EPT Polish Open: Final Table Set in a Hurry, Daniel Woolson Sole US American, a Kraut in Command, and Swedes Swarm

It took just two hours and 40 minutes for 17 players to exit the EPT Polish Open today and give the tournament its final nine that will be competing for the first place prize of 2,154,000 Polish Zloty ($950,000 US).

Bubbling in 10th was the last man standing from the land of hot girls on bikes, Claus Nielsen. A friend of our friend Jonas Hüttel, the Dane used work at our favorite Copenhagen rag Ekstra Bladet before he became a poker manager, with clients such as 2007 WSOP ME final table-ist Philip Hilm. Like other Danish card tossers--Henrik Gwinner, Sander Lylloff, Gus Hansen, including -- Nielsen is a pretty decent backgammon-er, and has most recently co-founded pokernyhederne.com (Danish for poker news).

When play begins Saturday at the Casinos Poland in Warsaw, a German named Michael Schulze will sit down the big stack with 1,162,000, giving him more than a 400k margin over his nearest competitor Ricardo Sousa of Portugal, who finished play today with 756,000. Sitting in third, fourth and fifth are Juan Maceiras of Spain (437,000), Mehdi Ouakhir of France (360,000) and Mathias Viberg of Sweden (229,000).

The most notable name of the final bunch, at least to us, is Norwegian Trond Erik Eidsvig, who sits in sixth place with 220,000. Eidsvig is making his impressive third European Poker Tour final table this season and recently nabbed Rookie of the Year honors at the Scandinavian Poker Awards.

Sandwiched between two Swedes -- Niclas Svensson (174,000) and Christian Öman (110,000) -- is the lone US American Daniel Woolson, who has his work cut out for him as he starts tomorrow stacked at 164,000.

Stay tune here for the latest from the EPT Polish Open.

The girl above is the awesomely named Doda Elektroda aka Dorota Rabczewska, a hard body rock singer from Poland who a Google search shows likes to drop the top often for Polish men's magazines. After the jump, some of her less NSFW-ish moments . . .

EPT Polish Open: Scandis, Krauts, US Americans on Top, Poles Not So Much

Day 2 at the EPT Polish Open is a go in the country that gave us kielbasa, polka and the gargantuanly breasted Ewa Sonnet (above), and among the top 10 in chips at the Casinos Poland are four Scandinavians, three U.S. Americans, two Germans and one Spaniard.

It's Robert Flink from Ikea-land who started the day as the chip leader with 113,300, and Dan Pedersen, from the land of hot girls on bikes, sat down with the second most, 98,500.

Go here for the full top 10.

Apparently and surprisingly our math was correct yesterday, and the total prize pool for the EPT Polish Open is 7,180,000 Polish Zloty (about 2 million euros). First place will walk with 2,154,000 Polish Zloty (609,782 euros). Second place gets less.

Unlike the EPT Copenhagen, in which Danes dominated the field in both numbers and overall success, the Poles, well, not so much. Of the 359 players who started, less than 10% were from Joanna Krupa-land. Strikingly, not one Pole appeared to be in the top 50 at the start of play today and only six or so are still in.

So what are we getting at? Poles kind of suck at poker.

UPDATE: Irish poker pro Andy Black, who started the day near the bottom of the top 20 in chips, is steamrolling the field like hooker-banger Eliot Spitzer once steamrolled white collar criminals and is now near the top of the chip count with 110,400 at the first break of the day, according to PokerStars Blog. Meanwhile Day 1 chipleader Robert Flink has disappeared from the field, and the new chipleader is Kosta Anastasyadi from Holland, a country where Spitzer could get his Ashley Alexandra Dupre on legally.

Players who've busted today include Johnny Lodden, Mel Judah, Dan Ryan, Casey Kastle, Marc Goodwin and the lovely Liz Lieu, a woman.

Not yet busted, Woody Deck.

This Girl is Playing the EPT Polish Open in Warsaw

Alexia Portal (at right, on the left), the French actress you don't know from the film Autumn Tale but may remember from our "This Girl is Playing the EPT Dublin" post, is among the 168 players who ponied up the 21,000 Polish Zlotych buy-in today to start Day 1b at EPT Polish Open.

Also among the field today at the Casinos Poland: 2004 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer and serial EPT-ers Luca Pagano, Pascal Perrault, Thor Hansen, Andy Black, Soren Kongsgaard, Thierry van den Berg, Rolf Slotboom, Mark Teltscher and William Thorson.

Also, also there at the EPT Polish Open today are:

Dave Colclough, whose wife is Rhowena, if you didn't know and like you didn't know.

Sorel Mizzi, who says he's sorry again and creepily has a poster of Annette_15 on his wall.

Mel Judah, whose Vegas lap dances last summer are scarred into our brains.

Johnny Lodden, who was apparently the poker pro that got Trojan'd out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Liz Lieu, who is hot.

The second flight draw of 168 players puts the total field at 359, a decent increase from last year's debut event in Warsaw which drew 284 to the Casinos Poland. The total drives the prize purse up to 7,180,000 Polish Zlotych if our math is correct, and it probably ain't.

Surviving Day 1a yesterday were 72 players including the chip leader Robert Flink, a Swede, who amassed 113,000. Second in chips was Spaniard Anio Alcaraz (78,000) and third but first in weird foreigny name was German Alp Okumus (62,100).

For full chip counts, go here and scroll down.

Our WCP tip of the day: Don't do a Google Search of Ewa Sonnet or a Google Image Search of Ewa Sonnet (NSFW). Unless you're your own boss, and even then, only if you have an hour or so to kill. Ewa Sonnet by the way is Poland's 36E answer to Keeley Hazell, but more pornish, because she's Polish.

EPT Polish Open Underway, We're Rooting for Woody Deck

From the land of hot girls on bikes and who wear men's underwear to the birthplace of poker playing swimsuit model Joanna Krupa (at right, on some beach in Warsaw), the next stop of the European Poker Tour got underway today with the EPT Polish Open at the Casino Poland. Day1a action in the capital city saw 190 players take their seats on the first flight of the five-day tournament, which was won last year by Dane Peter Jepsen.

Among the notable names in attendance include two-time EPT Season 4 final table-ist Trond Eidsvig (Norway), British cash game specialist Marc Goodwin (England), EPT Barcelona winner Sander Lyloff, the Harry Potter of Poker Dario Minieri (Italy), Season 3 EPT Copenhagen winner Magnus Petersson (Sweden), Season 3 4 EPT Baden winner Julian Thew (England) and Katja Thater (German), a woman.

Also in the field, a guy named Woody Deck from Lithuania, who just may be the new Simon Mycock of European poker. We can only hope he rises to the occasion in the land of the Poles and sticks it out for a few days.

Poker TV presenter and Canadian defector to the UK Kara Scott, who stands about a foot taller than EPT Copenhagen winner Tim Vance (midget?), is also at the tables today as a player and not so much as the EPT hostess. Scott most recently won the Sports Stars Challenge III, which was as exciting as the name sounds.

Stay here for the best, most informative, "like you are actually there" EPT Polish Open updates around, and what we mean by that is occasional, somewhat brief, light on the details but heavy on the photos of hot Polska dziewczynas, if our Polska is correct.

Relatedly, some Joanna Krupa photo links below and after the jump, a clip from Poland Idol, which is like American Idol but with Polaks:

Joanna Krupa photos from the World Series of Poker
More Joanna Krupa photos at the World Series of Poker
Joanna Krupa goes naked for PETA
Joanna Krupa 2008 Calendar photos