Mario Puccini leads EPT Lourtraki after finishing Day 1b with 159,150.

It seems that German poker players are enjoying a whole lot of run good right now. Just a week after Pius Heinz captured the World Series of Poker Main Event and only 24 hours after Julian Herold took the Day 1a chip lead at the European Poker Tour in Loutraki, Greece, Mario Puccini climbed to the top of the Day 1b leaderboard.

And of course, despite the Italian-sounding name, Puccini is German.

Puccini bagged up 159,150 chips which puts him atop the overall leaderboard heading into Day 2 on Thursday. The closest player to Puccini on Wednesday was Toni Judet, who finished with 143,500 chips.

A German player atop the chip counts isn’t the only thing the first two starting days had in common. The Greek poker community was again represented by three players in the top ten in chip counts. Christos Ntikos sits fifth overall with 116,250, Georgios Zisimopoulos is sixth with 113,175 and Michail Manolakis is tenth with 78,975.

Other players still in contention include Kevin MacPhee (74,500), Johnny Lodden (40,000), Jeff Sarwer (32,475), Tom Marchese (19,050) and current BLUFF Player of the Year leader Eugene Katchalov (14,325). The average stack is just over 44,000.

Players who saw their day end early included Vitaly Lunkin, Vanessa Rousso, Arnaud Mattern, Theo Jorgensen and Marvin Rettenmaier. Former UFC heavyweight Heath Herring was also in the field on Wednesday but didn’t make it through the day with any of his 30,000 starting stacks.

The Day 1b field of 191 players put the total field size at 336. The payout structure will be announced during Day 2 action on Thursday.

Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Mario Puccini - 159,150
2. Toni Judet - 143,500
3. Jonian Antoni - 124,425
4. Grudi Grudev Bulgaria 117,200
5. Christos Ntikos - 116,250
6. Georgios Zisimopoulos - 113,175
7. Vitalijs Zavorotnijs - 104,900
8. Paul Knebel - 90,975
9. Nicolas Chouity - 80,900
10. Michail Manolakis – 78,975

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