English Poker Open Chip Counts, Million Dollar Cash Game in London

Romanello Tops Day 1 of English Poker Open
213 players, including Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, James Akenhead, the Devilfish and the Hendon Mob, sat down yesterday for day one of the English Poker Open at Dusk Till Dawn. The biggest event ever at the club met its $1 million guarantee and now 58 players return today to fight for the first prize of £208,367. A lot of big names fell by the wayside, although the Devilfish came out of the traps and amassed a big stack quickly, only to take a massive hit close to the end of the day. Other big names left in the field include Joe Beevers, Stuart Fox, Jon Kalmar and Liv Boeree, but your overnight chip leader with a massive 116500 is none other than

the fast talking Roberto Romanello. Praz Bansi also managed to make it into the top ten chip counts despite nursing a short stack for most of the day.

The whole festival so far has been the perfect introduction to the busiest month of the UK poker calendar. There has been a very well spirited and comedy feel to the whole event, and players have had a chance to have their pictures taken with Doyle, Hellmuth and Queen & Tony Blair lookalikes have been doing the rounds (The latter didn't go over so great but made for some comedy pictures).

The players return for day 2 today and the final table takes place tomorrow. Stay tuned to UK Pokernews for all the news from this huge event.

Top ten chip counts
Roberto Romanello 116500
Eric Liu 112100
Micheal Tureniec 88400
John Eames 81200
David Dean 66500
Robert Price 66200
Sean Roberts 64300
David La Ronde 57900
Thor Drexel 56900
Luke Abolins 52300
Pramesh Bansi 51200
Picture courtesy of the English Poker Open

Million Dollar Cash Game Today

Thats not the only huge event taking place today, as the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game takes place today in London. The ultra high stakes game features a host of Full Tilt pros including Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, as well as Tom 'durrrr' Dwan.

In 2007 this show produced the biggest ever televised pot at the time, $807,400 won by Phil Ivey. In the usual odd fashion that is taking place in these TV cash tournaments, a trophy will be awarded to the player who has made the most profit at the end of the session like it did yesterday with Sammy George in the European Cash Game. The show will be broadcast on SkySports early next year.

News Categories