Eight hours ago their tournament hopes were alive. Now, the dream of EPT glory lies in ruins for 32 of 40 players who returned to Casino Copenhagen this afternoon for the business end of another great EPT event.

That we bring this news on the cocktail side of midnight is some indication as to how fast this day flew by. Finals here in Denmark have produced memorable moments; today will hopefully be just a forerunner to what's in store tomorrow - a frenetic and merciless scrap for every last chip by some of the game's best.

Today marked the latest example of Nordics renewing their claim to be the best and most fearless players of the thoroughbred poker breed - with seven of the eight finalists hailing from Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish shores; an unsurprising surge of local poker brilliance, alongside some EPT loyalists, trigger-happy young guns and the odd legend thrown in.

Anders Langset has the honour of leading the overnight chip list with 1.1 million after a solid day in the saddle. With an ever-expanding block of attack chips Langset, who has been playing poker for only three weeks, seemed unstoppable, able to toss in calls without the fear of crippling loss others had to endure - like the Frenchman Eric Larcheveque, today's miracle man, who never seemed to advance beyond 20 big blinds but finds himself with 205,000 tonight, enough for a guaranteed €80,364.

A welcome sight in his second final is Peter Hedlund, a chatty EPT stalwart, who entertains at the table whether opponents like it or not. He lines up alongside Jonas Klausen who has narrowly missed two previous finals (12th in San Remo, 11th in Barcelona) and makes his first appearance seventh in chips.

Peter Hedlund

Spare a thought for Mikael Lundell. He now knows how Klausen feels after departing in ninth place today, one place off the final for a second time, after being inflicted with the same cruel fate in the season five opener in Spain. Klausen has chance to put his demons to bed tomorrow, but Lundell's nightmares will go on.

Mikael Lundell

Here's who'll be back:

Anders Langset, Norway, 1,119,000
Rasmus Nielsen, Denmark, 1,031,000
Jussi Nevanlinna, Finland, 894,000
Petter Petersson, Sweden, 407,000
Peter Hedlund, Sweden, 367,000
Jens Kyllonen, Finland, 366,000
Jonas Klausen, Denmark, 262,000
Eric Lachavaque, France, 221,000

But we lost a lot of good men out there...

If your fetish is for record breaking you no doubt had your eye on the Norwegian player Andreas Hoivold today. The winner in Dortmund on season three was on course for a potential second title, and would have taken a giant step closer had it not been for the seven-four (yep, seven-four) of Rasmus Nielsen, crushing Hoivold's five-three (yep, five-three).

The legions of PokerStars players were great in number and in talent. Tony Mallandain busted in 21st place, €16,371 to the good, having won his seat in a freeroll. Michael Aston, who pledged 5% of his winnings to Friends of Eastgate -- the charity set up by World Champion Peter -- was the unlucky 13th place victim of a poker mugging, his A-Q outdrawn by the K-J of Mikael Lundell.

Michael Ashton

Elsewhere Andrea Benelli missed out on a third EPT final of the season, exiting in 32nd place; while one of poker's elder statesmen, Thor Hansen, fell short of his first EPT final, departing in 17th place.

Thor Hansen

But that's all behind us, now onto the final. We've witnessed a 4am finish (season 2), a come from behind upset (season 3) and a white knuckle four hour heads-up monster (season 4). This is the place of legend - you'd be mad to miss what surprises are in store for season 5.

And that, folks, is that. We'll be back tomorrow for the final.