Just under 350 players bought in to the first of two Day 1s today with unheralded local Ronny Voth (196,100) emerging as the chip leader followed closely by fellow German Mike Kunze (188,000).
Hovering in/near the top 10 however are two other German names who might ring a bit more of a bell.
Young gun Dominik Nitsche - a WSOP and WPT title holder along with his millions won online - had an excellent day himself to bag up 137,500 while EPT Deauville and WPT Bellagio Cup champ Moritz Kranich also cracked the 100k mark at 111,500.
Marc-Andre Ladouceur (98,000), Marcin Horecki (89,400), Barny Boatman (72,700) and Scott Seiver (70,100) were a few more notables to bag up decent stacks while Rory Mathews (34,000), Zimnan Ziyard (33,500), Max Lykov (32,700), Liv Boeree (18,100) and Elisabeth Hille (16,600) managed to survive the day.
The top 10 in chips after Day 1a:
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 Artur Rudziankov 162,500 8 Jose Carlos Garcia 150,000 9 Dominik Nitsche 137,500 10 Sotirios Koutoupas 128,100For more on today's action, check the PokerStars Blog. Day 1b action starts at 12 pm local time tomorrow (6 am ET) with live streaming of the feature table available right here on PokerListings.com.
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