Day 1b, of the PokerStars European Poker Tour London main event needed to attract 339 players to best its impressive Day 1a start.  It didn’t.  Instead Day 1b attracted 509, breaking an English poker tournament record in the process, and building a total prize pool of £4,112,800- or around $6.5 million US.

128 of the 848 person field will earn a cut of that pool, with the most successful of them earning an impressive £900,000 first prize- 180 times the £5,000 they bought in for (not including the £250 tournament entry fee).

Despite the near chaos of 509 players squeezing into the Hilton MetroPole to start an event, organizers ultimately were still able to make things run relatively smoothly, and by the end of Day 1b’s play about 266 players had been sent packing including Jason Mercier, J.C. Tran, Dennis Phillips, Scott Seiver, David Williams, Ville Wahlbeck and David Benyamine.

Notable surviving players from the day included Liv Boeree, Jeffrey Lisandro, Annette Obrestad, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem and PokerRoad’s Phil Ivey, with the distinction of chip leader going to Claudio Cecchi, with nearly 240,000 in tournament chips in his bag by the end of the night.

For more information on Day 1b of the PokerStars EPT London main event, or to read about Day 2 which has already begun as of this writing, and sadly ended, for over 100 of the nearly 390 Day 1 survivors, visit www.pokerstarsblog.com.