Kravchenko ended Day 1A 9th in chips

What better way for the European Poker Tour (EPT) to put the drama of the EPT Berlin robbery behind them than with a week-long vacation in the Austrian Alps? Obviously the tour did not predict the Berlin robbery, but it was an instance of some serendipitous timing that the EPT’s next event on its Season Six schedule was the PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest, held at the charming Alpine ski resort Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

Sunday marked Day 1A of the new event and the tournament got off to great start as all 270 Day 1A seats sold out. Of the 270 players who took to the felt on Day 1A of the €3,750 buy-in event, only 119 survived to return for more poker action when Day 2 play gets underway on Tuesday. Some of the noteworthy Day 1A survivors include Daniel Negreanu, EPT Kiev winner Maxim Lykov, Max Pescatori and Jesper Hougaard. There was also a long list of players who failed to make it through to the end of the day, including Chad Brown, Dan O’Brien, Aaron Gustavson, Thomas Bichon, Fatima de Melo and Jeff Sarwer.

The top survivors include a couple of recognizable names, most notably Alex Kravchenko, who was the Russian with the biggest chip stack at day’s end with 129,600 chips compared to the starting stack of 30,000. While that stack is enough to put him in the top ten of the chip counts, the man to beat is David Wintersberger of Germany, who ended the day with 290,200; over 30,000 more chips than the player in second place, Berhard Pernner of Austria who has 257,500.

Monday another crop of players will get the cards in the air for Day 1B, and EPT organizers are suggesting the event, which has a soft cap of 500 players, could very easily be a complete sell out.

Here are the top ten chip counts from the end of Day 1A at EPT Snowfest:

David Wintersberger – Germany – 290,200
Bernhard Perner – Austria – 257,500
Julien Brecard – France – 238,100
Brent Wheeler – USA – 193,600
Mike Gorodinsky – USA – 160,700
Janko Medja – Slovenia – 158,900
Christian Oppersklaski – Germany – 146,800
Johannes Strassmann – Germany – 134,300
Alex Kravchenko – Russia – 129,600
Alexander Pozdnyakov – Russia – 129,500

Related posts:

1. EPT: Baekke, Strassmann, Carson Headline Snowfest Final Table [caption id="attachment_9965" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Carson is second in chips going...
2. EPT: Lex Veldhuis Near the Top of Snowfest Day 1B [caption id="attachment_9885" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Veldhuis was one of three Dutch...
3. EPT: Johannes Strassmann Soars to the Top of EPT Snowfest Day 2 Day 2 of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour (EPT)...
4. EPT: Allan Baekke Really Cooking at EPT Snowfest [caption id="attachment_9948" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Allan Baekke is the man to...
5. EPT: Allan Baekke is Top of the Snowfest Heap Allan “Sifosis” Baekke capped off his dominating performance at...