April 16 2012, Matthew Pitt

The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour is back in Berlin for the third time in its history for the penultimate stop of Season Eight. Day 1a has been written into the history books after 10 one-hour levels were played in the luxurious Hyatt hotel across from the Spielbank Casino. When the tournament director finally called time on proceedings shortly before 0100 CET, and the players bagged up their precious ceramic discs, former EPT champion Vladimir Geshkenbein, emerged as the chip leader.

The Russian pro did not get off to the best start on Monday, and was down to 15,000 early on, but he staged an amazing comeback, hitting hands like they were going out of style. Cracking ace-king with ace-queen was just one example of him running amazingly well. He slipped up toward the end of the day but recovered to win a series of pots to end the day as the overall chip leader with 201,600.

Jens Weigel is Geshkenbein’s nearest rival, he managed to turn his 30,000 starting stack into an impressive 199,600. Weigel did not have the easiest of tables to deal with, because he had recent Irish Open champion Kevin Vandersmissen and Sam Chartier to deal with for the vast majority of the day. That did not stop him however, from hoovering up the leaderboard. Weigel only has one EPT cash to his name – a 30th place finish in this event last year – and if he keeps up this kind of form for the rest of the week, he could very well go even deeper.

Sam Chartier also made it through to Day 2, bagging a stack of 138,000. Right at the start of play on Monday he made a superb call with on a board that contained an ace, a pair of queens and a nine after his opponent bluff-raised all in on the river with what turned out to be a pair of fives.

Amongst the 243 players who chose to enter Day 1a of the EPT Berlin Main Event was a whole host of Team PokerStars Pro. They included Barry Greenstein, Theo Jorgensen, Vanessa Selbst, Angel Guillen, Martin Stazsko, Jan Heitmann, Henrique Pinho and Pierre Neuville. Team PokerStars as a whole had a good result from Day 1a. In fact all but Staszko, who was eliminated shortly before the end of the day, safely navigated through the minefield that is the first flight of an EPT. They are part of the 110 survivors who also had chips to bag at tag at the end of the night.

End of Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts

Day 1b’s field should be even larger, and if the rumors are true, then the field could close in on 700 entrants. That means the players will be not only seated in the vast tournament area of the Hyatt hotel, but also in the adjoining Spielbank Casino too – just to fit them all in!

The action kicks off at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) sharp and will continue until 10 one-hour levels and a 75-minute dinner break have been completed. The well-known faces that are to take part are so numerous that we could fill an entire page with their names but expect to see the likes of Team PokerStars Pros Bertand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and Arnaud Mattern along with a whole host of other familiar characters.

Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team as soon play gets under way for all the action, as it happens, from the European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event.

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March 07 2012, Brett Collson

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event saw 222 players hit the felts, creating a combined field of 364 between the two Day 1 starting flights. The number was notably smaller than last year’s field of 415 but still created a hefty prize pool of nearly $3.5 million, of which $960,900 will go to the winner.

Part of the draw of the $10,000 buy-in Bay 101 Shooting Star event is its bounty-focused format. Every starting table on Day 1 begins with a designated “Shooting Star,” and anyone who eliminates that player will receive a $5,000 bounty, as well as an autographed t-shirt.

After only five of the 19 Shooting Stars survived Day 1a, the bounties had much more success on Day 1b. The second flight had 28 Shooting Stars, and half advanced to Day 2 after 10 levels of play. Two-time WPT champ Michael Mizrachi had the best day out of the 28 Shooting Stars. “The Grinder” doubled his stack early on by eliminating Dan Kelly to take the chip lead and finished among the leaders with 129,900 chips when the day concluded.

Other Shooting Stars moving on to Day 2 are Allen Cunningham (122,200), JC Tran (114,300), Marvin Rettenmaier (87,200), Men Nguyen (80,600), Fabrice Soulier (78,300), Linda Johnson (76,000), David Williams (61,200), Scott Seiver (56,500), Nam Le (54,800), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (46,100), Chau Giang (41,000), Antonio Esfandiari (35,300) and Jason Mercier (20,300).

While half the Shooting Stars pressed forward, the other half handed over their autographed tee along with a $5,000 check to their bounty hunter. Eugene Katchalov, Erick Lindgren, Chris Moorman, Jennifer Harman, Todd Brunson, Ben Lamb, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen and defending champ Alan Sternberg were all sent to the rail on Day 1a. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Katchalov and Brunson were both eliminated by Michael Wywrot, who was the only player to eliminate two Shooting Stars during the day.

Of the 95 players who survived Day 1b, Chris Summers finished on top with a stack of 188,000 to earn the $10,000 bonus given to the chip leader at the end of each day. He’s followed closely by former WPT champ Taylor von Kriegenberg, who lost the last hand of the night to fall short of claiming the bonus. He’ll take 181,300 chips into Day 2, while Max Silver (155,000), Scott Baumstein (133,600) and Kent Washington (131,000) rounded out the top five on the Day 1b leaderboard.

When the field merges on Wednesday, everyone will be chasing Day 1a chip leader Bryce Yockey, who takes 245,300 chips into Day 2. Play will begin at 1045 PST (1845 GMT) on Tuesday, and the 149 remaining players will attempt to play through the money bubble (36 players will cash) and down to the final 18.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks heading into Day 2:

Check back in to PokerNews.com for daily recaps from Bay 101.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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