Alex Foxen Claims the Day 1a Chip Lead of 2019 WSOPE Main Event
The World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at King's Resort got underway after two weeks of preliminary events, and Day 1a saw numerous top players advance with big stacks.
The day started with only a mere 60 players at the tables, but the number kept rising until the end of the day as 194 would enter, surpassing by 54 entries the number of last year. They all started with 100,000 in chips and at the end of the day, 113 managed to survive.
One player to keep an eye on going forward is undoubtedly Alex Foxen, who ended the day with a hefty 537,200. The second stack, Anton Morgenstern, amassed 460,000 chips today. Ukrainian player Oleh Okhotskyi completed the podium with 433,900.
Foxen has pocketed a total of $12,719,580 million in prize money in his career, and has posted some good results so far in Rozvadov, finishing in sixth place in Event #8: €25,500 Platinum High Roller No-Limit Hold'em. Owner of a WSOP ring and regular player in the super high roller events, he is still on the hunt for his first gold bracelet.
Jack Sinclair, the defending champion, also found a bag with 148,000, as did new Main Event champion Hossein Ensan with 90,000. Others notables making it through included Shaun Deeb among the top 10 stacks with 343,300, Artur Rudziankov (237,100), Julien Martini (220,000), Anthony Zinno (204,000), Phil Hui (200,200), Vangelis Kaimakamis (157,400), Davidi Kitai (170,800), Ana Marquez (103,300) and the 2013 WSOPE champion Adrian Mateos with a short stack of 45,300.
However, plenty of familiar faces busted before the end of the day including the recent winner of Event #4: €250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em James Chen, when he called all-in on a paired flop with pocket queens only to be shown two kings. He was joined on the rail by Maria Lampropulos, Philipp Gruissem, James Romero, Rainer Kempe, and Billy Chattaway. All-time bracelet king Phil Hellmuth also busted during the last hands of the day.
With late registration being opened until Level 12 on Day 2, they, as well as many others, will have the option to give it another try.
Day 1b kicks off Saturday at 12 p.m. local time. They will play the same seven 90-minute levels as the players did today and the field will combine on Sunday. As always, stay tuned on PokerNews to follow all the action from start to finish until a new Main Event champion is crowned.
