"Where are the girls that touch my body," said Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu to no one in particular. The first 10 minutes of play had clearly taken their toll and he was in need of a massage. "Have you seen the girls that touch peoples bodies?" he inquired of a passer by. Having no luck he sat back down to his table, one that includes Mick Graydon, who finalled EPT8 Deauville.
Most tables are short handed right now, anywhere from three to six handed typically, but Joe Laming is still waiting to check, bet and fold. He's only got one other player for company and there has to be three for play to start. "You thought you were going to have to work today," he said to the dealer. "You show up on time for once and this is how you get rewarded," he said jokingly.
As they were waiting Paul Volpe walked up, seat ticket in hand and it looked like they might get some action at last but he walked on by. "We don't mind that," said Laming as Volpe, who's currently 14th on the Global Poker Index top 300, continued his search for his seat.
Yesterday the turnout was huge with 389 players ready for action. Today's 1B is even bigger, way bigger. At the moment already 531 players have signed up and registration is still open until the start of Day 2. The total players is already 920, crushing last years 864. The prize pool last year was €4,190,400, securing winner Ramzi Jelassi €835,000. What will the winner take home this year? We won't find out that answer until tomorrow.
Duncan McLellan is an unassuming amateur poker player and bricklayer in his fifties. As the dealers changed over he was the only one to thank the departing dealer and greet the new one. McLellan was in the big blind and checked his option with one limper in the pot. A flop of saw the small blind check and McLellan bet 350. No resistance and the pot was pushed to him.
What the other players may not know is that McLellan took down the first PokerStars home game in November this year, the UKIPT Isle of Man. He defeated Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo heads-up and took home £94,090. He has had further success since then and has qualified online to play this event. Underestimate him at your peril.
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It can’t fill any player with delight to see the fearsome Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier sit down at your table, but if he does the least you want is to have position on him. That is the situation Scottish Pro and circuit grinder David Vamplew faces today. Directly to Grospellier’s left, Vamplew called a raise of 250 and when the blinds folded they saw a heads-up flop of . Grospellier checked and a bet of 550 from Vamplew won the pot. Vasili Firsau is also at the table sat to Grospellier’s right.
Now that we're an hour in to the day the tables are starting to fill up. One of the most interesting is table four. In the nine seat is Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano, to his direct right is Chris Moorman. It's already been a profitable trip for the Brit as he finished 12th in the 1,315-runner Eureka Poker Tour Main Event, good for €12,550. If they look to their right they'll see two-time bracelet winner Roger Hairabedian in the five seat.
Elsewhere Martin Hruby and his unmissable red hair are a few seats along from fellow Team Pro Eugene Katchalov. Other latercomers include Liv Boeree and Dag Palovic. And Daniel Negreanu's first world problems are over as he's currently getting a massage.
When we walked passed table 19 we saw Ludovic Lacay facing a river bet. We didn;t think about it to much, it's still early in the tournament after all. When we returned a couple of minutes later, Lacay was still thinking about it. With | | on board the small blind had bet out 3,700. Lacay had trouble dissecting the motives of his opponent and eventually handed over the chips to the dealer, looking like he already knew he wasn't going to get them back. And he wasn't as his opponent turned over and Lacay mucked.
Always nice to get quads an even nicer to get paid. Table 54 was three-handed at the time and Julian Thomas bet the river of a board and EPT10 London 4th place finisher Ludovic Geilich looked him up, Thomas showed and Geilich mucked. Thomas up to 36,000, Geilich down to 24,000.
saw the small blind check and McLellan bet 350. No resistance and the pot was pushed to him.
. Grospellier checked and a bet of 550 from Vamplew won the pot. Vasili Firsau is also at the table sat to Grospellier’s right.
| 
| 
on board the small blind had bet out 3,700. Lacay had trouble dissecting the motives of his opponent and eventually handed over the chips to the dealer, looking like he already knew he wasn't going to get them back. And he wasn't as his opponent turned over 
and Lacay mucked.
board and EPT10 London 4th place finisher Ludovic Geilich looked him up, Thomas showed 
and Geilich mucked. Thomas up to 36,000, Geilich down to 24,000.