April 17 2012, Marc Convey

Day 1a was just the warm up to the carnage that ensued on Day 1b at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Berlin. The Grand Hyatt hotel was not big enough to contain the Day 1b crowd, and nine tables had to be opened next door in the Spielbank Berlin. The field ballooned to 502 players, more than twice the size of yesterday’s field. The top 112 players will earn a minimum of “7,500, and an appearance at this prestigious final table will guarantee you at least “72,000.

Cengiz Ulusu’s finished the day as chip leader, amassing 242,800 in chips. The stack he bagged also makes him the overall Day 1 leader, Vladimir Geshkenbein’s stack of 201,600 from Day 1a.

Whereas Monday was a superior day for Team PokerStars Pro, Tuesday was more difficult. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (40,900) will be back for Day 2 along with Viktor Blom (109,900), George Danzer (54,100), Alex Kravchenko (49,000), Nuno Coelho (8,500), Matthias De Meulder (14,500), and Friend Of PokersStars Charlotte Van Brabander (37,300).

The same can not be said for the following Team PokerStars Pros, because all of them were eliminated on Day 1b: Arnaud Mattern, Max Lykov, Lex Veldhuis, Johnny Lodden, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Jude Ainsworth, Andre Akkari, Rino Mathis, Ville Wahlbeck, Liv Boeree, Sadra Naujoks, Mickey Petersen, Marcin Horecki, Lex Veldhuis, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Eugene Katchalov, Toni Judet, Pius Heinz, Jonathan Duhamel, Christophe De Meulder, and Victor Ramdin.

Ramdin was particularly unlucky because he was up to 122,000 at his high point, but a series of hands went very badly for him. He flopped top set in one hand but lost out to an opponent who made a straight. Then he got his last 30,000 in with pocket queens only to run into pocket kings.

Pius Heinz was eliminated when he ran his queens into Bahadir Kilickeser’s and Ali Azabdaftar’s . Kilickeser was the happiest at the end though, because he found the other two kings in the deck to make quads.

Other players who excelled during Day 1b, include Kevin MacPhee, who cracked sets and flopped sets on his way to finishing with 139,100. Davidi Kitai won races, dropped back a little by losing races, and recovered to end with 197,700. Then there’s Calvin Anderson (205,100), Mario Puccini (198,900), Marc Wright (182,600), Dan Smith (173,600), Michiel Brummelhuis (173,500), and Konstantinos Tsirakidis (168,000) who have all moved into contention.

End of Day 1b Chip Counts

The remaining 329 players from both starting flights will all be in the same room on Wednesday. Play will resume at 1200 CET (0300 PDT), and as always, the PokerNews Team will be bringing you all the action live from the felt.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.