European Poker Tour San Remo Day 1A Update

The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour San Remo could break participation records, as 578 players took to the felt on day 1A yesterday. With over 200 online qualifiers from the sponsor’s site, the total field looks likely to hit 1,200, setting a new record for a Europe-based event (the Caribbean Adventure attracted over 1,300 players in January).

Familiar EPT faces included Gino Alacqua, Michael Tureniec, Christoffer Hansen, Paul Testud, Jesper Hougaard, Johan Van Til, Martin Jacobson, recent EPT German Open champ Sandra Naujoks, Andreas Hoivold, Johannes Strassman, Salvatore Bonavena, Soren Kongsgaard, Marino Serenelli, Greg Raymer, and Arnaud Mattern.

Anthony Lellouche (pictured left)  was hopeful of another deep run, having come second last year, but it just wasn't happening for the friendly French man. He tried raising, but only got reraised, and this happened 21 times, he claimed. He flopped a straight and walked it straight into a flush and then pushed his remaining chips in with A-9, which was, of course, beaten by a better ace.

Manuel Bevand didn't even see the end of the first level. After 10 minutes, he hit the rail.

Other early busts included Greg Raymer, Jan Heitmann, Casey Kastle, and Albert Iversen.

By mid-session, Jesper Hougaard (very unhappily) made his exit, as did Mike “Timex” McDonald, Annette Obrestad, and Johan Van Til.

The clock was paused as the last five hands of the PokerStars.com EPT San Remo day 1A played out.

One player who saw some action in the final hand of the night was Jesper Hougaard's brother Lars, who was all in with K Q versus his short-stacked opponent's pocket aces. The board brought nothing for either of them.

Hougaard suffered a small dent to his stack and he went into day 2 with 7,000.

The top 10 in chips at the end of play were:

1. Dragan Galic (Croatia) -- 107,800
2. Govert Metaal (Holland) -- 78,800
3. Nikolay Losev (Russia) -- 76,000
4. Jose Valero (Spain) -- 75,900
5. Asa Smith (UK) -- 74,700
6. Constant Rijkanberg (Holland) -- 74,400
7. Andrea Nunes ( Italy) -- 69,600
8. Erik Van Leer (Holland) -- 66,000
9. Larsgreger Larsson (Sweden) -- 65,800
10. Stefano Ruggieri (Italy) -- 62,900

Another batch of hopefuls hit the floor today — same place, same time for day 1B — and then we will see some final figures on the number of entrants and the prize pool. Either way, it is sure to be a groundbreaking EPT event so check back at CardPlayer.com for updates throughout the day.

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