2011 World Series of Poker Europe

Event #5: €10,400 No-Limit Hold'em (Split Format)
Day: 1
Event Info

2011 World Series of Poker Europe

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a10
Prize
€336,008
Event Info
Buy-in
€10,400
Prize Pool
€1,200,000
Entries
125
Level Info
Level
21
Blinds
6,000 / 12,000
Ante
2,000

Table of Instantaneous Annihilation

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

As far as fields go, the crowd that assembled for this Mixed-Max event was about as good as it gets. It's a veritable who's-who of poker in here right now, and we'd venture to say we know about 80-90% of the players who began the day. Still, there are a couple particularly tough spots in the room, and Table 6 is pretty much all of them.

Just look at this lineup that's seated over there right now.

SeatPlayerChips
1Tony G41,000
2James Bord11,000
3Carlos Mortensen54,000
4Andrew Robl59,000
5Bruno Fitoussi78,000
6Erik Seidel75,000
7Sam Stein76,000
8Michael Mizrachi87,000
9David Benyamine33,000

The nine of those men have 14 bracelets between them, along with nearly $60 million in combined career tournament cashes -- $58,379,464, if you're scoring at home. Three of those gentleman (Seidel, Mizrachi, Mortensen) have more than $10 million to their credit, and that's a pretty tough table to try and escape from. Even Seidel was lamenting his plight as he joined the table with his rack of chips a moment ago. After hinting that he'd be unlikely to play many pots, he glanced up at the clock and said, "I hope I can survive for another 36 minutes."

Another Tough One

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

The table adjacent to Table 6 is another tough one. It contains Justin Bonomo, Isaac Haxton, Matt Giannetti, Vladimir Shchemelev, David Vamplew, Jon Aguiar, and James Akenhead. Along with two poor gentlemen whom we recognize, but not enough to place their names.

If you're not at either of those two tables, you're doing well this evening. It brought a tweet out of Aguiar a moment ago: "Pretty sure this is by far the toughest table I've played at in my 7 years".

Tags: Jon Aguiar

Vamplew All But Out

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
David Vamplew
David Vamplew

Just as we were standing over the table marveling at its difficulty, an all-in pot broke out. It happened on the turn of a {7-Spades} {7-Hearts} {3-Diamonds} {A-Hearts} where Vladimir Shchemelev checked first to act. David Vamplew only had 14,825 chips left, and there was already more than that in the middle, so the Scot went ahead and stuck the last of his stack in. Shchemelev called instantly, and Vamplew knew the news would not be good.

Showdown
Vamplew: {J-Hearts} {J-Diamonds}
Shchemelev: {K-Clubs} {7-Clubs}

The king-axe had flopped trips for Shchemelev, and Vamplew was left with two outs. He missed the {10-Spades} river, but he had just enough chips to keep from going broke. Shchemelev only had 13,075, so he's doubled and crippled Vamplew down to practically nothing.

Tags: David VamplewVladimir Shchemelev

The Final Four

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante

The clock has been paused with ten minutes left in the level, and a {4-} from the deck means we'll play that many hands at each table. And then, the bags.

Dwan Busts Two

Tom Dwan just busted two players, Marvin Rettenmaier and Ami Allibay. The flop was {J-}{5-}{4-} and Dwan held {3-}{2-} against pocket fours for Rettenmaier and pocket jacks for Allibay. The turn brought a {6-} and the river an {A-}. Dwan finished with a straight and saw his stack boom to 115,000 in chips. To start the hand, Rettenmaier held about 20,000 in chips and Allibay had around 39,000.

Player Chips Progress
Tom Dwan us
Tom Dwan
115,000
48,000
48,000
Ami Allibay
Ami Allibay
Busted
Marvin Rettenmaier de
Marvin Rettenmaier
Busted
WPT 2X Winner

Tags: Marvis RettenmaierTom DwanAmi Allibay

Day 1 Concludes in Event #5 with Bejedal Leading

Level 8 : 300/600, 75 ante
Dennis Bejadal
Dennis Bejadal

Day 1 of Event #5: €10,400 No-Limit Hold'em (Split Format) is in the books. Leading the way at the end of the night is Dennis Bejedal with 153,700 in chips. There are 72 players advancing to Day 2 tomorrow, which will be played in a six-handed format.

Plenty of poker superstars were in action for this unique event including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier, Jeff LIsandro, Michael Mizrachi, Tom Dwan and Erik Seidel. If that's enough enough of a who's who list for you, how about adding Freddy Deeb, Viktor Blom, Tony G, Sam Trickett, Carlos Mortensen and Ben Lamb? If that doesn't satisfy your poker appetite, you should see a doctor soon. They'll all be moving on to Day 2.

On the flip side of things, Phil Collins, McLean Karr, Chris Moorman, Fabrice Soulier, Eugene Katchalov, Barry Greenstein, James Bord and Joao Barbosa were all eliminated throughout the day.

Bejedal took the chip lead after beating fellow Swede Joel Nordkvist in a big pot with full house over full house. Steve Billirakis bet 4,600 on the {10-Diamonds}{2-Hearts}{2-Diamonds} flop, Nordkvist made the call and then Bejedal also called. The three players witnessed the {K-Diamonds} land on the turn and Billirakis checked. Nordkvist fired 12,500 and Bejedal called. Billirakis folded. After the river completed the board with the {2-Clubs}, Nordkvist bet 17,000. Bejedal made the call.

Nordkvist showed the {A-Spades}{A-Clubs} for a full house, deuces full of aces. Bejedal revealed the {10-Hearts}{10-Spades} for a better full house, tens full of deuces, and moved to over 150,000 and into the number one spot.

Other notable big stacks include Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi with 140,300, Tom Dwan with 127,400 and Freddy Deeb with 121,000.

Day 2 will commence on Thursday at 1500 CET (0600 PDT) over at the Le Cannes Croisette Casino just a short walk down the road. Be sure to tune back into PokerNews then for all of the live updates.

Tags: Dennis Bejedal

Official End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)

Player Chips Progress
Dennis Bejedal
Dennis Bejedal
153,700
Michael Mizrachi us
Michael Mizrachi
140,300
WSOP 5X Winner
WPT 2X Winner
Tom Dwan us
Tom Dwan
127,400
Freddy Deeb lb
Freddy Deeb
121,000
WSOP 2X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Massimiliano Martinez it
Massimiliano Martinez
111,500
Kent Lundmark se
Kent Lundmark
107,600
EPT 1X Winner
Peter Jetten ca
Peter Jetten
101,800
56,800
56,800
Joel Nordkvist se
Joel Nordkvist
99,100
-8,900
-8,900
Brian Hastings us
Brian Hastings
85,300
55,300
55,300
WSOP 6X Winner
Bruno Fitoussi fr
Bruno Fitoussi
82,500
9,500
9,500
Cliff Josephy us
Cliff Josephy
80,800
37,800
37,800
WSOP 2X Winner
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
79,700
31,700
31,700
WSOP 6X Winner
EPT 1X Winner
Matt Waxman
Matt Waxman
79,600
14,600
14,600
Dan Fleyshman us
Dan Fleyshman
79,100
10,100
10,100
Juhan Lauttamus
Juhan Lauttamus
77,300
Brian Powell us
Brian Powell
75,100
42,100
42,100
Erik Seidel us
Erik Seidel
74,900
-19,100
-19,100
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
Dmitry Motorov ru
Dmitry Motorov
74,000
Amir Lehavot il
Amir Lehavot
69,400
WSOP 1X Winner
Robert Tepper
Robert Tepper
69,300
Andrew Robl us
Andrew Robl
63,500
11,500
11,500
Isaac Haxton us
Isaac Haxton
62,400
40,400
40,400
WSOP 1X Winner
Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald
59,800
Alexander Kostritsyn ru
Alexander Kostritsyn
59,200
35,200
35,200
Anatolii Ozhenilok ru
Anatolii Ozhenilok
57,000

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Event #5: €10,400 No-Limit Hold'em (Split Format)

Day 1 Completed