2012 Wsope Day 1 Second Flight
Monday October 1, 2012 : FRENCHMAN LEADS AS SECOND DAY 1 FLIGHT ENDS AT WORLD SERIES OF POKER EUROPE MAIN EVENT
Grospellier the second flight chip leader, but a disappointing turnout
Hopes for a record turnout for the second flight of Day 1 of the main event at the World Series of Poker Europe main event faded over the weekend when only 205 players registered, leaving total entries for this year's main event around 420…well short of the hoped for 600 (last year total entries were 593 players).
Entrants paid Euro 10,450 to buy-in for the tournament, creating a prize pool of Euro 4 million, with the lions share at Euro 1,022,376 reserved for the ultimate winner.
The legendary French online and live tournament ace Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier ended the day as chip leader on 190,400 despite the star-studded entry field, which included Sam Trickett, Jason Mercier, John Juanda, Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, Chino Rheem, David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth, Liv Boeree, Jonathan Duhamel and Sandra Naujoks.
Four WSOP USA main event finalists this year, Jesse Sylvia, Jake Balsiger, Russell Thomas and Steve Gee, were also in the mix, with Gee the only one eliminated.
Other big names who headed for the exit on day 1b included Marvin Rettenmaier, John Tabatabai, Jon Aguiar and Brandon Adams.
Michael Mizrachi, the chip leader from the first flight of Day 1 remains way ahead on almost a quarter of a million chips when the surviving combined 230-player field comes together on Day 2 to continue the action.