Gilles Bernies Leads EPT Dublin Main Event After Day 1a
The first of two starting days for the 2016 PokerStars European Poker Tour Dublin Main Event saw 147 players pony up the buy-in of €5,300. Eight 75-minute levels later, only 79 of them bagged up chips with Gilles Bernies in the lead on 189,600.
The 27-year-old German had three deep runs at the end of 2015 with a 38th-place finish in the World Series of Poker Europe "Oktoberfest" event and first- and second-place finishes during festivals at Holland Casino of Breda in the Netherlands. Coming into this event, Bernies had $74,990 in live tournament earnings.
Bernies won a big pot off Adrian Mateos after he made the nut flush with the ace-queen of hearts before then flopping two pair against Paul-Francois Tedeschi with five-seven suited to take another chunk of chips.
Mike McDonald jumped onto the overnight podium just before the end of play by flopping a full house with pocket queens in a three-way all-in situation. The hand involved Artem Litvinov, who bagged up 138,900, and Daniel Shapiro, who was eliminated. and the win by "Timex" allowed him to soar all the way up to 162,400 in chips.
Other big stacks and notables included Anthony Zinno (124,800), former EPT Vienna High Roller champion Fabrice Soulier (123,400), Kamran Aliyev (114,200), EPT regular Jean-Noel Thorel (110,000), Walid Bou Habib (87,700), Nick Petrangelo (81,600), Sam Greenwood (57,600), Charlie Carrel (49,900), and 2015 November Niner Pierre Neuville (27,400).
Two members of Team PokerStars Pro, Jason Mercier (83,200) and Luca Pagano (70,000), were also among those to advance, along with former EPT champions Kevin MacPhee (59,000), Sebastian Pauli (28,600), and Aaron Gustavson (23,800).
Among those that failed to bag up chips were Dario Sammartino, Mohsin Charania, Ryan Riess, Ian Simpson, Rainer Kempe, Ricardo Manquant, Rocco Palumbo, Jason Wheeler, Georgios Sotiropoulos, Jared Jaffee, Martin Staszko, Joao Vieira, Max Silver, Balazs Botond, Davidi Kitai, and reigning PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Mike Watson. Sammartino, Charania, and Simpson all fell victim to the hot early run of Litvinov.
Day 1b will take place on Monday at 12 p.m. local time with the second starting flight. A much bigger field is expected, and the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand to provide updates.
For those who were eliminated, or for those who advanced and have a day off, check out where you can grab some healthy eats in Dublin in this video below.
, Daniel Shapiro moved all-in for his last 25,000. Artem Litvinov, in the small blind, leant forward and asked Mike McDonald how much he had left. The answer was 46,000 and Litvinov moved all-in. McDonald called.
and river the 
. Shapiro busted just short of bagging up for the day. Meanwhile Litvinov slipped to 130,000 and McDonald moved to around 150,000
turn, Piotr Franczak check-called a bet of 3,075 by Vladas Tamasauskas and then faced the shove of his opponent for 11,850 on the 
river. Franczak eventually called and was shown 
by Tamasauskas for the nut flush, Franczak had 300 chips left.
. Thorel check-called a bet of 3,300 whereas Gordillo folded.
river by shoving for 20,300. Thorel had checked and wasted little time before making the call. Tamasauskas sheepishly turned over 
for complete air while Thorel had the 
and the Lithuanian went from hero to zero in five minutes.
river gave the Russian a higher set to bust Charania. The American tournament pro left his chair with the words "that was amazing" and headed out of the door.
and Litvinov pushed with jacks to see Sammartino call it off after a few minutes of table chat with the Russian, holding pocket deuces only.
