breaking there of course, it’s just he’s trying to do it with the FPPs he’s earned on PokerStars.
26k from 20k starting stack at the first break, going into bb150. Table VPIP average about 40%. #EurekaCroatia
— Dale Philip (@Daleroxxu) May 26, 2013
And a couple of Simon’s well a Simon and a Simeon complete a quartet of familiar faces. The former is Simon Hemsworth, a British cash game pro who’s had a bit of success in live tournaments but will be hoping to better his biggest cash of ÂŁ7,200 here this week. His stack has dwindled down to 16,000 after the first two levels.
As for the Simeon, that’s Simeon Todorov, one of Bulgaria’s most respected grinders. He’s had a couple of deep runs on the Eureka Poker Tour in the past, finishing 15th at Eureka Nova Gorica and 23rd at Eureka3 Czech Republic in Rozadov in March. How he’d love to covert a deep run to a final table appearance. He’s up to 23,000.
Tournament Update The players have just returned from a 15 minute break and late registration is now closed. The final number of runners for Day 1A is 103 (there must have been one very late entry), of which 101 remain. Blinds are now 75-150 and during the break tournament staff balanced the tables and most tables are now playing nine-handed. You can see chip counts of the chip leaders and the names and notables here. I’m afraid it’ll be far from exhaustive until we reach Day 2.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Croatia: Nick Wright. Photos by Ivan Dabac.
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