World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) has moved into the most important phase of the series as the €10,450 Main Event moves into its second day of action with Ludovic Lacay leading the final 228 players.
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event is one of the toughest son of a bitches that a player can do battle in. With 372 players already bought in for the two starting flights, and registration still open for the Day Two stragglers, it is the third consecutive year that main event numbers have fallen on the European continent.
Yet despite the drop in numbers it still remains one of the most difficult premium events of the calendar, due to the sheer lack of fish swimming up through the tributaries of the satellite programs.
Of those 372 players, 228 have made it through to the second day of action. 167-players started Day 1A and the chip leader was the relatively untested live tournament player Paul Kuzmich with 145,825 chips.
Another good showing on the first day of action came from Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot, who has decided to take a shot at the main event after performing well in the recent European Poker Tour (EPT) leg in London, where he took 31st in the Main Event for £14,940 before cashing for £82,315 for a sixth place finish in the £10k High Roller. The Devilfish will start Day Two with 71,000 and has Bryn Kenney and Daniel O’Brien for company.
Amongst the casualties of Day 1A were the reigning PartyPoker Premier League champion Dan Shak, the formidable Jason Mercier and the current Global Poker Index (GPI) number one Marvin Rettenmaier.
The second starting flight saw 205 players register and they included Event #6 runner-up Ludovic Lacay, who managed to brush off his to finish as the chip leader with 163,075 chips. Two other top players with deep stacks are Ravi Raghavan (155,225) and Igor Kurganov (136,475).
On the WSOP Player of the Year (POY) front we lost the leader, Matthew Ashton, during the starting flights, but both Loni Harwood (112,950) and Daniel Negreanu (15,300) still have a shout of toppling the Liverpudlian who can do nothing more than hope and pray.
The reigning champion, Phil Hellmuth, is still alive and well with 40,250 chips and he is going to need all of his experience as he starts the day on a table containing Harwood, Lacay, Max Steinberg, David Benefield, Fabrice Soulier and Mohsin Charania. A stark reminder of how difficult this tournament is.
Phil Ivey (42,500) also starts Day Two, and he will be sharing table space with the in form Noah Schwartz (13,750).
The Day Two action starts at 12:00 (CET) and PokerListings will be operating live updates, and WSOPE poker news, throughout the day.
