After two Day Ones, a solid field has amassed for the 2016 partypoker WPT United Kingdom, the latest stop on the Season XV schedule for the venerable poker tour. After those two Day Ones, it is Sadman Shefan who has emerged with the overall chip lead.
Day 1A was a minefield for the pros in the crowd at the Dusk ‘til Dawn Casino in Nottingham, with such notables as Poker Hall of Famer and WPT announcer Mike Sexton and WPT Champions’ Club members Michael Mizrachi and Javier Gomez failing to get out of the day. By the time that the chips were bagged up at the end of the evening, Cesar Garcia Dominguez had a slim lead over Ning Lu, but a dangerous pro was lurking down the leaderboard:
Cesar Garcia Dominguez, 150,000
Ning Lu, 147,275
Jimmy Guerrero, 130,000
Kuljinder Sidhu, 121,150
Jan-Eric Schwippert, 116,500
Brexico Gonzalez, 103,825
Padraig Parkinson, 103,550
Chris DaSilva, 93,000
Daniel Stanway, 90,800
Chris Gordon, 89,850
What was particularly interesting about Parkinson’s performance is that he was one of the last players to register for the Day 1A action. Per the WPT Updates team, Parkinson sat down at his patch of felt and, within 20 minutes, increased his stack by 50% (45K from the starting 30K stacks). It seems that the remainder of his evening went well also as he took that 45K and more than doubled it by the close of business.
Day 1B would bring out more entries into the £2200 event, pushing the eventual entry field up to 420 players. Those wouldn’t be the final numbers, however. Late entry for the tournament was set to expire following the second level of play on Friday, at which point the remaining 264 players (and anyone who pops another £2200 into the kitty) will learn what they’re playing for. If the action around DTD was any indicator, you’d think the players were already battling it out at the final table for the top prize.
Shefan would use a late charge in the evening to blow past Javier Gomez for not only the Day 1B chip lead but the overall chip lead in the tournament. As with the Day 1A race, there was another talented professional hiding in the pack and looking to strike:
Sadman Shefan, 181,500
Javier Gomez, 136,375
Benjamin Heath, 130,050
Brandon Sheils, 120,400
Aaron Wilson, 116,800
Manig Loeser, 112,250
Waikiat Lee, 110,000
Kevin Allen, 109,000
Vahid Amirzahiri, 105,000
Romain Lewis, 101,275
Loeser is arguably one of the most talented pros without a major championship to his name. He’s not the only pro that is getting some time on the tables in Nottingham; WPT Champions’ Club member Surinder Sunar is in the Top 25, stacked with 91,300 in chips and playing well.
With both Day Ones in the books, here’s the overall leaderboard for the tournament:
Sadman Shefan, 181,500
Cesar Garcia Dominguez, 150,000
Ning Lu, 147,275
Javier Gomez, 136,375
Benjamin Heath, 130,050
Jimmy Guerrero, 130,000
Kuljinder Sidhu, 121,150
Brandon Sheils, 120,400
Aaron Wilson, 116,800
Jan-Eric Schwippert, 116,500
The action for Day 2 is already underway at DTD, with the first task for the day closing registration and determining the prize pool (with the current information, the prize pool sits at roughly £840,000). After that, the 264 players will probably have to be whittled down to the cashing players in the tournament, with the final table scheduled to be live streamed over WPT.com and their Twitch channel on Sunday.
