WSOPE Main Event Begins

The weekend saw both Day 1 entry flights of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe main event begin. The first flight saw 215 hopefuls, including some big players such as Michael Mizrachi, Tobias Reinkemeier, Phil Ivey, Dan Shak, Matt Stout, JC Alvarado, Jennifer Tilly, Steve O'Dwyer, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Selbst, Chris Moorman, Nam Le and JC Tran. At the end of the flight, with 98 players out of the picture, Mizrachi was way out in the lead with just under a quarter million chips. Some of those eliminated were JenniferTilly, Fabrice Soulier, Will Failla, Jeff Lisandro, Frank Kassela and Tobias Reinkemeier. However, the second flight of Day 1 didn't see the hoped turnout that'd bring the total number of entries to 600+ (in line with last year's 593), as only 205 players registered. Thereby, total entries for this year's Euro 10,450 buy-in main event reached the number of 420 players. The second flight saw the French online and live tournament ace Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier finish as chip leader on 190,400. Other poker stars that joined the action in the second flight were Sam Trickett, Jason Mercier, John Juanda, Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, Chino Rheem, David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth, Liv Boeree, Jonathan Duhamel and Sandra Naujoks, as well as four WSOP USA main event finalists this year: Jesse Sylvia, Jake Balsiger, Russell Thomas and Steve Gee, of which only Gee was eliminated by the end of the day.