After almost 9 levels of play we are down to only 88 players here in Dortmund. The day started with 237 players.
In this level the blinds are 400-800 with a running ante of 100. The average stack is 26.931 chips.

There will be one more level before the end of Day 1A.

In what has to be described as a sick deal Paul Fontaine knocked out two players.
First Gary Harrington moved all in for his last 8700 chips. Then Torstein Iversen moved in for his last 9300. Paul Fontaine didn't hesitate before putting the stack of 11.200 chips in the middle as well. After three all in's the next player took a few minutes in the tank before he folded his hand. Henning Granstad in the big blind shook his head and showed A-J to the table before folding.
Harrington flipped over 88, Iversen 77 and Fontaine KK! But when the doorcard was the king of clubs the door was almost shut for the two all in players. But with two other clubs in the flop Harrington had a glimpse of hope as he was the only player with a club in his hand. But no club, seven or eight on the last two cards, and Fontaine scooped in the pot. Paul Fontaine is probably more known as an online tournament player, after making top 40 in the pocketfives ranking this winter. He won three $100 rebuys on Ultimate Bet in one week!
Gary Harrington had not played a single pokerhand outside his hometown of Cornwall before playing here in Dortmund, but smiled when he left the tables, obvioulsy happy with the day regardless.
This hand is available in the live-table function at the top of this page.

We went around the room and looked for big stacks now that the play has been going on for a few hours. The blinds are now at 150-300 and the big stacks are beginning to form nicely at the tables. Alot of theese big stacks are danish players and here are the highlights:

Jacob Rasmussen - 24.000
Daniel Winter - 26.000
Morten Erlandsen - 18.000
Martin Hansen - 29.000

And some not Danish players, but the biggest stacks in the tourney so far:

Csaba Kuremszki 40.000 (Hungary)
Rohnny Carson 42.000 (Canada)
Fredrik Haugan 40.000 (Sweden)
Abdul Kohdr 35.000 (Germany)
Johnny Lodden 30.000 (Norway)
Thomas Bell 33.000 (Norhern Ireland)

The day is just about to start after some delay here in Dortmund. Here are som of the named players that are playing todays tournament;

1-3 John Shipley (England)

2-3 Morten Erlandsen (Denmark)
2-5 John Kabbaj (England)
2-6 Jim Kerrigan (England)

3-3 Andy Black (Ireland)
3-6 Bertrand Grospellier (France)

5-2 Pascal Perrault (France)

6-10 Anders Wijk (Sweden)

7-4 Alan Betson (Ireland)
7-7 Xuyen Pham Vladar (England)

9-1 Dan Pedersen (Denmark)
9-6 Jean Paul Kelly (England)
9-8 Peter Hedlund (Sweden)

12-5 Mark Bartlog (Germany)

14-2 Martin Vallö (Denmark)
14-x Gilles Haddad (France)
14-x Chuc Hoang (France)

15-1 Jan Olav Sjåvik (Norway)

16-8 Michael Keiner (Germany)
16-10 Joe Beevers (England)

17-1 Richard Toth (Hungary)
17-10 Johnny Lodden (Norway)

18-2 Peter Jepsen (Denmark)
18-3 Mads Andersen (Denmark)

19-9 Christian Grundtvig (Denmark)

21-8 Fredrik Hostrup (Denmark)

22-5 Steve Vladar (England)
22-6 Ilari Sahamies (Finland)
22-8 Iwan Jones (Wales)

23-5 Roy Brindley (Ireland)
23-7 Roland De Wolfe (England)

24-4 Julian Thew (England)