The first day of World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Event #3: €5,300 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold’em got underway yesterday and though it is a small field at just 135 players (five more players then registered before the start of Day 2), it is an extremely competitive one. Ville Mattila leads the 67 survivors with 165,000 chips.
After Mattila, the top of the leader board is replete with stars. Chris Klodnicki is in third place, followed by Marc Newhouse and Jeremy Joseph as the only players (along with Renaud Desferet in second place) with 100,000 chips or more. After them, the players get even tougher: Scott Clements, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Duval, Phil Ivey, and Davidi Kitai. And that’s just the top ten. Lurking further back are Noah Schwartz, Shawn Buchanan, Tuan Le, Jason Mercier, and David “Bakes” Baker, to name a few. Whoever wins the tournament will have earned it.
Mixed-Max games, while growing in popularity on the tournament circuit, are still relatively unique. On Day 1, everything looked like the standard tournament; tables were nine-handed. On today’s Day 2, however, table capacity will be shrunk to six. Tomorrow will start with sixteen players and four-handed tables. Once it gets down to the final four, the players will pair up in heads-up matches to determine the winner.
It will be only those final sixteen players that will make the money, receiving payouts from a prize pool of €672,000. The winner will receive €188,160.
Ville Mattila is gunning for his first career WSOP, but he has come very close on more than one occasion. This summer, the Finn finished tenth in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Event at the WSOP, just missing a final table appearance. In 2012, he was the runner-up in that very same event, while in 2010, he placed third in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. Mattila also won the €20,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Event at the 2012 Fennia Grand Slam. Something tells us he is proficient in the game of Omaha.
Play has already gotten underway at Casino Barrière d’Enghien-les-Bains as the cards were in the air at 1:00pm local time. As already mentioned, play will continue until the money bubble bursts and just sixteen players remain. Day 3 is the goal: the cash and eventually the final four.
2013 World Series of Poker Europe Event #3: €5,300 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold’em – Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Ville Mattila – 165,000
2. Renaud Desferet – 115,000
3. Chris Klodnicki – 107,000
4. Marc Newhouse – 104,000
5. Jeremy Joseph – 100,000
6. Scott Clements – 98,000
7. Phil Hellmuth – 90,000
8. Jason Duval – 87,000
9. Phil Ivey – 85,000
10. Davidi Kitai – 74,000
