After two full days of play at the Empire Casino in London, Event #1 of the 2009 WSOP Europe has been whittled down from the largest tournament starting field in London’s poker history to a final table of just nine players. Eight of the final nine players are residents of the United Kingdom, meaning that only Syria’s Adnan Alshamah can prevent the UK from winning its first WSOPE bracelet in three years of hosting the tournament.

The day began with 89 players still in the hunt for WSOP gold and John-Paul Kelly holding the chip lead. Just 26 players had to be eliminated in order to make the money; it was former WSOP Main Event final tablist Raymond Rahme of South Africa who popped the bubble, flopping a set of nines against the A-A of Robert Lim and sending Lim home as the last man with no cash. Following Lim to the rail, albeit with a reward for their time at the felt, were Markus Golser (49th place), John Juanda (43rd), and Mr. Rahme (25th). Chris “Jesus” Ferguson held on to a relatively short stack for most of the day before finally joining the ranks of the eliminated in 15th place.

With the blinds at 3,000/6,000 and 500 antes, Fabien Dunlop holds a substantial chip lead entering the final table, holding 206,000 chips more than his nearest competitor, Richard Allen. But the dangerous John-Paul Kelly sits just behind Allen with 317,500, and he should be a constant threat as he looks to claim his second bracelet of 2009 to go along with his $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em win. If Kelly were to win the event, he would become the second player ever to win a bracelet in Las Vegas and London in the same year, following Jesper Hougaard’s wins on both sides of the Atlantic in 2008.

Play is scheduled to resume at 2 p.m. London time on Monday with 2:12 remaining on the clock for Level 18.

Seat 1 - Fabien Dunlop (London, UK) 538,000
Seat 2 - James Tomlin (Northampton, UK) 49,000
Seat 3 - William Martin (London, UK) 122,500
Seat 4 - Richard Allen (London, UK) 332,000
Seat 5 - Anthony Roux (London, UK) 88,000
Seat 6 - Adnan Alshamah (Damascus, Syria) 121,000
Seat 7 - John-Paul Kelly (Aylesbury, UK) 317,500
Seat 8 - Thor Drexel (London, UK) 77,000
Seat 9 - Neil Suarez (London, UK) 217,500

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