We said it would take a strong Day 1B for the European Poker Tour (EPT) London Main Event to be bigger than last year’s and it happened. 444 players registered for the second starting flight, nearly doubling Day 1A’s field and bringing the total player numbers to 668, easily beating 2013’s field of 604. Topping Day 1B’s group of 247 survivors into Day 2 is Georgios Zisimopoulos with 171,500 chips.
Zisimopolous is not a household name on the live tournament circuit and though he does not have a lengthy resume, he has had some solid results. He has sixteen live cashes, all of which have come on the European Poker Tour. His biggest one came almost exactly a year ago, also at EPT London, when he finished second in a preliminary event for £26,520 ($43,000). Overall, Zisimopolous has earned $178,531 in live tourneys, according to TheHendonMob.com.
The prize pool and payout schedule have yet to be announced, but will be during today’s Day 2. Registration was open until the beginning of play today, so there may be a few more buy-ins to calculate. According to the EPT’s structure sheet, expect about 15 percent of the field to be paid, which means around the top 100 finishers will make the money. With a £4,000 buy-in (plus £250 fee) and three percent going to the tournament staff, the prize pool will end up around £2.6 million.
Some of the notable names who made it through to Day 2 were last year’s EPT London champ Robin Ylitalo (22,200 chips), Liv Boeree (102,400), Victoria Coren Mitchell (115,000), Matt Waxman (93,900), Theo Jorgensen (87,800), Stephen Chidwick (79,400), and Shannon Shorr (51,400). Ylitalo wasn’t the only former champ to survive to Tuesday; both Fredrik Jensen and Davidi Kitai also made it.
Today’s plan is to play six more 75-minute levels. Interestingly (or not, considering the total length of the day), the published schedule shows no dinner break, just two 20-minute breaks every two levels.
2014 European Poker Tour London Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
Georgios Zisimopoulos – 171,500
Leo Nordin – 169,100
Nicolas Chouity – 152,700
Bertrand Grospellier – 147,900
Pablo Gordillo – 145,000
Marco Caza – 142,400
Tom-Aksel Bedell – 125,000
Christopher Swaminathan – 121,600
Artur Koren – 117,900
Jordan Kaplan – 115,300
2014 European Poker Tour London Main Event – Overall Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Anatoly Filatov – 173,900
2. Georgios Zisimopoulos – 171,500
3. Leo Nordin – 169,100
4. Nicolas Chouity – 152,700
5. Bertrand Grospellier – 147,900
6. Pablo Gordillo – 145,000
7. Marco Caza – 142,400
8. Jose Quintas – 141,100
9. Maximos Pertsinidis – 128,600
10. Johnny Lodden – 125,800
