Sunday at the Casino Barrière just outside Paris saw action in the second flight of the Main Event of this year’s World Series of Poker Europe. This was the last chance for players to get into the action of the WSOPE as this was the last opening day for the series.
Main Event
Day 1b of the €10,450 Main Event saw a mere 204 players roll up to go for the title, taking the total number of entrants to 375. This isn’t a good sign for the WSOP, as this field is significantly smaller than the 420 from 2012, and this is the second year running that the number of players has been in decline. 2011 saw the biggest field for the Main Event, with Elio Fox beating the 593 player field for his title. A Lack of third party online qualifiers may be part of this decline post Black Friday, but it should be giving Caesars a few concerns about the future of this series.
The action yesterday saw Event #6 Runner up Ludovic Lacay leading the action, and giving the local fans a hero to support. He took 163,075 into Day 2, assisted by a late in the day pot which he won with Aces over Kings.
Other big stacks for Day 2 were Ravi Raghavan (155,225), Igor Kurganov (136,475) and Player of the Year hopeful Loni Harwood (112,950).
Other survivors heading to Day 2 are The Poker Brat, Phil Hellmuth (40,250), Poker Legend, Phil Ivey (42,500), another Poker Legend in Daniel Negreanu (15,300), JC Tran (32,700), Liv Boeree (10,175) and Bertrand “ElKy” Grospellier (44,100).
Notable players who didn’t manage to survive Day 1b included Scott Seiver, Phil Laak, Juha Helppi, Jessie Sylvia and David “Bakes” Baker.
Summer bracelet winner, Jason Duval, had performed a bit of a Lazarus impersonation, as he had been playing a short stack earlier in the day, but ended up finishing the day with 110,500. He will be one of the ones to watch during Day 2.
The biggest stacks from Day 1b were:
- Ludovic Lacay – 163,075
- Ravi Raghavan – 155,225
- Igor Hurganov – 136,475
- Jordan Cristos – 116,250
- Sam Greenwood – 113,250
- Loni Harwood – 112,950
- Jason Duval – 110,500
- Remi Castaignon – 107,000
- Giuseppe Sammartino – 105,300
- Dan Steinberg – 103,775
We’ll keep an eye on the Main Event during Day 2, and we’ll keep you up to date with all the big news in tomorrow’s article.