Berlin Becomes Largest WPTDeepStacks Outside of North America

A huge turn out of 356 entries boosted the total number of entrants in WPTDeepStacks Berlin to 561, and in doing so set a record for the largest WPTDeepStacks event ever held outside of North America, beating the 433 set in Marrakech last year.

The bumper field helped Elias Sahlman secure the overall chip lead, with around 239,300 in chips. Close behind him is Artan Dedusha with 231,600.

Several former champions bagged up stacks today, with WPTDS Marrakech champion Smain Mamouni (66,600) and WPTDS Brussels champion Laurent Polito (63,000) advancing to Day 2. Sadly, WPTDS Portugal champion Francisco Lopes, Player of the Year leader Tobias Peters and second-place Omar Lakhdari failed to advance. WPTDS Brussels runner-up Sandro Pitzanti was eliminated yesterday, but re-entered and had a better day today and now looks set to join the other players in Day 2, despite bagging only 24,700.

The day started slowly, with Peters and 888poker Sponsored Pro Natalie Hof among the early faces in the field. Hof folded Kings pre-flop early in the day, with two other opponents showing Aces and Queens respectively. However, there was a king on the turn which would have seen Hof scoop a huge pot. Paul Newey was also back after an unsuccessful Day 1a.

Registration closed with 561 players entering WPTDeepStacks Berlin, a record for a WPTDeepStacks event held outside of North America. Dominik Nitsche joined fellow 888poker Sponsored Pro Natalie Hof in the field, but unfortunately both of them were eliminated against an opponents holding pocket nines. Hof lost a flip with Ace-King, where here opponent hit backdoor quads while Nitsche looked set for a double with pocket queens against the pesky nines, only for his opponent to river a nine.

Plenty of names, story lines and future headlines lay ahead on Day 2 of the WPTDeepStacks Berlin, so join us tomorrow from 2pm local time for all the action from the Spielbank Casino in Berlin.