EPT Grand Final 2012 - Superstars at the Most Expensive European Tournament

Dealing started on 23rd April at the EPT Grand Final. The €100,000 buy-in is pretty unique: no tournament has ever had a buy-in this high in Europe. 38 players registered, but because of the re-entry format, 43 buy-ins were purchased. Payouts has not yet been made public, as players will still have the chance to re-buy at the beginning of day 2.

It is no surprise that most of the poker elite is here, fighting for the prize, including the likes of Phil Ivey, Daniel "jungleman12" Cates, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, Isaac Haxton, Sam Trickett, Jason Mercier, Gus Hansen, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Tom Marchese, Eugene Katchalov and Scott Seiver. What does dazzle us is that the one actually leading after day 1 is amateur player and businessman Talal Shakerchi.

Shakerchi can thank the biggest part of his huge stack to a hand played close to the end of the day. Viktor Blom opened to 10,000 from UTG, Shakerchi and Tom Marchese called. The flop came 8 3 2. Blom checked, Shakerchi bet to 17,000, Marchese folded, but Blom check-raised to 68,000. Shakerchi called, and the turn was a 5. Blom opened to 108,000, which, after a short pause of thinking, got called by Shakerchi. The river was a 6. This time Blom bet 140,000. Shakerchi went all-in. Blom called. Shakerchi showed the nut flush with A 4. Blom's Q Q was obviously not enough to win this hand.

Other players that got eliminated included Sam Trickett, Mike McDonald, Gus Hansen, Jason Mercier and Daniel Cates. As we have mentioned, we might still see them, as they have the opportunity to re-enter at the start of day 2.

So, at the end of the first day, Shakerchi is leading the field with 1,165,000 in chips, followed by Jonathan Duhamel (779,000) and Dan Shak (670,000). 29 players have advanced to day 2, which means that the average stack size is 370,690 at the moment.