Home / Poker News November 2009 / PokerStars EPT Vilamoura – Day 1A report
PokerStars EPT Vilamoura – Day 1A report
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-11-20 04:09
The field of 136 Day 1A participants was greeted by glorious weather in Portugal as the PokerStars sponsored
European Poker Tour’s Vilamoura Main Event got underway. The Casino Vilamoura didn’t really offer players the opportunity to enjoy the weather though. Its curtains drawn closed, those inside would focus only on surviving the day and making it to day 2 of the poker tournament.
The usual “suspects” were present on Day 1A,
Team PokerStars well represented among the ranks of these “name” players. Katja Thater, Arnaud Mattern, Jason Mercier and Mike McDonald were all there, together with Shaun Deeb and Chad Brown.
McDonald was quick to drop his stack to Pierre Neuville, and thus he could head out into the sunshine undisturbed. Neuville couldn’t put his chips to good use though, and soon he dropped them to Shaun Deeb. He did manage to get his act together later and eventually finished with a respectable stack.
Arnaud Mattern had a tough day too. He kept on locking horns with Piergiorgio Dancona and he just couldn’t shake the pesky Italian off. Eventually, he picked up pocket Ks and figured he’d deal a nasty blow with them. Dancona picked up pocket Qs and was more than willing to tangle. A Q that landed on the board sealed the deal in favor of the Italian, knocking Arnaud out.
Shaun Deeb on the other hand had things going his way. He picked up most of Neuville’s chips and he added some more off Cristiano Blanco. He clinched the chip lead early on and hung on to his advantage to finish among the top ranks. Ljubomir Josipovich ended the day with the biggest stack. First, he busted Ludovic Lacay’s pocket Js with an A,3o. That early momentum was carried through, and he kept adding to his stack all day.
Anthony Lellouche also finished on a nice stack, and so did Daniel Drescher. All in all, 75 players survived to see action on Day 2. Day 1B is sure to yield a larger field of registrants, and big names like Bertrand Grospellier, Peter Eastgate and Huck Seed are expected to line up to the start.
