Demjan Leads Day 1 as 39 Unique Players Account for 10 Re-Entries
Season 10 of the European Poker Tour kicked off today with the €50,000 Super High Roller. Registration for the event is open until the start of Day 2, so official numbers are yet to be determined. That said, 39 unique players accounted for 10 re-entries on the first day of play, bringing the total number of entries up to 49. That is down slightly from last year's 55 entries, but that could change given that registration is still open.
After eight one-hour levels of play, the man leading the advancing 37 players is Sandor Demjan who bagged 1,037,000. Others who thrived on Day 1 were Fabian Quoss (813,000), Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu (619,000) and November Niner David Benefield (552,000).
Denjam got off to a bad start and ended up being one of the first to bust; however, he opted to re-enter and things turned around in a big way when he was relocated to the feature table. It was there that he won a decent pot against Negreanu, but it wasn't until the last hand of the day that he solidified his chip lead. It happened when action erupted on a board reading 
and Igor Kurganov ended up all in for 236,500 with the 
for a flopped set. Unfortunately for him, Demjan had turned a bigger one with the 
. The 
river wasn't the case ten Kurganov needed, and he was sent to the rail on the last hand of the evening.
It took awhile for the first elimination of the day to occur, but it finally happened in Level 4 (1,000/2,000/300) when a preflop raising war saw Philip Sternheimer shove all in from the button and Max Lehmanski call from the big blind.
Lehmanski: 
Sternheimer: 
Sternheimer knew he'd been caught even before the cards were tabled, but even so he was drawing to two live cards. Unfortunately for him, the 
flop gave Lehmanski two pair. Sternheimer needed running cards to stay alive, and he found one when the 
turn gave him a gutshot straight draw to a non-diamond six. The dealer burned one last time and put out the 
. Lehmanski made a flush to win the pot while Sternheimer rapped the table and quickly exited the tournament floor. He later re-entered the tournament.
Others who busted and re-entered were Richard Yong, Tobias Reinkemeier, Jeff Rossiter, Timothy Adams, Paul Newey, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Martin Finger and Philipp Gruissem. Rumor has it that Kurganov, who if you recall busted in the last hand of the night, will re-enter at the start of Day 2.
The field will return at 12:00 local time on Saturday. At that time registration will be closed and official numbers, including the number of entries and the prize pool, will be released. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team then as they bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the floor of the Casino Barcelona.