WSOP Europe / Dave Allan / 27 September 2009 / Leave a comment

156 players took their seats for Day 1a of the WSOPE main event yesterday. The big guns were out in force with Joe Beevers, John Kabbaj, Marc Goodwin and Doyle Brunson all finishing the day well in contention but it was Brian Powell who topped the chip counts late last night after an impressive opening day.

The list of 79 players that remain from Day 1a reads like a who's who of world poker. Some household names are clinging on to their tournament lives though. Both Phil Hellmuth and Erik Seidel are short stacked along with British poker babe Vicky Coren. Mike Matusow, Todd Brunson and Andy Black are relatively comfortable at this stage in the middle of the pack.

One man who won't be winning the main event this year is "November Niner" Phil Ivey. Ivey suffered a yo-yoing stack for the majority of the day before succumbing, in the early evening, to Erik Friberg. Friberg managed to hit a flush against the Straight of Ivey. All the chips went in the middle and one of the favourites for the WSOPE main event was gone. One of Ivey's great high stakes rivals Patrick Antonius was also eliminated shortly afterwards. Antonius fell victim to a raggy looking A6, which made two pairs, versus his AQ.

Other notable absentees for Day 2 will be Ben Grundy, Roland De Wolfe, Hoyt Corkins, Huck Seed and Chris Moorman. All of whom had to swallow a bitter £10,000 pill in London yesterday.

The top ten players and their chip counts from Day 1a are:

Brian Powell - 194600
Jason Mercier - 189725
Jonathan Aguiar - 156400
Viktor Blom - 150000
Tommy Pavlicek - 149625
Sami Kelopuro - 142000
Martin Hansen - 135000
Alex Wice - 129800
Sandor Demjan - 120000
Peter Gould - 110000

Players for Day 1b take their seats at The Casino at Empire in London's Leicester Square this afternoon. Who will in the running for the illustrious 2009 WSOPE main event bracelet? Stay with us and find out! In the meantime check out our WSOPE LIVE UPDATES AND CHIP COUNTS page.