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 Sahami showed Kings, and Wernick turned over Queens. That put Sahami, who had been moving chips around all day well into the chip lead. Sahami 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 - 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
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