Mizrachi Emerges as Day 1a Chip Leader; Ivey, O'Dwyer & Alvarado Punch Ticket to Day 2
The 2012 World Series of Poker Europe Event #7 €10,450 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event kicked off on Saturday as 215 players took to the felt in the first of two starting flights. After six 90-minute levels of play, the field had been reduced to 115 with Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and his stack of 234,850 leading the way.
It didn’t take long for things to heat up at the Majestic Barrière in Cannes, France; in fact, in Level 1 there was a hand that had the whole tournament floor talking. "It's nuts, nuts and a flush draw," Jean-Robert Bellande said from a nearby table. "Two guys have the nuts and one has top pair and a flush draw... with one to come."
The board read 
and three hands were face up on the felt. Henry Tran held the 
for top pair with a flush draw; Erik Cajelais held the 
for a turned nut straight; and Brandon Barnes held the 
for the same turned straight. "Club!" yelled Tran before the put out the
. Cajelais was not happy at all, and he got up from his chair and quickly stormed out of the room while Barnes left more quietly. Tran had them both covered and has catapulted to over 90,000, which carried him to the end of the night where he bagged up 118,750.
Another big hand happened early on and set the stage for Mizrachi. Shortly after taking his seat, we came upon a Mizrachi hand with 23,000 already pulled into the middle with a board reading 
. The Grinder had his remaining chips in front of him, and Konstantinos Mamaliadis made the call.
Mamaliadis: 
Mizrachi: 
Mizrachi was in the lead with a turned two pair, which held when the blanked on the river. With that, Mizrachi doubled to 56,000 and never looked back.
Not everyone was as fortunate as Mizrachi. Among those to hit the rail on Day 1a were Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Nam Le, Tobias Reinkemeier, Fabrice Soulier, Victor Ramdin, Jennifer Tilly, Will Failla, Chris Moorman, Jeff Lisandro, Frank Kassela and Vanessa Selbst.
With that said, quite a few notables managed to punch their ticket to Day 2 including JC Alvarado (180,675), Sergil Baranov (152,000), Martial Blangenwitsch (129,800), Dan Shak (100,875), Philipp Gruissem (90,500), Steve O’Dwyer (89,000), Prosper Masquelier (70,450), Matt Stout (61,650) and Phil Ivey (55,000), just to name a few.
Day 1b action is set to kick off at 12:00 CET on Saturday, so be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations from the second starting flight of the 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event.