Mauro Corsetti Leading EPT Budapest; Annette Obrestad in the Hunt

Lance Bradley | October 30, 2008 at 12:53 pm

After both starting days at the European Poker Tour’s Budapest stop are in the books Mauro Corsetti of Italy is one of only two players to break the 100,000 chip mark. But unfortunately for Corsetti, who has 136,200 chips, it’s the player in second that has everybody talking.

Annette Obrestad, the 20-year-old phenom who won the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, will start Day 2 with 101,300. The pair are the top chip counts of the 182 players who survived Day 1 action.

A former EPT champion, Arnaud Mattern, is in third place with 90,600 chips. Mattern won the EPT Prague event in Season 4. Noah Boeken and Festa al Lago winner Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier were two of the more high profile names to not make it to Day 2.

Another player in contention is Obrestad’s Team Betfair teammate Sorel Mizzi. The Canadian has 74,900 chips and is in sixth. The top Hungarian player is Zoltan Toth who sits in 13th place with 59,600. The 532-player field in the ¬4,350 ($5,590 US) buy-in event created a total prize pool of ¬2,128,000 ($2,737,000 US) with first place paying ¬595,839 ($766,000 US).

Play will resume on Thursday with the champion being crowned on Saturday.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Mauro Corsetti - 136,200
2. Annette Obrestad - 101,300
3. Arnaud Mattern - 90,600
4. Christophe Haller - 86,100
5. Pierre Husson - 76,100
6. Sorel Mizzi - 74,900
7. Johnny Lodden - 70,000
8. Paul Testud - 66,500
9. Ionel Anton - 64,800
10. Nicolo Calia - 62,900