10.50pm: Break
Players are now filtering out of the tournament area as they're now on a 15 minute break. You'll find level nine updates in a new post.
10.40pm: You're not in Kaunas* anymore
Lithuania's Mantas Puidokas has not had a good couple of levels. First his stack was cut in half from 38,000 to around 18,000. And he's lost a third of that as he's now down to 12,000.
*I have no idea if he's from Kaunas but he's definitely from Lithuania.
10.20pm: Team GB
From the start of today Keith Johnson and Sam Macdonald have been seated at the same table in seats three and five respectively. For the past 20 minutes of so the seat in between them has been empty, but it's now been filled by a player they know pretty well. Seat four is now occupied by James Keys.
The latter is up to almost 100,000, I just saw him take down a pot. He bet 3,000 on the turn of a [Jd][Kd][6h][8h] board and got one caller. The [4d] completed the board and Keys fired out 6,500 into a pot or roughly 11,000 and it was enough to win the pot.
One table back, Ireland's Chris Dowling is also a member of the six figure club as he has almost exactly 100,000.
10.08pm: Boy from Brazil
Whilst there's a couple of Greeks in playing today, the contest for who's traveled the furthest to play today goes Oliveira Cassio. The PokerStars qualifier has come all the way from Brazil to take part in Eureka Latvia, that is (at a conservative estimate) some 6,740 miiles.
At least he's getting some miles per hand out of his trip as he's still in, but has around starting stack as he's on 15,800 at the moment.
9.58pm: Return of the Mac
To the position of chip leader...
Sam Macdonald is up to 110,000 and tweeted about the coup that has made him chip leader: "Just won deeeeece pot. A7hh > 45 > 33 on 236 w/2 hearts :) up to 110k."
Although he doesn't say so, I can only presume Macdonald went on to turn or river another heart to bust both the set and the straight.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75
9.45pm: More chip counts
A few more counts of some of the names and notables left in: Zvonimir Zoric (61,750), Gary Clarke (9,300), Chris Dowling (74,000) and Sam Macdonald (88,000).
9.35pm: Chip counts
A few counts from around the room: James Keys (77,000), Keith Johnson (18,000), Mantas Puidokas (18,200) and Petar Zografov (20,000). There's plenty of talent left in this Day 1A field that's for sure. You can see selected chip counts of some of the remaining Day 1A players here.
9.20pm: Table of death
Table eight can lay claim to being the toughest in the tournament right now. From the start of the day it's contained Michal Misterek (25,000), he leads the Eureka Poker Tour leaderboard right now, Alex Goulder 20,000 and Neil Rawnsley (45,000). That terrifying trio have now been joined by Mitch Johnson, although with a stack of 11,800 he's not as dangerous as he might otherwise have been.
9.05pm: Chip leader
PokerStars qualifier Guntis Aleksins is sitting behind a stack of around 90,000. That, by my reckoning, gives the Latvian the chip lead. He's got more than three times the average.
8.51pm: Side event result
The festival of poker here in Riga started on Monday and the highlight so far has been the €2,000 High Roller event, which attracted 40 runners. It was won by a Lativan, with Maris Keiriss banking €26,565 for his win.
The full results can be seen below, side event results will be added to this page, when they become known.
Date: October 2-3, 2012
Event 3: €2000 NLH High Roller Freezeout
Entrants: 40
Prize Pool: €71,780.00
1st. Maris Keiriss, Latvia, €26,565.00
2nd. Aleksandras Rusinovas, Lithuania, €17,230.00
3rd. Dmitry Tretyakov, Russian Federation, €10,050.00
4th. Gustav Heseding Hauke, Germany, € 7,170.00
5th. Henri Kasper, Estonia, €5,740.00
6th. Andre Wagner, Germany, €5,025.00
8.50pm: Back from the dinner break
Players have been fed and are now back in their seats for the start of level seven.
7.50pm: Dinner break
Players are now on a one hour dinner break.
7.45pm: Up and down for Macdonald
Sam Macdonald has dropped a bit from his high point of 64,000 but he's still keeping fairly active.
After a player in middle position opened to 700, Macdonald made it 1,950 on the button, call from his opponent. The flop fell [Qs][Jc][Ac] check-call of Macdonald's 2,125 c-bet. The [7h] hit the turn, Macdonald fired a second barrel - 3,950 - and that was enough to take the pot. He's now on around 46,000.
7.30pm: Keys picking up chips
Everytime I walk past James Keys he appears to be stacking chips that he's just won. The Aussie Millions runner-up and WSOPE final tablist, is certainly one of the chip leaders here in Riga as he's up to around 70,000.
7.10pm: Dowling up to 50,000
Chris Dowling is a familiar face on the UKIPT, but this is the first time I've seen him play a Eureka Poker Tour event. He might well decide he wants to play on the tour more often if he continues accumulating chips like he has done so far today.
As the title suggests he's up to 50,000, he told me: "One big pot really I had aces against queens," but this wasn't a wham-bam all-in pre-flop thank you Mam hand. Far from it. "The flop came jack high, all hearts," he explained. "I had no heart, bet the flop and turn and we both checked the river. He had queens with the queen of hearts."
Meanwhile Dowling's Irish compatriot Peter Barrable is not in his original seat and as he was down to around 3,000 is presumed out.
6.55pm: Chip counts
A few chip counts of the names and notables: Gary Clarke (21,000), Michal Misterek (17,000) Mitch Johnson (12,000), Petar Zografov (12,300) and Oliveira Cassio (13,375). The latter is a PokerStars qualifier who's come all the way from Brazil to play this event. He's also won a seat to the next leg of the UKIPT in Bristol this November. He's racking up the air miles.
LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300 ante 25
6.40pm: One champion down
Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez is the first of our former champions to hit the rail here on Day 1A. No info but he was very short and obviously couldn't recover. He's not the only one to exit, as just 86 of the 137 runners remain. That means the average stack is 23,895. Just one table remains in the upper tournament room.
6.25pm: Macdonald bets the farm
Sam Macdonald has a reputation as an aggressive player and that style of play has earned him top dog status here in Riga for the moment.
I missed the pre-flop action but on a [3h][5c][5h] flop the other active player (under-the-gun) checked to Macdonald who fired out a bet of 1,725 into a pot of roughly 3,600. His opponent check-raised to 4,950 and Macdonald smooth called.
The [As] hit the turn, check to Macdonald, bet of 6,900, call. The [3s] completed the board and when it checked to Macdonald he wasted little time in moving all-in for around 36,000, although it was an effective 25,000 as he had his opponent covered.
His opponent sat there and stacked, racked and riffled his chips as he mulled over his decision. He looked once, then twice at his cards before reluctantly mucking his hand. After that hand Macdonald is up to roughly 64,000.
6.15pm: Goulder gets some gold
Alex Goulder has been up, down and now up again so far today. After an open to 600, Goulder moved all-in for 7,725 with [As][Jc], his opponent called all-in, showed pocket sevens and it was off to the races. The [3h][10d][Jd] flop gave Goulder the lead and he stayed there on the [5d] turn and [Qh] river. Back to starting stack for the Brit.
6pm: Chip counts
Here's a few chip counts from the main room: Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez (2,000), James Keys (44,000), Zvonimir Zoric (33,000), Keith Johnson (18,300), Neil Rawnsley (41,500) and Alex Goulder (14,900) the latter just doubled up to get back to starting stack, news on that coming right up.
5.45pm: Five alive
Level five is now underway here in Riga, 107 players remain, meaning that after four levels of play 30 players have been hung out to dry.
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Latvia: Nick Wright. Photos by Rene Velli.