The European Poker Tour (EPT) is in the stretch run of its first-ever trip to Greece with a stop in the east coast resort city of Loutraki, formerly the ancient city of Thermae. The Main Event kicked off this week, with the second of two starting days concluding Wednesday. The €4,400 tournament saw 336 runners enter, accounting for just over half the maximum capacity, with 145 playing Tuesday and 191 playing Wednesday. Going into Thursday’s Day 2, 238 players remain and with 159,150 chips, Germany’s Mario Puccini leads the way.
If Puccini would have called it a day early, he wouldn’t be in the position he is now. On the second to last hand of Day 1B, Pedro Paizuelo moved all-in with A-Q and Puccini woke up with pocket Kings. Easy call, easy win (well, as far as easy poker wins go what with all the nervous anticipation and suckouts and all of that).
Puccini has a rather modest live tournament history, with $197,167 in career earnings. His biggest cash came in 2009 when he finished 3rd in the €2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at EPT Dortmund for €42,000 ($53,109). His second best cash also came on the European Poker Tour in last year’s EPT San Remo Main Event (32nd for €26,000/$35,325). This summer, Puccini scored two cashes at the World Series of Poker.
EPT Loutraki is about as international of a poker tour stop as one will see outside of the World Series of Poker. A total of 38 nations are represented with, as one would guess, Greece providing the most players, comprising 31 percent of the field. Bulgaria is next at 9 percent, followed by the United States at 6 percent, and Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany at 5 percent.
Looking at the rosters of the 26 remaining nine-handed tables, there are none that look particularly daunting when it comes to gigantic chip stacks coming together, as all of the six-figure stacks have been spread across the poker room. One table, though, looks like it will be extremely competitive, as it has a very narrow spread between the largest and smallest stacks. At Table 24, five of the nine players have stacks in the 50,000’s and two are in the 40,000’s. The largest stack is 62,325, while the smallest is 38,150.
Play will pick up on Thursday at noon local time as the surviving players from Days 1A and 1B come together in a single field for Day 2.
European Poker Tour Loutraki – End of Combined Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Mario Puccini – 159,150
2. Toni Judet – 143,500
3. Julian Herold – 138,425
4. Jonian Antoni – 124,425
5. Grudi Grudev – 117,200
6. Christos Ntikos – 116,250
7. Georgios Zisimopoulos – 113,175
8. Vitalijs Zavorotnijs – 104,900
9. McLean Karr – 103,100
10. Roman Makhlin – 102,100
