With attendance down at tournaments across the world there have been a handful of events that have managed to hold steady, and one of those tournaments is the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Berlin, Germany. The tournament’s largest turnout occurred in the robbery-plagued 2010 running of the tournament (the first time the tournament was held in Berlin after Dortmund hosted the first three EPT events in Germany) when 945 players registered. After a drop-off in 2011 and 2012, where attendance dropped below 800, the EPT Berlin rebounded this year, attracting 912 players.

Of the 912 entrants in the EPT Berlin Main Event, a total of 407 players punched their tickets to Day 2 set to begin at noon local time on Tuesday.

EPT events in Germany also have a habit of crowning well-known champions. Of the six EPT events held in Germany all have been won by “name” players:

* Season 3 (Dortmund): Andreas Høivold — €672,000

* Season 4 (Dortmund): Mike McDonald — €933,600

* Season 5 (Dortmund): Sandra Naujoks — €917,000

* Season 6 (Berlin): Kevin MacPhee — €1,000,000

* Season 7 (Berlin): Ben Wilinofsky — €825,000

* Season 8 (Berlin): Davidi Kitai — €712,000

This year may see yet another name-player win the tournament, considering the slew of talented players that have made it through to Day 2 of the tournament, with names like Sorel Mizzi, Mike Mizrachi, and Sam Grafton among the chip-leaders heading into Day 2. Remarkably, Mizrachi is only in Berlin to see his brother DJ at a local club, and this marks only his third EPT event according to an interview he did with PokerNews.com’s Sarah Grant.

Here is a look at the Top 10 Chip-Counts from both Day 1a and Day 1b of the tournament:

Day 1a chip-leaders:

1. Ronny Voth – 196,100

2. Mike Kunze – 188,000

3. Thomas Richter – 176,100

4. Sebastian Trisch – 173,500

5. Giuseppe Vassallo – 169,300

6. Yakov Onuchin – 168,600

7. Pal Koppegodt – 165,200

8. Artur Rudziankov – 162,500

9. Marc Witt – 155,800

10. Theodoros Aidonopoulos – 143,100

Day 1b chip-leaders:

1. Ronny Voth – 196,100

2. Mike Kunze – 188,000

3. Thomas Richter – 176,100

4. Michael Mizrachi – 175,400

5. Sebastian Trisch – 173,500

6. Robin Ylitalo – 172,800

7. Giuseppe Vassallo – 169,300

8. Yakov Onuchin – 168,600

9. Pal Koppegodt – 165,200

10. Rameev Sergey – 163,100

And here is a look at the final table payouts from the tournament:

* 1st place; €880,000

* 2nd place: €531,000

* 3rd place: €325,000

* 4th place: €255,000

* 5th place: €202,200

* 6th place: €155,000

* 7th place: €110,000

* 8th place: €77,000

*Resources: www.wikipedia.org, www.europeanpokertour.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 at 8:33 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.