The WSOPE £10,300 main event began in London yesterday, and after day 1a there’s a distinctly Parisien feel amongst the leaders with Arnaud Mattern, Nicolas Levi, Almira Skripchenko and Pascal LeFrancois all building up six-figure stacks, and this was despite Mattern taking a late hit from Huck Seed in a 65,000 chip pot.
As far as homegrown talent goes, recent winner of the WPT London, Jake Cody, at one point had a built up around 50,000 in chips but found himself down to less than his starting stack by the end of the 300/600/50 level.
Apart from the French contingent and Monsieur Cody, Team Full Tilt have been well represented amongst the 137 players registered on day 1a. This means that if another 225 register the 2007/8 attendance record will be broken. At the moment at least 79 players will return for Day 2, Nicolas Levi pinching the chip lead from Mattern in the last few hands, Levi on almost 150,000
Day 1b will see the likes of recent bracelet winner Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu joining home-grown favourites Neil Channing and James Akenhead to battle it out for a place in day 2, and a final chance to get their hands on a WSOPE bracelet for this year.
