Victor Sbrissa Crushes Day 1b
The second starting flight of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final was exciting, action-packed and drew a crowd of 423 hopefuls who all put up €10,600 to be a part of this spectacular event. After eight 75-minute levels it was LAPT Sao Paulo winner Victor Sbrissa who bagged up 224,800 and with that he's by far the overal tournament chip leader heading into Day 2 tomorrow. Big name pros Calvin Anderson (198,100), Andrew Lichtenberger (137,800) and Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu (88,600) all survived Day 1b with big stacks.
After a disappointing Day 1a turnout Day 1b quickly showed that things were going to be a whole lot different. The hallways were packed, players were waiting in line to get a seat and the list of famous pros seemed endless. The list was shortened quite quickly as WSOP $10,000 PLO winner Jan-Peter Jachtmann, EPT Kiev winner and Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov and former EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee were all eliminated during the second level of play.
A table of death was established early on, as a murderers row of top pros lined up among which Sam Trickett and Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst were the most recognizable. From this table Calvin Anderson had the best showing and he racked up 198,100 at the end of the day. Selbst, JP Kelly, Trickett and Russell Carson all busted.
Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov and Lex Veldhuis were also among the unlucky early eliminations just like Michael Mizrachi.
While some already dusted off all their chips others just sat down. Phil Ivey entered late as did Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen. Blom never got a hold of a big stack to play around with and he was eliminated towards the end of the day. Ivey had big swings throughout the day but he also did not manage to make it through. Both players are expected to play more events later this week as the €25,000 and €100,000 High Roller are still up for grabs. Someone who will also be playing the bigger buy ins is Patrik Antonius. The Finnish poker superstar will have plenty of time to rest up as he was also eliminated on Day 1. Antonius was very unlucky as he ended up all in with two pair and a flushdraw on the turn against top pair top kicker. According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Antonius was a 95.45% favorite to double up, but the ace of hearts on the river gave his opponent a better two pair.
Shaun Deeb made his way over to the cash game area before the dinner break as he was eliminated by former EPT London winner Aaron Gustavson. There are a ton of cash games going on during the EPT Grand Final and many pros have been spotted at the tables already. Noah Schwartz was not ready to play cash games just yet as he managed to get a hold of a ton of chips early on. Schwartz won a big coin flip and played his way up to 204,600.
There was no cruising today for Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand Grospellier, Chris Moneymaker and Nacho Barbero. All three were knocked out and the former was even sent packing by teammate Marcin Horecki. Annette Obrestad also had quite the day as old times were revived. Obrestad finished 13th in the Grand Final back in Season 5 and since then she has only managed to cash in two more EPT events, both in London. Obrestad found aces against kings, hit quads against Scott Seiver and closed out the day with 56,800. Seiver did not survive the day.
Defending champion Mohsin Charania stared out slow and Kristy Arnett caught up with him on one of the breaks after which he managed to double up. Charania keeps back-to-back hopes alive as he closed out the day with 51,000 chips.
Besides all the tragic bust-out news there were also a ton of good players who managed to make it through the day. Last year's Grand Final's €25,000 High Roller winner Igor Kurganov, (127,900), former Grand Final winner Nicolas Chouity (57,600), and a lot of Team PokerStars Pros among which Luca Pagano (18,100), Marcin Horecki (134,100), Toni Judet (71,000), Jason Mercier (48,200), Chad Brown (67,000), Vicky Coren (45,100), Alex Kravchenko (81,500), Marcel Luske (35,500) and Victor Ramdin (134,400).
Make sure to tune back in to PokerNews.com tomorrow at 12:00 CET as we bring you all the live coverage of the second day of the EPT Grand Final! If you're playing the event you can also contribute to our coverage and keep your friends at home up to date with all your latest hands and chip counts by using the PokerNews My Stack app for both iPhone and Android users.