The World Series of Poker may be starting in a couple weeks, but that doesn’t bother the World Poker Tour, as it is stringing together tournament after tournament after tournament. Just days after the WPT World Championship brought Season XIII to a conclusion, the WPT Canadian Spring Championship kicked off Season XIV. And now, just days after that, we have WPT Amsterdam to keep things rolling. Day 1A of the WPT Amsterdam Main Event was held at the Holland Casino Amsterdam on Sunday; 130 players signed up and Sweden’s Fredrik Andersson leads the 54 survivors into Day 2 with 228,100 chips, making him the only player to amass more than 200,000.
The WPT Amsterdam Main Event is a €3,000 + €300 buy-in tournament with two starting flights; Day 1B is currently underway. It is a re-entry event as many World Poker Tour events are nowadays, allowing players to re-buy once during each of the two starting days if they bust out. Levels will only be 60 minutes each, shrinking to 30 minutes when the tournament is heads-up later this week.
Despite being a relatively small first day, a number of notable players made it through to Wednesday’s action including Noah Boeken (second in chips with 195,200), 2014 WSOP Main Event runner-up Felix Stephenson (114,400), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (86,600), WPT Amsterdam High Roller Event winner Jason Wheeler (92,800), High Roller Event runner-up Jack Salter (56,100), and WPT Season XIII Player of the Year Anthony Zinno (47,700).
Some recognizable names who were unable to proceed (though may still re-enter) are Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Dan Heimiller, Bryn Kenney, and Dominik Nitsche.
After today’s Day 1B, Day 2 will begin tomorrow at 2:00pm local time. There will be two more tournament days on Thursday and Friday before the official final table commences on Saturday.
This is the first time the World Poker Tour has ever made a stop in Amsterdam. Despite it being called the “World” Poker Tour, there were a couple seasons in the post-UIGEA lull in which the Tour almost ignored the “World” part of the title completely and stayed mostly in the United States. Over the last few years, the Tour has once again expanded and while much of it is still played in the U.S. (after all, there are a number of excellent venues in the country), it is very much an international poker tour once again. WPT Amsterdam is the first European stop on the WPT for this season.
2015 World Poker Tour Amsterdam Main Event – Day 1A Chip Leaders
1. Fredrik Andersson – 228,100
2. Noah Boeken – 195,200
3. Muntathar Albadawi – 189,700
4. Erik van den Berg – 147,400
5. Cor Janssen – 143,000
6. Barrie Pietersz – 133,100
7. Sandro Pitzanti – 124,400
8. Jeno Marton – 121,800
9. Ivan Sakharov – 119,800
10. Felix Stephensen – 114,400
