The Final Bell Has Rung on Day 1b
![[user169505]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Yesterday 263 people stumped up the €5,300 entry fee to play in this magnificent event. Today, a field of 495 people dwarfed the attendance of the previous day. You could feel the tight squeeze in the room and the additional voyeurs who seemed to join at the rail today exacerbated it. It was little wonder that there were so many more spectators when you consider the quality of field that turned up to play.
There were twenty-two Team PokerStars Pros and in addition to that, quality professionals from all over the globe strengthened the field. But even the best players in the world are not invincible and the first few levels of play swallowed up the likes of Angel Guillen, John Duthie, Dario Minieri and Fabian Quoss.
After his impressive deep run at EPT Vienna all eyes were on Daniel Negreanu to see if he could repeat his feat of a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was not to be Negreanu’s tournament as he was eliminated when all the money went in on the turn chasing a flush that proved as elusive as Lord Lucan.
EPT London winner David Vamplew was then eliminated and was quickly followed by some more of the best of British in Toby Lewis and John Eames. One young British player who made a real impression today was Roberto Romanello who – despite being on a table dripping with quality all day – ended with 159,200 chips.
Another star today was team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, unfortunately his shine was dimmed somewhat towards the end of the night when he lost huge pots to Dominic Nitsche and Andrea Benelli and fell from the dizzy heights of 100,000+ to 53,400. Then right at the death Team Pokerstars Pro Leo Fernandez found his feet in the tournament when he made a huge call for all of his chips holding pocket queens on a board containing a made flush and an Ace. His read was correct and he finished the day as one of the top contenders with 164,400.
But at the end of all of these recaps there is one player who has managed to accumulate more chips than the rest. Yesterday that person was Loic Sa when he bagged and tagged 217,700. Today that man was Luis Rufas and to be fair he lead for most of the day. Not only did he finish on top of the pile today but his plastic bag containing 232,100 was a haul greater than any of the other 758 people who entered this tournament.
Tomorrow we return at 12:00 for Day 2 where 399 people – yes you heard me 399 people - including messrs Sa and Rufas return to try and make it through to Day 3. Do not miss out!