Report by Gary Clarke of Bluff Magazine

Day 1b:
With the pressure of Scandinavia weighing heavy on the participants backs, today everybody knew they had to perform. With overnight leader Johnny Lodden sitting on a comfortable 100,000 in chips, the day 1b contingent faced a bar that was set high, very high.

As countless pros mulled over proceedings in the lobby there was the inevitable sense of anticipation, the pressure was truly on.

But one man who was stalking the area outside the sardine-like crammed tournament room with a confident look was Arsenal fan, turned journalist, turned WPT/EPT champ, Roland De Wolfe. The Londoner was on form, more so than anyone in Europe, and everyone knew it. It’s amazing to think that not long ago EPT success was unthinkable for the English pro. Today, this is his new home.

There were plenty of other players with chances in the bustling waiting area. Marcel Luske, Juha Helppi and Ram Vaswani to name but a few. Little did the lads know that today was to be their first and final day in Dortmund. Luske looked dressed for the occasion, or just a film set, with a snappy suit and customary upside-down glasses. Juha seemed to be focusing on his iPod play list more than the other players and Ram shared a joke of some sort with Ross Boatman.

Vaswani was the earliest of early casualties when he made a move with bottom pair. His opponent was sitting sweat with trip 3s and made and instant call to leave Ram packing. His hyper-aggressive playing style can often leave opponents flummoxed but today his opponent woke up with a hand much to his annoyance.  

Marcel Luske on the other hand was going through the tortures of pre-flop poker, in particular the chapter on ‘Grade One’ hands. Now we all know it’s difficult to lay down a pocket pair as big as Jacks but Marcel couldn’t dodge the bullets, although his contemplating before making the call showed he was close to a classy fold.  Chip stacks considered, the point of no return was tangible perhaps and this may have made his mind up.

Misfortune inevitably had its part to play in whittling down today’s 250 strong field, although trappy Irishman Frank Callaghan confessed to playing his ‘pocket rockets’ badly allowing an opponent in cheaply with A7.  You can guess the gory results but two sevens were most certainly involved in the lucrative pot being passed to the 9/1 underdog.

Dane Martin Wendt was a victim of genuine bad luck. Runner-runner straight caused the heartbreak for the William Hill Grand Prix winner.

As the day progressed and players were eliminated the stronger players attempted to press home their advantage. Johnny Lodden’s 100k-benchmark set yesterday was not surpassed but two players managed to reach the dizzy heights of 90k plus.

Mattias Andersson and Danny Ryan were the two chip gurus of today’s play. Both players will no doubt seek to catch and pass the pacesetter Lodden in day 2’s play. A tough task for many a budding pro one would think with Lodden in such scintillating form but surprises happen by the bucket load in poker and who’s to say, perhaps day 1b will be the building ground for this weekends winner.