PokerStars.com EPT Vilamoura: Day 1A - Allanon in Top 5
The first day of the new venue at the European Poker Tour in Vilamoura has ended. Team PokerStrategy.com player Allanon is ranked in the Top 5.
A total of 136 players showed up on the first day of play at the new EPT venue in Vilamoura. At the end of Day 1a only 76 remain. Each player started with 30,000 in chips with blinds of 50/100.
Allanon is among the 76 players that survived. Moreover, he's currently positioned fourth with a little over 145,000 in chips. That's about three times the average stack.
Today Day 1b will start at 12:00 local time(13:00 CET). Brand new
Team PokerStrategy.com player will play his first tournament for the team. His colleague PokerNoob will accompany him. PokerStrategist fabstinho is also expected to make his appearance.
You can follow their progress live with our Live Ticker.
Allanon Cruising Through Day 1
Allanon had a comfortable first day. He managed to build his stack from the original 30,000 up to a dashing 146,800 chips, putting him straight in the Top 5.
Most of his stack came from winning the small pots. At one point he said that he didn't want an aggressive image, because he likes stealing the blinds. He had a really good table to play on. According to his team mate Nazgul there were plenty of 'weak spots'.
Some bigger hands also went Allanon's way. As he made a huge bet on the river and the opponent in the hand folded, he got told to show his bluff. Allanon flipped over pocket sixes for a set on a dry board. He also made a good decision on catching a bluff in the hand displayed below.
Pre-flop:
UTG opened: 800
Button: called
SB(Allanon): called with KT
BB: called
Flop (3,200): 
Allanon checked
BB checked
UTG bet 2,500
Button folded
Allanon called
Turn (8,200): 
Allanon checked
UTG instantly bet 6,000
Allanon called
River: 
Allanon thought for a while and checked.
UTG instantly bet 10,000, leaving 6,000 behind
Allanon called
UTG showed 
Allanon shipped the pot for 40,200 with a pair of Tens.
Nazgul Forced to Lay Down Kings
Nazgul had a much harder time stacking up than his team mate. In the very first level he was faced with a very tough decision while holding pocket Kings (see below). All in all Nazgul never managed to accumulate more chips than his original starting stack.
The day ended quickly after losing sizable chunks of his stack on flops where he flopped top two-pair and got outdrawn, made trips on the turn, and so on. He finally found a good spot to push it all-in with 
on a board that had two clubs. He got called by a pair and unfortunately his hand didn't improve. Nazgul didn't make it past Day 1a.
Pre-flop:
UTG opened: 450
UTG+1 reraised: 1650
Button 4bet: 4750
SB(Nazgul) 5bet: 8,000
UTG goes all-in for 30,000
Action folded around to Nazgul who was forced to lay down his pocket Kings.
PokerStrategists Taken Out
PokerStrategists jan1000 and lechuckpoker didn't fare much better than Nazgul. Jan1000 got it all-in from the small blind against the button with 
against 
and didn't receive any help from the board. Unfortunately, Jan1000 was joined by lechuckpoker just 15 minutes later on the rails. SNG Multitabling specialist boku is still in the tournament, but he is severely crippled after Day 1. His stack is only half of what he started out with.
| Top 10 Chip Count Day 1a | ||
| Rank | Name | Chips |
| 1 | Ljubomir Josipovic | 192,900 |
| 2 | Dominykas Karmazinas | 183,000 |
| 3 | Ruben Visser | 172,400 |
| 4 | Daniel Allanon Drescher |
146,800 |
| 5 | Pierre Neuville | 141,000 |
| 6 | Mohamed Razab | 97,100 |
| 7 | Alexy Yuzikov | 96,500 |
| 8 | Pedro Tomas | 87,900 |
| 9 | Michel Abecassis | 85,500 |
| 10 | Goncalo Santos | 84,400 |
After Day 1A, we had the opportunity to interview Allanon, who shared his impressions of the first day and his plans after the EPT Vilamoura.
