An action-packed first flight of the €1,100 FPS Main Event as part of PokerStars EPT presented by Monte-Carlo Casino? wrapped up early Thursday morning as 63 players out of 420 entrants advanced to Day 2. Leading the pack is Spain's Adrian Chabbi with 513,000, while Germany's Leon Sturm and France's Francois Vincenti are not far behind with respective stacks of 438,000 and 406,000.
Also in the top 10 end-of-day chip counts are Norway's Jon Kyte (339,000) and the United Kingdom's Conor Beresford (314,000), who brought the day to an end when he eliminated Mathieu His on the stone money bubble.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT | BIG BLINDS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adrian Chabbi | Spain | 513,000 | 103 | |
| 2 | Leon Sturm | Germany | 438,000 | 88 | |
| 3 | Francois Vincenti | France | 406,000 | 81 | |
| 4 | Rachid El Yaacoubi | France | 373,000 | 75 | |
| 5 | Jon Kyte | Norway | 339,000 | 68 | |
| 6 | Tomas Kolarik | Czech Republic | 336,000 | 67 | |
| 7 | Ken Okada | Japan | 332,000 | 66 | |
| 8 | Dario Cannistra | Italy | 327,000 | 65 | |
| 9 | Conor Beresford | United Kingdom | 314,000 | 63 | |
| 10 | Mathias Bayer | Germany | 314,000 | 63 |
Benjamin Spragg is also among the players who will return on Day 2 after the PokerStars ambassador bagged a decent stack of 253,000 worth 51 big blinds. Marle Spragg and fellow PokerStars pro Parker Talbot were both in the Day 1a field as well but neither was able to make it to bag-and-tag time.
Other notables who found bags include Tom Orpaz, Jason Wheeler, Jessica Teusl, Antoine Saout, Ana Marquez and Vicente Delgado, all of whom will return for Day 2 on April 28.
But there are still two more flights (not including the currently underway Day 1b) that will take place on April 27 and will follow similar structures to today's flights. Day 1c will kick off at 11 a.m. local time, while the turbo Day 1d will get underway at 6 p.m.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here on the Monaco coast and will be back tomorrow to provide updates on the FPS action.
