Any observers at the current World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown looking for any change since Black Friday will be quite disappointed. The latest stop on the WPT has a field of 406 players and that tells you everything you need to know in terms of the continued popularity of live poker in the USA. The event, which has a prize of over $1million for the winner, has already reached the end of its first day with American Randy Dorfman currently sitting pretty atop the chip count with a stack of 160,000. He is being closely pursued by Nick Grippo who sits with a count of 149,375 and James Carroll with 130,925 chips. At the end of day one the top ten was as follows:
1. Randy Dorfman – 160,000
2. Nick Grippo – 149,375
3. James Carroll – 130,925
4. Todd Terry – 124,975
5. Seth Davies – 115,225
6. Joe Serock – 113,150
7. Marsha Wolak – 106,350
8. Elio Cubrera – 105,025
9. Jorge Chavez – 104,525
10. Aarib Schaff – 104,225
Over in Europe, the latest stop on the European Poker Tour (EPT) began yesterday as Europe’s finest rocked up in San Remo, Italy. This year marks the third time that the sleepy Italian town has hosted a leg on the tour and the home players were out in force on day 1A. The lead is currently held by Russian Leonid Bilokur with a stack of 187,900 but the band of Italians following him are easy to see as Alessio Pianta and Arnaldo Petino both crept up the chip count. One man who won’t be going any further is Viktor “isildur1” Blom after he was eliminated on the first day and in all 225 players made it to Friday’s day two.
