Report by Gary Clarke of Bluff Magazine

After the hustle, bustle and, in most cases, disappointment of the World Series, Europe’s finest poker talent descended on Barcelona for the opening event of the third season of Poker Stars European Poker Tour.

Thunder Storms and torrential downpours ensured most were happy to be alive such were the tales of horrendous inbound flights shared at the nearby striking Hilton Hotel, base for the sponsor’s online qualifiers and those from at least two other major poker sites.

In fact, the bar at base-camp Hilton was like a scene from the United Nations with dozens of languages, creeds and coloured t-shirts all drawn together by this wonderful game of ours.

A few miles away at the Gran Casino Barelona in the Port Olympic district those who did not pre-book well in advance were desperately seeking seats. 

Even conservative estimates put the figure at 700 players, all seeking an opportunity to etch their name on the winner’s trophy in an event scheduled to entertain 480 and a few alternates.

Speculators, otherwise known as ticket touts, and even those lacking in confidence and opting not to play, had a field day selling their places at €8,000 apiece, some interest on a €5,000 purchase.

Last year there were headaches caused by the numbers that arrived – 325 paying €4,000 entry apiece  – but organisationally, as the players took their seats (at 4pm) for the opening hand, things were running smoothly and it was apparent that the Spanish EPT 2006 was going to be a success rather than a victim of its own success.

So we now enter the zone that you don’t see on your television screens, hours upon hours of methodical play.  Not only fighting off opponents at the table but battling with boredom and monotony constantly aware that one mistake could be your last.

With each player beginning with 10,000 chips, blinds starting at 25/50 and subtle increases every hour, the early stages of any such tournament should not create dramatic action but somehow players drop like flies that had overdosed on Vapona.

Former Manchester and Republic of Ireland football star Tony Cascarino, Jon Hewston, who has made a habit of making high-profile televised final tables of late and Ram Vaswani were three such dejected eliminated contestants.

But, as play moved closer to the midnight hour, ever-increasing blinds did take their toll and defined pacesetters were emerging while others sought the first flight home, back to the anonymity of the online poker site which probably brought them here.

By the early hours the bookies favourites included the ‘in form’ WPT winner Roland De Wolfe, who was making impressive progress.  Likewise imposing American Phil Ivey, a rare visitor to European shores, hovered up chips on his EPT debut and was many peoples fancy.  

Norwegian Johnny Lodden, who was to end the day with 47,000 chips was, at one stage, down to just 400 chips and maybe he could carry this kind of form all the way to the deciding table.

But, nearly twelve hours after play began, it was Dan Pederson who finished the day top of the tree with an impressive 118,400 chips ahead of Javed Abrahams on 99,700, Johna Nord with 84,400 and Robin Keston with 76,000.