The first stop of Season Seven for the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Tallinn, Estonia has broken records for a tournament and drew what is truly an international field.
The tournament, which started yesterday with the first of two Day Ones, is the largest tournament in the history of Estonia. With a €4,000 buy-in, a field of 420 players has come to the felt for a chance at a €400,000 first place prize. 182 runners came to the line on Wednesday, with the remaining 238 stepping up to take part in Day 1B, which is currently in action.
While other events have the “world” in their organizational monikers, the EPT truly shows the diversity in the poker community with the nations that are represented. No nation represents more than 13% of the field, with Russia and Finland both sending 53 representatives. Italian players make up 10% of the field (42 players) and the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden all have 6% of the field (25 players). The United States only has 4% of the field (nine players).
Day 1A action featured several top pros from the PokerStars stable as well as some of the best in the game from the European continent. Italy’s Luca Pagano, Russia’s Ivan Demidov, Finland’s Ville Wahlbeck, and Canada’s Matt “cho0ppy” Kay (who qualified through satellites on PokerStars) all lasted through the day and will come back for Day Two on Friday. One player who won’t, however, is Norwegian poker phenomenon Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad.
Keeping her fans in touch through her Twitter account, Obrestad was able to get off to a decent start in the Tallinn tournament. At one point, Obrestad had built her stack to double the starting total (players started with 30,000 in chips), but the wheels came off her game after the dinner break. “45k. Minraise Kh3h. Nit calls with 25k stack,” she related to her fans in a Tweet. “We get it in on K32dd flop. He has KQ. Hits Q on turn.”
The agony continued for the former World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion as the night wore on. “35k. Very slow,” Obrestad lamented. “Not getting many hands or trying too hard. Just kinda blinding off a little.” Fortunes would not change for her as the night came to a close with her final Tweet from the tournament floor: “Just busted. Flopped a flush and got it in vs AK with fd. He got there for 90k pot. Blah.”
Day 1B also features a very strong field, with Team PokerStars players Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Katja Thater, and Dario Minieri battling against the likes of 2010 WSOP bracelet winner Richard Ashby. At the dinner break, Minieri is out of the tournament and “ElkY” finds himself on life support. Two players – the now “unretired” Shaun Deeb and noted French poker journalist Benjo DiMeo – have been Tweeting their activities throughout Day 1B, albeit with different chip trajectories.
“Playing EPT Tallin,” Deeb Tweeted to his followers. “Table might be one of the tougher ones seat sucks too time for fun. 37k at 1st break.” As the players went to dinner break, Deeb Tweeted his misfortune: “7500 at dinner break last 2 levels really sucked. Won 1 pot in 2 hours, card dead.” Although he faces a tough situation, Deeb kept his spirits up: “Enough to still have chips. Have the button too and 12bb.”
DiMeo, for his part, was grinding along through the early part of the EPT Tallinn. “I’m attending my 38th EPT this week, but this is only the first one as a player. Wish me luck,” DiMeo fired off to his followers at the start of Day 1B. After treading under the starting stack for much of the first three hours, DiMeo was able to report to his followers, “Above starting stack for first time today yay.” By the time the dinner break came, DiMeo was keeping in the fray, but was less than enthusiastic about his play: “Heading to dinner with 40 bb (24,000). Stole the blinds once and that’s all I done last level. Ugh.”
As the players return from the dinner break on Day 1B, Percia Bukara holds the edge with 130,000 chips, followed by notable names such as 2009 WSOP bracelet winner Marc Naalden (85,000) and the aforementioned Ashby (60,000). The players will have quite a distance to go, however, to reach Day 1A chip leader Ali Tekintamgac’s stack of 203,200. Also up the leader board from Day 1A are Pagano (124,900) and French Team PokerStars pro and 2007 EPT Prague champion Arnaud Mattern (103,600). The final table for the tournament will play out Monday, August 16th at the Swissôtel Tallinn.
