Day 1b Wraps Up

A massive field of 557 players packed the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here in Berlin, Germany for the second flight of players for the 2010 PokerStars.net EPT Berlin. Out of those that enetered, roughly 300 players remain and will move onto Day 2, joining the 196 players that moved on from Day 1a.

Although we don't have any exact numbers of chip counts just yet, a couple stacks stood out to us while browsing the room towards the end of the night. Marc Inizan bagged up 177,000 chips, but it looks to be Tu Tuan To at 212,600 that will be the end-of-the-day chip leader.

Some of those moving on to Day 2 will be Team PokerStars members Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Jude Ainsworth, Fatima Moreira de Melo and William Thorson.

That feat wasn't accomplished by fellow team member Lex Veldhuis, who had a roller coaster day before finally giving up all of his chips. Joining Veldhuis on the rail from Day 1b are Carter Phillips, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Rob Hollink and Davidi Kitai.

With both starting days in the books, you can bet that action will heat up from here on out as we grow closer to the money. Play will resume tomorrow with all remaining players in the mix at 12:00 p.m. CET. Be sure to keep your browser locked on to PokerNews for all the live updates from the floor.