World Series of Poker Europe Begins

The World Series of Poker Europe has kicked off in London, England, beginning with the first tournament of the Series: a £2,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event.

At the end of the first day of play, Andrew Pantling finds himself on the top of the leaderboard, having amassed 106,100 chips.. Close behind him are two other players who have surpassed the 100,000 chip mark, Chis Bjorin and Tai Tran.

In total, 31 players are still alive in the first event. Several notable players are still alive and fighting to win the opening event of the WSOPE, including Liv Boeree, Phil Laak and Jefffrey Lisandro. Boeree and Laak are coming off of cashes in the recently completed English Poker Open.

This year’s World Series of Poker Europe is taking place in London’s Empire Casino, and is comprised of five events. The two biggest events are the No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up Event, and of course, the No Limit Hold’em Championship Event, each of which have buy-ins of £10,000. The Championship Event begins on September 23, and will finish play on the 28^th.

The World Series of Poker Europe began play in 2007, making this the fourth iteration of this event. Generally, the WSOPE events are marked by smaller fields than their World Series of Poker counterparts, with a higher density of professional players. The first World Series of Poker Europe was especially notable as the emergence of Annette Obrestad in live poker, as she won the first WSOPE Main Event. John Juanda and Barry Shulman have also won WSOPE Main Event titles.

The entire schedule for the World Series of Poker Europe is as follows:

Event #1 – September 14 (3-day event) – £2,500 Six Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Event #2 – September 16 (3-day event) – £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

Event #3 – September 17 (5-day event) – £1,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Event #4 – September 21 (3-day event) – £10,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up

Event #5 – September 23 (6-day event) – £10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship

We’ll have complete coverage of all five bracelet events over the next two weeks!