The largest live poker tournament ever held on British soil is taking place in London. The European Poker Tour’s (EPT) London Main Event clocked in at 848 players earlier today and a prize pool of over £4 million is up for grabs. Text found on the PokerStars Blog accurately assesses, “That will be a large wedge of cheese for the winner.”
Among those hitting the rails today on Day 1B were Dario Minieri and original November Niner Dennis Phillips, who ran pocket kings into pocket aces on his final hand. Phillips won’t be fleeing London anytime soon, however. PokerStars expects its sponsored pro to play in the £20,000 High Roller Event, which he cashed in last year for three times his buy-in.
Viktor Blom, the man many believe to be “Isildur1,” is in action today. However, his stack of 19,000 was abandoned midway through the day, leaving some to wonder if the mystery Swede will be returning to the tables anytime soon. Blom is fresh off a 16th place finish in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event for £33,000.
Also motoring through Day 1B is PokerStars pro Jason Mercier, who Tweeted, “Have 33k at first break. EPT London Main Event. Table seems pretty soft, we shall see what develops.” Mercier might not be in the best condition health-wise, however, as six hours prior to updating his Twitter followers about his chip count, Mercier posted, “Guess I’m just bound to get no sleep this trip. Still feeling sick and getting worse.”
American Soheb Porbandarwala ended Day 1A as the chip leader at 218,600 on Wednesday. The PokerStars online qualifier was the only player to cross the 200,000-chip mark and is well ahead of Konstantin Bucherl’s second place tally of 187,900. Others in the top 25 after Day 1A included former WSOP Europe Main Event champion Barry Shulman, Sweden’s William Thorson, and PokerStars sponsored pro Alex Kravchenko. Yesterday’s attendance was 339, an increase of 10% year over year.
Among those ousted on Day 1A was poker Triple Crown winner Roland de Wolfe, who doubled up through Shulman with pocket tens against pocket nines before meeting his demise. In de Wolfe’s final hand, his A-J could not out-race an opponent’s pocket tens when the board came five cards nine or lower. The U.K. poker pro took fourth in the WSOP Europe Main Event just days ago for £278,000.
Young guns David “Davidp18” Peters and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Chris “moorman1” Moorman were also both casualties of Wednesday’s play in London. Here were the top 10 in chips after Day 1A in the EPT London Main Event. Indicative of the EPT’s global reach, eight countries are represented in the top 10:
1. Soheb Porbandarwala (USA) – 218,600
2. Konstantin Bucherl (Germany) – 187,900
3. Thomas Bichon (France) – 185,000
4. John O’Shea (Ireland) – 184,400
5. Joep van den Bijgaart (Netherlands) – 167,600
6. Dominique Franchi (France) – 152,800
7. Adrian Bussman (Sweden) – 152,700
8. Craig Stevens (UK) – 149,300
9. Steven Levy (USA) – 145,400
10. Daniel Da Silva Pacheco (Portugal) – 144,900
Other notable names that survived the day, along with their chip counts, include:
Barry Shulman (USA) – 129,200
William Thorson (Sweden) – 125,600
Alex Kravchenko (Russia) – 111,000
Tom Marchese (USA) – 110,200
Greg Raymer (USA) – 105,200
McLean Karr (USA) – 90,700
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee (USA) – 88,900
John Juanda (USA) – 71,400
Ivan Demidov (Russia) – 65,000
Teddy Sheringham (UK) – 56,400
Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (USA) – 56,000
Jason “PBJaxx” Senti (USA) – 51,000
Scott Fischman (USA) – 32,700
Nick Binger (USA) – 30,700
Barry Greenstein (USA) – 15,800
Vanessa Rousso (USA) – 14,300
The £5,000 buy-in tournament will crown a champion on October 4th. Also playing out in recent days in London was the EPT’s £5,000 Heads-Up Event, which attracted a sold out field of 64 players. When the smoke cleared, Full Tilt Poker pro Annette Obrestad claimed victory for £120,000. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest updates from EPT London.