November 04 2011, Donnie Peters

After completion of both starting days at the 2011 World Poker Tour Amneville, 215 remaining players returned to action on Thursday. At day’s end, 76 were still standing; Urs Kohler claiming the top spot with 498,000 in chips.

Plenty of notable players returned to action on Day 2, including overall chip leader Jean-Francois Rigollet, Jamie Rosen, Ilan Boujenah, Antonin Teisseire, Dominik Nitsche, Liv Boeree, Tristan Clemencon and Roger Hairabedian. What all those players have in common now that Day 2 is over is that all have been eliminated and will go no further in this event.

Joining Kohler in the top five are Scott Baumstein (481,300), Marvin Rettenmaier (454,800), Simon Vitali (433,100) and Nesrine Kourdourli (431,500). Those four players following Kohler were the only part of the pack able to bag up more than 400,000 in chips. Joseph Cheong sits in sixth overall with 380,100.

On a big hand toward the end of the day, Rettenmaier scooped plenty of chips after getting involved in a flush-over-flush confrontation and coming out on top.

According to the WPT Live Update Team, the blinds were 1,000/2,000/300 when Levent Mercan open-limped from middle position. Rettenmaier raised to 5,700 from the cutoff seat, and action folded back to Mercan, who called, and the flop came down . After Mercan checked, Rettenmaier fired 5,200. Mercan check-raised to 17,000. Rettenmaier came back over the top with a reraise to 36,800 that Mercan called.

The turn brought the and paired the top card on board. Mercan checked, Rettenmaier fired 38,200, and Mercan called to see the land on the river. Mercan checked again, and after thinking things over for a bit, Rettenmaier fired 56,200. Mercan quickly called holding . His second nut flush wasn’t good as Rettenmaier tabled the and won the pot.

Other notables still left in the field include Adrien Allain, Bruno Fitoussi, Pierre Canali, Davidi Kitai and Marc Inizan.

Day 3 will take place starting at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) on Friday. The top 36 players are set to be paid out, so the money bubble should break. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the daily recap of the action.

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October 28 2011, Chad Holloway

One of the World Poker Tour’s most prestigious and historic stops every year is the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. Past champions of this event include Howard Lederer (Season I), Hoyt Corkins (Season II), Tuan Le (Season III), Nick Schulman (Season IV), Nenad Medic (Season V), Mike Vela (Season VI), Jonathan Little (Season VII), Cornel Cimpan (Season VIII), and reigning champ, Jeff Forrest.

The first $10,000 buy-in tournament of Season X of the WPT kicked off on Thursday and drew a field of 185, including many of the aforementioned champions. Registration is open until the Day 2 begins, so that number is expected to grow. With a kind structure and a stacked field, it wasn’t surprising to see some elite poker action. Some players who were in action, and managed to survive the day, include David Williams (16,775), Lee Markholt (37,175), Dwyte Pilgrim (63,400), and Erik Seidel (69,500); however, each of them trails the Day 1 chip leader, Thomas Schreiber, who bagged up 104,000.

There were some crazy hands throughout the day as evidenced by Greg Lang’s once-in-a-lifetime feat of flopping a royal flush, holding the in a heads-up pot. Unfortunately, he didn’t get paid off because his opponent checked behind on the flop and then folded to Lang’s small turn bet.

In another intriguing hand, four players limped for 200 preflop only to have Tony Sinishtaj raise to 1,500 from the button. According to the World Poker Tour Live Update Team, three players made the call and the players saw a flop of . Action checked to Sinishtaj and he fired out 2,500. An early-position player called, and then Nikolai Yakovenko check-raised to 6,500 from middle position. Peter Polianto called from the cutoff, Sinishtaj folded, and the early-position player came along for the ride.

When the hit the turn, the early-position player and Yakovenko checked, opening the door for Polianto to bet 13,000. The early-position player called all-in for 12,000, and Yakovenko folded face up.

Showdown
Early-Position Player:
Politano:

It was an action flop as the early-position player hit a full house but was second best to Politano’s quad threes! What’s more, the river would have given Yakovenko a straight flush; instead, it was Politano who chipped up to 62,000.

Some players thrived, but others failed to survive. Among the players who fell on Day 1 were Micah Raskin, Jason Somerville, Jonathan Aguiar, John Cernuto, David Paredes, and Justin Schwartz. The last player on that list met his demise in Level 5 when an early-position player raised to 725 and Dwyte Pilgrim called from the cutoff. Schwartz responded by moving all-in for 5,850 from the button, Jason Mercier called from the small blind, and the other two players folded.

Showdown
Mercier:
Schwartz:

Schwartz was behind and even more so when the flop fell . Neither the turn nor river helped Schwartz, whose elimination came at the hands of the man many consider to be the best tournament poker player in the world. It would be hard to argue with that if Mercier can somehow add a World Poker Finals victory to his résumé.

On Friday, the remaining 141 players will return to action at 1200 EDT (1600 GMT). In the meantime, here’s a look at the top stacks at the end of Day 1:

Top 10 End of Day 1 Chip Counts

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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