PokerStars EPT Baden Day 1: Lyloff, Wahlroos, Antonius Early Leaders
282 of the world's top players took to the felt in Baden, Austria in the PokerStars European Poker Tour - Baden €8,000 Main Event. With a €2,143,200 prize pool, first place is scheduled to be a very healthy €670,800. Among the notable players joining the field were Ram Vaswani, Barry Greenstein, 2005 EPT Baden Champion Patrik Antonius, Marcel Luske and WSOP Europe Main Event Champion Annette Obrestad. By the end of the day, nearly half the field was eliminated, and the top chip stack belonged to Sander Lyloff, with Antonius, Greenstein and Hevad 'RainKhan' Khan all close behind.
Nikolaus 'Kiabuxxe' Jedlicka started the day strong, doubling through in the first level with A♠8♠ on a flop of K♠Q♠4♦. His opponent had flopped bottom set with 4♣4♥, and Jedlicka made his nut flush when the turn brought the 6♠. The 3♦ on the river did not give his opponent a full house, and the young Austrian was off to a fast start. Unfortunately he could not sustain his early good fortune and was eliminated late in first-day action.
Dario Minieri rode a chip rollercoaster all day, building up to one of the biggest stacks early but finishing the day on a short stack as his aggressive play did not pay off after the dinner break. Other Internet superstars did not fare nearly as well, as Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi ran into a nut flush and was eliminated early in the day. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier and Annette 'Annette_15' Obrestad were also eliminated before the end of Day 1.
John Kabbaj was eliminated midway through the day when he ran big pocket pairs into aces twice in back-to-back hands. In the first, his opponent called a re-raise from Kabbaj pre-flop, and the flop brought 9♠2♥6♦. Kabbaj check-raised all in with Q♣Q♠, and his opponent called instantly with aces. No ace came on the turn or river, and Kabbaj was crippled. On the very next hand, Kabbaj moved all in from the small blind with J♦J♣ after a raise and a call in front of him. His lone caller turned over A♥A♠, and the A♣ on the flop ended Kabbaj's tournament.
Among other notable players eliminated on Day 1 were Vanessa Rousso, Andy Black, Roland De Wolfe and Jeffrey Lisandro. Mark Vos built his short stack back into a healthy fourth-place chip count in the last level of play, as he jumped from 6,300 in chips to 32,600. The top ten chip counts looked like this as play ended for the day:
Sander Lyloff - 66,150
Gyoergy Moger - 46,775
Manfred Hammer, 43,825
Thierry van den berg - 42,100
Marcus Lehmann - 40,100
Michael Durrer - 39,700
Raul Mestre Lleida - 39,700
Victor Escudero Mellado - 39,325
Christophe Defforey - 39,300
Thomas Wahlroos - 38,150
Join PokerNews.com's live coverage from Baden on Monday, as 156 players return to action and the money bubble should loom near the end of the day's play. We'll have the latest bustouts and chip counts from the floor.
