Butler Leads the Pack as 45 Advance from Day 1a

Chad Holloway

Level 9 : 300/600, 75 ante

The WSOP Europe kicked off Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em on Saturday as 295 players packed the tournament room to take part in the first of two starting flights. The action was quick and by Level 9, the field had been whittled down to just 45 players—which is where action was halted. Leading that group is Ashly Butler, who emerged as the Day 1a chip leader with 48,125.

The tournament drew a plethora of pros, but many of them failed to get anything going. One such player was WSOP Player of the Year contender John Monnette, who was eliminated in the first level. It happened when a player in middle position raised to 75, Monnette moved all in for 975 right behind, and Jessica Bian made the call from the button. The original raiser got out of the way and the cards were turned up.

Showdown

Bian:

Monnette:

Monnette, who won a bracelet this, was in bad shape and in need of some help. Unfortunately for him, he would find none as the board ran out {2-Hearts} {10-Clubs} {3-Clubs} {7-Diamonds} {6-Diamonds} . On the bright side, Event #2 is a re-entry event, meaning he can try again tomorrow if he so chooses.

Others who fell on Day 1 were Vanessa Selbst, Chance Kornuth, Davidi Kitai, Marvin Rettenmaier, Michael Mizrachi, Joe Kuether, Jeff Lisandro, John Juanda, Andy Frankenberger and Jonathan Aguiar. Whether or not they’ll be back to try again remains to be seen.

While many fell, a few notables managed to make the top 45. They include Antonio Esfandiari, Ran Azor, McLean Karr, Antonin Teisseire, Konstantin Puchkov and October Nine member Greg Merson, all of whom will return at 14:00 CET for Day 2.

Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts

Player	Count
Ashly Butler	48125
Antonio Esfandiari	47275
Antonin Teisseire	43750
Jamel Haddad	41900
Ran Azor	41150
Duncan Mouche	33825
Guy Pariente	31,050
Emil Eriksson	29,825
Douglas Gray	29,600
McLean Karr	29575