WSOP Europe Event #1: 31 left, Thorsten77 9th in Chips

The World Series of Poker Europe kicked off with the £2,650 No Limit Hold'em 6-max event. After Day 1, just 31 out of the 244 starters remained and Team PokerStrategy.com member Thorsten77 is in the top 10.

Like in past years, almost all of the biggest names in poker turned up in London to take part in the World Series of Poker Europe. Among those that signed up for this opening event were Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth and Vanessa Rousso. However, they have all been eliminated in Day 1.

The action was played out furiously on Day 1 and resulted in less than 15% of the entrants still remaining after just 10 levels of play. The fact that the players started with just 7,500 chips along with the quick WSOP blind structure, made sure that play occurred at a brisk pace.

Thorsten77 nears the money

With just 31 players left, Team PokerStrategy.com member Thorsten77 (pictured right) is now just 7 eliminations away from the money and is in an excellent position after finishing among the top 10 with 78,200 chips. First place in this event pays £170,802 while a minimum cash is worth £5,624.

Two other team members Nazgul and BongBob also took part but unfortunately did not make it through the day. Nazgul busted out in level 7 and spent his day seated with the likes of Phil Ivey, Phil Laak and Allen Cunningham.

Cunningham was the one who busted Nazgul as Nazgul pushed his 17 big blind stack into the middle with A-J after Cunningham had made a raise from under the gun. Cunningham called with 5-5 but unfortunately, Nazgul lost the race for his tournament life.

Nazgul takes on Liv Boeree again

Besides the pros mentioned above, Nazgul also crossed paths with Liv Boeree (pictured right) in this event. They tangled in two pots which did not quite go Nazgul's way.

In the first one, Nazgul was on a monster draw and tried to bluff Boeree off her hand, but Boeree chose to hang on to her pockets kings. In the other one, Nazgul was looking for a call after he 5-bet all-in with A-K, this time however, Boeree chose to fold. While Nazgul was eventually sent to the rails from that table, Boeree hung on and will return on Day 2 with 27,700 chips.

Nazgul will return on Thursday to play in Event #2, £5,250 Pot Limit Omaha. "PLO is my game, I play this almost only online but there is a lot of variance," said Nazgul as he spoke about his chances in the second event.

Here are some of the notable chip counts after Day 1:

WSOP Europe Event #1 Day 1
Rank	Name	Chips
1	Andrew Pantling	106,100
2	Chris Bjorin	103,800
3	Tai Tran	103,400
4	Javed Abrahams	96,600
5	Chris "moorman1" Moorman	94,200
6	Peter Wood	90,900
7	Daniel Colman	90,000
8	David Peters	89,500
9	Thorsten77	78,200
10	Eli Heath	75,800
15	Phil Laak	63,600
17	Jerff Lisandro	55,000
18	swordfish007	53,300
27	Liv Boeree	27,700
29	Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger	19,900

Level info
Level	11
Blinds	600 / 1,200
Ante	200
Player info
Remaining players	31
Entries	244
Average chip count	59,032