The World Poker Tour’s Main Event at Merit Cyprusfinished on the 5^th of August. The classic main event saw some massive winnings with quite a large player field. By the end of the event only 65 players were remaining with their eyes on the prize.

Details of the event

By the time registration was completed for this event, a total of 164 players had paid $4,400 for 30,000 chips and for the opportunity to be the World Poker Tour champion. The tournament director, Matt Savage was monitoring the event and when he called time up there were just 65 players left, so 99 players has lost the race for the World Poker Tour title.

The end-of-day chip leader was won by David ‘Chino’ Rheem, a player with a stack comprising of 291,500 chips. Rheem is reputed in the poker industry, especially because he made it to the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event back in 2008.  Rheem won WTP’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic in the same year and recently walked out as the winner in Epic Poker Leagues inaugural Main Event.

Rheem is a chatty player by nature and also exhibits great poker skills. Throughout the day he played well by cracking pocket aces and poker jacks.

Other players at the event   

Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi played exceedingly well from the time he started and soon had chips worth more than 120,000. He slowed his pace a little towards the second half of the day but still managed to finish with a stack of 54,300, which is quite decent.

Other players who were performing well included Husnu Sincar (247,500), Giuseppe Pantaleo (191,300) and Sam El Sayed (241,300).  All these players crossed the 200,000 barrier during the last few levels in the day. Dominik Nitsche a WSOP bracelet winner was also a notable player in the field.

The 65 players who survived day 1b will be converged with players who were still standing at the end of day 1a. So in total 132 players competed on Monday, the 6^th of August.

About the World Poker Tour

The World Poker Tour consists of a series of poker tournaments that are international. The tour was started by Steven Lipscomb an attorney in theUnited Stateswho was also the CEO of WPT Enterprises, the firm that managed the World Poker Tour until 2009.

The tour debuted towards the end of 2002 atLas Vegas’ Bellagio inNevada. The main attraction about this tour is the buy-in, which can range between $2,500 and $25,000. In 2008, ClubWTP was launched where players can pay and participate every month in tournaments that can win them up to a whopping $100,000.

WPT has a television show that runs all year round and builds on the WSOP’s annual broadcast. The television show has greatly contributed to the Poker boom in the States. Casino sites and poker sites mainly sponsor the WPT.