European Poker Championship – Velden

Day 1 of the main event started yesterday and was running until the end of level 9.

Before we start with a recap of some nice hands and the current standing, we would like to introduce you to some of our Intertops qualifiers. Only a few hours before the start of Day 1 our reporter Rikard Aberg did some interviews with Hussain from the US, Eduardo from Brasil, Aleksandr from Russia and his companion, Alex, who is also playing the €500,000 GTD Texas Hold’em main event.

Aleksandr unfortunately is out, although we will see if he re-enters the main tournament which is possible until the end of level 10 today. His companion Alex busted early too but shot another bullet and made it to Day 2 along with our other qualifiers.

Chip Count after level 9:

Daniel: 222.5K
Peter: 326K
Alex: 246K
Eduardo: 302.5K
Hussain: 79K

During Day 1 we saw some very nice hands like the one of Eduardo early in the game.

A player in early position raises up to 3,500 on 500/1,000 blinds. The player after him three bets to 11,000. Eduardo on the button just calls. Initial raiser goes all-in for 34,500. The player behind him thinks for 2 minutes, then calls. Eduardo goes all-in, over the top, and the player that called insta-mucks. Eduardo’s KK is up against AJ. Three low hearts on the flop decimates the first players outs to two, since Eduardo holds two red kings, and the other players ace is of diamonds. Two more low cards eliminates the player and Eduardo picks up the 120K pot.

Our Hungarian player Daniel increased his stack on level 7.

Daniel from Hungary is already a veteran at the Poker EM in Velden. He is here for the 8th time, together with his friend Peter – both joined Team Intertops earlier this year at the WSOP circuit stop in St. Maarten as well. Daniel was doing quite well during the 7th level of Day 1. He won a 95K pot where he bet 30K on a turn of 3s4h3hJd with one caller. The river brought 6s and both players checked. Daniel’s AhJh was good enough to win the pot as his opponent mucked his cards and tapped the table.

Former winner Simon Boss up to 512K

The Poker EM main event winner from 2017, Simon Boss of Switzerland, is running real hot in the very warm poker room in Casino Velden. Steadily building his stack throughout the day, Boss is now on fourth place with 512,000 in chips.

Day 2 starts in a few hours at 3pm local time with 1,500/3,000/3,000 blinds, re-entry still possible. Yesterday saw 179 players + 39 re-entries, with 110 player surviving Day 1.