European Poker Tour Snowfest -- Day 1BRough and Fast Day 1B Brings Chip Stacks and Player Numbers Down |
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While players battled it out on day 1A of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Snowfest, those intending on playing day 1B hit the Austrian slopes for some guaranteed action. Fortunately when those 276 players turned out for the second starting day, there were no casts or slings or any obvious injuries in sight. However, that would not be the case by the end of the day when 276 became the 140 who would join the 119 from day 1A.
Big names turned out in their droves and a tough battle ensued. There were 27 Team PokerStars Pro members, and 138 players who won their way to the premier ski destination and first-time EPT location via PokerStars qualifiers. Throughout the day there were some horrifying suck outs and harsh rivers which would help sweep away 136 hopefuls.
One such casualty was Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who was eliminated within 90 minutes of play. ElkY raised to 450 from the hijack and Italian Gabriele Lepore called from the cut-off, as did the blinds. The flop was dealt K
9 6
and it was checked to ElkY who bet 1,600. Lepore called and the blinds got out of the way. The turn was the 8
, ElkY bet 3,000, Lepore raised it up to 9,000, ElkY shoved for around 25,000, and Lepore made the call.
ElkY turned over K K
for a flopped set, but Lepore showed 10 7 for a turned straight. The J sailed in on the river, needlessly improving Lepore’s hand to a flush, and ElkY hit the rail.
Another big bust out, towards the end of play this time, saw the rise of Italian Team PokerStars Pro player Luca Pagano and the fall of Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker [pictured left]. With no action preflop, four players including Pagano and Becker saw a flop of 8 8 2.
It was checked around and the turn came the 5. Becker bet 2,500 and Pagano called. The river was the Q, the tennis star bet out again, Pagano raised it up and Becker answered with a shove. Pagano insta-called and turned over 8 8 for flopped quads while a shocked Becker turned over A K for the rivered nut flush and made his exit, leaving his wife Lily to be their sole representative in the field.
Other day 1B casualties included Roberto Romanello, Nicolas Levi, Dario Minieri, Anton Alleman, Rob Hollink, George Danzer, Mark Vos, Ramzi Jelassi, Sandra Naujoks, JP Kelly, Salvatore Bonavena, Pieter De Korver, Kevin MacPhee, and Evelyn Ng.
In total, EPT Snowfest attracted 546 players from 48 countries, and this created a prize pool of €1,853,680, including the first place prize of €445,000. As 259 players now ready themselves for day 2, here is a glimpse of the payout structure which sees a total of 80 places paid:
1 €445,000
2 €296,000
3 €166,000
4 €111,000
5 €88,000
6 €65,000
7 €46,000
8 €37,000
9-10 €28,000
11-12 €20,400
13-14 €15,800
15-16 €13,000
17-24 €10,200
25-32 €8,400
33-40 €7,400
41-48 €6,700
49-56 €6,300
57-64 €5,900
65-72 €5,500
73-80 €5,260
The chip leader at the end of the fast-paced day was a PokerStars player from Holland, Koen Berendsen, with 162,200 in chips. This is a good deal less than the day 1A chip leader, David Wintersberger, who finished a slower day 1A with 290,200 in chips.
The chip leaders at the end of day 1B were:
Koen Berendsen (Netherlands) 162,700
Ivo Donev (Austria) 160,000
Luca Cainelli (Italy) 157,600
Nasr El Nasr (Germany) 140,100
Lex Veldhuis (Netherlands) 134,300
Eric Friedmann (Switzerland) 133,800
Sven Mol (Netherlands) 124,600
Alessandro Lusso (Italy) 119,000
Alfio Battisti (Italy) 118,000
Lam Van Trinh (UK) 117,900
The two leader boards combined give a day 2 starting leader board of:
David Wintersberger (Germany) 290,200
Bernhard Perner (Austria) 257,500
Julien Brecard (France) 238,100
Brent Wheeler (USA) 193,600
Koen Berendsen (Netherlands) 162,700
Mike Gorodinsky (USA) 160,700
Ivo Donev (Austria) 160,000
Janko Medja (Slovenia) 158,900
Luca Cainelli (Italy) 157,600
Christian Oppersklaski (Germany) 146,800
You can follow all of the action from the snowy mountains of Austria via the PokerStars blog feed daily, and you can also enjoy the final two days of the event as they happen on the EPT Live video feed. Don’t forget to check back for full recaps of each day right here, featuring photos courtesy of Neil Stoddart and our friends at PokerStars.
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