2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London High Roller Day 1: Stein Tops All-Star Field
The 2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Poker Festival isn't all about the Main Event. There are plenty of events on the schedule to provide tons of action for the players, and the event with the largest buy-in kicked off on Tuesday — the £20,000 EPT London High Roller.
Last year, the EPT London High Roller was won by Team PokerStars Pro Jose "Nacho" Barbero. He bested a field of 77 players to take home the £556,000 first-place prize. Much is the same this year in terms of field size and prizes. The event attracted 75 elite players, and first place is worth a whopping £520,000.
At the end of Day 1, 30 players remained and Sam Stein had emerged as the chip leader, bagging up 240,000 chips (the starting stack was 50,000). Coming in behind him are Mike Watson (225,900) and Isaac Haxton (199,200).
The event attracted some of the best players in the world, including Team PokerStars Pros Johnny Lodden, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, John Duthie, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Juan Maceiras and Vanessa Selbst, but all were all eliminated on the day.
According to the PokerStars Blog, Selbst was sent to the rail by 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and fellow Team Pro Jonathan Duhamel. Greenstein was eliminated by Haxton towards the end of the night after the two got it in on an A♣J♦9♣ flop. Greenstein held A♠5♠ and Haxton Q♦10♦. The turn brought the 10♠ and the river the K♣ to give Haxton a winning straight and eliminate Greenstein.
Other notable eliminations included Viktor Blom, Theo Jorgensen, Matt Waxman, Justin Bonomo, Tobias Reinkemeier and Tony G.
There's plenty of firepower still left in the field, though. Outside of the top three who were mentioned, 2010 WSOP November Niner Phil Collins, 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event champion James Bord and 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem are all still in contention. They'll be joined by Mike McDonald, Sam Trickett, Eugene Katchalov and Olivier Busquet, among others.
Day 2 of the High Roller kicks off at 1200 BST (0400 PDT) in London. The top eight spots are being paid and PokerNews will have a recap from the action after play is complete.
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