October 05 2012, Donnie Peters
Day 1a of the 2012 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Sanremo Main Event came to a close on Friday with the first flight running through eight 75-minute levels of play. It was a long day on the felt, but one that was filled with plenty of action. Erion Islamay was front and center for much of the chip exchanging. He finished with 162,300 in chips and has assumed the position of early chip leader.
The first starting flight peaked at 320 players, which meant for quite the crowded tournament space at Casino Sanremo. Scattered in amongst the tables were plenty of top pros including those representing the host, PokerStars. Jonathan Duhamel and Marcin Horecki were two of the Team PokerStars Pros in action on Day 1a, but both of them failed to advance.
Duhamel fell to Walid Bou-Habib after losing a flip for his tournament life in the last level of the night. Duhamel was all in preflop with 
and up against Bou-Habib’s 
. The flop, turn and river of 
kept Bou-Habib’s sevens in the lead, and Duhamel was eliminated.
Not only was the end of the night cruel to Duhamel, but also Scott Seiver. His elimination was a bit more brutal than Duhamel’s as Seiver got his money in on the 
board with 
versus his opponent’s 
. All Seiver needed to do was dodge an eight or a queen in order to stay alive, but the 
smacked on the river and that was it.
Other notables eliminated throughout Day 1a were Shannon Shorr, Dominik Nitsche, Ilan Boujenah, Arnaud Mattern, Joao Barbosa, Mohsin Charania and Anton Wigg.
On the other side of the coin, Michael Ferrell (146,600), Matt Salsberg (135,200), Mustapha Kanit (120,600), David Peters (111,400) and Lorenzo Sabato (109,500) were a few of the notables to bag up bunches of chips. They’ll be back for Day 2 on Sunday along with Team PokerStars Pros Victor Ramdin, Jude Ainsworth, Ana Marquez and Jason Mercier.
Day 1b 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 as the second, and final, starting flight gets down to action.
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October 05 2012, PokerNews Staff
The first of our “1,500 Training Freerolls in the “13,000 PokerNews RaceTrack promotion on Unibet kicked off on Sept. 30, so if you have qualified make sure you remember to log on and take your seat at 19:00 GMT. If you missed out on this freeroll don’t worry because the qualification period is now open for the second “1,500 Training Freeroll.
The first “5,000 rake race in our amazing “13,000 PokerNews RaceTrack over on Unibet may be over but the second PokerNews-exclusive race has now begun. Make sure you do not miss out on the free cash! Get involved in this superb promotion now!
The Championship Rake Race: Win Your Share Of “5,000!
The first of two Championship Rake Races has been completed but the second edition, which boasts a “5,000 prize pool, has only just begun. Running from Oct. 1 through to Oct. 31, the “5,000 Championship Rake Race will pay the top 30 players a prize ranging from “75 all the way up to a mouth-watering “1,000. Remember, the higher up the leaderboard you finish, the larger your cash prize will be.
| Oct. 1, 00:01 | Oct. 31, 23:59 | “5,000 |
The “5,000 prize pool will be paid out as follows:
| 1 | “1,000 |
| 2 | “550 |
| 3 | “350 |
| 4 | “250 |
| 5 | “200 |
| 6 | “175 |
| 7-10 | “150 |
| 11-15 | “125 |
| 16-20 | “100 |
| 21-30 | “75 |
“1,500 Training Freeroll
Please note that the first “1,500 Training Freeroll had to be postponed by Unibet after some technical problems. This freeroll will now take place at 19:00GMT on Oct. 7.
On Oct. 31, there will be a special PokerNews Training Freeroll. This freeroll tournament has a prize pool of “1,500 and is only open to new and existing PokerNews customers.
New customers just have to make a deposit during the qualification period to gain entry into the next available freeroll and existing customers have to generate just 100 VIP Points during the qualification period. Ten VIP Points are awarded for every $1 paid in rake or tournament fees, meaning you could be playing in a “1,500 freeroll for just $10!
