It is quite an uncommon occurrence for the tournament chip leader on Day 1 to walk away with the title, but Luigi Viscomi has a realistic chance of beating the statistics and doing just that. Why? Because on Day 1c of the £1 million guaranteed 2014 partypoker WPT500 UK he turned his 30,000 starting stack into 522,000 and is by far the biggest stack in the tournament.
On Day 1b, Simon Higgins claimed the overall chip lead when he ended the night with 330,400 chips and to be honest nobody thought that impressive total would be matched. However, Viscomi more than matched it, he obliterated it and when he returns to Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) on Saturday for Day 2 of this amazing event, he will do so with almost 200,000 more chips than Higgins!
Viscomi is no stranger to success at DTD. In April 2014, Viscomi bested a 2,586-strong field in the DTD Grand Prix to collect £25,000 – his largest live tournament cash to date. Should Viscomi repeat history and outlast another bumper field, the prize money he will win will eclipse that princely sum.
Joining Viscomi from the Day 1c field are players such as Paul King (209,500), Yiannis Liperis (197,000), the taleted youngster Leo McClean (143,000), John Conroy (129,000) and Chris Sly (89,000). In total, 32 of the 116 entries made it through from Day 1c.
2014 partypoker WPT500 UK Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luigi Viscomi | 522,000 |
| 2 | Paul King | 209,500 |
| 3 | Yiannis Liperis | 197,000 |
| 4 | Rahim Tadj-Saadat | 191,000 |
| 5 | Robert Davies | 154,000 |
| 6 | Barkatul Mohammed | 144,000 |
| 7 | Leo McClean | 143,000 |
| 8 | Mario Sanchez Cano | 130,000 |
| 9 | John Conroy | 129,000 |
| 10 | Philip Steer | 123,000 |
While Viscomi flourished, two of the United Kingdom’s brightest stars failed to progress to Day 2 at the first attempt. “Lil Dave” David Nicholson and former European Poker Tour Barcelona champion Tom Middleton made the trip to Nottingham from Leeds and busted during Day 1c proceedings, but will no doubt take another bite of the cherry on one, possibly more, of the remaining starting flights.
If you’re heading to DTD this week, keep an eye out for Royal Flush Girl Dalia Gutierrez and the partypoker girls who are selling raffle tickets for £5 each. All proceeds go to the fantastic charity Emmanuel House and the draw takes place on November 22 and is done by the legend that is Mike Sexton!
Prizes include:
- An eight course meal for four at Benihana
- A Manchester United shirt signed by Robin Van Persie
- A Sony Blue-Ray 3D Player
- Tickets to a Manchester United match
- 12 months subscription to WPT and Bluff Europe Magazine
Day 1d kicks off at 13:00 GMT and continues until 14 levels of 40-minutes each are completed. Will anyone be able to catch Viscomi or will he still be the chip leader come the early hours of Thursday morning? It will take some doing, but stranger things have happened in the world of poker.
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