European Poker Tour �C Barcelona Open, Day 1 'B'
Day One 'B' of the European Poker Tour's Barcelona Open settled into its rhythm much quicker than day one 'A' did, as nearly right away cards were in the air, and the players were down to business.
Today was also a much brighter day for the stars of poker to come out. Today's entrants included Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow, fresh from playing in the same U.K. version of High Stakes Poker that day one 'A' late arrival Phil Ivey had played in. Matusow looked anything but fresh as he showed up late, and couldn't get in to the casino because he had (reportedly) left his passport in Noah Boeken's apartment.
Players that did show up on time included Kenna James, 2005 WSOP champ Joe Hatchem, Marcel Luske, Gus Hansen, Andy Black, John Gale, Mel Judah, defending champ Jan Boubli, Isabel Mercier, Carl Olson, Terrance Chan, and David Plastik.
Upon Matusow's arrival, the player sitting behind him tapped him on the shoulder. It was David Plastik, and the corner of the room that held the two tables Matusow and Plastik were sitting at was dubbed the 'Loud Corner' for the next few hours, as the two players exchanged chit chat at a volume level that only Matusow and Plastik are capable of.
It was not to be for the Mouth this day, however, as by the end of level four, Mike was calling "Rebuy!" every five minutes or so, and was out soon thereafter. Other early exits on this day included Marcel Luske, Isabel Mercier, and John Gale.
With more notable players in the field, the buzz in and around the room was much more significant than the day before, and as the day wore on, Tournament Director Thomas Kremser and his staff spent more of their time shooing spectators out of the tournament area than anything else. The spectators, combined with the large press presence here resulted in nearly every player having a person, or persons right on their back as they played. Nearly all of the players took it in stride, but it will be interesting to see what happens today, especially when play gets down to just a few remaining tables. The crush of people right on top of the players reminded me a lot of the WSOP in 2005, where once play got down to about 15 tables, there were literally more press in the tournament area than players. This was one of the factors that led to the "streamlining" of the media rules for the 2006 WSOP.
Big movers on day one 'B' included Andy Black, sporting a new shaven, no sunglasses look complete with long, beaded necklaces that was fitting for the Spanish Coast. The relaxed look must have translated to the cards, as Black hit a two outer with AK on a King high flop against pocket Aces to take a huge pot. Andy was well over 40k in chips for most of the day, and ended the day on about 43,000.
Another player who had chips all day is Gus Hansen. The recently crowned newest member of 'Team Full Tilt' was up really quickly to about 35,000 chips, and that is where he stayed most of the day, with a couple momentary blips into the mid forties range. Gus finished the day with 33,200.
Two players that grinded it out all day, only to fall at the end were Joe Hachem, and Kenna James. Both were at the same table all day, and had a really tough table draw, with Carl Olson, and respected U.K. pro Mickey Wernick all on the same table. Hachem got up to maybe 25k at one stage, but slowly got grinded down, and finally took an exit with about 30 minutes to go in play. Kenna James also had a fairly up and down day, only to make a move late with a weak Ace, and run into Kings in the big blind.
Wernick was part of the biggest pot I saw all day, which had to approach 100,000 chips. Mickey and a player from Finland got two huge stacks all in on an eight high board. The young Fin, Ilari Sahamies showed Kings, and Wernick turned over Queens. That put Sahamies, who had been moving chips around all day well into the chip lead. Sahamies was the day 1 'B' chip leader with 109,500.
'I was already in the cab'.
The miracle of the day was bestowed upon American David Plastik. David made a standard raise preflop, and was called in three places. David moved in on a 10 high board with two diamonds showing, only to get called by Kenna James, and the player to his left. With the apparently psychic Noah Boeken at the next table saying 'runner runner' (but no hands revealed yet), the turn and river came both diamonds. Plastik turned over pocket eights, with the eight of diamonds, and Kenna mucked, simply saying 'no diamond'. The last player turned over two diamonds, the six, and the seven, which were no match for David's 8 high flush. David nearly quadrupled up in the hand, and went from being on life support with about 5k to just under 20k. All David could say was 'Man, I was already in the cab �C I had called the cab, it had picked me up, and I was about to shut the door.' Now, David gets to come back, and play day two. With only 18,000 in chips, however, David may want to have that cab waiting outside.
All in all, 89 reportedly survived from day one 'B' into day two. They will join the 80 or so survivors from day one 'A' back here today. Today is going to be a ridiculously long day, with upwards of 160 players having to get down to 9 for the final table. It will be interesting to see if they can even finish. Spanish law doesn't allow admission to the casino until 3pm, and everyone must be out of the casino by 5am. So, staying late today, or coming back early to play down to 9 on day three isn't really an option.
Chip Counts Entering Day Two:
Dan Pedersen 118,400
Ilari Sahamie 109,500
Javed Abrahams 99,700
Johan Nord 84,400
Matt Tyler 82,600
Ian Marmion 79,100
Robin Keston 76,000
Andras Karkus 71,900
Kristian Ulriksen70,300
A. Helland 69,700
Alexander Stevic63,900
Philip Thorel 57,600
Peter Dalhuisen 57,300
Andre Akkari 56,600
Michael Keiner 53,600
Ross Johnson 51,700
Abel Meyberg 51,500
Bo Sehljtedt 50,300
Abu Davas 49,800
David Gregory 49,800
Bill Fitzpatrick 48,400
Andres Osberstrom 47,800
Juha Helppi 47,600
Johnny Lodden 47,100
Ian Woodley 46,700
Bjorn Erik 45,700
Roland De Wolfe 44,700
Seval Hageland 44,700
Andrew Black 42,900
Adam Stoneham 42,600
Brice Van der Vollen 42,600
Peter Roche 42,400
William Thorson 41,800
Fuat Can 41,000
Teemu Lahtinen 40,600
David Daneshgar 39,900
Alan Otte 39,900
Nick Gibson 39,500
Mikael Westerlund 39,500
Pierrard 38,500
Alex Kravchenko 38,200
Jin Cailin 37,800
Peder Kjeller 36,400
Anne Schodorff 36,000
Katja Thater 35,800
Aukaham Eytan 35,500
Jeff Lisandro 34,600
Joel Forsberg 34,500
Dario Alioto 34,400
Leslie Kerrigan 33,500
Ryan Fronda 33,200
Gus Hansen 33,200
Paul Testud 33,200
Julian Gardner 33,000
Pascal Perrault 32,500
JP Kelly 31,800
Paul Parker 31,800
Chuc Hoang 31,600
Andrew Rabl 31,300
Peter Gould 31,200
Noah Boeken 31,100
Jaka Faraz 31,100
Jon Dull 31,000
Bernard Stoddard 30,400
Marc Pickett 30,200
Terry Cook 30,000
Tess Merkel 29,200
Hans Eskilsson 28,800
Angel Blanco 28,600
Laxani 28,600
Frederik Pedersen 28,300
Daemimukx 27,900
Humberto Brenes 27,000
Markus Boudewijn 26,900
Tony Chessa 26,600
Hubert Attali 26,200
Petri Pietila 26,200
Raul Mestre 26,100
Thierry Cazals 25,700
Emile Petit 25,700
Mikael Lindback 25,500
Daniel Elkeslassy 25,400
Cato Eriksen 25,100
Peter Jetten 25,000
Greger Aktell 24,900
Shajan Salchi 24,900
Phil Ivey 24,800
Robert Cohen 24,700
Patrice Boudet 24,300
Johan Bergquist 24,000
Aki Pyysing 23,700
David Lundberg 23,600
Michael Kindle 23,100
Imtias Khiffsh 22,900
Thomas Wahlroos 22,900
Frank Silverstein 22,700
Anton Doraminson 22,100
Ben Grundy 22,100
Elie Marciano 21,500
Michel Alberti 21,000
Max Kraanen 20,400
Aki Huttunen 20,300
Erik Lindberg 20,200
Stephan Rotach 20,200
Paul Zimbler 20,200
Joakim Geigert 19,800
Mike Halioua 19,500
Markus Golser 19,400
Nemeth Akos 18,800
Peter Bertelsen 18,800
Guillaume Cavret 18,700
Luca Pagano 18,600
Vincent Van Rooyen 18,600
Konstantinos Tsalis 18,500
Vladimir Temelkovski 18,300
Gustav Bjornsson 18,200
James Davenport 18,000
David Plastik 18,000
Iago Lopez 16,800
Martin Olsson 16,700
Stefan Mattsen 16,300
Peter Vlemmiv 16,000
Leopold Chow 15,400
Per Strom 15,000
Greg Hobson 14,900
Gusten Sjoberg 14,800
Jerome Duarte 14,200
Dag Martin Mikkelsen 13,700
Vivi Sathern 13,200
Jean-Pierre Thabet 13,200
Vegard Nygaard 13,100
Willie Tann 12,800
Jorgen Kjerkol 11,800
Lasse Luukkarinen 11,600
Andreas Hurtig 11,100
David Palmstahl 10,900
Alan Sass 10,900
Antoni Romanello 10,800
Thierry Passeron 10,700
Thomas Billum 10,500
Anthony Nicholis 10,300
Trond Manger 10,200
Thierry Mulin 10,200
Bernd Stadlbauer 10,100
Marga Gonzalez 10,000
Ouri Cohen 9,600
Nichlas Mattsson 9,100
Ian Smith 9,100
Mattia Daverto 9,000
Mauro Guanti 8,900
Andreas Hagen 8,700
Stephen Pearce 8,700
Joao Marcello Lima 8,300
Allan Dyrstad 8,000
Tony Lindstedt 7,700
Thomas Peterson 7,100
Manuel Cuberos 6,900
Birgitta Joahnsson 6,700
Nic Szeremeta Nic 6,500
Jules Kuusik 5,100
Franck Bensimon 5,000
Ed Note: The Poker Stars WCOOP starts tomorrow. Get in on the action.
