If ever there was a multiple pile-up waiting to happen, it was at the table featuring Dario Minieri, Patric Martenssen and Ramzi Jelassi, to a man fierce, aggressive and devil-may-care players.

The table also features - or did feature - Mark Dalimore, a British player who for half a level at least was giving as good as he got. But with the news that Minieri has almost doubled his overnight stack comes the corollary statement that Dalimore is out, his wings clipped, melted and then chopped off entirely.

The final hand was jacks against ace-king, all in pre-flop, with Minieri's pocket pair triumphing. But it was the previous three or four hands that did the real damage, with some crazy chatter accompanying some fearsome betting with both Jelassi and Minieri taking their toll.

After a good deal of needling, Minieri and Dalimore got involved. With Minieri in the small blind and Dalimore in the big, the Italian made up the blind and they saw a rag 10-high flop. Minieri bet about 200 and Dalimore asked to see his cards.

"I can't show this one," Minieri said. "Because then you'll always re-raise me because you think I bluff."
"Come on, you can show me," countered Dalimore.
"I'll show you one," said Minieri. "That's my final offer. You are so good."
"I know you're bluffing every hand anyway," said Dalimore, as he folded.

The next hand, the Indian PokerStars player Aditya Agarwal raised pre-flop, Minieri reraised and everyone folded. "I thought we were going to play tight," said Jelassi, who possibly also thought John McCain was good for victory.

"Oh be quiet," said Dalimore. "You've done nothing yet. All you've done is talk - and fold."

Those words soon sprung Jelassi into action, however, when he, Minieri and Dalimore saw a flop of 7c-3d-3c. Minieri bet 325, Dalimore called on the button, and Jelassi check-raising to 1,300. Minieri folded but Dalimore thought a while, even mimicing the fold, before calling. The turn brought Qs and Jelassi bet 1,800.

"If I fold them, you'll have to show me this time," said Dalimore.
"I'll show you," said Jelassi. "I always show anyway."
"I might reraise then. Will you call if I go all in?"
"I don't know," Jelassi confessed.
"OK, I raise." Dalimore bet 3,625 which got an emphatic response from Jelassi. "All in," said the Swede.
"Fold," said Dalimore, instantly.

Jelassi then had a few words of warning, which proved to be amazingly prophetic. "Either you play tight, or someone is going to get knocked out," he said. Then Dalimore found that ace-king, Minieri the jacks, and it was over.

With 99 players starting day 1a here in Warsaw, we were wondering whether at the end of the day we would already be down to a single table. Such is the carnage usually associated with the EPT that even with 10,000 chip starting stacks and one-hour levels, it's not uncommon that 90 players can depart.

As it turned out our fears were unfounded. When the tournament director called a halt to proceedings moments ago, 53 players were given plastic bags to store their chips until Monday's day 2.

Among them were some familiar figures on the EPT, including the Norwegian star Johnny Lodden, who has kept his rich vein of form running all the way from the banks of the Danube in Budapest earlier this month to here beside the Vistula in Poland.

Watch EPT Warsaw 08: Interview with Johnny Lodden on PokerStars.tv

Lodden was down to 5,000 at one point, before rallying dramatically - thanks in no small part to kings and aces in successive hands - to end the day in the handful at the top of the leaderboard. By the time the curtain came down, Lodden was lording it: tales of his raising seven hands on the bounce made their way to the press room. He's confident and back in contention.

We have also seen Antony Lellouche near chip leads before, and he was back on form very early on today. On the second hand of the tournament, Lellouche found kings and somehow got all his opponent's stack into the middle. The reason? His opponent had aces and was in terrific shape until a king turned and Lellouche never looked back. He built on that early double up to do so again during the day. He's another right up there.

The PokerStars qualifier Sergey Shcherbatskiy, from Russia, is also in the mix, as is his countryman Serguei Pomerantsev, who learnt that attack is the best form of defence on a table of bullies.


Serguei Pomerantsev

He and the PokerStars qualifier Richard Gryko sat beside each other all day, both nursing their growing stacks, and when they were joined at the same end of the table by Ilari Sahamies, Pomerantsev soon sent Ziigmund packing, with ace-king bettering ace-queen.

Not everyone could stay smiling all day. After a brilliant run from the World Series through Budapest, Kara Scott's hot streak was dampened in Warsaw.


Kara Scott

Her aces just couldn't hold up against Arnaud Mattern's deuces. She was soon joined on the rail by the king of Hungary William Fry, who couldn't go back-to-back after his terrific debut showing in Budapest. He too was vanquished.

If rumours are to be believed, tomorrow will bring considerably more players to the coalface. After finishing up in Amsterdam, there will be a host of hot prospects jetting over to Poland for day 1B. But tomorrow is another day, and there's still plenty to read and see from this one. Click any of the links below for today's reports.

Poland braced for day 1a
Doubling up and going home
The stomach for it
Action stations
Small-ball poker
Assasinato assassinated
Looking disaster in the face
Heavyweights – Gavin Griffin and Ilari Sahamies
A surprise evening off
Lodden loading up again
From Budapest to Warsaw
Post-prandial exertions
The celebrity table
Pressing ahead
Mattern pays overtime
Seven bets for seven pots

And don't forget, all of this is available in languages you can't even begin to understand. Unless you speak them. In which case you'll want to click through for Polish coverage, Hungarian coverage, Swedish coverage or German coverage.

And if moving pictures are more your thing, then PokerStars.tv is the place to go.

And once all that is done, return for tomorrow's action. In the meantime, goodnight Warsaw.

There's a new force in Warsaw and he's the first player to break the 40,000 barrier. His name, according to the registration card he handed me in lieu of spelling it out, is Serguei Pomerantsev and he's just accounted for Ilari Sahamies.

Sahamies, the aggressive Finn, raised pre-flop from mid position. Pomerantsev re-raised from one closer to the button. Everyone got out the way and Sahamies re-re-raised all in for his last 10,000 or so. Pomerantsev was going nowhere, called with A-Ko and Sahamies never caught up with A-Qo.

Sahamies' departure came only minutes after he'd arrived to the table, where there's already a titantic battle going on between Pomerantsev, Richard Gryko and the rest of the table. Pomerantsev was actually the "other player" referenced in the previous hand with the English PokerStars qualifierand between the two of them, they've got the table dominated.

A big pot between the two of them could put significant distance between the winner and the rest of the field. It seems in the offing.

Have you seen the line-up for the next stop of the European Poker Tour?

It's something to check out.

According to the people in the know, one-time EPT Grand Final winner Gavin Griffin is planning to make the trip, as is last year's EPT player of the year Luca Pagano.

Not to be outdone, recent World Poker Tour champion Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is on his way to Poland along with top pros Isabelle Mercier, Dario Minieri, William Thorson, and Katja Thater. Thater is headed back to Warsaw with the intention of winning the title after last year's final table performance. The first place finish in last year's season went to German businessman Michael Schulze. He won more than €600,000 after defeating 358 players.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the EPT event in Budapest sold out. The EPT event in Warsaw still has some seats available for qualifying or direct buy-in. The four-day 21,000 Polish Zloty event and satellites continue on PokerStars until November 11. For more information, check out the EPT home page.

If you don't qualify but are still looking to play, you have a chance to get a reduced rate on nearby hotel rooms. Check out the brand new EPTHotels.com for more information.

See you in Poland!