Before plan started today we suggested it might be a good idea to clear the decks, cancel all appointments and do everything you could to ensure nothing took your focus away from this pivotal day in the EPT London. If you were able to do that then well done - consider making it up to loved ones next weekend. If not, you missed a great day of poker. Allow us to fill you in.

As play began, there were four tables tucked into the remaining tournament area of the Victoria Casino surrounded by players and spectators shaking off the effects of an early finish and late bar last night. Divided equally across them were some poker kings, well equipped to give hardened poker hacks something to talk about, even those who claim to have seen it all before.

For starters there was the sole surviving Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki, Michael Martin of EPT grand final fame, Max Pescatori and Sorel Mizzi, and the last remaining Englishman Ian Frazer. Johannes Strassmann finessed his way through the day, as did the Million Dollar Man Peter Eastgate. The list of players with a proven track record seemed endless. Scotty Nguyen was still here, Antony Lellouche as well, not to mention the overnight chip leader Philippe D’Auteuil.

So it was hardly surprising that bundling such a premier bunch of players together, locking them in a room, dealing them cards for 11 hours and upping the blinds every level would create some fireworks - explosions that would either send a player to the rail, as happened to Nguyen (32nd), Mizzi (27th), Frazer (25th) and Molander (21st), Eastgate and Pescatori; or the positive kind, ones that would act like a supercharger, injecting enough sparkle to make these guys rocket men, seen from any high place in town.

Scotty Nguyen

Eight players, perhaps in a rare whimsical moment, could claim something along those lines.

Michael Tureniec, Sweden, PokerStars player - 1,331,000
Eric Liu, USA - 1,308,000
Antony Lellouche, France - 1,022,000
Michael Martin, USA - 718,000
Philippe Dauteuil, Canada - 476,000
Johannes Strassmann, Germany, PokerStars player - 434,000
Alan Smurfit, Ireland - 396,000
Marcin Horecki, Poland, Team PokerStars Pro - 309,000

Winding up in this spot did not come easily. The pace was relentless, right from the moment Nguyen busted through to Erik Sjodin’s exit in ninth, which brought play to a close.

Michael Martin was the early high flyer, quickly establishing an enormous lead as the first player to construct a seven figure stack roughly the size of a hat box. He went on to use it without prejudice. Antony Lellouche did the same. The Frenchman steered a course to his third EPT final, the first of which came on this very table 12 months ago. Not to be outdone, the PokerStars player Michael Tureniec saw to it that he would do the same, winding up the day with the chip lead, the closest player to the first prize of £1 million.

Michael Martin

Johannes Strassmann will make his third EPT final table appearance tomorrow, no doubt hoping to put behind him the near misses in Prague and San Remo last year (ninth both times) and avenge that fateful day in Dortmund in season three where the lead and momentum was snatched away from him, and was never seen again.

As levels passed by the bright lights began to fade. Jonas Molander fell away, into the arms of his fifth EPT cash, so too the Italian Max Pescatori, the scourge of many a busted player this week, who finished in 15th place to break his EPT duck. The former Indy car driver and PokerStars player Gualter Salles, who only began playing a little more than two years ago in between running an racing team, saw his high speed adventure crash out in 14th place.

Gualter Salles

The Million Dollar Man Peter Eastgate tried to pull off his first EPT final table ahead of his date in the Las Vegas desert next month. It was not to be for the Dane who suffered from an unexpected run of bad hands before he finally succumbed to chronic chip shortage.

The final word should be saved for Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki (pronounced horet-ski if you were wondering). Horecki turned a few heads this week with some solid play, winning a vital pot on day two that sent a couple of players to the rail and turned his own fortunes around.

Horecki won another vital pot that served the same purpose today. All-in with Q-9, Strassmann called with what looked like a day-ending pair of aces. All clear on the flop but then came the miracle running nines. He already has an EPT cash to his name from Copenhagen in 2007. That payout has been topped easily this week. We’ll wait to see by how much.