Day 1a is Just a Memory
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Today's Day 1a flight saw 136 players take their seats to begin the hunt for an EPT title. Among them were a whole host of online qualifiers and amateurs, but a smattering of top-tier pros brought the room to life. With one flight still to play, the Team PokerStars Pros are already out in full force. Jason Mercier, Katja Thater, Chad Brown, Ruben Visser, Joep van den Bijgaart, and Arnaud Mattern all came to play, and all of them excluding Mr. Mattern would survive long enough to bag and tag their chips for Thursday's Day 2.
Apart from those sponsored by PokerStars, another hoard of non-affilliated pros were on hand as well. Bracelet winners? Yep, Marc Naalden and Max Greenwood joined the aforementioned Mercier as players with that bragging right. How about a WPT Champion? Thomas Bichon was in the house, relatively fresh off his big win in Cyprus earlier this fall. EPT Champions? Sure. Along with Mercier (again), Joao Barbosa (Warsaw) played today, as did Shaun Deeb (Kiev High Rollers), and Reuben Peters (Dublin). Also coming out to play were a great crowd of French and Dutch notables like Antony Lellouche, Steven van Zadelhoff, Ludovic Lacay, and Michel Abecassis.
Young gun Jason Lavallee stormed out to an early lead this afternoon, but it was short-lived. Just as the night came to a close, Lavallee was relieved of his remaining chips at the hands of Pierre Neuville and his pocket aces. Shaun Deeb was another early riser, but his day tapered off as well, though a bit more gently than Lavallee's. Deeb slid backwards, then righted the ship before riding his middling stack into the end of the day.
Everyone's looking up at Ljubomir Josipovic though. His 192,900 chips put him at the very top of the heap, though he's not quite in the clear. Dominykas Karmazinas is hot on his heels with 183,000, and there are a whole group of chasers in the 130-150,000 range.
Those who survived will be back at noon on Thursday to unbag for Day 2. Tomorrow will see a fresh set of faces take flight on Day 1b, and the staff is optimistic for a healthy turnout to round out the combined field. We'll be back at noon tomorrow, and we hope to see you right back here as well.