The Bags are Out

That will do it for Day 1a of the 2009 WPT Merit Cyprus Classic. A player-friendly style and a $10,300 buy-in induced 91 players to turn up for the first of the two Day 1 flights. At the end of the day 63 were still in contention for the title of champion. Leading all of them is a player who needs no introduction - John Tabatabai, who more than quadrupled his 40,000-chip starting stack to about 170,000 by the time the chips were in the bags.

Tomorrow the other half of the field will hit the tables. As is the custom with Day 1s spread across multiple flights, we expect tomorrow's field -- as the final of the Day 1 flights -- to be the larger of the two flights. We'll see what exactly the total number is when play kicks off at just after noon local time tomorrow.

Until then, you can find us at the bar.