After Day 1b play of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event paused for the evening, 3 prominent Canadian names are sitting in great shape when the remaining 230 players of the 430 player starting field return for Day 2.

Daniel Negreanu, Timothy Adams and Philippe Boucher all closed out their Day 1 starting field sitting in the 3rd, 4th and 8th top chip counts respectively and all 3 already own at least one WSOP or WSOPE bracelet . With the 2 Day 1s now merging for Day 2, Negreanu sits in 8th overall, with Adams right behind him. Ontario’s Nghi Van Tran, also known as ”Henry” Tran is also on a tear, having finished the Day in 8th after 1a, while some other fan favorites lead the charge; Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi sits atop the pack with current Global Poker Index points leader Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier trailing close.It seems the majority of the chips are ending up in experienced hands as we should expect, making for what should be some exciting poker as the remaining players fight it out for 48 payout spots and a more than €1,022,000 top prize, WSOPE Main Event title and bracelet.
To add a little more fun and up the ante for those still in the final 2012 WSOP Player Of the Year event, Phil Hellmuth and Antonio Esfandiari are also sitting on chips; everybody is going to want to finish this one out as strong as possible after already impressive performances over the year as the race is also tight in other other POY rankings, including the GPI.
Mizrachi and Hellmuth are also looking for their second bracelet of the year, after “The Grinder” won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for the 2nd time and Hellmuth won his record setting 12th this past summer at WSOP; both are sitting fairly close to Antonio in the POY standings and will be fighting to narrow the gap further.
Antonio looks to have things all locked up however, after Esfandiari won his second bracelet of 2012 at the WSOPE already to put the proverbial icing on the $18,000,000 cake after his One Drop win.
We all know the tables can turn quickly in poker though and with miles to go until the final table; we’ll just have to sit back and watch things unfold…
Good Luck to them all!