2011 WSOP Europe is underway.

In the four years that World Series of Poker Europe events were held in London, England only three times did a British player win a bracelet. Through the first day of 2011 WSOPE in its new home of Cannes, France a home field advantage is emerging for French players.

France’s Flavien Guennan holds the chip lead after Day 1 of the €2,500 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em event. He bagged up 108,800 at the end of eight one-hour levels on Friday. The only other player to finish with more than 100,000 was fellow Frenchman Benjamin Pollak who finished with 106,425. Italy’s Antonio Venneri rounds out the top three with 99,575.

The top American player in the field is Casey Kastle. He sits fourth with 86,100. Peter Jetten rounds out the top five with 71,275. Only 80 players survived

The field for the €2,500 ($3,350 US) buy-in event ballooned to 360 players by the time registration closed, creating a prizepool of €864,000 ($1,155,000 US) with first place paying €215,999 ($288,952 US). In 2010, 244 players played the opening event, a £2,500 ($3,900 US) Six-Max No Limit Hold’em event.

Of the 360 players who started the day only 80 survived. A number of big names didn’t get to the end of the day including 2011 November Niners Phil Collins and Anton Makiieskyi, BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year frontrunner Eugene Katchalov, Tom Dwan, Jason Mercier and Bertrand Grospellier.

There were some recognizable faces surviving through the first day though. John Racener, Vanessa Selbst, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Marvin Rettenmaier all managed to avoid being one of the 280 players eliminated.

Play resumes Saturday at 3 pm local time, 9 am EST.

WSOP Europe €2,500 Six-Max Day 1 Chip Counts

1. Flavien Guenan – 108,800
2. Benjamin Pollak – 106,425
3. Antonio Venneri – 99,575
4. Casey Kastle – 86,100
5. Peter Jetten – 71,275
6. Anton Wigg – 67,075
7. Bruno Benveniste – 64,475
8. Alessandro Speranza – 52,900
9. Luca Falaschi – 52,000
10. Tapio Vihakas – 51,000

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