ElkY Riding High at EPT London
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Day 1 of the £4,250 EPT London Main Event is in the book with 668 players taking to the felt at the Grand Connaught Rooms so far.
That's a jump on last year's field of 604 and there's still power to add as late registration is open this morning.
A host of big names are among the 370 who survived the two opening flights and it was Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier (147,900) who enjoyed the best of it. Plenty of other familiar faces will be back when the action resumes this lunchtime including Johnny Lodden (125,000), former EPT winners Victoria Coren-Mitchell (115,000) and Liv Boeree (102,000), James Dempsey (93,300), Theo Jorgensen (87,800), Mickey Petersen (83,100), Eugene Katchalov (73,400), Matt Perrins (73,300), Jake Cody (48,600) and Chris Moorman (44,800). The super hot Daniel Colman left it until late into Day 1b to make his debut and will return with 33,200.
Russia's Anatoly Filatov, who won his seat via a live satellite, is the man in front on 173,900 followed by Georgios Zisimopoulos from Greece who bagged up 171,500.
There will be no EPT glory for Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott this year, nor for high roller specialist Olivier Busquet who also hit the rail on day 1. Joining them there were a cast of familiar figures including UKIPT regular Ludovic Geilich and double Alpha8 winner Philipp Gruissem.
The Main Event action resumes at noon with six levels of play scheduled for today.
Side Event Round Up
As with all EPT festivals, there's been plenty of quality side action to complement the Main Event. The big winner to date has been Olivier Busquet, who pocketed £107,300 after winning the UKIPT £2,000 High Roller.
Emil Patel secured a £79,450 score after topping a high-class 52-runner field in the £5k PLO, while Briton Karl Parrish booked his first live cash after winning the inaugural Seniors event for £4,900.
The maiden London Cup attracted a massive field of 564 entries and was eventually won by Poland's Jan Przysucha who turned a buy-in of £300 into £31,500.