22 Oct 11

EPT San Remo Kicks Off, Marco Traniello Runs Hot at Home

The PokerStars European Poker Tour San Remo has begun, and the first of two starting days is over. Poker pro Marco Traniello is one of the four native Italians in the top four places at the end of Day 1a.

marco traniello
Marco Traniello
The poker world has turned its attention to San Remo, Italy this week for the PokerStars EPT San Remo. The €4,900 Main Event began yesterday with Day 1a, and the second starting day will take place today.

While it clearly makes sense that a lot of Italian players entered this event, it is still somewhat unlikely for each of the top 4 chip stacks at the end of Day 1a to be Italian natives. That is the case, however.

Gianluca Trebbi sits atop the Day 1a field with 159,600 chips, followed by Massimiliano Forti in 2nd with 159,100, Marco Traniello in 3rd with 137,700, and Rocco Palumbo in 4th with 125,800.

Marco Traniello is the best known of those four, and while he is from Italy, he currently lives in Las Vegas with his wife Jennifer Harman-Traniello. Jennifer had a strong day on the felt herself and finished nicely above the average stack with 71,000 chips.

Some other players who survived Day 1a include former EPT winner Kevin MacPhee (12th), Mickey 'Mement_Mori' Petersen (53rd), Lex Veldhuis (55th), Carlos Mortensen (112th), and Vanessa Rousso (141st).

Check out the table below to see a more complete list of players who will advance to Day 2.

Day 1b will begin today at 14:00 CET.

 Live Ticker PokerStarsBlog 

PokerStars EPT San Remo Day 1a

End of Day Chip Counts
Place Name Chips
1st Gianluca Trebbi 159,600
2nd Massimiliano Forti
 159,100
3rd Marco Traniello
 137,700
4th Rocco Palumbo 125,800
5th Tyler Bonkowski 124,400
6th Maikel Van Leeuwen 122,800
7th Francesco Blonda 112,500
8th Nikolay Tsanev 106,200
9th Vojtech Ruzicka 104,800
10th Jonnie Sonelin 103,300
...

12th Kevin MacPhee
 99,200
25th Erik Friberg
 84,000
47th Jennifer Harman
 71,000
48th Mustapha Kanit 70,900
52nd Xuan Liu 69,900
53rd Mickey Petersen
 69,100
55th Lex Veldhuis
 67,500
67th Vitaly Lunkin 60,900
82nd John Duthie 51,700
112th Carlos Mortensen 43,000
141st Vanessa Rousso 33,100
178th Steve O'Dwyer 23,400
Blinds: 300/600/75  |   Players:  222 (359)   |   Prize pool: TBD

$1.500 No Limit Hold'em

Check out some videos from Day 1a of the EPT San Remo:






by Matt Kaufman