EPT Vilamoura: Day 2, level 13 updates

Updates from level 13 of EPT Vilamoura, brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Howard Swains and Simon Young.

Blinds:
Level 13: 1,200-2,400 (200 ante)

7.30pm: Done for the day
That's it for day two at EPT Vilamoura. Jeff Sarwer is tonight's chip leader with 545,900, well ahead of the other 70 players going into day three. A full wrap up of today's action is on the way. In the meantime check out the latest chip counts.

7.25pm: Sousa safely into day three
On a flop of [7c][3h][4c] Ricardo Sousa made it 7,000 which Jeff Sarwer made 9,300 more. Sousa meant business and re-raised another 58,000. Sarwer just grinned.

"Serious about business, huh?" then passed.

"You had a good hand," said Sarwer, "not nothing..."

Sousa up to 112,000.

7.20pm: Black goes from hero to almost zero
Andy Black, who was sitting on more than 200,000 a short while ago, just lost just about all of it in an extraordinary last hand that shot Ruben Visser to the near chip lead.

First Nicolo Calia raised to 11,000 from early position, then Black called, but Visser re-popped to 40,000. While Calia got out of the way, Black quickly announced all-in, and Visser called in a flash.

Black had been caught very much "at it":

Visser: [ac][kd]
Black: [9d][10s]

Whoops! The board ran [8h][qc][5s][3h][8c], and Team PokerStars Pro Visser successfully dodged the bullets and doubled up to 389,000.

Black? He was left with just 19,400 to play with tomorrow. Ouch.

7.15pm: Closing stages
Tournament Director Thomas Kremser has just announced that, with 15 minutes remaining on the clock, we will play five more hands and call it a day.

7.05pm: Up or down?
Jeff Sarwer, sat with 560,000 in a large triangle block in front of him, is getting advice from the rail from a couple of young internet guys who prefer a more vertical stack.

"We'll teach you how to stack chips Jeff," he says. "There are still things you need to learn."

"I know guys. We'll talk," replied Sarwer, wrapping his arms around his chips. "I just decided to go with this for the feel."

6.55pm: Cold in Holland this time of year
Steven van Zadelhoff opened the pot with a raise from early position before Olaf de Zeeuw three-bet from the button. Van Zadelhoff then moved all in and De Zeeuw snap called with [ah][ad] and saw the pain on his countryman's face as he revealed [ks][kd]. The board ran [7s][qh][4d][th][3s] to double De Zeeuw up to 160,000 and leave Van Zadelhodd in danger on 55,000.

6.50pm: Black in the black
Andy Black just eliminated a player. The money went in on the flop of [qh][9s][jd], Andy Black calling Miguel Menendez's all in. Black showed [9c][9d] to Menendez's [ad][qd]. Blanks on the turn and river and a handshake later and Menendez is on the rail. Black moves up to around 320,000.

6.45pm: Nice flop
Johannes Strassmann just doubled up. Opening for 6,600 pre-flop he was cllaed by Luis Rodrigues on the small blind for a flop of [6s][kd][kh]. Rodrigues then pushed leaving an easy call for Strassmann who showed [as][ks] to Rodrigues's [8c][8s]. A [5s] on the turn and [js] on the river sent Strassmann up to 90,000.

6.40pm: That's gotta hurt
Rob Yong got it all in pre-flop with [9s][9d], and was pretty happy to be called by Luis Rodriguez with his [8c][8s]. That was until an eight hit on the turn, knocking Yong out and sending a hefty 155,000 pot the Spaniard's way.

"Sometime you just know it's coming," said Yong ruefully as he headed off for a calming walk on the beach.

6.35pm: Sarwer storms into lead
Jeff Sarwer already had a lot of chips, and now he has even more. On a flop of [9d][6s][8s] he and Andre Santos of Portugal were in the middle of a mighty scrap. Santos checked to Sarwer who made it 8,300 from the button. Santos then re-raised to 21,000 from his position on the big blind which Sarwer called for a [kc] on the turn. Now Santos made it 45,000. Sarwer immediately asked how much Santos had behind and raised to 200,000.

Santos's stack of 80,000 would be swallowed up if a call went against him. Santos thought, grinned, squirmed, counted his chips and covered his ears with his fists. Sarwer just waited with his head on his hands, elbows perched on the edge of the table, waiting for Santos to respond. He folded. Sarwer now the likely chip leader with more than 500,000.

6.30pm: Chips!
This is the final level of the day, and the chip counts of the 81 players entering it are all now proudly displayed on the chip-count page.

6.25pm: Johns doubles
Probably the best way to meet PokerStars qualifiers at EPTs is in the elevators of the hotels in which we stay, where they stay, and where about 90 percent of the EPT fields usually stay. The second best place is at an airport. Matt Johns, originally from California, but now studying in Madrid, by way of Austin, TX, first came to the attention of PokerStars blog at Stansted airport, waiting for a flight to Faro. Since then, we've been tracking his progress deep into day two and now have the happy task of reporting that he has just effectively doubled up to around 130,000.

Jorge Carvalho opened from under the gun and Johns raised to 16,000 from one seat to his left. All the other players got out the way and Carvalho took his time over the decision, with the clock eventually called on him. He moved in for his last 40,000-odd and Johns called, almost all in himself. Johns had [ac][kc] and Carvlho [9c][9h]. The flop came [as][qh][8h][10c][5d] and Johns won the race.

He's in this tournament after qualifying via the steps system on PokerStars. It cost him about $26.

6.20pm: Tome's up for Levi
Tome Moreira opened with a raise from the button and then called Nicolas Levi's all in push from the big blind with [ac][kd]. Levi was up out of his seat as he tabled [ah][5h] knowing he was in bad shape and it got even worse as the board came [jd][9s][3h][4c][kh] to confirm his exit. The look upon Levi's face told the story better than we could but as we're not allowed to take pictures inside the casino we had our artist run after him to show you as best we could.

6.10pm: That rhymes
Play is under way in the last level of the day.