EPT12 Prague: Nothing to report on table nine, or at least to be reported

I tried to write something about table nine. I really did. But in the end it proved impossible.

It wasn’t anything the players did – or didn’t do. It’s more that table nine is not a place that invites action. Normally you go into the tournament room looking for something to happen. In this case it was the opposite.

I admit there was something appealing about this particular spot, positioned as it is in one of the far corners of the tournament room. Outside the Hilton Prague it’s is freezing cold. Inside the tournament room it’s bright and noisy. Except at table nine. Here it’s warm, dark and quiet; the only table not swathed in beams of light, and not close enough to a gangway to invite intrusion. The only people who come to this table do so because they have to.

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As far as line-ups go it wasn’t bad at all. In seat four was Elena Stover, winner of last night’s Right To Play Charity tournament. Next to her was former Prague champion Roberto Romanello, and along from him Team Pro Matthias de Meulder.

Elena StoverNeither they, nor anyone else at the table for that matter, seemed in any hurry. Maybe it was the survival instinct. In a room of 700+ players, this was the equivalent of a cosy armchair by the fire. There was even smoke, well water vapour to be precise, billowing up whenever Marco Caza took a drag on his e-cigarette. From certain angles he appeared to be on fire. But smog aside, this was a good place to be. Stephen Woodhead thought so in seat nine. He was getting his head massaged.

All of which was about the sum total of the action.

But this was fine by me. I was happy to settle in and wait for something to happen, or for someone to do something. It didn’t. They didn’t. And I didn’t mind. Woodhead was fine with it as well. He was being lulled to sleep.

Table nine. Log fire not shownAt which point the massage girl looked over, and speaking quietly enough so as not to wake her customer said “What are you doing?”

It was a good question. “Nothing,” I confessed.

“I like to do nothing as well.”

When found out all you can really do is smile politely. Which I did. Then I went to find another table.

Stover is up to 64,000 by the way, Romanello up to 48,200, and De Meulder 50,000. I know that because I read it on our live updates page. It’s still cold outside.

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Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.