And that's that.

We started at 6 p.m. with 282 players, we played six levels, and now the the remaining 156 have bagged up and gone home. Job done. End of day one. See you tomorrow.

So, what happened?

Well, it's been a typically tough day on the European Poker Tour. But when the going gets tough, etc, etc., and there's a lot of toughness in this game.

Leading the pack at the end of the day is Sander Lyloff, the Danish player who won in Barcelona a few weeks ago. He has 66,150 but is looking over his shoulder at an amazingly high quality field. (The full chip count is at the bottom of this post.)

Fellow former EPT champions chasing that elusive second crown include Patrik Antonius (29,925), Ram Vaswani (22,175), Pascal Perrault (27,250), Mads Anderson (24,650), Thang Nguyen (21,200), Andreas Hoivold (22,650) and Noah Boeken, who finished with 4,575 after taking a late hit from Team PokerStars team-mate Katja Thater.

Thater finished with 17,525, surviving a table that not only included Boeken, but also Andre Akkari, the Team PokerStars Pro from Brazil, who doubled up at the death to finish with 27,925.

It was a pretty good day for the guys and gals in the PokerStars shirts. Despite losing Vanessa Rousso early in proceedings, and also seeing ElkY and Marcel Baran depart towards the end, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri and RaiNKhan are still afloat, as is Sebastian Ruthenberg, a PokerStars player here in Austria. Barry Greenstein is leading the Team PokerStars Pros, with 30,325.

As ever, the numbers and the quality of play was raised in this tournament by a number of PokerStars qualifiers in the field. Among the 42 who started today, the name of Thierry Van Den Berg has featured prominently on leaderboards. The $1,050 satellite winner from Holland is sitting pretty with 42,100.

Also well within spitting distance are Michael Durrer and Tobias Reinkemeier, both from Germany, as well as John Shipley (17,350), from England, who is a PokerStars qualifier here, but needs no introduction to most followers of the game. As well as a World Series main event final table, Shipley won EPT London during season one, and has the class to match any previous major result.

We start tomorrow at 2 p.m. central European time, which means 8 a.m. on the east coast of America. What better way to spend a day at the office by following the progress of the tournament as they play down to 40.

Here's a review of today's action:

Power poker with Dario Minieri --- The chase for two EPTs

Mid-day chip counts

Baden: Not just any poker room --- PokerStars cannibalism -- Payouts

Players and photos

EPT Baden: cards almost in the air

The night before

End of day chip counts:

Sander Lylloff (Denmark) 66,150
Gyoergy Moger (Hungary) 46,775
Manfred Hammer (Germany) 43,825
Thierry Van Den Berg (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 42,100
Markus Lehmann (Germany) 40,100
Michael Durrer (Denmark) PokerStars qualifier 39,700
Raul Mestre Lleida (Spain) 39,700
Victor Escudero Mellado (Spain) 39,325
Christophe Defforey (Germany) 39,300
Thomas Wahlroos (Finland) 38,150
Sebastian Riviere (Sweden) 35,575
Mark Vos (Australian) 32,875
Mark Secher Petersen (Denmark) 32,675
Voitto Aulis Rintala (Finland) 32,625
Daniele Cuomo (Italy) 32,050
Andreas Fluri (Switzerland) 31,275
Luis David Sevilla Petit (Spain) 31,075
Tobias Reinkemeier (Germany) PokerStars player 30,750
Dan Bitsch Pedersen (Denmark) 30,650
Barry Greenstein (USA) Team PokerStars Pro 30,325
Patrik Antonius (Finland) 29,925
Sigi Stockinger (Austria) 29,675
Christian Aris (France) 28,900
Florian Langmann (Germany) 28,400
Dennis Naci Hansen (Denmark) 27,925
Andre Akkari (Brazil) PokerStars player 27,925
Roman Yitzhaki (USA) PokerStars player 27,900
Hevad Khan (USA) Team PokerStars Pro 27,825
Simon Munoz (Spain) 27,350
Pascal Perrault (France) 27,250
Balazs Gergely Biri (Hungary) 27,000
Julian Thew (UK) 26,525
Denes Tamas Kalo (Estonia) 26,475
Bonyadi Farzad (USA) 26,250
Robert Binelli (Italy) 26,200
Magnus Mamsen (Denmark) 25,500
Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) Team PokerStars Pro 25,300
Christophe Benzimra (France) 25,075
Mads Andersen (Denmark) 24,650
Edward Lawson (USA) 24,625
Adam Levy (Canada) PokerStars double shoot out qualifier 24,525
Harald Poeschl (Austria) 24,500
Janne Wilhelm Juutilainen (Finland) PokerStars player 24,050
Luca Pagano (Italy) Team PokerStars Pro 23,725
Acar Mazlum (Switzerland) 23,225
Johan Van Til (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 23,150
Joep Durkstra (Holland) 23,075
Johnny Groenne Jensen (Denmark) 23,025
Andreas Hoivold (Norway) 22,650
Ram Vaswani (UK) 22,175
Jan Olav Sjaavik (Norway) 22,075
Armin Stocker (Switzerland) 22,025
Klaus Haunschmidt (Austria) 21,975
Johann Fest (Germany) 21,875
Thang Nguyen (Germany) 21,200
Martin Rask (Denmark) 21,025
Mikael Johansson (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 20,700
Mats Erik Iremark (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 20,700
Baroukh Fowzi (UK) 19,975
Paul Testud (France) 19,925
David Sonelin (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 19,675
Rino Mathis (Switzerland) 19,325
Philip Chen Yun Yeh (Sweden) 18,950
Hector Fuentes (Spain) 18,700
Theo Jorgensen (Denmark) 18,525
Vlado Sevo (Svn) 18,300
Richard Ashby (UK) 17,825
David Daneshgar (USA) 17,625
Matthias Neu (Denmark) PokerStars qualifier 17,575
Katja Thater (Germany) Team PokerStars Pro 17,525
Joshua James Gould (UK) 17,350
John Shipley (UK) PokerStars qualifier 17,350
Andreas Rathje (Germany) 17,250
Thor Hansen (Denmark) 16,800
Thomas Fuller (USA) 16,575
Eldos Davlet (France) 16,500
Martin Vallo (Denmark) 16,300
Kalil Rahal (France) 16,250
Alexander Kravchenko (Russiasia) 16,175
Szabolcs Attila Saskoey (Hungary) 16,075
Victor Goossens (Holland) 15,925
Hans Vimmo Eskilsson (Sweden) 15,625
Johan Storakers (Sweden) 15,150
Alan Peter Smurfit (Irl) 15,025
Werner Lorenzoni (Austria) 14,700
Giuseppe Festa (Italy) EPT Online 14,625
Vladimir Poleshchuk (Russia) 14,575
Dave Colclough (UK) 14,550
Pier Paolo Ruscalla (Italy) 14,475
Bill Edler (USA) 14,400
Adrian Koy (Germany) 14,050
Roy Von Der Locht (Germany) 13,850
Jeffrey Glaser (USA) EPT Online 13,750
Anton Allemann (Switzerland) 13,700
Krzysztof Czerwinski (Pol) PokerStars qualifier 13,675
Andreas Krause (Germany) 13,575
Daniel Mangas (Spain) 13,550
Magnus Persson (Sweden) 13,425
Marcus Naalden (Holland) PokerStars double shoot out qualifier 12,600
Barny Boatman (UK) 12,575
Herbert Otto (Germany) PokerStars double shoot out qualifier 12,300
Morten Erlandsen (Denmark) 12,125
Josef Kollarits (Austria) 11,900
Raoul Gilmar Refos (Holland) 11,825
Christian Hohendorf (Germany) 11,625
Mark Bartlog (Germany) 11,575
Thanh Pham (Germany) 11,575
Dario Minieri (Italy) Team PokerStars Pro 11,450
Rein Roelof Zijda (Holland) 10,750
Dalibor Oliver Zjacic (Croatia) 10,475
Mika Paasonen (Finland) PokerStars qualifier 10,425
Gabor Kovacs (Hungary) PokerStars player 10,425
Matthew Tyler (UK) PokerStars qualifier 10,125
Peter Gould (UK) 10,075
Jonas Erik Svante Oedman (Sweden) 9,200
Justin Charles Smith (USA) 9,200
Pavel Blatny (Czech Republic) 9,050
Eva Marianne Ulrika Skoennemark (Sweden) 9,025
Jeppe Mikkelsen (Sweden) 9,025
Ilhan Eyikat (Turkey) 8,975
Daniel Tarnopol (USA) PokerStars qualifier 8,975
Istvan Zsolt Novak (Hungary) 8,950
Katja Svendsen (Norway) 8,775
Marcin Krzysztof Horecki (Poland) PokerStars qualifier 8,750
Age Spets (Nor) 8,700
Martin Jaeger (Austria) 8,675
Dean Plumley (UK) 8,650
Surinder Pal Singh Sunar (UK) 8,575
Michael Csango (Austria) 8,525
Heimo Krainer (Austria) 8,450
Matteo Taddia (Italy) 8,250
Ugur Coskun (Turkey) 8,025
Joris Bernard Antoine Jaspers (Holland) PokerStars player 7,875
Paul Christoffersson (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 7,750
Yakov Zvi Hirsch (USA) PokerStars qualifier 7,325
Mika Puro (Finland) 7,125
Carlo Di Renzo (Italy) 6,850
Hugo Franca (Denmark) PokerStars player 6,675
Gunnar Rabe (Sweden) PokerStars qualifier 6,600
Adriaan Schaap (Holland) PokerStars qualifier 6,575
Danny Stiegler (Denmark) PokerStars qualifier 6,475
Mark Raymond Segal (UK) 6,475
Benjamin Charles Johnson (USA) PokerStars player 6,200
Jan Bendik (Slovakia) 5,275
Sorin Posa (Romania) 4,875
Uffe Holm (Denmark) 4,750
Jiri Vacek (Czech Republic) 4,725
Zsolt Peter Mayer (Hungary) 4,675
Gianni Giaroni (Italy) 4,650
Noah Boeken (Holland) Team PokerStars Pro 4,575
Aurangzeb Sheikh (USA) 4,500
Mikkel Aakjar Lassen (Denmark) 3,925
Chris Bush (USA) PokerStars player 3,875
Soraya Homam (Germany) 3,575
Christina Stadel (Germany) 3,025
Manutscher Parsian (Austria) 2,650

We've just entered level five, which means blinds of 150-300. We'll play this level, then one more, and then that's it for the night, bringing the majority of the 201 remaining players back tomorrow.

Of those still in the hunt are the following:

Mika Paasonen - PokerStars qualifier - 7,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg - PokerStars player - 21,000
Barny Boatman - 13,000
Katja Svenssen - 4,000
Jan Sjavic - 15,000
Raymi Sanchez Thorn - 12,000
Katja Thater - Team PokerStars pro - 8,000
Andre Akkari - Team PokerStars pro - 11,000
Noah Boeken - Team PokerStars pro - 15,000
Nicolas Levi - 5,000
Paul Testud - 18,000
Luca Pagano - Team PokerStars pro - 6,500
Lex Veldhuis - PokerStars W$ player - 5,500
Andreas Hoivold - 11,000
Jon Shipley - PokerStars qualifier - 16,000
Jonas Molander - 12,000
Thor Hansen - 9,000
Thomas Wahlroos - 31,000
Mads Anderson - 13,000
Theo Jorgensen - 16,000
Mark Vos - 2,800
Marcel Baran - PokerStars player - 12,000
Marc Naalden - 9,500
RaiNKhan - Team PokerStars pro - 18,000
Florian Langmann - 21,000
Richard Ashby - 9,500
Sander Lyloff - 25,000
Marcel Luske - 11,000
Alan Smurfit - 10,000
Patrik Antonius - 27,000
Thang Nguyen - 9,500
Age Spets - 22,000
Dario Minieri - Team PokerStars pro - 23,000
Barry Greenstein - Team PokerStars pro - 21,000
Julian Thew - 9,000
Ram Vaswani - 17,000
David Colclough - 14,000
Pascal Perrault - 18,000
Surinder Sunar - 4,500
Voitto Rintala - 22,000

Notable eliminations:
Andy Black
Roland de Wolfe
Nicolas Jedlicka
Daniel Stern
Vanessa Rousso
John Kabbaj

The playing area here in Baden is spread across two main rooms and a couple of nooks and crannies.

The main poker room is a vast rectangular affair, which feels familiar to anyone who's ever been to any event of this size. But the second room, and its two adjoining wings, is amazingly bright and airy, putting paid once and for all to the notion that poker is a game played in smoky, dingy backrooms of pubs and clubs. This is more like a circular greenhouse, with a colourful mural-cum-mosaic on the ceiling.





Along one side of the room is a line of flags representing many of the players' nations, while waiters and waitresses wheel trolleys of drinks around like flight attendants. A cheery sign wishes all players "Good luck!" and best of all, the table numbers dangle from the ceiling on Christmas tree baubles.



Add to all this a very well received player's buffet -- there's nothing poker players enjoy more than a good feed -- and the net result is a poker tournament that feels uncharacteristically friendly. I'm certain there are more smiles than usual in the opening levels of such an event.

* * * * *

Familiar faces

The table draw for today's event created the now-customary number of talking points, with no table more noteworthy than number one, which seems to be encouraging cannibalism among Team PokerStars pros.



In seat five is Noah "Exclusive" Boeken, the EPT stalwart and regular in-the-money finisher, two places to the right of Katja Thater, herself a WSOP bracelt winner and increasingly regular EPT high-placer. As if that wasn't enough, Andre Akkari, the first Team PokerStars pro from Brazil, perches in seat nine, his canary yellow Brazil soccer strip making him very hard to miss.

Paul Testud and Nicolas Levi, both from France, are also seated next to one another on the same table, and they're sure to know a little about each other's games.

Meanwhile, Barry Greenstein and Vanessa Rousso, also Team PokerStars pros, were also drawn on the same table. And RaiNKhan, something of an online whizz, is in good company: he's seated opposite Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi, a player whose online profile is on a similar standing to RaiNKhan's.

"Don't worry though," said RaiNKhan during a recent break in the action. "I've won every pot I've played against him so far."

* * * * *

Tournament update

About 25 players fell in the opening two levels, two of poker's leading ladies among them. Annette Obrestad was spotted stalking out of the poker room, following Vanessa Rousso out the door. Sorel Mizzi has also departed.

As is only to be expected, there are few stacks more than about 18,000 and it's still very, very early in this tournament yet.

Meanwhile, the payouts have been announced, and here's what they're playing for:

1st - €670,800
2nd - €375,000
3rd - €225,000
4th - €160,820
5th - €132,900
6th - €105,000
7th - €83,600
8th - €60,000

9th-10th €38,600
11th-12th - €30,000
13th-14th - €25,700
15th-16th - €19,300
17th-24th - €12,860

The official number of runners for EPT Baden is 282. The payouts will be announced soon, but in the meantime, here are a few players in the field:

Team PokerStars pros


Katja Thater
(c) Neil Stoddart


Noah Boeken
(c) Neil Stoddart


Andre Akkari
(c) Neil Stoddart


Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
(c) Neil Stoddart


Dario Minieri


Luca Pagano


Vanessa Rousso
(c) Neil Stoddart


Barry Greenstein
(c) Neil Stoddart


Hevad "RaiNKhan" Khan
(c) Neil Stoddart

PokerStars players



Marcel Baran - Germany - Third in EPT London last week after qualifying on PokerStars



Sebastian Ruthenberg - Germany - Third in EPT Dortmund during season three

Chad Brown - USA - Eight cashes in 2007 WSOP among 19 career total WSOP cashes

Notable others

Katja Svenssen - Norway - Cashed in London last week as a PokerStars qualifier
Raymi Sanchez Thorn - Sweden - Had a great run in 2005 World Series after qualifying on PokerStars
Jan Sjavik - Third in EPT London during season three, plus two other EPT cashes and 11 WSOP cashes
Jani Sointula - Finland - Former Monte Carlo Millions champion
Paul Testud - France - Veteran of European poker scene; won $2,500 event at 2007 Bellagio Cup
Nicolas Levi - France - Made final table of EPT Dortmund during season three
Annette Obrestad - Norway - Youngest ever WSOP bracelet winner and online sensation

Mats Iremark - Sweden - EPT Deauville champion during season two
Rob Hollink - Holland - EPT Grand Final champion during season one
Surinder Sunar - England - WPT champion and British stalwart
Martin Wendt - Norway - Four EPT cashes, most recently in Barcelona in August


Marcel Luske - Holland - Hugely popular Dutch pro, with 17 WSOP cashes and final table in season two EPT Grand Final
Alan Smurfit - Ireland - WSOP bracelet winner in June; cashed in EPT London last month
Age Spets - Norway - Two EPT cashes and two WSOP cashes in brief career
Patrik Antonius - Finland - High stakes cash and tourmanet player; EPT Baden champion during season two
John Shipley - England - PokerStars qualifier - EPT London champion during season one; made World Series main event final table


Juha Helppi (right) - Finland - WPT champion among six cashes; 10 WSOP cashes; Sander Lyloff (right) - Denmark - EPT Barcelona champion in August this year
Andreas Hoivold - Norway - EPT Dortmund champion during season three
Jonas Molander - Sweden - Three EPT cashes and Bellagio Cup event winner 2007
Thang Duc Nguyen - Austria - Reigning EPT Baden champion
Ramzi Jelassi - Sweden - Two EPT cashes among consistent European tournament results
David Colclough - England - Former European Player of the Year and consistent majot tournament performer
Barny Boatman - England - Hendon Mobster with countless major tournament results
Lex Veldhuis - Holland - PokerStars SuperNova, exchanged W$ for entry into EPT Baden
Florian Langmann - Germany - Second place in EPT London last week
Julian Thew - England - Six EPT cashes including two final tables


Ram Vaswani - England - Leads all-time EPT leaderboard and has WSOP bracelet
Jeff Lissandro - Italy - Six cashes in 2007 WSOP including one win and one second place
Pascal Perrault - France - EPT Vienna champion during season one; cashed in London last week
Marc Naalden - Holland - Third in EPT Copenhagen during season two; here a PokerStars qualifier
Theo Jorgensen - Denmark - Two EPT final tables; two WSOP final tables
Mark Vos - Australia - WSOP bracelet winner 2006
Andy Black - Ireland - Made WSOP main event final table in 2005, among countless successes
Thomas Wahlroos - Two cashes in EPT Grand Finals and four in-the-money finishes in the 2007 WSOP

And some fashion among the PokerStars players and qualifiers:


Janne Juutilainen - PokerStars W$ player from Finland

Gunnar Rabe - PokerStars Qualifier from Sweden