Pham and fortune

Pham Kim-Phuc was the big winner of the first two levels as the multi-talented player quadrupled his stack to 18,000 chips courtesy of some big hands.

His super-aggressive style has certainly been attracting action, with his most decisive score coming when he caught his flush vs two opponents with a set of Queens and pocket Kings.

The pre-flop battle intensified after that and the timing was with Kim-Phuc again, as he looked down at AA and got into a pre-flop raising war with the AQ of an aggressive opponent.

Pham was elected to play for ParadisePoker by the Donkr community, who in turn could take shares in the high stakes pro as part of a promotion, so they will be delighted with his progress.

Also on the up at the first break were Johan Jakobsson, who won two big pots with a set and two pair, and Ingo Meyer after he was called down with a set of his own.

It hasn't been all plain sailing for the Team Paradise, however, with a number of players among the 400 players already out of the $1500 NLHE tournament.

Martin Fleisch's first ever live event came to a premature end when his JJ was outdrawn by the nut flush, while Henning Dethlefsen ran into the same hand to end his afternoon at the Rio.

Selected Chip Count
Pham Kim-Phuc - 18,000
Johan Jakobsson - 9,400
Ingo Meyer - 9,000
Udo Seepe - 6,675
Christian Schulz - 6,000
Tom Garland - 5,500
Jens Weigel - 5,000
David Pishvafar - 4,000
Robert Haigh - 4,000
Alexander Hanell - 3,000
Robert Norberg - 2,425