It was the second start day of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London on Monday at the Victoria Casino on Edgeware Road on Monday. Another 411 players walked through the revolving doors with the £5,250 entry fee in their hands and the hopes of succeeding Benny Spindler as the EPT London champion for Season 9 of the European Poker Tour.

Eight 75-minute levels later, Sergio Aido, the Spaniard who won the UKIPT on Sunday, continued what could only be described as amazing form and finished the day as the overall chip leader with 215,200. Aido picked up £144,555 for the UKIPT win and in the only other tournament he has played this week, he chopped a £1,000 no-limit turbo event for £20,000 with former EPT Monte Carlo winner Nicolas Chouity. So, his form has been quite decent so far.

Chris Moorman flew the flag for the home country and managed to six-bet all in with suited against Steve Warburton’s pocket queens for a 110,000-chip pot with the blinds only 200/400 with a 50 ante. Moorman cracked the queens, and Warburton could’ve been forgiven for thinking he should not have returned back after the dinner break. Following the break, he suffered another horrible beat at the 250/500/50 level, losing with pocket nines to seven-eight suited for a 50,000-chip which sealed his elimination. Moorman thrived in the meantime, finishing the day with 159,800 in chips.

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, fresh off Sunday’s team victory over The Professionals from Full Tilt Poker, had a low-key day, eventually busting in a coin flip for a 15,000-chip pot just before the dinner break. Negreanu was joined on the sidelines by fellow Team Pros Jake Cody, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso and Dario Minieri who won’t have great memories of the London event this time. Cody lost a crucial flip to the online wizard Viktor Blom while Moreira de Melo also busted in a flip.

Other people who busted today included: James Dempsey, Todd Terry, Craig McCorkell, Joao Barbosa and Dan Shak. They’ll all have a chance at the side events being played at the brand spanking new PokerStars Live at the Hippodrome venue in Leicester Square.

Someone who enjoys London a lot is the hometown girl Vicky Coren, having won this event for a cool £500,000 back in Season 3. She finished the day with 44,000 to make it to Day 2 joining other notables including Vojtech Ruzicka (122,300), Sam Trickett (80,400), Barry Greenstein (79,900), Toby Lewis (79,200), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (65,600), Faraz Jaka (61,600) and Jason Mercier (58,300).

Grospellier was one of several players to join a table christened “The Table of Doom” which featured at one point, Jude Ainsworth, Bryn Kenney, Sandra Naujoks, Shannon Shorr, Andrew Chen and Martin Jacobson – quality worthy of any final table and one that took a starring role on EPT Live.

Be sure to join the Pokernews Live Reporting Team on Tuesday for Day 2 from 12 p.m. GMT for the next chapter of this tournament as we expect to play six more 90-minute levels of exciting action.

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Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com

August 04 2012, Chris Hall

The 11th Season of the World Poker Tour kicked off in Kyrenia, Cyprus, for the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic. Day 1a attracted 163 players to the all-inclusive hotel and casino, but by the end of the first day, we’d lost over half the field and Maxim Panyak finished as the Day 1a chip leader. Panyak won several big pots, including knocking out Andreas Krause with queens versus ace-king, to finish the day with 255,800 – a healthy target for everyone playing Day 1b.

Atzlan Gil, in second place, is the only other player over the 200,000 mark, he with 207,100. The day ended with 67 players remaining, but with 102 eliminations plus a few non-satisfied survivors combined with many players who had only planned to play Day 1B, a much larger field is expected on Sunday.

The $4,000+$400 event is the first major tournament Gaelle Baumann has played since bubbling the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table in July. On Saturday, Baumann made it is as far as level five before she was eliminated. She held on a board against two-time WPT champion Tommy Vedes’ in a three-bet pot, but could not improve. She has already indicated she’ll probably be rebuying on Sunday.

Vedes didn’t last too much longer, but we suspect he’ll be reentering as well. Other notables who took a shot on Day 1a but didn’t make it through includes Chris Moorman (got short stacked and lost with eights to queens), Dominik Nitsche (top two pair against a set), Nicolas Chouity (made a big bluff and got called) and Zimnan Ziyard (top pair versus two pair).

Marvin Rettenmaier (122,200), Toni Judet (101,000) Erik Cajelais (71,900), Marco Neuman (63,300) and Stuart Fox (86,200) are among those who have made it through to Day 2.

Sunday’s field is expected to be much larger and should include all four of the Mizrachi brothers. Rumors are swirling that Daniel Cates and Chino Rheem may also be in attendance.

Day 1b will begin at 1300 EEST (0300 PDT) and play is expected to last 10 levels. Be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team for all the action from the felt.

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