2011 PokerStars.com EPT London

Day 1b of the 2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Poker Festival Main Event is in the books after the second and final starting flight completed their first eight levels of play. It looks to be Benny Spindler leading the way in this pack with 160,800 in chips at day's end. There also looks to be around 260 players moving on from this flight of 411 players, but all of that information won't be verified until we receive the chip counts later tonight. Once we do, we'll post them.

Although last year's record of 848 players wasn't broken, 691 for this year isn't a bad number at all. Packed into the field today were plenty of big names including Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Mercier, Joe Hachem, Angel Guillen, Victor Ramdin and David Williams. Negreanu and Selbst were eliminated on the day, while the other players named will be moving on. Mercier wrapped up the day with 99,200 in chips and wrote on his bag "Future EPT London Champion". Whether or not that means this year is still yet to be determined.

Other notable eliminations that occurred on Day 1b included Ross Boatman, Bill Chen, Eddy Sabat, Jean-Robert Bellande, Daniel Cates, Liv Boeree, Nicolas Levi, Bertrand Grospellier and Leo Fernandez.

Some of those moving on with some heavy chip bags are Raj Vohra (156,600), Steven Warburton (142,300), Martins Adeniya (132,500), Sorel Mizzi (129,100), Justin Bonomo (126,100) and Wade Townsend (119,800).

Day 2 will commence tomorrow at noon where the remaining players from both starting flights will combine. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the live coverage starting then!

The four hands at each table are complete and the players are bagging and tagging for the night. We'll have a complete recap coming for you shortly.

Let it be known that when Jason Mercier was filling out the information on his bag, he wrote his name followed by "Future EPT London Champion".

The tournament staff has just announced that each table will play four more hands before bagging and tagging for the night.

From middle position, Dan Kelly raised to 1,300. Pat Pezzin called from the hijack seat, Stephane Benadiba called from the button and the player in the big blind also called.

The flop came down paired with the falling. Action checked to Kelly and he bet 1,750. That was good enough to take it down and he chipped up to 54,000 in chips.

From under the gun, Tristan Wade raised to 1,200. He was called by the two blinds, Marco Leonzio from the small blind and Kambiz Kashi from the big blind. The three of them saw the flop come down and action checked to Wade. He bet 2,000 and only Leonzio called.

The turn was the and both players checked before the landed on the river. Both Leonzio and Wade checked again.

Leonzio showed the for a flush and Wade mucked his hand.

From the cutoff seat, Dan Shak raised to 1,500 and James Orme called from the button. In the big blind, Vicky Coren reraised to 6,500. Shak thought about it and then folded. Orme also folded and Coren won the pot.

Matt Perrins raised from early position to 1,075 and Charles-Etienne Gagnon called from the hijack seat. In the cutoff seat, Craig McCorkell called. Mike Vesia called from the small blind and Jozef Hancin Hentz called from the big blind.

The five players took the flop of and action checked to McCorkell. He bet 1,725 and then play folded around to Gagnon. He put in a raise to 20,025 and much of the table looked around at each other scratching their heads. After about two minutes of tanking, McCorkell moved all in for around 35,000. Gagnon quickly folded and now the table was scratching holes into their heads.

After a few seconds went by, the table started chatting and Gagnon soon realized he had raised to 20,025 and not 4,025. He removed his sunglasses, which have dark lenses, leaned back in his chair and shook his head.