Amsterdam Masterclassics - DAY 2 - Live Update (At a glance)

[danafish]

Is Marcel Luske in....

Nope, sorry, I"m guessing not from his presence a couple of hours ago in the restaurant.

And we, obviously, have now returned from our own cowalicious restaurant excursion. We ate Brazilian steak. Tomorrow we may go for Uruguayan steak. Or Argentinian steak. Don"t know yet.

But forgetting steak for a moment, we"re legging it back up the stairs to get some more stories and whatnot.

[Djinn]

After a full circuit of the room (pictures to follow) it has been ascertained that one very excellent to watch table (featuring Praz, Karl, the Camel and chip leader Micke Narinder) is right next to the rail allowing viewing IF you can get past the four-deep crowds. 

Those guys chips:

Narinder -- 220,000
Keith Hawkins -- 75,000
Praz Bansi -- 58,000
Karl Mahrenholz -- 50,400

Keith just took down a pot after raising to 4k preflop and receiving one button caller.  His 6k bet on the  ac flop was enough to increase his stack a little ways.  

[Djinn]

Pete Linton is OUT - having nursed around 16k for a while, he picked a bad time to re-raise all in with  ts th - after an under the gun raiser to 6k turned out to have  kc kd... "I want to go home," he admitted, sharing the sentiment of many a near-but-not-quite knockout.  Play, as usual, took off after the dinner break, with the many stacks under 20k gambling to get back up to average.  Unfortunately, we could only see the results of most of these stabs at busting or gloriousness - people standing up and either sitting back down or doing the Slow Walk.  Two tables have broken in quick succession, and there are just 70 players remaining.

[danafish]

They"re down to 68 and there is a rumour that they"re playing down to 60 today, but as with most things here, it is as yet unsubstantiated.

I believe though that Jen may have spied some kind of payout information at last. Cross your fingers now...

Blinds are 700/1400 with a 200 ante. Average is 63,880.

[danafish]

There is a sort of balcony, officially attached to the restaurant, from which it was possible this afternoon to view a couple of the tables at the side of the pit. This balcony has now, however, been filled with small tables occupied by dining couples. They don"t seem to appreciate me interrupting their romantic tete-a-tetes leaning over them with a camera. Nevertheless, I took a photo of Rumit acquired that way. He shouted over his chipcount too, which the dining couple found most distasteful. He"s on 40k.

[Djinn]

No one wearing a suit upstairs by the pit which is now seething with cash game players as well as the remnants of the tournament will give me any kind of hard copy of the prize payouts.  They are really busy - this place seems always really busy - and I can"t find our media liaison anywhere.  The only information I have gleaned is that the total prize pool is €2,140,000 making top prize €620,400.  I know that tomorrow they will start flashing the payouts at the bottom of the plasma displays, so it"s going to be good old fashioned stare at screen, try to remember as many numbers as possible, write them down, repeat.  Apologies.

[Djinn]

Finally, after the elimination-fest that most of today became, the action has slowed.  It"s not like they"re all playing tight, though - there are still raises, re-raises and god forbid steals going on, but each player has taken the seriousness of the couple-of-tables-away bubble to mean that they should take their time in creating any action, or even folding.  It"s not exactly stalling, just very considered play.  Two to go before the end of play tonight...

[danafish]

One man clearly not afraid to steal is Keith Hawkins. He raised from the button, and after some consideration the below gent, unnamed but I heard him chatting to his friend in Hebrew if that narrows it down any for you, folds. Camel shows 5-6 offsuit. "You bluff me, I bluff you," he says. There follows some arguing over the nature of the earlier Israeli bluff, which I must admit I don"t really follow because I"m trying to line the guy"s head up with the lamp.

[Djinn]

Well, while watching slightly depleted ex-chip leader Narinder re-raise The Camel off an 8k raise preflop, someone else went out, and with 61st place Matey gone, play has stopped for the day.  People flooded in with plastic baggies, railers crowded the entrance ways and our last vantage point was gone.  We shall be as excited to learn of the chip positions and in fact full list of names of survivors tomorrow as anyone else.

Play restarts at 2pm here (1pm UK time) and we"ll be back to glue one of us in position at the front of the rail.

[danafish]

Also still in is our friend Lady. Really, I"m amazed, because I"ve seen her play I think three hands over the past two days, and each time she"s lost about half her stack. She must be doubling up at at least the same rate, though. She"s currently sharing a table with Rumit, whose viewable-from-the-restaurant table has now morphed into a cash game.