World Series of Poker Europe Kicks Off With a Bang

A total of 105 players made their way to the Casino at the Empire in London, England today, for the first event of the innaugural World Series of Poker Europe. This is the first of two events preliminary to the World Series of Poker Europe's main event, which begins on September 10th.

On Wednesday, before the events started, a pre-event party kicked off the festivities, with many of the players-to-be sharing cocktails and exchanging stories while anticipating the tournament to come. While the party was in full swing, a charity poker tournament took place, "Ante Up For Africa," (diligent followers of the game will recall a similar tournament before the 2007 WSOP main event in Las Vegas) directly benifiting the crisis in Africa's Darfur region. Marissa Chien emerged victorious, taking first place and a $5,000 entry into the Ante Up For Africa tournament scheduled to take place in Las Vegas. After the party's lights finally dimmed, the stage was set for the start of this first WSOP-E event.

The event brought out quite an impressive field of professionals, counting among the ranks such notable players as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Robert Williamson, III, Kirk Morrison, Jennifer Harman, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, and many, many more. In fact, the field was comprised almost entirely of professional players. Not surprising, considering that the price tag on the event amounts to more than $3,600 with current conversion rates.

Surprisingly, a few players, including well-known and highly-successful player, Barry Greenstein, pre-registered for the event but failed to show up after the cards hit the felt. Greenstein's stack was dealt to, whittled down through the course of the day's play before finally busting out with Greenstein never making an appearance.

This H.O.R.S.E. event was in many ways different from its counterpart in the U.S. World Series of Poker. Primarly, each table played at its own pace, going through precisely 8 hands of each game before moving on to the next. Each game in the U.S. World Series version of H.O.R.S.E. was assigned its own level, so all players in the event were playing the same game at the same time.

Event play took place across two floors of the casino, given that the casino's poker room itself harbored only nine tables, inadequate to accommodate the entire field. With such close quarters in the poker room, spectators were denied access. Even with elbow room in short supply, players were still afforded the luxury of presenting their shoulders to the services of the on-hand massage therapists.

Marcel Luske went down in history as the first person ever to bust out of a World Series of Poker Europe event, with Gus Hansen having the honor of sending him on his way. In a hand of 7-Card Stud, Marcel found (Ah Jh) 5h, against Hansen, who showed a 2d for the up-card. When the hand was said and done, Luske made only two pair, while Gus picked up a queen-high flush and released Luske from further play.

As play drew to a close, the original field of 105 had been sliced to less than half of its original size, with only 51 players remaining.

Two-time World Series of Poker main event winner and undisputed poker legend, Doyle Brunson, after struggling with jet-lag and a cold deck, made his exit before play ended for the day, as did the other Brunson, Todd. Other notable professionals who won't be seeing day two include Ted Forrest, Andy Bloch, Humberto Brenes, Michael Binger, and even Phil Hellmuth.

This event is a historic one for the World Series of Poker, as it marks the first occasion for a WSOP bracelet to be awarded outside of either Binion's or the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The combined entries to the event generated a prize pool of just over $350,000. First place will take home $96,929. Only the top 16 players will be rewarded for their time.

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