Update for the First Break

Francesco de Vivo is out of the tournament

Live the Dream Team member Francesco de Vivo started the day with 5850 chips. The blinds were at 200-400.

Here is the story on his last hand:
Someone at his table raised to 1,100. Francesco moved all in with A 10. Valentin Messina, also seated at the table with A-K, raised to 30K to put the initial raiser all in. The initial raiser had QQ and there was no help neither for Francesco or Valentin. Valentin is down to about 35K.

However despite his loss, Francesco has decided not to change his flight so he can stay in Vegas until the 14th. You can find him playing in cash games at the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace at the 5/10 tables.

Maria Maceiras

Team Everest's Maria Maceiras is also out.

She started the day with 21,125 chips. After raising for the 4th hand in a row, as her table was not very tough, Maria with KK 3 bets a guy holding AA and finally pushed all in on the 4 bet. With no help from the board Maria is now out of the tournament.

On a happier note for Everest, Maria is going to stay in Vegas until July 15th. She is a bit sick of tournaments so she will enjoy some shows with her boyfriend and might play the 1K event on Sunday at Caesar's Palace.

Jochum Weenink

Jochum Weenick is a 22 year old online qualifier from the Netherlands. He is playing in his second World Series tournament here in Las Vegas.

This year he has already played in 5 side events with one cash and is really anxious to cash big in the Main Event.

Jochum is staying with his friend Koen de Bracelet (formally known as Koen de Bakker), at Caesar's Palace.

Jochum is a well known face at the Spanish Poker Tour, playing since season 1 starting in 2008.

Besides poker, Jochum plays Korfball and likes to hang out with friends. Ladies, Jochum is still single :)

Jochum

Jesper Hoog

Jesper is from Sweden he's just 25 years old and playing in his third WSOP. In both prior years he has busted on the 2nd day of the Main Event, so it’s important to him to reach day 3 this year. Jesper is ‘up’ now to 20K, he started today at 18K. He is happy with his table, not too aggressive!

Besides playing here in Vegas, Jesper also enjoys playing cash games on www.everestpoker.com
. He got his driver’s license when he was 21, but never drove alone. So first thing he will do (after a good cash here) is practice his driving and then buy a car. No favorite, just a cool ride!

Jesper

Voitto Rintala

This will be Voitto's fifth time playing here in Vegas. He has yet to have made a cash at main event, but hopes it will happen soon! He is staying almost a month in the Rio to play side events and the main event.

For all our ladies reading this: Voitto is single. Voitto plays the base guitar in a famous Finish rock band. Voitto’s favorite food is italian cuisine, he likes to work out, read and his bad habit is collecting insignificant stuff like comic books (Larson, dilbert). You can recognize Voitto from his freaky contact lenses.

He started today with 37500 but is now up to 47500 (after the first hour of day 2A).

Voitto

Marco Bilsing

Marcoc Bilsing is Everest Poker's only online qualifier who is also a professional boxer! He trains two times a day (even in Vegas). He is here with his brother who also tried to qualify online, but had to settle for supporting his brother throughout the event.

At the moment he has 19000 chips. He just won a small pot with QQ.

He started playing poker 6 years ago and plays a bit on TV. His first live poker experience was with friends and he won. On his first online tournament he finished second. He was very pleased so played the next day and won the tournament! This is his first time in Vegas, go Marco!

Marco

Yori Epskamp

Yori is living in Hilversum, Netherlands. He’s 27 years old and has a degree in Sport Marketing. He qualified through Everest Poker for Event #54 and now he’s also playing the Main Event. He has been dreaming about playing the Main Event for years!

Although he is a cash game player, he really likes this tournament as the structure is very slow. For example: they started the first day with 30k and now in the second level of day 2, the blinds are only 250-500 with an ante of 50. Yori is a bit down because he floated one time but missed the turn and he got reraised while he was isolating the initial raiser on the cut off position. But with a 45k stack he is still in a good shape!

Yori Epskamp

Kenny Hallaert

Kenny is one of Everest Poker's biggest players in Belgium. Kenny is living in Hansbeke, a small village in the northern part of the country. Besides playing poker himself, he runs the site pokerinfo.be and he organizes a lot of tournaments in the Namur casino.

Kenny started the day with 24950 chips but lost a bit in the first level; he’s now playing 17k. Kenny said to us in the break that he’s hitting good when he’s not playing! He had to fold 44 pre flop because of the action and the flop showed….a 4! The same with pocket sevens, the flop showed two sevens!

Here in Vegas he’s sharing a villa with his good friends Steven van Zadelhoff and Marc Naalden.

Kenny