WSOPE Day 1a £1000 NLH
The 2009 World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair Is well and truly underway at the Empire Casino, Leicester Square, London. WSOPE Event 1 is a No-Limit Hold’em ?1000 which is taking place between 18 September – 21 September 2009.
All WSOPE results are included in official WSOP records — including all-time wins, cashes, final table appearances, and so forth.
This year marks the third consecutive year of WSOPE, In 2007, three gold bracelet events were played. In 2008, four gold bracelet events were played.
The turnout for Event 1 was so large that two starting days were necessary. The starting days were divided into two flights. Day 1-A attracted 295 entries. Day 1-B will be played Saturday, September 19th, starting at 12 noon. Survivors from both days will combine and Day 2 will be played September 20th. The final table will take place on September 21st.
The tournament started ten-handed. As players were eliminated, tables were played nine-handed for most of the day.
This is the first WSOP gold bracelet event played in 64 days. The last event, the $10,000 buy-in world championship, took place through July 15th, when play was suspended at nine players. The “November Nine” (Event 57) returns to Las Vegas on November 7-10, 2009 to determine then 2009 world poker champion.
The first day of WSOPE began with a short pre-tournament ceremony. Tournament Director Jack Effel, who has overseen floor operations for all WSOP events since 2006, was joined by WSOP President and Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack who addressed the players and extended a warm welcome to so many who have traveled to London for this international event.
Players started this tournament with 3,000 in tournament chips. Starting blinds were 25-25. Day One included ten levels. Each level was one hour in length.
BetFair Poker has been the official tournament sponsor of WSOP Europe since its inception. Prior to the start of this year’s tournament series, Betfair held its “Million Dollar Freeroll.” Amateur online players competed and qualified to play in the finals, held at the Empire Casino on 17 September. The million-dollar winner was 23-year-old Anestis Metsas, from Greece.
Several notable former WSOP gold bracelet winners and poker notables played in Event 1, on Day 1-A. This list included Phil Hellmuth, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, Sherkahn Farnood, Eric Seidel, Layne Flack, Raymond Rahme, Mori Eskandani, John Duthie, Barry Greenstein, Vitaly Lunkin, Roland De Wolfe, Nikolay Evdakov, Jeff Madsen, Huck Seed, Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Neil Channing, Surinder Sunar, Jesper Hougaard, and others.
Two former WSOPE gold bracelet winners competed on Day 1-A. They were Sharkahn Farnood and Jesper Hougaard. Both won events at last year’s London series.
Play began at 12:15 pm and ended at about 1 am, at the conclusion of Level 10.
The End of Day 1-A chip leader is J.P. Kelly (a.k.a. “John-Paul Kelly”) from Aylesbury, UK. Kelly won a gold bracelet earlier this year in Las Vegas. He has a commanding lead over his closest rival. Should Kelly win this event, he would become the first British WSOPE champion. Oddly enough, all previous seven gold bracelet events played in the UK have been won by non-English players.
When play resumes on Day 2, survivors from Days 1-A and 1-B will combined. Play will continue with blinds set at 500-1000 and antes at 100. Combined field play begins on Sunday at 2 pm.
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