World Series of Poker Europe Event #1 No Limit Hold'Em Day 1A and 1B

World Series of Poker Europe Event #1
No Limit Hold'Em Day 1A and 1B

Day 1
Buy-in: £1;,000 + £60; ($1,731.94 USD)
Start Date: September 18
Length: 3-day event/2 start days
Players: Day 1A had 295 in the field, 1B had 313. Total: 608
Prize pool: £608;,000 ($993,414.91 USD)
(2009 WSOP Gold Bracelet Event: 58)
WSOPE YouTube Videos for Event #1 (Day 1A, Day 1B, Day 2, Final Table)

The World Series of Poker Europe Event #1 will have the first day split in two with a Day 1A and Day 1B for all entrants. If you want to catch up on who won bracelets in the other 56 WSOP events, just click on the Site Map 3 page to see a list of the reports with pictures of the new champions.

All players will begin with 3,000 in chips and will play for 10 levels lasting 60 minutes each on Day 1A and 1B. (My God!) Breaks will be given every 120 minutes and will last for 20 minutes. Dinner break on Day 1 will take place after level 6 and last for 90 minutes. Day 2 will have the survivors combine and play down to the final table. On Day 3 action resumes until there is a champion.

Photo of the Casino Floor during Day 1A play

Day 1A
At 12 noon in London, the directive to "Shuffle Up and Deal!" was given, (see the kickoff video), and the WSOPE is officially underway! Players took to their seats on either the first or second floor of the casino. Seen taking their seats on Day 1A were Suriander Sunar, Neil Channing, Roland De Wolfe, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Andy Bloch, Huck Seed, EPT Champion Sebastian Ruthenberg, Ian Woodley, Erik Seidel , Jesper Hougaard who won Event #1 in 2008, Barry Greenstein, Richard Ashby, Jeff Madsen, Raymond Rahme, Praz Bansi, Daniel Rudd, Sammy George, Vitaly Lunkin, Anthony Roux, Peter Gould and Mike Ellis.

Among the first to bust was Neil Channing from the UK. Neil went to the sidelines when his Queen high flush draw lost to the straight (A to 5) belonging to Richard Kellett. Tristan Clemencon shuffled off his chair when he lost the last of his chips to the Broadway straight (A to 10) of his opponent. David "Devilfish" Ulliott became crushed beneath the quad 4's of the other player and is no longer in the running. Jean Robert Bellande met misfortune in the form of a set of 3's, sending him off for fish and chips. John Duthie had his set of Queens overcome by the set of Aces by another player and is no more. Around 3 1/2 hours into the tournament, the number of players fell to 219 meaning that some players have nice chip stacks. Richard Kellett was seen happily holding onto 15,000 chips, Andrew Andreou also known as Greekfish has about 9,000, Sung Hee Yun has 17,000 and Andy Kyprianou with 16,500. At this point the players are off for a 90 minute dinner. Tournament director Jack Effel says action will continue until the field is down to 40 players or 1:00 AM, whichever comes first.

The top 9 players after dinner are:

Richard Kellett -- 57,000
Andrew Seden -- 30,000
Ian Frazer -- 25,000
Swee Fah Chai -- 25,000
David Stucke -- 22,500
Adam Matusiak -- 22,000
Raymond Rahme -- 20,000
Michael Dwyer -- 18,000
Ben Vinson -- 16,500

Busts now include Sung Hee Yun who lost her all in bid against another player. Joining her are Hoss Parkhizar and Michael Greco. Greco had lost a ton of chips in a earlier hand against Swee Fah Chai when he went to the middle with pocket K's only to see pocket A's belonging to Chai. Next hand, Chai busted Greco with an Ace high heart flush, resulting in an visibly upset Greco storming out of the room. Jeff Madsen was also eliminated by Richard Kellett when Kellett's pocket 10's held up against the A K of Madsen. Also gone are Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein and Erik Seidel. At the end of the day, there were 41 left for Day 2 with UK player John Paul Kelly as chip leader. Kelly won a gold bracelet in Event #20 Pot Limit Hold'Em in Las Vegas this year. Here are the top 9 with chip counts for Day 1A:

John Paul Kelly -- 98,825
Richard Kellett -- 67,225
David Stucke -- 45,875
Ian Frazer -- 43,625
Richard Allen -- 38,375
Andrew Seden -- 32,625
Swee Fah Chai -- 30,150
Martin Green -- 30,050
Constance Kirkwood -- 29,150

Day 1B

This next round of players started receiving cards from the dealers a little after 12 noon to begin Day 1B. Seen at the tables are Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Joe Beevers, 2007 Main Event Champion Annette Obrestad, Doyle Brunson, James Akenhead, Padraig Parkinson, Jeff Lisandro, Allen Cunningham, Julian Thew, Men "The Master" Nguyen, John Tabatabai, Barney Boatman, Antonio Esfandiari, Howard Lederer, Talal Shakerchi, Luke Trottman and Arnaud Mattern.

By the second hour, early casualties included WSOP bracelet holder Davidi Kitai, Michael Keiner and James Akenhead. Also for the record, 2008 Event #1 winner Jesper Hougaard will not make a repeat performance as he did bust out on Day 1A. Pursing her lips after she lost all her chips was Annette Obrestad when her opponent made the winning hand while holding K Q. And John Tabatabai who lost to Annette in the heads up match during the 2007 Main Event, headed for the rail chipless. Liv Boeree also went to the sidelines after her paired 10 card was no match for the set of Aces her opponent made. When 4 1/2 hours had passed, tournament officials stated there were 180 players seated at 19 tables. Paul Murell had his A K clobbered by the set of 6's belonging to Nicolas Levi and is no longer at the tables.

We have just received word that money will go to the top 63 finishers and first place will take home £136;,803. Payout schedule will be posted when released. Some chip counts before dinner break, Chris Ferguson 27,000, Nicholas Levi 23,075, Markus Ristola 20,000, Phil Ivey 10,000, Rob Garfield 8,500, Markus Golser 7,000 and Fabrice Soulier 5,000.

After dinner eliminations include Joe Beevers, Anthony Lellouche and Tony Cousineau. Using a bluff that didn't work with A K, Julian Thew turned over the last of his chips to Stephane Hansen and walked away into the land of the busted. Joining him are Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham and Barney Boatman. At the end of Day 1B there were 48 left in the field, meaning a total of 89 players will see chairs on Day 2. Here are the top 9 with chip counts:

Fabien Dunlop -- 63,375
Stefan Hansen -- 48,175
Nicholas Levi -- 39,575
Carsten Girst -- 37,650
T. Saull-Hunt -- 36,725
Chris Ferguson -- 36,550
Markus Golser -- 31,075
James Tomlin -- 31,075
Tim Blake -- 30,750

Here is the payout schedule for the final table:

£136;,803 ($223,523.26 USD)
£84512; ($138,084.67 USD)
£55468; ($90,629.50 USD)
£38499; ($62,822.06 USD)
£28181; ($46,045.11 USD)
£21700; ($35,455.76 USD)
£17535; ($28,650.54 USD)
£14835; ($24,239.00 USD)
£13115; ($21,428.68 USD)

Day 2
A total of 89 players made the Day 2 cut and will play for a seat at the final table. Among the names in the field are Anthony Roux with 27,575 chips, Raymond Rahme with 24,000, Raul Paez 19,800, Nick Holbrook 18,175, Francois Safieddine 14,800, Padraig Parkinson 13,000 and Roland De Wolfe 10,000. Also, the WSOP has informed us that with the 608 players who entered the tournament, that this is the largest tournament ever held in London. Play will continue with 300/600 blinds and a 75 ante. Plus today is the money day, so it will be a good day for 63 players with position 63 paying at least £2;,000.

It took about 1 1/2 hours to reach bustout 64 which saw Robert Lim become the bubble boy courtesy of Raymond Rahme. Lim moved all-in on a flop of 6 9 7 with pocket A's only to meet the pocket 9's of Rahme. Ouch! The action continued with Ganesh Bathmanathan becoming the first to cross the 100,000 chip mark after making a straight to crush the pocket K's of his opponent. But he was soon eclipsed by John Paul Kelly who made a nice hand to reach 135,000. John Juanda was not so lucky as his all-in with pocket 10's met misfortune in the form of pocket Q's belonging to Tim Blake, resulting in another empty seat. Joining him were Ben Vinson, Nicolas Levi, Markus Golser, Constance Kirkwood, Nicholas Holbrook, Tim Molyneux and Vivien Ma. Chris Ferguson is still in the game with 47,500 chips. Right before the dinner break, the field was down to 29 players.

After dinner, the battle continued and the body count climbs. Sylvain Perrin holding A K suited, lost his chips to the two pair of Ian Frazer (9's and 6's) and is no longer in the tournament. Tim Blake also ended his quest for the bracelet. Short stacked, Blake went all-in with A 6 suited only to meet the two pair (Q's and 8's) of Fabien Dunlop. Giovanni Paticchio experienced true pain when he took the rest of his chips to the middle with 10 7, only to meet the pocket K's of John Paul Kelly which turned into quad Kings by the turn card. Richard Kellett also met with the chip reaper and is now on the rail. Gone too is Raymond Rahme after his all-in move with pocket J's was met with the A Q of Ganesh Bathmanathan who received another Ace on the flop. Chris Ferguson finished in 15th position after his paired Queens could not overcome the paired Aces of Ian Frazer. The last player to go in 10th place was Ganesh Bathmanathan displaced by the A K suited belonging to Richard Allen. Here are the players for the final table:

Fabien Dunlop -- 538,000
Richard Allen -- 322,000
John Paul Kelly -- 317,500
Neil Suarez -- 217,000
William Martin -- 122,500
Adnan Alshamah -- 121,000
Anthony Roux -- 88,000
Thor Drexel -- 77,000
James Tomlin -- 49,000

Day 3 Final Table
This should be interesting as John Paul Kelly who earned his first WSOP gold bracelet earlier this year in Las Vegas is seriously looking for a second one. But he will have to get over Fabien Dunlop and Richard Allen plus watch out from behind. Play will move to level 19 with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 1,000 ante.

Jack Effel got things underway at 2:15 PM in London with a nice "Shuffle Up and Deal!" to the table. After 15 minutes into the action, a three way preflop all-in occurred with James Tomlin A 7, William Martin A K suited and Thor Drexel A K. The flop was J K 4, turn card a 4 and the river an 8 allowing Martin and Drexel to split the pot and James Tomlin to the cashier's cage for finishing in 9th. Next to go is Thor Drexel who had been crippled in the prior hand by Anthony Roux. Drexel went all-in using the remainder of his chips with pocket Q's and was called by Adnan Alshamah with A K. Another Ace came on the flop meaning Drexel ended his quest for the bracelet in 8th place. William Martin lost his bout with Fabien Dunlop when his A J was beaten by Dunlop's two pair (7's and 4's), so Martin left in 7th. Next, Dunlop took out Neil Suarez who went all-in with pocket 4's only to meet the pocket K's of Dunlop causing Suarez to pick up the money for a 6th place win. Then Anthony Roux moved to the center with pocket 10's and was called by the pocket K's of John Paul Kelly. The French in the stands were calling for "Dix!, Dix!, Dix!" so Roux would make a set, but to American ears it sounded like they were saying something else. (Yeah we Americans are a sick bunch.) Unfortunately Roux didn't get "Dix", and finished in 5th place.

Richard Allen was eliminated in 4th place after losing to the pocket 9's of John Paul Kelly. Then Adnan Alshamah ended up in 3rd place after Dunlop paired his Ace card on the turn. Now it is time for the heads up between John Paul Kelly with 498,000 chips and Fabien Dunlop with 1,365,000 chips.

In the beginning Kelly put things into overdrive and pummeled Dunlop down to 930,000 chips in the first 45 minutes of play. But it took less than a full hour for a new champion to be established. Dunlop had been beaten down to only 19,000 chips, doubled up to 38,000 and then the hammer came down. On the final hand Dunlop who was obviously frustrated, went all-in with 4 9 and met the Q J of Kelly. The board showed a flop of Q Q 10, turn card of 6 and a river of K. So with a set of Queens, John Paul Kelly has his second gold WSOP bracelet!

Event #1 Champion John Paul Kelly

John Paul Kelly -- £136;,803 ($223,523.26 USD)
Fabien Dunlop -- £84512; ($138,084.67 USD)
Adnan Alshamah -- £55468; ($90,629.50 USD)
Richard Allen -- £38499; ($62,822.06 USD)
Anthony Roux -- £28181; ($46,045.11 USD)
Neil Suarez -- £21700; ($35,455.76 USD)
William Martin -- £17535; ($28,650.54 USD)
Thor Drexel -- £14835; ($24,239.00 USD)
James Tomlin -- £13115; ($21,428.68 USD)

Photo credit: IMPDI 2009

World Series of Poker Europe Event #1No Limit Hold'Em Day 1A and 1B

World Series of Poker Europe Event #1
No Limit Hold'Em Day 1A and 1B