A new day, a new chance to turn your tournament around. Isn’t that the spirit? Some will think that, but if your chip stack makes more of a riffling noise when it’s tipped out of the plastic bag your sights will be on greater things. Then again if you believe in the romance of poker you might say anyone still permitted sit and pay tournament blinds has a chance of final table glory. Like the old lottery saying - you have to buy the ticket to have any chance of winning.

But luck forms only a part of a poker player’s repertoire – as anyone will say - and a little more is needed to prevail at this level. Enter the realists who might look towards the top of the chip counts, to people like Lusovic Lacay and Liam Flood, or PokerStars players Michael Martin and Phidias Georgiou, as among those likely to succeed. They are at the top of the pile, but such is the game their fall can come as quickly as the rise of tail end Charlie.

One thing is for certain. If the most valiant of valiant stories is to be written it will involve the man coming to Industry Hall today with the lowest number of chips, and for the sake of 150 that man is PokerStars player Seth Blackman with 5,000, behind fellow PokerStars player Mark Bointon with 5,150.


PokerStars player Seth Blackman

"I think it's pretty obvious..." said Seth, aware that his situation is most acute today. "I'll look for a chance to move all-in and see what happens. I figure I'm only four double ups from the chip lead."

It's the kind of spirit in the face of adversity that makes this game so great.

As the day winds on we’ll find out how much romance is left. We’ll also see just how likely a double EPT winner will be, with Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken, Andreas Hoivold and Poker Stars player Brandon Schaeffer still focused on that goal.