Claudio Cecchi is the current chip leader

A ton of big names went down on the two Day 1′s.  Vanessa Selbst, Carlos Mortensen, Vitaly Lunkin, Jeff Madsen, Faraz Jaka, Roland de Wolfe, Greg Mueller, Joe Serock, Johnny Lodden, Liz Lieu, Viktor Blom, Dennis Phillips, Sandra Naujoks, Praz Bansi, Chino Rheem, Max Pescatori, Ban Shak, Chris Bjorin, Jason Mercier, David Williams, Chris Moneymaker, and Antoine Saout were all among those that went down in Day 1 play.

Some big names did manage to break through to Day 2 play.  Phil Ivey will start Day 2 with 117,900.  Joe Hachem will start with 108,400.  Barry Shulman will take 129,200 into Day 2 and Greg Raymer will start with 105,200.  Daniel Negreanu will start with 122,200 going into Day 2 play.  Other notables heading into Day 2 are Allen Kessler, Ivan Demidov, Alex Kravchenko, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Chad Brown, Scott Montgomery, Jeff Lisandro, Liv Boeree, and Boris Becker.

This is the first major event after the World Series of Poker Europe with many of these players hanging around after playing for up to two weeks over at the Casino at the Empire.  Phil Ivey made a deep run in the WSOP-E Main Event and Jeff Lisandro won his 5th WSOP bracelet during the WSOP-E.

Aaron Gustavson won last years EPT London event.  He defeated a field of 730 players, including 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate heads-up.  Gustavson took home £850,000 for his win.  Eastgate took home just over £530,000, which wound up being the last big score of Eastgate’s career, or such as it stands.  Eastgate recently walked away from poker and is currently in retirement from active circuit play.  Many feel he will return at one point or another.

Claudio Cecchi goes into Day 2 with the overall chip lead at 237,000.  Soheb Porbandarwala is right behind him with 218,600.  Around 400 players will return to play Day 2 with 128 of those players finishing in the money.



James Bord Wins WSOP Europe Main Event

Many of the big names of poker took their shot at this event over the two Day 1′s. Phil Hellmuth made the biggest entrance, as he came in with 11 Lady Gaga impersonators in two. Eric and Michael Mizrachi, Viktor Blom, Phil Ivey, Phil Laak, defending champ Barry Shulman, Jennifer Tilly, and Hoyt Corkins were among those in the field.

Day 2 saw the storylines begin to emerge. Daniel Negreanu was looking to make the final table of this event for the third straight year. Viktor Blom finished the day as chip leader and Phil Ivey finished in 6th chip position. Barry Shulman was knocked out during Day 2, so a new champion would be crowned.

Day 3 was when the money bubble was burst. Daniel Negreanu made a deep run, but was knocked out shy of the money, putting a great three year run to an end. Both Phil Ivey and Viktor Blom made the money and were among the 22 players to make Day 4.
Unfortunately, we lost both big names in Day 4. Ivey made an early miscalculation and shoved A-10 into A-K of Ronald Lee. He missed and finished in 19th. Viktor Blom blew off most of his stack early and later shoved with pocket eights. Brian Powell called with K-Q and caught a queen on the flop. Blom couldn’t catch and eight and was out in 16th.

Dan Fleyshman entered the final table as chip leader with Roland de Wolfe the only headliner. This is how the remaining nine players started final table play:

Seat 1: Roland de Wolfe            1,377,000
Seat 2: Marc Inizan                    349,000
Seat 3: Nicolas Levi                   428,000
Seat 4: Fabrizio Baldassari     677,000
Seat 5: Brian Powell                  842,000
Seat 6: Dan Steinberg               1,520,000
Seat 7: James Bord                   1,331,000
Seat 8: Ronald Lee                     1 ,899,000
Seat 9: Dan Fleyshman            1,946,000

Fleyshman faltered early and finished in 7th, while de Wolfe was knocked out in 4th. Heads-up play started with Fabrizio Baldassari as chip leader over James Bord. Bord was hand delivered the chip lead when Baldassari picked the wrong time to shove with Qs-8s. Bord woke up with A-K and it held to give him the lead.

The final hand saw Bord shove with pocket tens and Baldassari call with pocket fives. the board wound up missing both players and James Bord is the champion. This was the Englishman’s first bracelet. In addition, he took home £830,410 in prize money.

By day 3 of this event, all eyes were on Phil Ivey. Ivey battled through Day 3 and made the final table. Eventually, he battled Bill Chen heads-up for the bracelet. To find out whether Phil Ivey won his 8th career WSOP bracelet, check out our WSOP 2010 Podcast, Andrew Feldman free version, below:

Phil Ivey hosts a press conference to discuss poker history in the making.