September 17 2012, Donnie Peters

Sunday marked the kickoff of the 2012 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open. After eight 75-minute levels of play, Day 1a ended with Robert Boyko as chip leader. He bagged up 173,100 in chips, and from the starting field of 374 players, only 200 remain.

In an interesting twist to the WPT, rebuys have been allowed at this event, making things slightly different than the more common reentry format the WPT often uses. On the two starting days, Day 1a and Day 1b, players are allowed to rebuy as often as they’d like throughout the first four levels. Those not making it through from Day 1a can also reenter on Day 1b.

Because of this rebuy format, not many notables hit the rail on Day 1a; however, a few did. WPT Champions Club members Gavin Smith, Andy Frankenberger and Will “The Thrill” Failla were all eliminated, and joining them were Jeff Madsen, Steve Dannenmann, Jesse Sylvia and Matt Glantz.

Another notable player to hit the rail, Mike “Little Man” Sica, was eliminated in a three-way clash between Jared Hamby and Richie Marshall during Level 5. According to the WPT Live Updates team, the blinds were at 100/200/25 and a board of was in the middle between the three players. The three players got all the chips in, and Hamby revealed and was ahead of Marshall’s and Sica’s . After the completed the board on the river, both Marshall and Sica were headed out the door.

Failla was eliminated during Level 6 with the blinds at 150/300/25 when his lost to Jake Schwartz’s after the board ran out .

There were plenty of well-known players who made it out of Day 1a and did so with healthy chip stacks. WPT Champions Club members Barry Greenstein, Shawn Cunix and Carlos Mortensen each bagged over 100,000, and the WPT’s own Tony Dunst concluded his day with 125,000.

Others who advanced were Allen Kessler, David Williams, Eric Baldwin, Vinny Pahuja, Matt Affleck, John Racener and former WPT Borgata winner Dwyte Pilgrim.

The cards will be in the air at 1200 EDT (1700 BST) for Day 1b, and another few hundred players will be in the mix. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the daily recap and the progress toward another WPT champion takes places.

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Data and photo courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com.

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August 20 2012, Chris Hall

On Day 1a of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event, 403 players bought in for the “5,000 requisite. On Day 1b, however, the Casino de Barcelona was overrun with players – 670 of them – taking the total field over the one-thousand mark and making this tournament the biggest EPT ever held in Spain.

After eight hard-fought levels, 370 players remained and the chip leader was Guy Bachar who finished with 193,100 in chips. Samir Hadad (169,200) and Hila Dan Ionut (168,400) follow in second and third respectively. Bachar made a late charge to the top when took the chip lead in the last level of the day after knocking out Team PokerStars Pro Sandra Naujoks with against . Bachar’s finish was still not enough to overtake Day 1a’s Aku Joentausta who will head into Tuesday’s Day 2 with the overall chip lead of 236,200.

Over 20 Team PokerStars Pros took part on Day 1b and the majority of them fared very well. Those who made an early exit include Dario Minieri, Jonathan Duhamel, Christophe De Meulder, Nacho Barbero and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who got it all in on a flop with a set of eights only for his opponent’s pocket aces to outdraw him by the river. Johnny Lodden was forced to grind a short stack for most of the day but fell near the end of the day when he lost with in a flip against .

Theo Jorgensen (129,000), Ivan Demidov (100,800), Ville Wahlbeck (89,600), Joao Nunes (79,500), Daniel Negreanu (48,500), Ana Marquez (45,000), Luca Pagano (35,000), Martin Staszko (33,400), Rino Mathis (26,900), Barry Greenstein (20,800), Jude Ainsworth (12,100), and Jason Mercier (8,500), navigated their ways through the minefield of a day and will return to Day 2. They’ll be joined by Team SportStars Fatima Moreira De Melo (89,100), and Boris Becker (42,700).

The field on Day 1b was stacked with notables at every table. Of those making it through to Day 2 were EPT Grand Final runner-up Lucille Cailly (131,400) Gus Hansen (103,500) Jonathan Karamalikis (102,500) Nicolas Levi (48,600) and former EPT winner Roberto Romanello (31,400).

There were also a number of eliminations including Chino Rheem, who barely lasted a level; Dan Shak, whose kings were no match against Eddy Sabat’s aces; and Praz Bansi’s, whose return to poker after a five month break didn’t end well – he lost with queens twice in quick succession and was sent to the rail. Chris Moorman, JP Kelly, former EPT winners Rupert Elder and Kevin MacPhee, Sam Chartier and Sunday’s “50,000 Super High Roller runner-up JC Alvarado were also part of the eliminations on Day 1b.

The combined surviving players from the two starting fields will create a field close to 600 – will begin play at 1200 CET (0300 PDT). Follow along with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team for all of the live updates from this record-breaking EPT.

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