World Series of Poker Europe Day 2 begins today

Overnight chip leader is James “Worzel” Mitchell, who managed to take a massive pot from John Racener in the dying minutes of the sixth ninety minute blind level to boost his stack to just under 180,000. However, Antonio Esfandiari and November Niner John Dolan also built up huge stacks to compete with Mitchell and the chip leaders from Day 1a; Nicolas Levi and Adam Fletcher.

This year, 346 players attained a £10,350 entry fee through stakes, satellites or just being rich and good at poker (the latter often leads to the former). This included a record-breaking Day 1b that saw 210 players put up the dough; 119 survived to rejoin Day 2 which begins at noon today.
One player we were following keenly was Viktor Blom, who showed up at the last minute (literally, there were 48 seconds left to register when he did) and proceed to lose half of his stack before the man almost certainly known to be Isildur1 built it back up and even took the chip lead at one point. He wound up with around 90,000 but since we return with 300/600/75 blinds and an average stack of 52,700 he won’t be complaining.


Defending champion Barry Shulman also did well throughout the day, building up a stack of (as he told us in the last hand) “about 86 thou’”. Another one to watch on Day 2 is none other than Phil Ivey, who finished the day with almost six figures despite a shaky start. Fellow Full Tilt Pro Eli Elezra also snuck into the six-figure stack bracket.

James Mitchell is leading by example – there are plenty of British contenders in the field including Roland DeWolfe, Chris Moorman, Liv Boeree, JP Kelly, Praz Bansi, Neil Channing. They will join
fellow UK pros Joe Beevers, Ross and Barny Boatman, and Sam Trickett for Day 2 today.

And, of course, we have the prize pool – a hefty £3,460,000 with a first prize of £830,401. Each of the 36 players who cash will receive £21,106 with the final tablers making at least £69,574 and seven players earning six figures. Join us later today for all the news and events at Day 2 of the WSOPE Main Event and remember that we’re the only UK poker magazine providing live coverage.