Kremser Kicks it Off
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
"Tournament dealers, button starts in seat number four. Just to let you know that the official tournament language is English, and English only. We start the first round of 50/100. Players - good luck. Dealers - shuffle up and deal!"
These words are familiar to EPT regulars, starting the first of nine levels to be played today. Probably the man to have heard them more than any other in the second floor's tournament arena is Pierre Neuville, friend of PokerStars and unbelievably avid online EPT qualifier. It says so right on his shirt. He takes his seat with the Day 1a-ers, as does Ben Roberts and Ludovic Lacay.
The 'Casino Royal' as the upstairs area is known is nowhere near as jam-packed as the main floor, and it looks like all of the fashionably-late arrivals have drawn seats there. Ben Roberts, in fact, with less than a minute to go before the start, was sat all by himself at a nine-handed table. Arnaud Mattern, too, has just two opponents, currently.