02 Oct 10

EPT London: Hustle On Day 1A

Almost 300 starters caused quite a crowd yesterday on Day 1A of the PokerStars European Poker Tour in the Victoria Casino in London. Some PokerStrategists could also be found at the tables.

The desks in the Victoria Casino were overran so much that the tournament officials decided to increase the planned cap of 500 players on short notice. Thus, 294 players already gathered at the tables yesterday, and one can expect about 600 starters altogether.

Team PokerStars Pro
Countless big names could be found again amongst the participants.  Team PokerStars Pro was already represented with ten players on the first day, in particular Alex Kravchenko, William Thorson, Chad Brown, Victor Ramdin, Alex Gomes, Gavin Griffin, Luca Pagano, Victoria Coren and Vanessa Rousso.

UK and USA present with over 100 Players
Naturally, the British participants were the strongest force in the field at their home match with 66 starters, like e.g. Craig Hopkins, Ian Frazer and Mark Teltscher. The increasing significance of the Tour in the United States has also been proven by meanwhile 42 US-American participants. Amongst them players like Jason Mercier, Shaun Deeb, Isaac Haxton, Freddy Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Brandon Cantu and Cort Kibler-Melby.

Pros from Europa
However, the Continental-European nations were also well represented. Amongst them Gus Hansen, Jesper Hougaard and Dag Mikkelsen from Denmark - the country actually has 14 players in the field. From Italy, Max Pescatori And Dario Alioto could be found at the table. The French were lead amongst others by Arnaud Mattern and Nicholas Levi. And last but not least the Fin Patrik Antonius, and the winner of 2007 from Norway, Anette Obrestad.

Several Community Starters
From the community, Mario 'Maddyhh' Puccini and Tobias 'FireFox89' Pickhard tried to take the title back to Germany amongst other players. Maddyhh shared his table with Sorel Mizzi and Chad Brown, while FireFox89 had the honour of playing against Patrik Antonius. However, both had to join the rails early.

Currently, we do not know how Peter 'PeterBee' Bürmann fared.

Today Day 1B
Day 1B starts today. Florian 'Morgoth' Langmann, Mark 'MehrPower' Albrecht, Benjamin 'Adamkosh' Mirsaidi and Sebastian 'miamivice' Ruthenberg already announced their participation.