208 players embarked on the second instalment of Day 1 poker at the Dublin EPT, all with their own individual hopes and dreams.

Big name players such as Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Dave Colclough and recent EPT winners Victoria Coren and Bjorn-Erik Glenne are all chasing one spot but some players are there simply taking part in the hope of winning money with any advance on their €5,000 entry seen as a welcome bonus.

When studying the huge room of players, you begin to ponder the different stories. Each player has got here thanks to multiple different factors such as individual wealth, sponsorship deals, backers, satellite victories, the list goes on.

Few can figure which category Devilfish comes into, perhaps a combination of them, either way he didn’t let the spectators down.  “No it’s the Marian Hotel I’m after, I don’t do cheap, the Devilfish don’t do cheap,” yells the fish down the phone in his bothersome Hull accent.

Not many players can book hotels and play in the EPT all at once. Keeping the crowd amused is one of his better points and he doesn’t disappoint. The performance continued right through to the dinner break and beyond.

“That food ain’t worth waiting for Marcel.  No point queuing,” says Dave to a bemused crowd of hungry poker players doing what their best at, waiting. “They won’t even give you water or nut’in to drink either”. Marcel [Luske] becomes the first of many refusals of the seat next to him for dinner. “There’s a seat here luv,” becomes the standard quip thereafter.

The tournament itself gets off to an explosive start which sees ‘Bad Girl’, Simon ‘Aces’ Trumper and Ram Vaswani all knocked out within an hour of each other. Another singing the blues was former Westlife star Brian McFadden. At the rate he seems to blow five grand he could well be appearing on “I’m a celebrity, give us a lend” in the very near future!

The majority of the attention was perhaps saved for WSOP 2004 winner Greg Raymer. On a rare visit over the pond the yank had attracted a sizeable crowd around his table consisting mainly of American fans who were not shy of the sound of their own voices.

Unclear if they were backpackers, internet qualifiers or rent-a-crowd, they certainly made for light entertainment. However, stupid chant after stupid cheer was soon hushed when the American hero was eliminated just before level 5.

Welsh hopeful Dave Colclough took a very different stance on proceedings. Zipped up top, baseball cap and home-stereo earphones was the order of the day. That’s certainly one way to block out the array of interruptions. It could also be viewed as a way of suffocating!

Colclough is still one of the best in Europe and ‘El Blondie’ is sure to give you 100% that is for certain. He seemed to have control on what looked like a safe table but was ultimately another casualty on the day.

The table directly across from Colclough was one of the most vibrant. Motor-mouth Ade Bayo was winding up each and every one of his opponents. “Those pocket pairs are no good here, only play me with decent hands.” His Hollywood style sing-and-dance was a sight to behold.

One player who certainly wasn’t amused was Northern Irishman Paul Leckey.  He likes to take charge of the table with his hyper-aggressive style, but Paul was not going to get his chance, Bayo was the hyper-man today.

A man who, in dog racing terms, hit the lids hard today was Englishman Roland De Wolfe.  Finishing the session on 70k Roland, with confidence abound, won the biggest pot of the day when he fortunately hit two pair on the river, getting paid off handsomely by pocket Kings.

De Wolfe looked to be in good humour and top-form throughout the day and was expected to resume on Day 2 with a big chance despite a draw against Irish hopefuls Dave Murray and Michael O‘Sullivan.  Both men looking to make a name for themselves on the big stage and table 6 should make for an interesting day’s play.

The fight for the ‘overnight chip lead distinction’ was a slug-out between Norwegian Jonas Helness and Swede William Thorssen. Both would finish the day over the 100k mark and could play a part in Viking domination similar to last year’s rout.

Following the success of EPT Barcelona winner Glenne, it would be difficult to write off another winner coming from the Scandinavian lands such is their presence here this weekend.

Unfortunately there was always going to be one late fatality, the casualty who signals the end of play. Not a nice position for anybody and it was John Magill’s turn today.

Having won over $1 million dollars in the 2006 World Series of Poker, Magill was going to have to leave empty-handed today. The friendly Irishman’s pocket 10’s were no match for Jacks today and his elimination would call halt on today’s proceedings.