PokerWorks

One hundred-five of the biggest names in Poker took to the felt in London yesterday for the first day of the WSOP Europe L2, 500 HORSE tournament, the first ever World Series of Poker event held outside the US. Among the competitors were multiple bracelet winners like Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman and John Juanda. Europe's biggest stars also turned out for the event, like Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Max Pescatori, Marcel Luske and Tony G. The 105 players were competing for a £70,875 first prize and the coveted WSOP Europe bracelet.

The limit format of HORSE (Hold‘Em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud and Stud Hi/Lo) made for a slow start to the day, but several big names were eliminated early. Marcel Luske was the first player sent to the rail, followed soon after by Tony G and Andy Black. Michael ‘The Grinder' Mizrachi, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Gordon were also among the day's eliminations, as the field narrowed to 51 by the end of the first day.

2007 WSOP steamroller Alex Kravchenko continued his strong showing in any tournament with the initials WSOP, coasting to a top-ten finish on Day 1. Kravchenko picked up his first WSOP bracelet in Las Vegas this summer in a SHOE event, and cashed five other times in the World Series, including a fourth-place finish in the Main Event.

The women of the WSOP Europe fared well in Day 1 action, with three of the four female entrants surviving into Day 2. Jennifer Harman led the field late in the day, but lost the chip lead to Kirk Morrison as Day 1 play drew to a close. She finished the day #2 in chips. Annie Duke finished with the 11th-largest chip stack, faring far better than her brother, Howard Lederer, who will enter Day 2 with only 6,500 in chips, near the bottom of the chip stacks. Barbara Lewis, who cashed in the 2007 WSOP in four of the five games of HORSE (Hold ‘Em, Razz, Stud and Stud Hi/Lo), finished the day in the middle of the pack, poised to make a move as Day 2 begins.

While some of the American players were jetlagged from the flight over to London, Kirk Morrison was refreshed from his short trip over from Barcelona. Morrison decided at the last minute to skip the WPT Legends of Poker event in California last week and flew to Barcelona to kick off Season 4 of the European Poker Tour. As such, he was fresh and ready to play for Day 1. His early trip over didn't pay off in the EPT event, where he didn't cash, but he was rested enough to finish Day 1 as the chip leader.

The top ten chip stacks at the end of Day 1 looked like this:

Kirk Morrison - 40,000
Jennifer Harman - 37,500
Yuval Bronshtein - 35,400
Jan Sorensen - 33,000
Scott Fischman - 33,000
Alex Kravchenko - 31,500
Pascal Perrault - 31,200
Marc Goodwin - 30,000
Gary Jones - 29,500
Jan Ola Brandborn - 29,100

Fifty-one Players will return to the felt tomorrow to play down to a final table of eight. Other notable players returning for Day 2 include Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Thor Hansen, Eli Eliza, Jimmy ‘Gobboboy' Fricke and David Williams.