9/20/09 - A total of 608 players - a new record for a poker tournament in London, UK - entered the first event of this year's World Series of Poker Europe, which kicked off in London over the weekend. The GBP 1 000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event is now in progress as the first of four full bracelet, multi-day tourneys. 
Played at the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, this years WSOPE is again sponsored by the Betfair online gambling group, with the first event starting on September 18 and running through September 21st.
This is the third consecutive annual run for the European version of the American live tournament classic. The US President and Commissioner of the WSOP, Jeffrey Pollack flew into London for the start of the tourney, accompanied by Tournament Director Jack Effel.
Day 1-A attracted 295 entries. Day 1-B was played through Saturday, September 19th, and the survivors from both initial days days combined on Sunday September 20th. The final table will take place on Monday September 21st.
Among the big names registered for the WSOPE events are Sharkahn Farnood and Jesper Hougaard - both previous WSOPE bracelet winners - and Phil Hellmuth, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, Eric Seidel, Layne Flack, Raymond Rahme, Mori Eskandani, John Duthie, Barry Greenstein, Vitaly Lunkin, Roland De Wolfe, Nikolay Evdakov, Jeff Madsen, Huck Seed, Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Neil Channing and Surinder Sunar.
Betfair preceded the WSOPE festival with a big game of its own - the Betfair Million Dollar Freeroll on September 17; designed specifically for amateur players it was won by a 23-year-old Greek player, Anestis Metsas.
