Vedes Tops Day 1b
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Day 1b of the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event is in the books. The second starting flight added 283 more players to the field and put the total number at 593. That smashed the record previously for this event at 362 players and it's a great thing to see.
At the end of the day, Lari Sihvo bagged up the most chips with 144,725. He's trailed closely by Tommy Vedes with 142,775. Alex Kostritsyn (126,200), Antonio Palma (125,000), Constant Rijkenberg (121,500) and Robert Mizrachi (117,500) were a few of the other notables giants to end the night.
It's not always about building a large stack on Day 1, but more so of just surviving to Day 2. Remember, this is a marathon and not a sprint. Some of the other notables advancing to Day 2 are Tony G, Patrik Antonius, Jonathan Karamalikis, Joe Cassidy, John Racener, Barry Greenstein, McLean Karr, Victor Ramdin, Shannon Shorr and Erik Cajelais. Probably the most important player moving on is defending champion James Bord. He's still in contention to successfully defend his title.
Some of the players who failed to make it out of the day were Michael Mizrachi, Sam El Sayed, Viktor Blom, Steve Billirakis, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Matt Giannetti. Mizrachi was bounced is sick fashion when his aces lost to pocket kings even though he got his money in good.
Day 2 will kick off tomorrow at noon here at the Majestic in Cannes, France. We'll be back here then and hope to have you reading through the pages of PokerNews following along.