WSOP Europe -- Main Event Day 1A

London has been poker’s playing ground for the past couple of weeks and will be for another fortnight or so, but what could be said to be the most important event of them all began today.

Day 1A of the £10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Europe main event kicked off at The Casino at The Empire in the heart of England’s capital city at noon local time and wrapped up roughly around midnight. In those 12 hours, a starting field of 137 reduced to 78 players.

The sight of the field was not for the faint-hearted as former champions and well-known pros flooded each corner of the tournament floor. Players such as 2007 champion Annette Obrestad, 2008 victor John Juanda, and 2009 finalist Jason Mercier mingled with 2010 November Niners Joseph Cheong, Jonathan Duhamel, Filippo Candio, and Michael Mizrachi. All but Juanda, Mercier, and Candio fell during the destruction of the first of two starting days.

The French stole the show throughout day 1A with only one bust out from a starting total of 11, and a good chunk doing rather well on the chip leader board. Even the player who ended the day with the most chips is French ⎯ Nicholas Levi bagged up more than 153,580 in chips at close of play (according to unofficial chip counts). Throughout the day it was Arnaud Mattern who was doing the most moving and shaking however, but he slipped off the top rungs of the leader board after a rough final level.

Those we won’t be seeing returning for day 2 on Friday include Roberto Romanello, Vanessa Selbst, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates, Allen Kessler, Andy Bloch, and Scott Seiver. After just a few hours of play and an entrance which included a red double-decker bus, a marching brass band, some scantily-clad Lady Gaga lookalikes, and an ear-vibrating rendition of “Poker Face”, Phil Hellmuth was also sent back the way he came ⎯ only this time he was accompanied by some deflated hopes.

Day 1B begins tomorrow at noon (local time) when defending champ Barry Shulman and a whole new bunch of players will be taking to the tournament floor with their eyes firmly fixed on gold. Official chip counts should be released shortly so check back to CardPlayer.com for this and much more as we delve further into the WSOPE main event 2010.

Here are the official Day 1A Chip Counts:

Check out this video from day 1A featuring November Nine chip leader Jonathan Duhamel:

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