European Poker Tour German Open Day 1A UpdateGerman Open Set for Record Turnout as Swede William Thorsson Storms to Lead |
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A healthy gathering of 306 players turned out on day 1A of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour German Open, largely dominated by German faces, as the record turnout of 493 from 2007 looks set to be smashed as today’s day 1B players get set to take to the felt.
Among those participating were Soren Kongsgaard, second place EPT Scandinavian Open finisher Peter Hedlund, William Thorsson, Jorn Walthaus, who came sixth in Deauville, Rolf Slotboom, Andreas Hoivold, EPT Polish Open champion Joao Barbosa, Andreas Krause, EPT Deauville champion and local Mortiz Kranich, and Remy Biechel.
Alexander Kravchenko was seated with Barny Boatman and Sebastian Ruthenberg, while Michael Tureniec and Benjamin Kang made for an interesting pairing, as did Marcin Horecki and Andrew Chen.
Elsewhere, Welshman Roberto Romanello (who features in the May issue of Card Player Poker + Sport) was mixing it up with Johannes Strassmann.
Recent Card Player Poker + Sport cover star Arnaud Mattern (pictured below) was rearing to go as he waited for the 
tournament to begin. In a good mood and prepared for battle, he took his seat. Not long after, he was gone. After taking a hit for around 3,500, he was sitting with the nut-flush draw. He bet, there was a reraise, and Mattern pushed all in. With two callers — one with two pair and another with a set — he managed to catch his flush draw. However, his opponent did one better with a house, and Mattern waved goodbye to EPT German Open.
On a Q-J-2 flop, a player bet 2,600, and Paul Testud, who was short-stacked and down to his last 4,000, pushed all in. His opponent called and showed J-2 offsuit, and Testud revealed A-Q offsuit. Nothing came to assist Testud, and he was out early on day 1A.
Stig Top Rasmussen took Christian Grundtvig out while Michael Tureniec busted running J-J into K-K.
By mid-session, Laurence Houghton's flush was beaten by a house and a short-stacked Peter Hedlund ran A-Q into 8-7 and his opponent caught an 8.
Other mid-session eliminations included Benjamin Kang, Rasmus Neilsen, Joris Jaspers, Christian Harder World Series of Poker main event runner-up Ivan Demidov.
Stig Top Rasmussen (pictured left) was eliminated from the tournament in a blaze of controversy. He pushed all in on the river with the board reading Q-7-2-2-8, and his opponent gave the situation some thought. Enough time passed for Rasmussen to call the clock, but the dealer never called Tournament Director Thomas Kremser over. Several minutes passed, and then Rasmussen's opponent tabled Q-J to win the hand over 10-9, but Rasumssen demanded Kremser was called over, vociferously replaying the situation, declaring it unacceptable and demanding his opponent's hand be declared dead.
Kremser eventually declared the hand would stand as played, and Rasmussen was out, much to his clear annoyance.
Andrew Chen, Thang Duc Nguyen, Marcin Horecki, and Roberto Romanello all busted later in the evening.
Sebastian Ruthenberg tripled up through Barny Boatman (who was holding Q-Q preflop) and another opponent when he got his short-stack all in preflop and hit a 10.
Boatman was gone a couple of hands later, running trips into a flush draw, which hit.
Chip leader for much of the session, Jorn Walthaus, dropped from 55,500 in chips to 10,000 in two hands
and exited before play stopped for the evening.
William Thorsson (pictured right) was sitting pretty at the end of the night with 84,500 as 115 players made the cut for day 2.
The top 10 in chips at the end of play were:
Be sure to join CardPlayer.com today to catch up on all the action from Casino Hohensyburg, Dortmund on day 1B of the German Open.
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