2011 WSOP Europe Main Event Day 1a

The 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event kicked off on Saturday with 310 players battling it out on the first day of the tournament. Recognized as the best live poker tournament in Europe, this year’s WSOP Europe Main Event championship has taken place in Cannes, France.

Last year, James Bord outlasted a field of 346 players and with Day 1a already nearly surpassing that field size, it’s proof that moving this tournament to France was a good idea. With another few hundred players competing on Day 1b on Sunday, this will undoubtedly be the largest WSOP Europe Main Event field to date.

There were six levels of play during Day 1a of the WSOPE Main Event. By the end of the day, only 165 players remained with Jamie Rosen the chip leader, holding 162,700 in chips. However, Rosen wasn’t the only player with some chips to play with heading into Day 2.

Other notable chip stacks include Dermot Blain with 123,500 in chips, Chris Moorman with 121,775 in chips, Polito Laurent with 120,200 in chips, Mustapha Kanit with 117,700 in chips, and WSOP ME champion Johnny Chan also has more then 100k in chips sitting with 108,350 at the end of the day’s play. Erik Seidel also continued his incredible run in 2001 advancing to Day 2.

During the play on Day 1a, Moorman received a healthy boost to his stack after knocking out well-known poker pro Jason Mercier. A flop of Kh-Jd-4h improved Moorman’s big slick that as up against Mercier’s JT suited. The turn was the 5s and the river card the Qd to see Mercier hit the rail.

Another notable elimination on Day 1a was WSOP Main Event champion Phil Hellmuth. Unlike numerous deep runs at several WSOP Europe events this year, he didn’t make it past the first day.

With the blinds 250/500 Hellmuth was down to 1,600 in chips. After open raising from the hijack position with K9 another player 3-bet from the small blind and Hellmuth called all-in. Unfortunately for him, he was up against Telker’s A9 which had him crushed. The board didn’t improve Hellmuth’s hand and he was resigned to the rail.

Other well-known players to get eliminated on Day 1a of the WSOP Europe Main Event championship included Tom Dwan, Joseph Cheong, Sam Stein, and Justin Bonomo.

The action will commence on Day 2 when the remaining players will return to the felt on Monday to battle it out against the remaining field from Day 1b.