October 06 2012, Chad Holloway

On Saturday, the 2012 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Sanremo Main Event continued with Day 1b action as 477 players packed the Casino Sanremo for eight 75-minute levels of play. By the end of that time, approximately 270 remained and Sam Trickett finished as the chip leader.

Trickett got his stack of 178,000 thanks in large part to picking up aces when another player with a big stack held kings. What’s more, Trickett also won a big pot a short time later with kings. Trickett’s big stack surpassed that of Day 1a chip leader Erion Islamay (162,300), which makes him the overall chip leader headed into Day 2.

Combined with Day 1a’s 320 players, the huge Day 1b turnout brought the total field to 797 players – representing represented 52 countries – and created a prize pool of “3,865,450. That will be distributed to the top 120 players with “800,000 going to the eventual winner.

The day got off to a quick start with the first elimination coming just 11 minutes into play. It happened when Andrii Nadieliaiev and Andrey Zaichenko each put in 4,750 preflop and saw a flop of . Zaichenko bet 5,000, Nadieliaiev called, and the dealer burned and turned the . Zaichenko bet again, this time 6,000, and again Nadieliaiev called. When the peeled off on the river, Zaichenko moved all in for his last 14,300 and Nadieliaiev snap-called. Zaichenko revealed , but it was no good against the of Nadieliaiev. Interestingly, Day 1a’s first elimination came from an aces-versus-kings hand, though those players got it all in preflop.

Zaichenko may have been the first, but he wasn’t the last. McLean Karr, Faraz Jaka, Davidi Kitai, Ben Hamnett, Antonio Esfandiari, John Duthie, Aku Joentausta, Tobias Reinkemeier, Toby Lewis, Ronny Kaiser, Jonthan Aguiar, Chance Kornuth, and the defending champ, Andrey Pateychuk were among those who were eliminated throughout the day.

Chris Moneymaker

Likewise, Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Dario Minieri, Massimiliano Martinez, Richard Toth, Lex Veldhuis, Martin Staszko, Christophe De Meulder, Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, Max Lykov, Alex Kravchenko, Martin Hruby and Sandra Naujoks all hit the rail throughout the day.

One Team Pro who made it to Day 2 was 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker. He got off to a quick start when, on a flop, Ronny Kaiser led out for 3,500 and Lucille Cailly called. Negreanu folded his hand and Chris Moneymaker decided to tag along to the next street. The rolled off on the turn and Kaiser checked. Cailly moved 6,900 into the middle and Moneymaker flatted. Kaiser folded and the appeared on the river. Cailly slowed down with a check while Moneymaker moved out a sizable bet of 18,000. Cailly thought for about a minute before dropping in a call. Moneymaker rolled over for quad fives, and Cailly threw her cards to the muck. Moneymaker went on to finish the night with 125,300.

Other Team Pros who’ll be returning on Day 2 are Pius Heinz, Andre Akkari, Angel Guillen, and Johnny Lodden, just to name a few. They’ll be joined by other notables including Justin Bonomo, Chris Brammer, Shaun Deeb, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Isaac Haxton, and Steve O’Dwyer. In addition, former EPT Sanremo champs Liv Boeree (Season 6) and Rupert Elder (Season 7) will both continue their quest for another title.

Notable EPT Sanremo End of Day 1b Chip Counts

Day 2 will commence at 1400 CET (0800 ET) and PokerNews will be right back on the floor providing all the live updates. Be sure to check back then for all the latest and greatest action from Sanremo.

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