2012 World Series of Poker Europe Day 1: Krakow Tops First Day of Event #1
Day 1 of Event #1: �2,700 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em at the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe has come to a conclusion. After a nice, late start to the day, eight levels of action are in the books. When registration closed after the dinner break, 227 players had registered. The action was fast and furious all day long, and less than a quarter of the competitors finished out the day. On top of them all was Matan Krakow with a whopping 140,225 in chips.
Krakow is no stranger to this event. Last year, he made the final table and placed fourth for �65,068. He'll certainly be looking to top that finish and has put himself in a solid position to do so with his early chip lead.
Throughout the day, many big names came and went, but none were bigger than Phil Ivey. The man so commonly referred as the greatest player in the game lasted all the way until the final level of the night before falling to the rail. On his final hand, Ivey check-raised all in on a flop of 7?6?6? against Christophe Julien. Ivey was short and Julien made the call with the A?K?. Ivey was dominated with the A?2?. The turn was the K? and river the A? to eliminate Ivey.
Others who were eliminated on the day included past WSOP gold bracelet winners Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Tristan Wade, Timothy Adams, Dominik Nitsche and Vanessa Selbst.
Mizrachi went out after his 8?7? couldn't come from behind against Xavier Capacci's 9?9?. Adams busted after his 10?10? lost a flip against his opponent's A?K?. On both of those bustouts, the chips went in preflop.
Dan O'Brien, Ludovic Lacay, John Duthie, Roland Israelashvili, Erik Cajelais and Team PartyPoker member Marvin Rettenmaier were also sent packing on Day 1.
Of those advancing to Day 2, Brandon Cantu, David "ODB" Baker and Jennifer Tilly all bagged up plenty of chips. Cantu stormed into the top portion of the leaderboard toward the end of the night, but Baker and Tilly got off to a blistering start. Phil Hellmuth, McLean Karr, Roberto Romanello and John Tabatabai are also still in contention.
Octo-niner Greg Merson maneuvered his way out of the day as well. He finished with 10,150 and will be looking for a cash to earn some extra WSOP Player of the Year points in order to extend his lead against Ivey. Merson currently sits with 581.13 points and Ivey is in second with 568.70. Baker (508.38) and Hellmuth (500.70) are sitting fourth and fifth respectively on the WSOP POY leaderboard and will be looking to inch closer to Merson. Needless to say, this race is really beginning to heat up.
Day 2 will commence Saturday at 1400 CET (0800 ET). The plan is to play down to a final table, but there will also be the excitement of the money bubble bursting. The top 24 spots are set to be paid with nearly �150,000 going to the winner. Be sure to catch all the action right here on PokerNews starting then.
If you can't wait until the mid-afternoon to get your WSOP Europe fix, you can find our PartyPoker-sponsored live coverage of Event #2: �1,100 No-Limit Hold'em kicking off two hours prior at 1200 CET (0600 ET).
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