David fears his tutor's wrath

PPT regular David Pishvafar confessed to making a call that would have disappointed his poker coach, as his big stack took a turn in the wrong direction just before the break.

Compatriot Robert Haigh has long been Pishvafar's tutor in the game and despite his quiet manner, the German is allegedly a fearsome critic of his most promising students!

So it was with some trepidation that David (pictured) revealed why his one-time 30k tower was now just 10,000 chips tall.

"I made a bad call," he sheepishly explained, "I had been making some great calls earlier on, picking off bluffs to build up my stack. In fact that's how I won the majority of my chips.

"I then picked up AA utg, raised and was called by the aggressive player at the table, who was in the small blind.

"The flop came Q-9-x and he check-raised me, so I called, then flatted his turn and river bets when I should have folded. He showed a set of 9s."

Lucky for Pishvafar his coach should be in a good mood, as Haigh - who finished 4th in Vienna - is sitting on around 30,000 chips.

"I had a good table start, with some weak-passive players making life easy," he revealed, "But a couple of them have been knocked out and have been replaced by better players, so I'm expecting the aggression to increase now the antes are here!"

UPDATE - More heartache to report David Pishvafar as he made his exit shortly after our conversation. He has been joined on the rail by fellow German Rene Knapp, who headed for the cash tables after admitting this "wasn't his tournament."

iPPT

Carlos Oliveira may not be having the best time of things so far, but the ParadisePoker pro was singing the virtues of his iPad as he battles on in the PPT Prague.

The Portuguese player (pictured) reached the final table of the PPT Vilamoura earlier this season, adding to an impressive poker CV that includes cashes in the EPT and WSOP, as well as victory in the 2009 Bellagio Cup.

But the Czech Republic has been less kind so far, as a friend in need meant Carlos had just three hours sleep ahead of the Main Event, and even the cards seem to have turned against him.

Still, his trusty iPad has played a key role in keeping him alive so far, even if his dwindling stack has dipped below the 10k mark.

"It's great for those moments when you lose a bit of concentration," explained Oliveira, "I've been falling asleep at times today and it's been a big help to get my brain working.

"Especially when you're used to playing six or seven tables online, you need something else to stimulate your mind during live play, so for me it's been really useful!"

Jensen follows Cooper to the rail

Johnny Jensen was the second high profile casualty for Fantasy Poker as the Dane joined fellow high stakes pro Andy Cooper on the PPT rail.

The ParadisePoker pro (pictured) had been his usual aggressive self at the tables in Prague, fluctuating wildly in chips from a short 5k stack up to a 20k tower.

The end came when he went to the flop with Q♦J♦ and the dealer flipped Q♠-K♦-3♦.

All the chips went into the middle and the villain of Jensen's tale flipped KQ for top two pair. A queen on the turn left him drawing dead and heading for the Card Casino exit.

Here's a selected chip count:

David Pishvafar - 30,000
Ronnie Espensen - 27,000
Robert Haigh - 26,000
Lukasz Gebica - 25,000
Gøkmen Cetin - 16,000
Toni Merivuori - 11,500
Rene Knapp - 11,000
Fernando Martin Blanco - 10,000
Carlos Oliveira - 8,000

Fantasy Poker update

We had a record-shattering 137 entrants for Fantasy Poker here in Prague, so the PPT blog is going to hold back on publishing every entrant's team.

Fear not Fantasy Poker players, however, as we've got a full record of all the entries and this will be reviewed at the end of day one. Teams still in contention will be published here.

As ever Johnny Jensen was among the most popular picks, featuring in no less than 24 teams, but he was run close by fellow ParadisePoker pro Carlos Oliveira who was picked 21 times.

Spanish pro Fernando Martin Blanco is also expected to go deep here at the Card Casino, with 14 teams boasting his skills in their line-up, and Tomáš Straka is playing for 13 entrants.

Despite his protests to friends not to pick him, Tour league champion Toni Merivuori was selected by seven teams, while current league leader Ronnie Espensen is helping edge 10 teams closer to fantasy points.

Former champions flock to Prague

The PPT blog loves to reminisce about good times past on the ParadisePoker Tour, so it's with great pleasure we spotted a hat trick of former winners in the field here in Prague.

Already mentioned was Marek Viscak (pictured top left), who not only won the PPT Sunny Beach in Bulgaria last summer, but finished second in our inaugural London event back in 2009.

The Czech is playing on 'home turf' this time around, as is last year's winner here in the famous capital city - David Huspeka (pictured bottom left).

Also in attendance is London 2010 winner Christos Xanthopoulous and just to confuse us, the Greek has brought along brother Pavlos!

The two could hardly look more alike and to make matters worse, Pavlos Xanthopoulous (pictured top right) is wearing a shirt bearing a significant resemblance to the one worn by his brother when he took down the PPT London trophy!

At the last check, Christos led the way of the three former champs with 21,000 chips, while David (15,000) and Marek (14,925) were both hovering around the starting stack.

Ronnie's road trip reunion

Ever sat with the same opponent more than once and felt like fate played a part? Or pulled up an MTT chair next to a friend and wondered - what are the odds?

Current Tour League leader Ronnie Espensen (pictured) travelled over 720km to get to PPT Prague today, opting to make the lengthy drive across the continent with his friends Jesper Nielsen and Bjarne Jensen.

The intrepid trio spent around 10 hours in the car en route from the small Danish town of Haslev - and the random draw placed all three on the same table!

"We'll still play against each other like anyone," promised the young Dane, "But that's pretty crazy.

"In fact, what's even more amazing is that the three of us make up my father's Fantasy Poker team! So look out for frogjensen to win that prize package."

The bizarre twist in fate has proved a good omen for Ronnie early on, as he doubled his chip stack within the first hour against high stakes pro Andy Cooper.

Having got into a raising war with the UK player holding AA pre-flop, the 10-9-5 flop held little fear for Ronnie and the money all went into the middle on the 9 turn. Cooper flipped KK leaving Ronnie on the warmer end of a cooler.

Fantasy Poker entrants relying on Andy for a strong showing will be disappointed though!

Fantasy Poker deadline...

... has now passed. Good luck to the entrants who picked their team in time.