Rettenmaier, Butler & Esfandiari Top Three Headed Into Day 2

Over the weekend, the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe saw two starting flights in Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em play out. The combined fields of Day 1a (295 entries) and Day 1b (331 entries) saw 626 take to the felt and create a prize pool of €600,960, which will be distributed to the top 63 with €126,207 reserved for the winner. After just over nine levels of play, just 98 players remain with Marvin Rettenmaier and his stack of 69,950, more then 20,000 more than his nearest competitor, leading the way.

Among the returning players are quite a few notables including Tristan Wade, Dominik Nitsche, Joe Kuether, Erik Cajelais and John Monnette, all of whom finished toward the top of the Day 1b chip counts after exercising their re-entry option. They, along with John Tababtabia, Roger Hairabedian, Jean Paul Pasqualini, Bourcier de Carbon, and Gil George, will join the likes of Day 1a’s Ashly Butler, Antonio Esfandiari, Mclean Karr and Antonin Teisseire. Needless to say, there isn’t a shortage of recognizable faces.

Top 10 Start-of-Day-2 Chip Counts

Player	Count
Marvin Rettenmaier	69,950
Ashly Butler	48,125
Antonio Esfandiari	47,275
Florian Ciuro	44,300
Antonin Teisseire	43,750
Tarcisio Bruno	43,125
Jamel Haddad	41,900
Ran Azor	41,150
Dominik Nitsche	40,350
Gianluca Cedolia	36,550

The remaining 98 players will pack the Casino Barrière de Cannes Croisette for Day 2 action at 14:00 CET (10:00 EST), which is less than an hour from now. The plan is to either play ten levels or down to a final table, whichever comes first. Join us then as we march through the money bubble toward the final table in Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em on the way to the money!