WPT president Adam Pliska delivered shuffle up and deal
The first starting day of the 2015 partypoker World Poker Tour National London £200 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator drew a total of 193 entries. Once the bagging and tagging took place, just under have the field was gone with the screens showing 94 players left. WPT president Adam Pliska delivered the "shuffle up and deal" announcement at Aspers Casino in Stratford, and some notable names of the poker circuit had made it to the East End of London.
Lucio Pacifico and his stack of 104,000 finished Day 1a atop the pack, while Vasile Cosmin Stancu advanced with 93,700 thanks to cracking pocket aces in a crazy hand. Other big stacks include Erion Tota (92,000), Laurence Essa (81,200) and Jeraint Hazan (78,800).
Surinder Sunar advanced to Day 2 with 42,300 in chips, and James Akenhead busted towards the end of the first flight. Tamer Kamel bagged up 55,900 and will be returning with exactly that stack on Saturday to blinds of 600/1,200 and a running ante of 200, as the Brit cannot participate in any of the two remaining flights in this special accumulator event. Defending champion Gabriel Tuna advanced with 29,100, but he still has the opportunity to increase that amount in the two remaining starting flights on Friday.
WPT champions club member Tony Dunst has made the trip over to Europe and will play on Day 1b at 2 p.m. UK time Friday, as well as Day 1c at 8 p.m. Once again, eight 30-minute levels are scheduled and everyone can acquire further chips in the remaining two accumulator heats.
Day 1a saw 21 online qualifiers take their seats, and there are yet another 72 left to battle on the tables. The event's main sponsor, partypoker, provided a lounge with ping pong as well as free drinks pizza and hoodies, which was a treat for everyone involved.
The PokerNews team will be back just after lunch time on Friday for Day 1b and Day 1c, so make sure to tune back in and follow along what's happening at Aspers Casino.
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The World Poker Tour National in the UK has been very popular in 2014, thus it comes as no surprise to see a return in the current year as well. In its first edition at the Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City, the £ 200 No Limit Hold'em partypoker WPT Accumulator attracted a field of 577 entries. Gabriel Tuna emerged victorious and scored a career-best payday of £22,000 for his efforts.
The event consists of three flights and thanks to the accumulator format, players can build up a huge stack for Day 2 by participating in all of them in order to take a shot at the guaranteed prize pool of £100,000. Day 1a gets underway in two houes from now on at 8 p.m. UK time with WPT president Adam Pliska taking care of the shuffle up and deal. For tomorrow two flights are scheduled, Day 1b at 2 p.m. UK time and Day 1c at 8 p.m. UK time. Each of the heats feature eight 30-minute levels with a starting stack of 20,000 chips, the late registration is available until the end of level four.
Day 2 kicks off Saturday at 1 p.m. UK time with 12 levels of 40 minutes each whereas the level duration then increases to 60 minutes on the final day, action gets underway Sunday at 1 p.m. UK time. More than 100 players have already won their seats on partypoker and WPT ambassador Tony Dunst confirmed to make the trip over the pond and will be participating as well: “I’ve visited the U.K. before but never played any poker there; I’m looking forward to my first chance in doing so at WPT National. I’ll be there trying to win all the pounds, and hold down the ping-pong table. Come and attempt to beat me at the partypoker lounge.”
Other usual suspects to be expected at the tables include Steve Watts and Sinem Melin. Let's also not forget about the WPT players party on Saturday evening at Aspers Sky Bar with drinks, DJ and giveaways. The PokerNews live reporting will be there to cover all crucial hands until another WPT National champion is crowned this valentines weekend.
