Is it just me or does Constant Rijkenberg look like just some handsome high school kid – just about the last person you’d expect to intimidate you at a high-stakes poker game? Maybe that’s the secret to his success: his opponents misunderestimate him. After ending Tuesday in second place behind Dragan Galic, Rijkenberg had a mixed day on Wedesday: First, he was the subject of a press release announcing that the poker superstar had signed on to be a member of Team ThePlayr.com. Not long after, he took a slim lead – about 1,000 chips – over Galic. He seemed to be riding high, but during a showdown with Galic at the feature table, Rijkenberg apparently tried to bluff and then folded when Galic called and raised. Rijkenberg’s mountain of chips collapsed to a molehill, dropping him out of the Top Three. He’s not out of competition, but he needs a comeback.

Keep on Raising,
SJB

Johnny Lodden has just joined the EPT Live commentators in the booth. Tune in at www.theplayr.tv

Shout-out and kuddos to Kati Jerney, the last woman still seeing action in San Remo. It’s no secret that poker is a game dominated by men and I, for one, am glad to see that slowly changing.

Look, things are better when women are around. They talk so pretty and have such shiney hair. Plus, they can be pretty dangerous at a poker table. Couple a woman’s multi-tasking mind with her unassuming demeanor and the natural level of distraction that women bring to a room full of boys and let the cards fall where they may!

So from one poker-loving chic to another: Kati Jerney? YOU GO GIRL!

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3-betting all-in before the flop with A9 she was called by AQ and after the flop came down Axx things were not looking good and Holger Kanisch appeared to have an easy victory in his sights. But a 9 on the turn nearly sealed the deal for Sandra. An 8 on the river brought Holgers hopes of winning to an end and made Sandra Naujoks only the 2nd woman ever to win an EPT event.

There is some talk here that a deal has been made among the three remaining players-all of whom are German and are only speaking German at the table-and Sandra has just made a rather instant rather poor call in call with J T of hearts after Marc Gork went all in before the flop. After the board came down J x x K x Gork doubled up and Sandra’s mammoth stack has taken a hit.

Shoving in before the flop with pocket sevens the talented Italian pro was called by the Ace Nine of Marc Gork. After the flop came down King hi with no nine he was looking good-but the ugly 9 of hearts came off on the turn and Luca was drawing to just two outs. The 5 of clubs on the river sealed his fate and Luca will be going home with 153,000 Euros and another impressive EPT finish. However he is obviously dejected and upset over the finish.

The password for the tournament is mcdonald08

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Down to just seven big blinds Timex shoved in with AQ and got an interesting call from 87s and caught an A on the flop and the river and has doubled up. Still not among the chipleaders but with much more room to negotiate.

Before the re-draw the majority of the stars were at the feature table - however the redraw pretty evenly distributed the star power and the large chip stacks between the feature and out tables.

The outer table features Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Andreas Hoivold, Marc Gork, Richad Kellett, and Sandra Naujoks. The feature table has William Thorson, Luca Pagano and our current chipleader, Cengizcan Ulusu from Turkey.

Expect to see some fireworks with such deep stacks and talented players left in the field.

The defending champ has stayed quiet all day at the feature table, he has 320,000 now after starting the day with 340,000. This after going up and down like a yo-yo for much of the tournament until today.

Before the flop Holger Kanisch raised from late position and Than Minh Pham went all in from the small blind. Kanisch immediately called and turned over the A h and K h. Pham had K T off suit and was way, way behind after the flop came down A hi. No running cards for Pham and he is going home our 31st place finisher.

Watch Dario Minieri give his thoughts on Casino Hohensyburg on ThePlayr TV.

Alexander Kravchenko vs Sebastian Ruthenberg
William Thorson, Day 1a Chipleader
Casino Hohensyburg Poker Room (Part 2)
Rolf Slotbloom
Dario Minieri on Casino Hohensyburg

We are at a new level having raced off all of the 500 chips. Average stack is 288,000 so just over 30 big blinds. That is some room to play but not as much as I imagine the players would like.

After being 4-bet all in pre-flop Ilihari Sahamies tanked for a few minutes before finally folding leaving himself about 12,000 left. If he had called he would have had to put roughly 8,000 of that in the middle…though the pot was laying him better than 2.5:1 odds to make the call…he must have had a terrible hand.

With average stack over 26,000 and blinds of 400/800 with a 100 ante, things aren’t over for him but he is going to need to get lucky or very aggressive to survive the blinds.

Starting with the PokerStars EPT Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen Denmark, Feb 17-Feb 21 2009, ThePlayr EPT Live Bloggers will be reporting from each EPT event up to and including the Grand Final in Monaco at the end of April.

You can reach ThePlayr EPT Live Blog staff at  eptlive at theplayr.com