March 26 2012, Chris Hall

The PokerStars European Poker Tour has moved on to Campione, Italy, a tiny town actually in Switzerland on the edge of Lake Lugano. Casinò di Campione, the largest casino in Europe, played host to Day 1a of EPT Campione, where 178 players began the day. When play ended Monday night, Davide Andreoni held the chip lead, finishing the day with 175,100.

Andreoni had several tussles throughout the day against Dario Nittolo, whom he sat next to, but Andreoni came out ahead by the end of the day with the overall chip lead.

Given the high number of Italians playing on Day 1a, an often-used strategy would be to play fairly straightforward to reduce the potential volatility, but Nick Yunis had other plans. The Chilean was seen playing almost every hand, his stack jumping around from 30,000 up to 100,000 and back down again. Winning significant pots against both Simon Persson and Rasmus Nielsen, Yunis finished on a high with 169,200, second only to Andreoni.

There were only four Team PokerStars Pros playing on Day 1a and they suffered mixed results. Alex Kravchenko (23,600) and the home hope, Luca Pagano (16,200) managed to make it through the action, but both will be back on Wednesday with fairly short stacks and in need of an early double-up.

Theo Jorgensen entered after the first couple of levels but didn’t last long. First, his jacks were cracked by Anton Ionel’s ace-three, which hit trip threes on the flop. Ionel then finished Jorgensen off soon after with kings against king-jack. Pierre Neuville also suffered a surprisingly early exit, as did Mads Wissing and Cristian Dragomir.

Other players who didn’t make it through the day included former EPT Prague runner-up Emiliano Bono, James Dempsey, former Irish Open champion James Mitchell, McLean Karr, Yordan Dimitrov and Casey Kastle. They’ll have to enjoy the relaxing views and sights that Campione and nearby Lugano have, as well as the multitude of side events that the casino will be putting on over the next few days.

Per Linde (67,200), former EPT champion Roberto Romanello (50,800), Marion Nedellec (51,200) and Rasmus Nielsen (41,000) are just a few players who have moved on to Day 2.

End of Day 1a Chip Counts

Although Day 1a was relatively quiet, the field on Tuesday should be bigger. Plenty of players are expected to play on Day 1b, including Team PokerStars Pros Arnaud Mattern, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Liv Boeree, Lex Veldhuis, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Selbst, Marcin Horecki and Dario Minieri.

Day 1b action kicks off on Tuesday at 1400 CEST (0500 PDT) and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on the floor bringing you all the action live from the felt.

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