There are only about 200 players remaining with 184 going to the money. The tournament continues tomorrow, but without any RedKings players. Ramzi battled very well, but in the end the gods of cards were not with him. After the big all in he mentioned in twitter, he lost the remaining less than 90k in the last 5 hands of the day. Lets see if we can see him tomorrow in the 2k side-event. With the flights being cancelled and no way getting back, the 2k tournament promises to have a very large field of players.

Our german guest Severin Schneider is still in with a shout, but only with less than 60k for the day 3. He lost the majority of his stack during the last 2 hours of the day and it looked liked he was not going to make it. But as it happens, we will still see him tomorrow battling for the money. Good Game, Severin!

Day 2 continues with about 300 players remaining. The average is about 120k and 184 players get in to the money. Today we will play 6 levels of 75 minutes or until we reach 184 players. The way they have been dropping today (we started with 645 players), we might actually get into the money already.

In the top of the leaderboard is the new hot shot from Finland Otto Sandström with 400k, but in the top 10 we also have our very own Ramzi Jelassi with over 300k. As you have been reading from the twitter, majority of his stack was given to him by another swede Anton Wigg. Ramzi thanks..

Our other player Toni Ojala just never got the cards. His best hand was AJ and that took him out as his opponent was holding AK. Toni didnt have much to comment about his day, the best thing of his day was the free beer that he got from the shop just 10 minutes ago. Now our finnish champion is just looking a way to continue his road/poker trip in the mediterranean outside Barcelona on the 23rd. All our viewers will be able to follow his journey here at blogs.redkings.com with an exclusive journal. RedKings wishes him Good Luck!

Our german guest Severin is having a great day as well. He has been constantly at the top 20 and looks quite sure to get into the money, but lets not jinx it. The tall and relaxed german is standing in with 220k. Will try to get a interview with him later on.

A total of 1,240 players competed from 44 countries.. that’s the biggest EPT ever held in Europe. The total prize pool is €6,014,000. Payout will be to 184 places with a first prize of €1,250,000. Italians account for 33% of the field with 412 players, France is next with 112 (9%). A total of 627 players got through to Day 2. We are playing six levels, with no dinner break.

At the time of writing, Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier is chip leader with around 345,000. Average is 79,000. Blinds are 800/1600 with 200 ante.

Ramzi Jelassi is at 130k and Toni Ojala still around 30k.

It was a long and cold wait for the players this morning when the casino doors stayed shut until 12.20 CET time. After over 600 players went in the doors one by one, it took a while before the tournament started well late of the original starting time of 12. Italian style..

RedKings has 2 of their star players still in, with Toni Ojala starting the day with 34k and Ramzi Jelassi with 76k. Toni is on table 61 together with Swedens Peter Hedlund and Irelands Jonathan Weekes. Half of the table are italians so lets hope Toni gets some good action to double up.

Ramzi is playing on table 18 with swedish Anton Wigg and russian Evgeniy Zaytsev, both with over 100k stacks. Unfotunately no italians on the table yet. Lets see if Ramzi will take out his school book today. He has an exam on tuesday you know..

Our german guest player Severin Schneider is playing good and looked very relaxed at the hotel breakfast. Apparently day 2 doesnt make him nervous, but I am sure the closer to the money he gets, the more nervous he will be. Good Game to him as well.

A total of 1,240 players entered the PokerStars.com €5,300 San Remo Main Event creating a total prize pool of €6,014,000. Payout will be to 184 places with a first prize of €1,250,000.

1 - €1,250,000
2 - €750,000
3 - €420,000
4 - €345,000
5 - €270,000
6 - €210,000
7 - €150,000
8 - €90,000

9-10 - €63,500
11-12 - €50,000
13-14 - €40,000
15-16 - €35,000
17-24 - €30,000
25-32 - €26,000
33-40 - €22,000
41-48 - €19,000
49-64 - €16,000
65-80 - €13,000
81-104 - €10,500
105-144 - €9,000
145-184 - €7,500

There were 627 players starting day 2 so we still got a long way to go. The moment they will let me back to the casino, I will continue my blogging..

Enjoy the poker filled day everyone.

Day 1 b is finally to an end and I am happy to announce that both RK player Ramzi Jelassi and Toni Ojala are continuing to day 2 that starts tomorrow at 12 cet. Ramzi has a good stack of 76k and Toni with 34k.

The day started well for both players with Ramzi getting a set of 2s against a top pair and with Toni slowly building his stack to over 60k at best. Unfortunately for Toni, during the last 2 levels he was mostly card dead and dropped to 34k at the end. Our German Friend Severis also goes to day 2 with a very healthy stack of 60300. Even though he is just above average, he was not satisfied with his play. He was playing a bit too tight and even folded QQ pre flop. Well tomorrow is another day and I am sure we will see more from the young german.

There were 655 players in day 1 b making the total over 1200 players. Tomorrow we will have around 380 players from today and 274 from yesterday so it is still a big field.

Good Luck to both Team RK players and good night!

First levels of day 1b have been played. We have Ramzi standing with a solid 52k and Toni with 33k. Unfortunately our third player Ivo Donev is out. He faced in the battle of the blinds AK vs. AA and couldnt get a miracle.

I had a small chat with Ramzi during the break. When I saw him on the table, he had a book in front of him. Apparently Ramzi has an exam on tuesday and he hasnt studied much. He is such of a talent that he can play poker on EPT level and study at the same time. So far it seems to work for him as he is up to 52k so far. Our german guest Severin Schneider is playing solid. During the break he was up to 44,850 chips. I think we can expect a lot from this youg german from Augsburg.

The rain here has stopped and the tournament continues. For our swedish fans I have a treat, an exclusive interview with Mr. Jelassi during the second break. The interview is in swedish and he has a very interesting hand to tell you. He also gives comments on the players on his table.

Ramzi Jelassi, speaking during break at San Remo EPT

Forget my previous post. Its no longer a nice day in San Remo. Just when the tournament started, the wind pick up and it started poring rain..

All our RedKings players have taken their seat and table. I will update about the other players on their table later on. During the break, I will interview our players, so if you have any questions for Ramzi, Toni or Ivo, just let me know and I will get you some answers.

Also as a request from our viewers I will be following the new german sensation Severin Schneider and see how he is doing in the tournament.

If you have any of your friends or family playing and you would want some more info on how they are doing, just let me know.

Good Morning all you poker lovers out there. Today is a great day here in San Remo and you can just feel the anticipation in the air. There are many questions that we are looking for an answer today e. g. Will there be more players in day 1b than yesterday, totalling over 1200 players in this PokerStars EPT San Remo and how much has the volcanic eruption in Iceland effected on the big poker stars wanting to attend this great value italian tournament.

Unfortunately the volcano in Iceland has already had one major casualty in the form of Team RedKings Norwegian champion Stephan Kjerstad. His flight got cancelled because of the ashes and a cancellation to his participation had to be made. This is a shame as Stephan has been in top form lately. His fans can rest assure knowing that he will be back in the next tournament and will guarantee to do his own volcanic poker eruption on to the big poker scene shortly. Poker players, you have been warned.

But first a recap from the Day 1, where we had 585 poker players fighting their way to the top prize. After 9 hard levels of battle only 274 players survived. Topping the leaderboard after day 1 a is the russian Alexey Rybin with 213.000 chips followed closely by italian Manuel Coppola with 212.000 chips.

There are many nationalities in this tournament and of course the majority of them are Italian. From the 274 survivors for day 2, 80 are italian including crowd favorites Dario Minieri with 41,800 chips and Luca Pagano with 65,000 chips. Here is a list of countries and how many players continued to day 2 with the top play named.

Canada 12 (Alex Wice 181,700 chips)

Denmark 10 (Rasmus Vogt, 118,400)

Finland 10 (Joni Jouhkimainen, 126,300)

France 23 (Serge Madec, 184,200)

Germany 20 (Alejandro Pena, 149,400)

Hungary 4 (Kati Jerney, 100,500)

Italy 80 (Manuel Coppola, 212,000)

Netherlands 7 (Gijs Verhejen, 88,500)

Romania 9 (Alin Gabriel Grasu, 88,600)

Russia 15(Alexey Rybin, 213,000)

Sweden 12 (Jakob Karlsson, 137,700)

Switzerland 10(Erik Tamm, 137,600)

UK 5 (Luke Olivier John Keay, 83,900)

Ukraine 6 (Oleksander Vaserfirer, 133,400)

USA 25 (Philip Albert Wiszowaty, 147,800)

Day 1 b promises to be even a better day than yesterday as we have our very own Toni Ojala and Ramzi Jelassi starting. I aim to get you an interview from both of them before they start. Finally to our readers, if you have a friend, family member or just someone or some country players who you would like us to follow during today, just post your comment with the name here and I will do my best. If you could also get them to come and say hi to me before we start, that would be even better.

So fingers crossed, break a leg, doomswitch off for Team RK and shuffle up and deal.