PokerStars.net EPT Dortmund, Day 1b: Obrestad, Negreanu, Luske Move On
213 players joined the field at the Casino Hohensyburg in Dortmund, Germany for Day 1b of the PokerStars.net EPT German Open, bringing the total field to 411 players. Among the stars taking to the felt were EPT Prague champion Arnaud Mattern, 2007 German Open champ Andreas Hoivold, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier and World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion Annette Obrestad. Other notable players included Marcel Luske, Thor Hansen, Pascal Perrault and Daniel Negreanu.
Roland De Wolfe made a quick trip to Germany after his recent Aussie Millions appearance, but busted on Day 1b. With A♠K♠, he got all his money in on a board of K♥3♥2♠9♦, and found one caller with 9♥7♥. The A♥ on the river filled the other player's flush, and sent De Wolfe to the rail. EPT Prague champion Arnaud Mattern joined him late in the day when he ran into Annette Obrestad for the last time. Obrestad raised preflop, and Mattern pushed all in over the top with A♣3♥. Obrestad called with 4♠6♠, and the board came down 9♣7♠3♦5♣-x, giving her a gutshot straight on the turn and sending Mattern home. Other notable eliminations included Ram Vaswani and Team PokerStars member Luca Pagano.
Andreas Hoivold went out on the last hand of the night, guaranteeing a new champion for the 2008 German Open. He got all his money in preflop against Nicolas Levi with pocket kings to Levi's A♦Q♦, but the flop of A♥A♠3♣ left him drawing very thin. The A♣ on the turn gave Levi quads and ended Hoivold's tournament early.
The top of the leaderboard was crammed with stars as the tournament ended for the day, with Annette Obrestad, Daniel Negreanu and Marcel Luske all sitting behind big stacks. Thor Hansen, Brandon Schaefer, Rolf Slotbloom and Noah Boeken were also among the notable survivors from Day 1b. Complete chip counts were unavailable as this story went live.
