Day two of the PokerStars EPT Copenhagen is also known as Day 1a and even Day 1b!  Whatever you decide to call it, this is the chance for another 200 players to etch their name on a sought-after EPT trophy.

The weather outside was bleak and inside the atmosphere was tense.  Loads of big names were in action.  Dario Alioto, Erik Kostas, author Tony Holden, former EPT winner Rob Hollink, Jeppe Juhl, French singer Patrick Bruel, Erik Friberg, Birgitta Johansson, Jeff Kimber, Katja Thater, WSOP near-miss William Thorssen, Ben Johnsen, Thomas Friberg, WSOP final table finisher John Shiply, Andreas Hagen and Bjorne Erik Glenne to name but a few.

But early on the cameras focused on table 10, where Marcel Luske, rare American visitor TJ Cloutier, Juha Helppi and Alexander Stevic faced off against each other.

Just opposite on my table, one of the outstanding hands of the tournament unfolded within the first hour of play. 

Here’s the action…  Allan Aspholm raised to 100 and, folded around to the blinds.  Mark Secher threw in another 75 chips to call, likewise for just 50 more I made up my big blind holding JK.

7QK all diamonds was the flop and the small blind, first to act immediately bet 350.  Not certain where I stood I only called while the original raiser, Aspholm also called.

Next up another diamond, a 6.  Check, check and check went the action although I was more than prepared to pass to the tinyest of bets with no diamond in my hand. 

Finally, for a river card, a 9 of diamonds giving us an all-diamond 6-7-9-Q-K board.

Secher now bet 1,000, I passed and Aspholm re-raised to 3,000.  What’s going on here thought the ever increasing gallery at awe at a sizeable pot?

Re-raise all-in came the declaration from Mark Secher followed by a reluctant call from Aspholm who flipped over his pocket Aces, one of them a diamond.

However Secher unleashed his monstrous straight-flush using a pocket 5-8 and we had a both a chip leader and our first elimination.

Lady player Katja Thater soon followed as did Frenchman Patrick Bruel, whose AQ was no match for a set-of-tens on a Q-T-2 board.

William Thorsen amassed a lot of chips early – his AA against my AK on a King high flop produced a lot of them – but he still managed to crash out just halfway through the day when he once again had pocket Aces but could not overcome a set of Jacks belonging to John Shiply.

In fact he never even got to hear the prize-pool which was announced as being a cool 13,824,000 Danish Krona, which equates to about €1,855,000 with approximately €550,000 of that going to the winner. The top 40 players were to be paid.

Ladbrokes qualifiers were having a good day with their qualifiers Iwan Jones (28,000) and Steven Mitchell (25,500) leading at the day’s halfway point.

Two hours on Jan Sjavic, short stacked throughout the session, doubled up with Ace-Queen against AJ, the Queen on the turn gave him a stack of 7,000. Shortly afterwards he doubled through again when flopping bottom two pairs against an opponent holding top-pair top-kicker.

Women players were holding their own, apart from the early departure of Vivi Saethren that is.  Janne Helen Overa, Karin Lundgren, Gitte Anderssen, Ogus Metin Zekeniya and Brigitta Johansson were all in contention with workable stacks going into the seventh hour of play.

Double-through specialist Slavic, with momentum, continued to amass chips into the final hour of play as did Atle Walgren (49,100), Ben Johnson (42,200) and Erlend Melsom (49,050).

Finally, after another eight hour session, 74 players remained headed by fast-finisher Bastian Landehagen bagging 98,400 chips.  Erlend Melsom, also building impressively during the final hour of play, was in an overall second with 80,000.