Some of the team members went to The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles to play a $200 rebuy.
This is one of the many side events to the WPT Legends of Poker - arranged at The Bike later this month.

Axabaxa, Sparky, Indie, LK and tilion from Team Eurolinx, Thor Hansen from Norway and 577 other players.
Total pricepool over $300,000. Top 46 will finish in the money.

After 90 minutes of play, all Eurolinx-players are still in. Only LK bought the double add on.
A total of 931 rebuys and add on's, and over 1,5 million chips in play.

Not long after the break, LK is knocked out of the tournament.
After the next break Axabaxa and Sparky had to leave the tables as well. Indie and tilion still had chips left.

It started to tighten in, and it got down to under 100 players left. Indie was short on chips, and got knocked out short before the money. Thor Hansen had to follow him short after, and only tilion was left of the norwegians.

tilion finished in 36th place, when his AQ got beat by A10.

Elaineb with a 366th place, and Sparky with 845th place, both finishing in the money in the 2oo6 World Series of Poker Main Event!

You make Team Eurolinx look good :)


Elaineb (left) and Sparky with a great performance in the Main Event

After loosing the big pot with 66 vs JJ, Elaineb was blinded down to 49.000, and had to push it into the pot with AQ. He was looking at a sweet pot, after one limper and one raiser the pot contained almost 35.000 before he pushed all in.
But when the raiser had the pocket rockets - AA, it was all over. Jd-3s-5d-5s-8h on the board.

GG Elaineb! Top 400 in a field of almost 9000 of the worlds best players!

After one hour of play, Elaineb still had around 120.000 in chips, after being blinded down to 90k.
But then he opens the pot with a pair of sixes, and a shortstack moves all in. Elaineb is looking at good odds, and has to call 35.000 to win a pot worth 110.000, so he calls and hopes the shortstack is on two highcards. But the highcards match, and the shortstack's pair of jacks hold up.

Elaineb is down to 65.000 now.

Elaineb ended the day on 128.000 in chips, and will continue play tomorrow.

Elaineb continues to climb towards the average. He now has 150.000 chips, only 25.000 short of the average chipstack.


9 norwegians left in the field of 500 players.

The players have been on a new break, after playing two hours since dinner.
Bernt Grytdahl is now 100k up since the beginning of day 3. 120.000 for Elaineb now.

Since he moved to the new table he's only showed one hand. A8, when he hit an ace on turn and checked out the pot in position. If that doesn't help to build a thight image nothing does :)

The other norwegians are generally down since dinner.
Around 600 players left. Play was supposed to stop when they reached the 600-mark, but the directors have decided to play another three hours today.
Blinds are now 1500/3000 with a 400 ante.

Still 87k, nothing big to report.

Elaineb had 87.000 to the break.
Lucky7 is still in, and built his stack from 27.000 to 205.000 during the five hours of play today. He kracked aces with kings shortly before the break.

Just got the news that Kjetil Flatnes finished in 845th place.

Concidering that almost 9000 players entered the tournament this year, among them all the greatest players in the world, this is a great performance by Sparky!

Sparky made it to the money, but got knocked out short after when his A9 got a call from JJ, and no ace on the board. GG Sparky!

Elaineb is still in, with over 70k in chips!
He has already made it to the second payout-level.

730 players left, they will play down to 600 today.

Three players from the money, all the tables has started a new round by round play.

Both Team Eurolinx players are still in.

One guy at a table cheered out as he made it through the first round by round with only 100 left in chips. He thought he would get in the money, but now has to play another round. He will be all in for 1/3 of the ante in the first hand.

The tournament is now played round by round. Most tables have completed their rounds, but I don't know how many players got knocked out.

Sparky is around 30.000, looking forward to making the money so he can push a bit more.
Elaineb was at 75.000, but a round pf play and a pot he lost in battle of the blinds brought him down to 63.000

I'm not allowed inside the area until the round by round process is finished, but I'll come back with more updates after that.

Going to the second break, Elaineb had 63.000 and Sparky 38.000

Nothing big at any of the tables.
The players will soon be down to the 872 players getting paid.

Granisimo took a round in the tournament room, and here is what he brought back:

Bernt Grytdahl (Elaineb) - 70.000
Kjetil Flatnes (Sparky) - 40.000
Mikkel Haga - 20.000
Anders Karlsen - 60.000
Per Erik Løff - 160.000

Sparky won a pot and got up to 60k, but lost a big one in a battle of the blinds. He has 40.000 now.

Elaineb is up to 55.000, and climbing! Unfortunately, Josh Arieh got knocked out, and he has a new player to his right.

Eurolinx had two players in yesterdays $1000 NL event. Mortyblack and tilion was among the 1100 players starting.

Mortyblack was knocked out after the dinnerbreak, finishing arund 200th place.
tilion made it to the money, but got knocked out in the last level of the day.
He had 22.000, almost average stack, when UTG+1 limped in. Everybody folded around to the small blind, who also limped after some thinking. tilion in BB checked his option with A6.
Flop: A-J-6 with two clubs. Both the SB and tilion checked again, and the limper betted out 3500. SB think for a while, but folds his flushdraw. Shortstacked, he couldn't find his odds good enough :)
Then tilion moved all in, with 18.800 over the bet. Almost instant call from the limper who shows A-10.
But 10 on both turn and river sends tilion out of the tournament in 59th place.



tilion finished 59th of 1100 players in the $1000 NL event

After one hour the players had their first break.
Both players had a good start, and increased their stacks.

Sparky has 50.500 in front of him now, but it could easily been much more. After a player opened the pot, Sparky raised from the button with AA. But no callers, and he took the pot down without a fight.

Elaineb started with 21.600 and is now up to 40.000. He was anted down to around 17.000 before moving all in with AJ, after Josh Arieh in the position before him raised the pot. Arieh had raised almost every pot, so Elaineb thought he would give it up. But Arieh called with his pocket kings. Two other players at the table folded an ace, but one out is enough, and the case ace appeared as first card on the flop.

Andreas Hagen had about 125.000, but lost a gigantic pot, and is shortstacked now.
Lucky7 is around 60k, Marve 135.000. Marve is still one of the shortstacks at his table! Two players over 400k and two others with 200k, so a though table it seems.

Per Erik Loeff is at Sparky's table. He started the day with 177.000, but lost a few pots, and are down to around 130.000

Two players from Team Eurolinx will be batteling for the chips today. It's expected that the players will hit the money in 2-3 hours or so.

I'll go in and get some fresh chipscounts and statusreports now.

Both Sparky and Elaineb made it to day three.

Sparky didn't play a hand for the last hour, and ended the day on 47.100 in chips.
Elaineb lost a few pots, and will start play on friday with 21.600 in his stack.
The average is around 75.000 i believe.

It's also expected that players will get payday a couple of hours into the third day.


Sparky (left) and Elaineb makes day three in WSOP Main Event

Sparky and Elaineb is still in, with 53k and 30k chipstacks.
Sparky pointed out that he hadn't seen a pair of aces for ages. So we all hope he'll see them at least once before the end of todays play.

Inspecta was also knocked out of the tournament in this last level. He re-raised a player all in, and thought he covered him with a good margin. But when his AQ didn't get any help against the other players KK, he only had 7500 left. In the next hand he moved in with A6, but got the call from AA. The flop brought one six, but the third didn't come and Inspecta is out.

Lasse Ubostad has 37.000 after knocking out Indie.

In one of the last hands before the last break, Anders Indrebø is knocked out of the tournament.
Lady Luck wasn't on Indie's team this time. First he doubled up a shortstack with AQ vs 77, no help.
Then he put his last chips in with 99, and got the call from Lucky7's 55. Everything looked good until the river - a 5, and the 27k pot was sent over to Lucky7.
Indie is out of the WSOP Main Event after 20 hours of shortstack play.


After loosing to a 2-outer on the river, Indie is out of the main event.

Sparky is still on 45.000, but both Elaineb and Indie lost some big pots.
Indie is down to 17.000, and Elaineb 35.000. Indie is used to be a shortstack now, so I'm sure he'll handle it fine and make the comeback. Elaineb still has room for some play.

Chipcount on some other norwegians:

Inspecta: 40.000
Strategen: 100.000
Lucky7: 23.000 (same table as Indie)

All three players still in. Indie had a couple of key-pots going the wrong way before the break.
With A-10 he saw the flop A-A-3 with one other player. Indie managed to get off the hand, and when the other player shows 3-3 for the boat Indie knew what extremely good laydown he made.
Indie has 24.000 to the break.

Sparky won the last pot before the dinnerbreak, bringing him up to 47.000. He lost a couple before that, and didn't get any cards at all. So maybe a good time for a break.

Elaineb has 53.000 going into the break, and is waiting for some cards. At his table good cards will pay off i think. All in preflop in a 90k pot with AJ vs K5 isn't what you see every day here. (King on the river by the way)

Elaineb opens the pot with 6-3 suited. A shortstack moves all in, and Elaineb had to call with the good odds.
The shortstack had QQ, but when Elaineb makes the flush he climbs over the 50k mark.

Indie lost a huge pot worth 25.000 when he called a shortstack all in with top pair, but got beaten by the straight on the river. But still 35.000 in his stack!

Sparky is also over the 50k mark, but no big pots for him. He pointed out that his stack are the biggest in the team, with 51.000, against Elaineb's 50.500 :)

Kjetil Flatnes - 47.500
Bernt Grytdahl - 40.000
Anders Indrebø - 29.000


Indie won a nice pot just before the end of the last level.
He made a raise with A8, and got two calls. Flop: K-K-10, check round. Turn: 7, check round again. River: Q, Indie makes it 2800, and everybody folds.

Sparky raises to 2000 on the button, and both blinds laughs about another stealing from the button. Small blind calls, and the big blind fold. Flop is 8d-9d-10c. SB checks, Sparky bets 3000 and gets a quick call.
Turn is Kh, and both players check. 8c on the river, and SB bet out 6000. Sparky counts his chips and ponders the decition. Finally, he makes the call. SB has to show his Ac7c, for ace high. Sparky flips over KdQd, for pair of kings and win the pot.

55.000 for Sparky now!

Indie had a rough time, and lost two big pots in a row. First he opens the pot with AK. The chippie at the table moves all in, and he has to fold. Down to 17.000.
Shortly after one guy limps in, before the SB moves all in for 7000. Indie in the BB moves all in on top with AQ, and the limper folds. J-10 on the SB, but a jack on the table doubles him up.
Down to 10.000 for Indie.

Then Indie opens for 2100 with another AQ, this time suited in clubs. He gets a raise from another player, and Indie moved all in and gets the call from 10-10.
The flop is 10 high, but all in clubs, so a nice double up there. 20.000 for Indie now.

Elaineb is still around 42.000.


I met Tegneseriesamleren during the last break, and he was knocked out in the last hand before the break with a set.

Info on two of the hands Elaineb had during the first level:

Elaineb made it 1600, and the position behind raised to 5000. This was the fourth time he had done that today, so Elaineb announced all in. The other player had 17.000 left behind.
After some time, nothing happened, and the floor put a clock on the table.
When a clock is called, the player has one minute to make his decition. Floor counted down the last ten seconds, and the hand was declared dead. The dealer pushed the pot over to Elaineb, and the other player asked why he didn't get the pot. It turned out he thought Elaineb was the one put on the clock :)

A bit later Elaineb raised from the cut off with 7-8. Both blinds call, and the flop is 7-9-3. Check from SB, and 4000 bet from BB. Elaine raises 8000 more, to 12000 total. BB thinks for a while and throws away his hand. He told the table he had A9.

Elaineb now has 36.000 to the first break.
Sparky is on 43.500, and Indie 22.500.

Indie started the day with only 14.000, after a though day 1. Things are better for him today it seems, and his stack is now up to about 25.000.
He raised to 1.700 from mid position, and got a call from the button and the big blind. Flop: Jd-8c-As. Big blind checks, Indie bets out 3.700, and wins the pot.
Later he tells me he had a set of jacks, and was hoping for a raise.

Elaineb was up to 40.000, but lost 3.000 when three players limped into the pot. Elaineb raised to 3.000, and everybody called (!). Flop: 5d-7d-3s. First two players check, and third player is all in for around 10.000.
Bernt thinks for a bit, and folds. Second limper makes the call, and flips over a set of sevens. Agains a pair of eights it hold up to knock out another shortstack when Qs and Jc appears.

Sparky is still at the same stack.
But on the next table Inspecta doubles up! On the flop Jc-7h-9c the initial raiser bets 3000. Inspecta thinks for a while, and makes the call. 5d on turn, and the bet is 5000 this time. Inspecta is counting his chips, and is not comfortable at all. But he makes the call with only 15.000 behind.
2c on the river, and a check from the initial raiser. Inspecta again counting chips and thinking what to do.
He then stacks up his yellow 1000-chips, 12 in the number. He pushes the stack, so it falls into the pot, and 12.000 is his bet. The other player immediately calls, and show two red kings.
Inspecta shows Ac-Qc for the nut flush, and stacks up 49,700 in his chipstack.



Indie slowly builds his stack

After only one hour of play, all three members of Team Eurolinx has increased their stacks!

Best of the three is Sparky, who knocked out a shortstack. The shortstacked guy bets out on the flop 10-5-5 (the same flop Sparky saw with his aces on day one) and got raised all in by Sparky and his pocked queens. The other player was committed, and made the call with A-7. No aces on turn or river, and Sparky are now up to 46.000!

Elaineb's stack are up to 38.000 after a strange hand. Info on that hand after the break.

Indie is above 20k. I don't have the exact count on his stack, but it's larger than is was at the start of the day, and that's the most important, right? :)
The hand where he won some of these chips went something like this:
The chippie of the table made it 1500 from early position (blinds 250/500-50) and Indie re-raised him to 6000 from the big blind with A-Q. Chippie called, and the flop came Q-8-4. Indie moved all in direct, and won the pot.

All three players are sitting in "the norwegian corner" where 5 norwegians made it good on day 1b. Another norwegian are sitting at a table in the same corner. Inspecta, who won the Open Norwegian Championship this year. He hasen't had any cards, and no pots for him so far.



Sparky knocked out a shortstack and are close to 50k!

Team Eurolinx has three players at the tables today.


Bernt Grytdahl (Elaineb) - 33.700
Kjetil Flatnes (Sparky) - 28.300
Anders Indrebø (Indie) - 14.125

More info on chipcounts soon.

After the break, Axa lost a big pot leaving him with only 3,500 in chips.
With 4-5 of spades he limped in from third position, after the player UTG limped as well. 4 players saw the flop 9-5-3 with two spades.
Axabaxa pushed all in and got the call from 5-3 - two pair. No spade or four, instead another three on the turn, and Axa had to leave the main event.



Aleksander Cooper is unfortunately out of the WSOP Main Event 2oo6

A norwegian newspaper, Fædrelandsvennen, did a interview with Kjetil Flatnes (Sparky) today. Read the article here:

http://www.fvn.no/nyheter/kristiansand/article385967.ece

You could also read Sparky's blog, where he walks you though his experiences so far in Vegas and WSOP:

Sparky's Chillout Zone

In the last hand before the break, Klinsmann looks down at AQ in the big blind. The button raises, and Klinsmann moves all in. Button calls with pocket jacks. 2-2-2 on the flop, but no ace, queen or deuce on either turn or river, so Klinsmann is out of the tournament.


Klinsmann didn't get the cards to play with today, and was knocked out on a 50/50

Near the end of the first level, Teem Eurolinx is struggeling. Klinsmann hasn't got any cards to play, and is down to 11.000. The best hand he's seen all day is K-9.

Axabaxa is down to 12.000, after loosing a big pot where he called a raise, saw the board J-10-4-10-2, and called the other player down. But when he was up against J-10 and a full house, he lost the pot.

More info after the break.

I will report back with chipcounts and more info soon.

Team Eurolinx has two players at the tables today:

Aleksander Cooper (Axabaxa) -- 31.400 in chips
Aleksander Strandli (Klinsmann) - 14.400 in chips

Just got some info about the prizes. The winner will take home over $12.000.000, and there will be 12 instand millionaires.

After getting a rough start in the main event, there was no real recovery for Lars Egil Nielsen.
He managed to build his stack back up to 4.000 with a pair of fives, but lost half his stack shortly after when he called a bet from the blinds with 9-10 suited. The flop brought a nine and low cards, so Lars Egil took the lead and bet out. He got called down by the initial raiser who had AK. Once again, the river destroyed everything when the king appeared.

Left with only 1400, Lars Egil put all his chips in the middle with a pair of nines. He got a call from two kings, and with no help in the board Lars Egil had to leave the table.

So that's it for Team Eurolinx on day one of the WSOP 2oo6 Main Event. Status is 5 out of 10 players still in.

The following players will continue play on the second day:

Day 2A: (Tuesday)

Aleksander Cooper (Axabaxa) - 31.400
Aleksander Strandli (Klinsmann) - 14.400

Day 2B: (Wednesday)

Bernt Grytdahl (Elaineb) - 33.700
Kjetil Flatnes (Sparky) - 28.300
Anders Indrebø (Indie) - 14.125