The complaints from players over the past week have been noticeably few and far between; this event seems remarkably worn-in and comfortable for the first go-round.
There is, however, one issue that keeps popping up on these Day 1s.
Each player began the day with both T100 and T5,000 chips in their starting stack, and the two chips are extremely close to each other in color. Check out the picture, and you'll see how Nicolas Levi nearly raised to 5,400 by accident. And apparently, these black-ish T5,000 chips are a replacement for the original ones -- and those were even more similar in color to the flat-black T100 chips.
In some of the other events, the staff went ahead and colored the T5,000s out of play so that there wouldn't be any confusion. They're discussing that solution again as we speak.
Here's a look at one of the tables in the room, complete with three players that have been or are World Series of Poker November Niners. Matt Giannetti and Phil Collins are at the WSOP final table this year. They're joined by reigning champion and 2010 November Niner Jonathan Duhamel. Maybe they'll look for some tips from Duhamel, we'll see.
Tournament Director Jack Effel has really been brushing up on his French. He's just given the starting command to the dealers, adding, "Bon chance tout le monde!"
"Good luck, everyone!" Day 1 of the Mixed-Max is a go! There are about 65 players registered so far, but the window will remain open until the start of Level 5. Each table is beginning the day eight-handed, and the nine seats are being filled in with latecomers as they arrive.
Welcome back to the amazing city of Cannes for the start of another event here at the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe!
Today's new event is a very new event, the inaugural €10,000+400 Split-Format No-Limit Hold'em -- or "Mixed-Max" as it's come to be known amongst the players. Today's Day 1 will see the first eight levels dealt as a regular old freeze-out, but the tables will be shrunken to six-max for tomorrow's Day 2. That will set the final bracket for the run to the bracelet, and Days 3 and 4 will be played entirely heads up.
About 50 players have put up the requisite €10,000 so far, and we expect to see that number rise significantly as the day progresses. Jason Mercier has already made his way into the tournament area, and we also have eyes on the likes of Dan Fleyshman, Marco Traniello, Freddy Deeb, Dan Smith, Jon Aguiar, Justin Bonomo, Daniel Negreanu, and Isaac Haxton.
We're scheduled to get under way in just about 20 minutes time from the picturesque Majestic Barrière. We'll be back to give you the story once the cards go in the air.
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