John Duthie seems to have had a rather good start.
I happened to see him betting 400 on a board and then folding to a raise from Kemal Orhan, but this minor mishap has made barely a dent in his 9,000 or so stack.
The suave, James Bond-esque figure of John Duthie has been spotted entering the arena, the former TV producer taking a few days away from his grueling EPT schedule to join us here at the Apline Palace.
"This tournament's a great one for smokers," confessed John Duthie. "I've only played a couple of hands and the hands take long enough that I can nip out for a cigarette."
I'm not sure I'd fancy "nipping out for a cigarette" in this weather - it's like a snow globe out there at the moment, picturesque, but bloomin' freezing.
Rasmus Gandrup was all in on the turn of a board against Yvoe Dellinger, and it looked to be a split as they both turned out to have the straight.
Gandrup:
Dellinger:
"Spade," ordered Gandrup as the dealer turned over the last card (the more observant of you may have noticed that Gandrup had two spades in his hand; Dellinger, I can confirm, did not).
River:
"Hmph, straight flush," said the razor-sharp Gandrup. He doubled up to 6,450, while a very unhappy Dellinger dropped down to 3,500.
No offense to the other athletes in the room, but the aesthetics of the field have just increased thanks to the presence of recent EPT winner Sandra Naujoks. Coincidentally, this is the table I have been watching the most.
Recently spotted scouring the tables like a lost lamb was Dutch reporter Remko Rinkema. According to the horse's mouth, most of his chips went wayward with versus a set of kings on a flop, the turn and river, of course, bricking out.
Moments later, his last 1,000 went in with a flopped set of sevens, but was unfortunate to run into a set of jacks. No one outer, and Rinkema was gone. Knowing his luck, he'll probably fall down the stairs on his way out.
With the board reading , Manuel Spuller bet 600 from the small blind. On the button, Yordan Mitrentsov raised to 1,750. Rather than paying attention at this rather crucial point in the hand, Mitrentsov was singing along loudly and tunelessly to something cheesy on his ipod -- it was too entertaining to be annoying so no-one had yet asked him to stop -- so it took him a moment to realize that Spuller had reraised all in. "All in?" said a very surprised Mitrentsov once he'd noticed, and removed his earphones for a moment. He folded pretty quickly.
Nicholas van der Marel took down a tasty 2,500 pot when he bet 2,200 on the turn of a board, forcing both Fr��deric Lopez and David Jandke to fold.
A dejected Joey Buhmann is down to just 675 after clashing with neighbor Marc Jacquetin. I didn't catch when exactly the chips went in, but judging by the cards on the felt, it looked rather messy.