EPT GRAND FINAL: MAIN EVENT DRAWS 665, GRAND SLAM POINTS AT STAKE

PICTURE: POKERSTARS (Neil Stoddart)

It's still early ... it's still very early, but, Nick Yunis is your Day 1 Chip Leader as the Main Event at the PokerStars and Monte Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final kicked off with two Day 1's on Wednesday and Thursday.

A grand total of 665 all put up 10K EURO in order to take their shot at the EPT's most prestigious title.

As mentioned, Nick Yunis has the very early lead after Day 1 while Doc Sands, John Eames, Tristan Clemencon, Freddy Deeb, Jason Wheeler and Tom Marchese all have top 20 chip stacks.

We're still a long ways away from the final table, that will happen next Tuesday, it will be fun to see which players make a move in the coming days.

The EPT Grand Final Main Event is the second PTPR Grand Slam Event of the season. The PCA in the Bahamas was the first Grand Slam of 2012:

2012 PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENTS
PCA Main Event | Jan 7-13 | Winner: John Dibella
EPT Grand Final Main Event | On now, Monte Carlo
WPT Tour Championship | Starts May 19, Bellagio
WSOP Main Event | Starts July 7, Rio Las Vegas

NOTABLE CHIP COUNTS (80K+)
Nick Yunis  191,700 (Day 1 Chip Leader)
David Sands 160,300
John Eames 157,200
Alessio Isaia 139,600
Tristan Clemencon 121,100
Freddy Deeb 114,600
Jason Wheeler 112,900
Tom Marchese 112,000
Nacho Barbero 105,400
Vladimir Geshkenbein 103,900
Steve O'Dwyer 101,600
Marc-Andre Ladouceur 101,300
Jean-Noel Thorel 100,400
Scott Seiver 99,800
Mickey Petersen 98,800
Matt Perrins 95,100
Dario Minieri 94,700
Andrew Pantling  91,500
Jonathan Karamalikis 89,600
Michael Dietrich 88,600
Pius Heinz 87,100
Martin Finger 85,900
Ana Marquez 85,200
Noah Boeken  83,900
Andrew Badecker 83,800
JP Kelly 83,700
Annette Obrestad 82,400
Justin Bonomo 79,000

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EVENT PAYOUTS (EURO) 1- € 1,500,000 2- € 900,000 3- € 545,000 4- € 400,000 5- € 315,000 6- € 245,000 7- € 185,000 8- € 130,000 9-10- € 95,000 11-12- € 70,000 13-14- € 60,000 15-16- € 50,000 17-24- € 40,000 25-32- € 35,000 33-40- € 30,000 41-48- € 25,000 49-72- € 20,000 73-96- € 15,000 RELATED POSTS >> BONOMO WINS SHR >> SHR FINAL TABLE SET NEXT TOUR STOP EPT Barcelona Festival August 15-25, 2012

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT PokerStars and Monte Carlo Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final EPT Grand Final NLH Main Event April 25-1, 2012 Casino Monte Carlo | Monaco Buy-in: $13,240 | Prizepool: $8,803,935 Entries: 45 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st position 156 2nd position 96 3rd position 81 4th position 71 5th position 66 6th position 61 7th position 56 8th position 51 9th position 41 10th position 31 11th position 26 12-14th position 24 15-17th position 21 18-20th position 18 21-23rd position 14 24-27th position 11

PCA 2012: BILOKUR WINS HIGH ROLLERS BUT DUHAMEL TAKES OVER #1 SPOT

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Ukraine's Leonid Bilokur has won the 25K High Rollers event at the PCA down in the Bahamas. Bilokur's only other major live score was a EPT Berlin side event win back in 2010. With this win, Bilokur (2011 PTPR Rank: 308th) collects a cool 1.1M dollars, a great way to start 2012.

Second place finisher Jonathan Duhamel closed out what could be one of the best weeks of poker ever played on the live circuit. Five events - four final tables - one win and now a second place finish.

Although Duhamel seemed very flustered with the way things went late in the heads up portion of today's final table (Duhamel held a significant lead once heads up play began) but Duhamel (2011 PTPR Rank: 71st) should not be too upset, his second place showing earns him his season-leading third PTPR Score of the year and takes over the #1 rank on the 2012 PTPR Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard.

Isaac Haxton was third in the event. Haxton (2011 PTPR Rank: 803th) scores for the second time in 2012.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS
1 Leonid Bilokur 1,134,930
2 Jonathan Duhamel 634,550
3 Isaac Haxton 380,730
4 Jason Koon 271,950
5 Nicolas Fierro 217,560
6 Govert Metaal 181,300
7 Michael Telker 145,040
8 Randy Lew 108,780

RELATED POSTS:
AMATEUR DIBELLA BEATS THE PROS TO WIN FIRST PTPR GRAND SLAM OF 2012
COVIENSKY, WORLD CHAMP CADA PICKUP WINS ON THE SIDE
OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN EVENT
ISULDR1 IS THE LONE SUPER HIGH ROLLER IN THE BAHAMAS!
SCHWARTZ ON THE BOARD AT THE PCA WITH PLO WIN
DUHAMEL WINS EPT DEAUVILLE HIGH ROLLERS
OH CANADA! DUHAMEL BECOMES FIRST CANADIAN TO WIN WSOP MAIN EVENT

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA 25K NLH High Rollers 8-Max
January 10-11, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $25,500 | Prizepool: $3,626,000 | Entries: 148

FINAL RESULTS:
LEONID BILOKUR "ALEXEY" 101
JONATHAN DUHAMEL 61
ISAAC HAXTON 36
JASON KOON 26
NICOLAS FIERRO 19
GOVERT METAAL 11
MICHAEL TELKER 9
RANDY LEW 6
NICK YUNIS 6

2012 PCA: AMATEUR DIBELLA BEATS THE PROS TO WIN FIRST PTPR GRAND SLAM OF 2012

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

It was amateur hour earlier this evening in the Bahamas ... except this time, it was quite a hell of a show put on by our first PTPR Grand Slam winner of the 2012 season, John Dibella, who survived a massive 1072-player field in order to win his first career tournament.

Dibella beat out a strong final table that included the likes of Kyle Julius, Faraz Jaka and Xuan Liu.

Jaka and Liu had our attention for most of this week - both players had a great showing for their first big event of the season.


FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS
1- John Dibella 1,775,000
2- Kyle Julius 1,500,000
3- Faraz Jaka 755,000
4- Xuan Liu 600,000
5- Mark Drover 468,000
6- Anthony Gregg 364,000
7- David Bernstein 260,000
8- Ruben Visser 156,400

RELATED POSTS:
FINAL TABLE FINALLY SET - JAKA, LIU AND JULIUS, OH MY!
JAKA BACK ON TOP - GREENSTEIN LAST ONE OUT ON WEDNESDAY
LOOK OUT BOYS, XUAN LIU IS TRENDING
FARAZ JAKA = WORLD DOMINATION
OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN EVENT
ONE HALL OF A COMEBACK - GALEN HALL WINS 2010 PCA

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA No Limit Holdem Main Event
January 7-13, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $10,398,400 | Entries: 1,072

FINAL RESULTS:
JOHN DIBELLA 160
KYLE JULIUS 100
FARAZ JAKA 85
XUAN LIU 75
MARK DROVER 70
ANTHONY GREGG 65
DAVID BERNSTEIN 60
RUBEN VISSER 55
LEE GOLDMAN 45
MARTIN JACOBSON 35
PHILIPPE D'AUTEUIL 30
DANIEL SHIFF 28
NIKOLAOS ALAFOGIANNIS 28
ALEX FITZGERALD 28
SAM GREENWOOD 25
DAVID GRANADOS 25
DANIEL SCHMIEDING 25
BYRON KAVERMAN 22
CHARLES FUREY 22
MAKSIM SEMISOSHENKO 22
COREY BURBICK 18
DAVID PETERS 18
ALEX VENOVSKI 18
DANNY CHEVALIER 15
BARRY GREENSTEIN 15
ROBERTO RIVERA 15
GABRIEL THOMAS PATRICK 15

2012 PCA: DAY 3 COMPLETE - LOOK OUT BOYS, XUAN LIU IS TRENDING

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

In the most recent episode of Poker Eh on QuadJacks Radio (airs Thursdays at 9PM ET/6PM PT on QuadJacks.com), we discussed which Canadian players we should look at in 2012 - one of those players was Xuan Liu - and Liu sure is making us look good early!

Liu (2011 PTPR Rank: 518th) had a great day Tuesday - her Day 3 culminated with a pocket jacks vs. pocket sevens showdown with Mikhail Shikworich. Liu's jacks held up and Shikworich was shown the door.

There was another exciting hand earlier in the day where Liu's pocket queens were in a three-way all in against pocket jacks and Andrew Badecker's ace-king. Liu's hand held once again. From that point on, it seemed like nothing was going to stand in Xuan Liu's way on Tuesday.

The chip leader heading into Day 4 is fellow Canadian Philippe D'Auteuil. D'Auteuil takes over from Faraz Jaka as the chip leader. D'Auteuil (2011 PTPR Rank: NR) already has points on the board this season. D'Auteuil was sixth in the 5K PLO Turbo 8-Max event over the weekend here in the Bahamas.

The aforementioned Jaka (2011 PTPR Rank: 2094th) still maintained his big chip stack - he is now third heading into Wednesday's play. Alex Fitzgerald (2011 PTPR Rank: 788th), Anthony Gregg (2011 PTPR Rank: 2401th), Kyle Julius (2011 PTPR Rank: 1960th), Luca Pagano (2011 PTPR Rank: 201st) and David Peters (2011 PTPR Rank: 256th) all appear in the Top 10.

NOTABLE CHIP STACKS:
Philippe D'Auteuil 1472000
Faraz Jaka 1,220,000 (Day 2 Chip Leader)
Alex Fitzgerald 1,154,000
Anthony Gregg 1,129,000
Kyle Julius 1,019,000
Luca Pagano 863,000
David Peters 857,000
Alex Kuzmin 741,000
Xuan Liu 680,000
Bill Chen 668,000
Ruben Visser 666,000
Eddy Sabat 594,000
Byron Kaverman 536,000
Casey Kastle 453,000
Andrew Badecker 406,000
Jan Heitmann 395,000
Barry Greenstein 379,000
Erik Cajelais 333,000
Martin Jacobson 322,000
Corey Burbick 278,000
William Reynolds 269,000
Nicholas Grippo 265,000
Sam Chartier 260,000
Sergio Garcia 235,000
Galen Hall 168,000
Chris Klodnicki 157,000
Arnaud Mattern 155,000
Yevgeniy Timoshenko 122,000

NOTABLE DAY 3 ELIMINATIONS:
Tommy Vedes, Barry Shulman, Javier Dominguez, Eric Wasserson, Leo Fernandez, Phil Collins, Adam Geyer, Christian De Leon, Carlos Mortensen, Connor Drinan, Andrew Lichtenberger, former PCA Champ Harrison Gimbel, Randy Lew, Noah Boeken, Shawn Buchanan, Liv Boeree, Adam Levy, David Benefield, Juan Manuel Pastor, Shane Schleger, Jeffrey Forrest, Pat Pezzin, Nicholas Chouity and J.C. Alvarado.

We're playing down to the final 24 players on Wednesday and Sergio Garcia and defending champ Galen Hall are still in this thing!


LIVE UPDATES: POKERSTARSBLOG.com
PLAYER TWEETS: #PCA, #PCAMainEvent

RELATED POSTS:
2012 PCA - FARAZ JAKA = WORLD DOMINATION
OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN EVENT
2012 PCA: ISULDR1 IS THE LONE SUPER HIGH ROLLER IN THE BAHAMAS!
SCHWARTZ ON THE BOARD AT THE PCA WITH PLO WIN
ONE HALL OF A COMEBACK - GALEN HALL WINS 2010 PCA

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA No Limit Holdem Main Event
January 7-13, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $10,398,400 | Entries: 1,072

PTS AT STAKE:
1st place 160
2nd place 100
3rd place 85
4th place 75
5th place 70
6th place 65
7th place 60
8th place 55
9th place 45
10th place 35
11th place 30
12-14th place 28
15-17th place 25
18-20th place 22
21-23rd place 18
24-27th place 15

2012 PCA: FARAZ JAKA = WORLD DOMINATION

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSCARIBBEANADVENTURE.com

Guess Faraz Jaka didn't need to open that can of tuna after all (see Jaka's twitter account for more info), he decided to open up a can of another kind instead!

Jaka (2011 PTPR Rank: 2094th) had a monster Day 2 at the PCA. How good of a day you ask? Well, he had about 129K in chips heading into Monday play. He bagged over 900K chips by the end of the day!

Jaka holds close to a 2:1 chip advantage on his second place opponent.

Erik Cajalais (2011 PTPR Rank: NR) hopes to continue his good start to 2012 - he is currently third in chips.

Florida State Championship winner Connor Drinan (2011 PTPR Rank: 168th), Alex Kuzmin (2011 PTPR Rank: 39th), Ruben Visser (2011 PTPR Rank: 2094th) and Robin Van Gils (2011 PTPR Rank: NR) all appear on the Top 10 list after Day 2.

Defending Champion Galen Hall (2011 PTPR Rank: 22nd) is still alive after Day 2. Hall has a little over 192K in chips heading into Tuesday's play.

Also alive is golf pro Sergio Garcia. After a strong finish to the 2011 PGA European Tour season, Sergio hopes that his golfing success translates to the poker table. Garcia starts Day 3 with a little over 105K in chips.

NOTABLE CHIP STACKS (MINIMUM 100K CHIPS:
Faraz Jaka 902,500
Cristian Folescu 555,500
Erik Cajelais 528,000
Connor Drinan 436,000
Alex Kuzmin 425,500
Ruben Visser 372,000
Robin Van Gils 360,500
Arnaud Mattern 340,500
Andrew Badecker 337,000
Leo Fernandez 324,000
Corey Burbick 298,000
Luca Pagano 280,000
Harrison Gimbel 259,000
Xuan Liu 216,000
Joao Nunes 202,000
Tommy Vedes 201,200
Sam Chartier 200,500
Byron Kaverman 194,000
Galen Hall 192,500
William Reynolds 173,000
Casey Kastle 171,000
Phil Collins 166,500
David Benefield 165,000
Eric Wasserson 153,000
Barry Shulman 150,500
Adam Levy 148,000
Nicholas Grippo 147,500
Randy Lew 146,500
Carlos Mortensen 146,500
Shane Schleger 137,000
Shawn Buchanan 131,500
Andrew Lichtenberger 113,500
Leif Force 112,500
Martin Jacobson 111,500
Yevgeniy Timoshenko 107,000
Sergio Garcia 105,500
Barry Greenstein 102,000

NOTABLE DAY 2 ELIMINATIONS:
Molson, Vamplew, Getzwiller, Marchese, Lacay, Elias, Repik, Bjerkmann, Terry, Flowers, Luske, Kravchenko, Bach, Minieri, DeBora, Demidov, Kelly, O'Brien, Filippi, Jarvis, Marquez, Stein, Wahlbeck, Rheem, Harder, Turner, Selbst, Racener, Metaal, Brenes, Ramdin, Somerville, Nitsche, Engel, E. Mizrachi, Aguiar, Waxman, Marafioti, Corkins, ElkY, M. Mizrachi, Moutinho, Kassela, Failla, Phillips, Leah, Kling, Guillen, Serock, Becker, Veldhuis and MacPhee.

We're close to the money, should be a fun start to Tuesday's play.

LIVE UPDATES: POKERSTARSBLOG.com
PLAYER TWEETS: #PCA, #PCAMainEvent

RELATED POSTS:
OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN EVENT
2012 PCA: ISULDR1 IS THE LONE SUPER HIGH ROLLER IN THE BAHAMAS!
SCHWARTZ ON THE BOARD AT THE PCA WITH PLO WIN
ONE HALL OF A COMEBACK - GALEN HALL WINS 2010 PCA

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA No Limit Holdem Main Event
January 7-13, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $10,398,400 | Entries: 1,072

PTS AT STAKE:
1st place 160
2nd place 100
3rd place 85
4th place 75
5th place 70
6th place 65
7th place 60
8th place 55
9th place 45
10th place 35
11th place 30
12-14th place 28
15-17th place 25
18-20th place 22
21-23rd place 18
24-27th place 15

2012 PCA: OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN - NEW PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSCARIBBEANADVENTURE.com

It's official, the PCA Main Event is the new kid on block - the PCA Main Event is now recognized as one of the PTPR's four majors - joining the EPT Grand Final, the WPT Tour Championship and the WSOP Main event as part of of our Grand Slam scoring events.



The PCA Main Event replaces the WSOP Poker Player's Championship - the Players will now become a PTPR Premier Event.

And the PCA knows how to do things in style - a prizepool north of 10 million dollars awaits our 10,300 participants! The PCA continues to prove why it's one of the top class events on the poker circuit.

The winning players will receive 160 PTPR Points for the victory. A total of 27 players will receive points in the event that is scheduled to reach it's completion on Friday.

Although we're still early in the event (in the middle of Day 1B at the moment), we do have a few players that have started to make a move early ...

Arnaud Mattern (2011 PTPR Rank: 340th) had a ridiculous amount of chips after only a few levels earlier today. Things have quieted down a bit for the Frenchman, but, he is still one of the top stacks.

The Grinder, Michael Mizrachi, is also trending. Mizrachi (2011 PTPR Rank: 48th) had a monster stack but, a few minuets ago, lost some chips to 2010 WSOP November Niner John Racener (2011 PTPR Rank: 281st).

Luca Pagano, Chino Rheem, Matt Jarvis and Marcel Luske also have nice Day 1B chip stacks.

As for Day 1A, Alexy Repik (2011 PTPR Rank: 2094th) was the top chip collector on Saturday. But, ladies and gents, stop the presses! We have a Marcel Bjerkmann sighting! The player who - by far - receives the most hits on www.PTPRPOKER.com is Bjerkmann (2011 PTPR Rank: NR) - and, he will be taking a healthy chip stack into Day 2.

Notable Day 1A and 1B eliminations (as of press time) include:
Matt Glantz, Isaac Haxton, Benny Spindler, Phillip Gruissem, Steve O'Dwyer, Brandon Cantu, Chris Moorman, Rupert Elder, Chris Moneymaker, Chad Brown, Tristan Wade, Justin Smith, Shaun Deeb, JohnnyBax, Dan Shak, Jason Mercier, 2011 WSOP World Champ Pius Heinz, Vanessa Russo, Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Eugene Katchalov, Viktor Blom, Jonathan Little and 2010 WSOP World Champ Jonathan Duhamel.

EPT PCA MAIN EVENT TOP 27 PAYOUTS (in USD):
1- 2,000,000
2- 1,275,000
3- 755,000
4- 600,000
5- 468,000
6- 364,000
7- 260,000
8- 156,400
9-10- 101,000
11-12- 85,000
13-14- 70,000
15-16- 58,000
17-24- 52,000
25-27- 46,000

LIVE UPDATES: POKERSTARSBLOG.com
PLAYER TWEETS: #PCA, #PCAMainEvent

RELATED POSTS:
2012 PCA: ISULDR1 IS THE LONE SUPER HIGH ROLLER IN THE BAHAMAS!
SCHWARTZ ON THE BOARD AT THE PCA WITH PLO WIN
ONE HALL OF A COMEBACK - GALEN HALL WINS 2010 PCA

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA No Limit Holdem Main Event
January 7-13, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $10,398,400 | Entries: 1,072

PTS AT STAKE:
1st place 160
2nd place 100
3rd place 85
4th place 75
5th place 70
6th place 65
7th place 60
8th place 55
9th place 45
10th place 35
11th place 30
12-14th place 28
15-17th place 25
18-20th place 22
21-23rd place 18
24-27th place 15

2011 WSOP: THERE IS NO OTHER KIND - HEINZ IS YOUR WORLD CHAMPION

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

It's all over. The long marathon that looked like it would end in a flash well, didn't, as the WSOP crowned it's latest World Champion, Germany's Pius Heinz.

It looked to be over in a heartbeat. One hand in, one runner was crippled, four hands in, we were heads up ... all thanks to what many would describe as the "forgotten man" at the final table, Czech Martin Staszko. Most of the poker world were either picking Ben Lamb or Heinz to win it all ... most of North America was on the Lamb bandwagon while most of Europe seemed to be backing Heinz.

Well, we will all remember the performance of runner-up Martin Staszko. On the opening hand of three-handed play, Staszko went from the outhouse to the penthouse as he called Ben Lamb's all in. His sevens held and Lamb, the favourite heading into the start of Final Table play, was down to only a few big blinds - yes, it was that fast.

Three hands later, Staszko had disposed of Lamb, had taken the chip lead, and had won the first four hands of the night, and it looked like lady luck was on his side. In fact, Staszko held pocket sevens, pocket kings and pocket jacks in three of those first four hands.

But Pius Heinz wasn't going to let that affect his play. He was determined to push Staszko around and suddenly, the tide turned in Heinz' favour and it looked like we were going to be done very quickly. But Staszko battled back and refused to surrender. They traded chip leads a few more times and ... hours later, Heinz was back in the driver's seat and never looked back - becoming the first German to hold the title of poker's World Champion, succeeding from Canadian Jonathan Duhamel - who was a great ambassador for poker during his reign.

The quality of play at the final table was simply amazing. Also, what else can be said about ESPN's Final Table "live" coverage? The final three included Antonio Esfandiari's expert analysis, Antonio did a splendid job.

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
WSOP NLH Main Event
July 17-November 8, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada
Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

Defending Champion: Jonathan Duhamel

FINAL RESULTS:
PIUS HEINZ 170
MARTIN STASZKO 110
BEN LAMB 95
MATT GIANNETTI 85
PHIL COLLINS 80
EOGHAN O'DEA 75
BOB BOUNAHRA 70
ANTON MAKIIESVKY 65
SAM HOLDEN 55
JOHN HEWITT 45
KHOA NGUYEN 40
BRYAN DEVONSHIRE 38
KONSTANTINOS MAMALIADIS 38
SCOTT SCHWALICH 38
ANDREY PATEYCHUK 35
RYAN LENAGHAN 35
SAM BARNHART 35
KENNY SHIH 32
ALEKSANDR MOZHNYAKOV 32
GIONNI DEMERS 32
CHRIS MOORE 28
LARS BONDING 28
ANDREW HINRICHSENB 28
GREGORY KAPLAN 25
JERRY VAN STRYDONCK 25
JP KELLY 25
KYLE JOHNSON 25

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: PTPR LEADER ESLAMI RIGHT IN THE MIX

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year leader Ali Eslami sits second after first day play at the WPT Championship. A solid result would only help Eslami pad his lead atop the leaderboard as we inch closer to the WSOP. Eslami leads Italian Alessio Isaia by 5 PTPR Points however Isaia won't be able to grad the lead back from Eslami, Isaia, the WPT Venice Champ, was one of the few casualties on Day 1 (the others were Somerville, Kassela, Tilly, Lawson, Mohajeri, Esfandiari, Mortensen, Froehlich and Benyamine).

Solid pro Christian Harder leads the way, he is looking for his first PTPR Score of the season.

The Godfather himself, Doyle Brunson is sixth in chips and will be looking to continue his strong play on Day 2, hoping to capture his first major championship in a few years.

The tournament is stocked with big name players, in fact, you can recognize almost every single runner in this field - it is, by far, the best field in a open event this season.

We currently have 188 registered into the event - players can still buy into the event for a few levels on Sunday - we're expecting a total field of over 200 - Tony G and Jason Mercier have already indicated that they will be making their way to the Bellagio for Day 2 play.

Here are the Top 10 chip leaders heading into Day 2:
1. Christian Harder - 249,975
2. Ali Eslami - 240,475
3. Kyle Julius - 237,675
4. Justin Young - 234,575
5. Alan Sternberg - 233,675
6. Doyle Brunson - 230,000
7. Kevin Saul - 229,975
8. Masaaki Kagawa - 229,500
9. Robert Mercer - 222,850
10. Curt Kohlberg - 216,925

Tune into WPT.com for live tournament updates.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: TBA
Entries: 188 (registration still open)

Defending Champion: David Williams

EPT GRAND FINAL: SWEDISH QUALIFIER SONELIN LEADS AFTER DAY 1'S

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Day 1A and Day 1B are in the books and we have our first official end of day chip leader at the biggest event of the EPT season - the EPT Grand Final.

David Sonelin (pictured), who qualified to enter the tournament, leads the way with over 275k in chips.

EPT Berlin champ Ben Wilinofsky is third in chips over 233k and EPT Deauville winner Lucien Cohen sits fifth with a little over 200k in chips

Only five players have over 200k in chips, curiously, all came from Day 1A.

The top in chips from Day 1B is Norway's Ole-Kristian Nergard - he has 198k in chips. Former November Niner Ivan Demidov is second best from Day 1B while Surinder Sunar was 5th best in chips on Sunday.

Here are the most notable chip stacks (with 100k+ chips) as we begin Monday's play:

David Sonelin 275900
Ben Wilinofsky 233400
Alex Gomes 225900
Lucien Cohen 201500
Ole-Kristian Nergard 198200
Ivan Demidov 197800
Surinder Sunar 179200
Allen Bari 172900
Hugo Lemaire 172300
Daniel Weinman 159000
Dean Lyall 153300
Gregory Brooks 141400
William Reynolds 136800
Juan Maceiras 126000
Steven van Zadelhoff 124800
Fernando Brito 118300
Melanie Weisner 116500
Raemon Sluiter 116000
William Thorson 115200
Anthony Maranca 113600
Denys Chufarin 110000
Leo Fernandez 107400
Carter Phillips 102100
Eugene Yanayt 102000
Florian Langmann 100000


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour Madrid Grand Final
EPT Grand Final
May 7-12, 2011

Casino Gran Madrid
Madrid, ESP

Buy-in: $15,295
Prizepool: $9,833,810
Entries: 686

Defending Champion: Nicolas Chouity

POINTS AT STAKE
1st position 156
2nd position 96
3rd position 81
4th position 71
5th position 66
6th position 61
7th position 56
8th position 51
9th position 41
10th position 31
11th position 26
12-14th position 24
15-17th position 21
18-20th position 18
21-23rd position 14
24-27th position 11