A pot snowballed just now until it engulfed the entire 18,375 young Portugese player Diogo Veiga had in front of him preflop. I only caught this hand from Veiga's preflop shove, but this must have been a five-bet as mid-position player Alexey Golodyaev had 5,800 already in front of him. He thought for a moment, but found the call with the big slick and raised a probably-happy eyebrow to see that he was in dominating shape against Veiga's . The board rolled out and with the heart flush draw hope disappearing on the river, Veiga followed out the door.
One of the Portuguese reporters/supporters was clearly disappointed and headed off saying something which sounds like, "Shipped!"
No sooner had we reported that Arnaud Mattern had doubled up to 37,000 than we received a text message from him. It said simply: "72k. Boom." We scuttled over to his table to find out more.
It transpired that Mattern had raised with pocket kings and received a call from the gentleman in the cutoff before the player on the button made it 2,500 to go. Mattern made it 7,225, both players called, and they saw a ten-high flop, when Mattern and one of the other two players got all the chips in. Mattern's opponent revealed a very behind pair of jacks, and Mattern had leapt from short stack to near chip leader in just a few hands.
This could be the start of a very, very good tournament for Mattern. After making his impressive third EPT final table in Tallinn just a couple weeks ago and picking up an impressive €160,000 for third place, Mattern must nevertheless have felt a twinge of disappointment that his pocket queens couldn't stay ahead (see here) and he did not that time become the first person ever to win two EPT titles. Mattern clearly wants that second title and is clearly on form. And although it's very early days, he's now got some serious chips to wield.
Pieter de Korver, who refuses to ever be anything less than the cheeriest man around at any tournament is happily sitting with about 74,000.
With a flop of de Korver got his opponent all-in holding but having to dodge a few outs against but the Dutchman and former EPT Monte Carlo winner saw a turn and river to propel him happily to the top of leader board.
Arnaud Mattern has doubled up after losing almost half his stack in the first two levels, in the process taking out the only player shorter than him on his table. I only saw the glint of cards on their backs and Krisztian Csomos standing up in a permanent sort of way - his his final hand against Mattern's . The Ace on the flop may have been a catalyst for this pot to grow to 30k, but however the stacks went in, they came out again as one big stack in front of the French Team Pokerstars Pro.
[user46392]
Flushy - neither mad nor Italian, but he knows someone who is.
Fabrizio Ascari opened for 1,000 under the gun. There was a reraise and a call behind him before he called, and then checked the flop. The reraiser checked behind, and the gent who'd called on the button preflop took the pot with a 2,500 bet.
Granted, as hands go, even Day 1 hands, this was not particularly newsworthy - but for the fact that Ascari is in possession of over 60,000 in chips and is therefore currently among our chip leaders.
We spoke to tablemate James "Flushy" Dempsey during the break, who told us a little about sharing a table with Ascari. "Every table has one," he said, "but this guy actually volunteered it - he said 'I am the mad Italian' so I didn't need to wait five minutes to figure it out."
Diogo Veiga opened to 525, Team PokerStars Pro Henrique Pinho made the call, as did Ludovic Lacay but then Teddy Sheringham raised to 2,300 pushing them all out of the pot as he consolidated his stack of about 25,000.
Sheringham is a former international footballer and part of the incredibly successful Manchester United team that have dominated English football for the last fifteen years. Sheringham is now switching his attention to the poker table and a 14th place finish in the WSOPE main event last year in what was ostensibly a very tough, pro heavy tournament. Sheringham has also cashed in the EPT last year in both London and Monte Carlo so clearly he can't be seen as just another 'celebrity' player.
In football, he was a solid dependable forward creating almost as many goals as he scored. Hopefully we'll discover a little bit more about his poker playing style as the day progresses.
Such was the lament, broadcast at full though polite-toned volume by Liam Flood as he returned from the break to find his seat no longer had chips in front of it. He repeated his query more and more loudly, while his table seemed prepared to carry on without him (with apologetic looks from the dealer).
"Who took my chips?!"
Silence.
"I want some chips!"
Silence.
"Hello Antonio!" (Sidetracked by spotting Esfandiari)
"Hello - how are you?"
"I'm good, except I've got no chips. Can you give me some?"
"I don't have any to spare."
At this point Thomas Kremser located his stack which had been moved mistakenly during the break when the first table of the day was broken and the players scattered to fill in the odd empty seat.
Jan Petersen opened preflop to 500 and received one caller before Dario Minieri squeezed to 2,000. Petersen called and the third player folded.
The flop was and it was checked to the diminutive Italian who bet 3,100 only to find Petersen check-raising to 7,625. Minieri slid his whole stack of yellow 5k chips into the middle and Petersen sighed saying, "It's the worst call ever..." before calling with . Minieri turned over and the turn and rivered sealed a big pot for Minieri who now sits with 65,000.
Petersen though wins a chance to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather as he's now out.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and raised a probably-happy eyebrow to see that he was in dominating shape against Veiga's 
. The board rolled out 
and with the heart flush draw hope disappearing on the river, Veiga followed out the door.
de Korver got his opponent all-in holding 
turn and 
his final hand against Mattern's 
flop. The reraiser checked behind, and the gent who'd called on the button preflop took the pot with a 2,500 bet.
rivered sealed a big pot for Minieri who now sits with 65,000.