European Poker Tour German Open Day 1B UpdateRecord Numbers in Dortmund as Locals Dominate But Champ Looking Good |
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The dancing girls took to the stage once again at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Dortmund, much to the bemusement of players, media, and curious onlookers as they repeated yesterday's opening spectacle which included the can-can, an Edith Piaf performance, and some French feathers et danse.
The field was packed with more familiar faces than yesterday. An astounding 358 players turned up to play today, and with the 306 from yesterday that makes a whopping 664 players for this year’s EPT German Open.
Among those taking part on day 1B were Bertrand Grospellier, Dario Minieri, Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken, Katja Thater, Peter Eastgate, Salvatore Bonavena, Julian Thew, Pascal Perrault, Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick, and Danny "THE_D_RY" Ryan.
Dual World Series bracelet winner from 2008, Jesper Hougaard (pictured right), was in no mood to hang around. In an 
early hand the small blind raised 400 and the big blind reraised it to 1,250. Hougaard called.
The flop came A
J6
and the big blind bet 1,750. Hougaard raised it up to 3,500.
His opponent thought for about two minutes and then pushed all in. Hougaard instantly called and flipped over Q10 for the flush draw and inside straight draw. His opponent showed A
K
for top pair.
The turn dropped the J and the river, the 10 and the chips were counted. He had Hougaard covered, hands were shaken, and the Dane was out.
EPT Prague champion Salvatore Bonavena was eliminated during level three of the tournament while pint-sized Italian Dario Minieri busted running pocket nines into Frederik Hostrup's A-A.
EPT Warsaw runner up Nico Behling pushed all in for 10,575 on a board reading A556Q. The pot in the middle was worth 10,550.
Seat 9 went into the tank as the last few seconds of the level were counted down. He thought as the clock ate into the 15 minute break and after about 5 minutes or so looked as if he was going to fold. Behling just stared straight ahead focused on his goal, while the other players stayed at the table to watch (except for Luca Pagano who absent-mindedly read a magazine).
Eventually he called and flipped over A3 for top pair. Behling's move wasn't enough, as he was cracked holding pocket sevens. He had to hand over most of his stack as he had his opponent covered and was left crippled with 1,750. He never recovered and busted out later.
Clonie Gowen, who had been nursing a short stack for much of the day, busted right at the end of level four while World Champion Peter Eastgate, another short-stacker from early in the day also exited mid-session and young Swede Ramzi Jelassi ran A-K into K-K and lost his entire 20,000 chip stack before the tournament had properly bedded in.
EPT Copenhagen winner Jens Kyllonen busted after an all in preflop confrontation which saw him run his short-stack into A-K with a much troubled A-9.
Alessio Isaia stormed quickly out of the tournament area after losing his all-in, joining friend Jonas Molander who also couldn't break the first day of this event.
Other exits after dinner included Danny Ryan, Pascal Perrault, Stephen Chidwick, Anton Alleman and Noah Boeken who, having been crippled with a preflop all in holding A-7 against Q-J, was done for a few hands later when he ran Q-6 into A-8.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, stitting comfortably on around 20,000 hit a flush on the turn, pushed all in, and facing J-J, the Frenchman just had the river to dodge. But, such is poker, a jack fell for his opponent, Sergiy Baranov, and ElkY was out.
With around 3,800 in the pot on a board that read Q7K6, last year’s winner Mike McDonald (pictured left) on the small blind bet 2,700 and Antony Lellouche on the big blind raised it to 7,200. McDonald tanks for a few minutes, looking slightly scared, before calling.
The river was the J and both players checked. McDonald showed K10 and Lellouche mucked, saying, "Small pair." In the very next hand, Lellouche raised the small blind to 1,600. The flop came 962 and Lellouche bet 2,000. The small blind raised it up to 4,000 and Lellouche insta-folded.
It looked like he was on tilt when straight away he got involved with Katja Thater. Raising it up preflop to 1,600, Thater reraised all-in for 6,150 and Lellouche, without batting an eyelid, called. He flipped over a very strong AK while Thater was behind with QJ.
The board rolled out 7645K and Lellouche successfully put Thater out. He doubled up to around the 12,600 mark. However, at the end of the event 140 players remained and Antony Lellouche wasn’t one of them.
Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske was a late elimination. He calmly and cooly left the tournament area in his usual dapper attire and gentlemanly swagger.
With Davidi Kitai and Mike McDonald sitting beside each other, there was a lot of last minute action with McDonald getting the best of it and ending up among the chip leaders.
With an average stack of 25,571, the top 10 chip leaders going into day 2 are:
Join CardPlayer.com today for all the action as 251 players return to Casino Hohensyburg, Dortmund for day 2 the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour German Open.
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