IS ISILDUR1 LEADING WSOP EUROPE MAIN EVENT? WE KNOW IVEY IS IN STRONG CONTENTION.
The excitement is building at the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event, currenlty taking place at Casino at the Empire in central London. 

The final gold bracelet tournament of the calendar year began two days ago on with 346 entries.  On Saturday, the initial two starting days – designated as 1-A and 1-B – combined into a single playing field of 195 survivors.  Surviving players redrew for seats and resumed play promptly at noon.

As of 7 pm on Saturday night (London time), among the chip leaders are Viktor Blom (Sweden), Phil Ivey (USA) and Barny Boatman (UK).
 
Entering the dinner break, which took place four levels into the day (six hours of play), among those with their championship aspirations still alive are WSOP Europe defending champion Barry Shulman.  Phil Laak, winner of the first event held at this year's London series, also holds a decent-sized stack at the break.  Two-time gold bracelet winner from the UK, J.P. Kelly remains alive, as well.
 
Here’s a list of the top ten players still in the Main Event with their approximate chip counts:
 
Viktor Blom (Sweden) -- 380,000
Darren Woods (UK) -- 335,000
Phil Ivey (USA) -- 300,000
Barny Boatman (UK) -- 270,000
Nick Schulman (USA) -- 250,000
Thomas Bichon (France) -- 240,000
Andrew Pantling (Canada) -- 210,000
Antonio Esfandiari (USA) -- 200,000
McLean Karr (USA) -- 185,000
John Eames (UK) -- 165,000

Among those who were not as fortunate and were eliminated on Day Two were:  Jeffrey Lisandro, Neil Channing, John Juanda, Chris Bjorin,Jason DeWitt, John Tabatabai, John Racener, Pascal Lefrancois, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Erik Seidel, Alexander Kravchenko, Jason Mercier, Filippo Candio, Carlos Mortensen, Vitaly Lunkin, Ted Lawson, and others. 

Play will continue for two more levels and will end around 11:45 pm on Saturday.  Survivors, expected to number less than 80, will resume play on Day Three, which takes place on Sunday starting at noon.  The Main Event runs through Tuesday, September 28th.

Stay tuned to WSOP.com for more news and information.  Live tournament updates can be seen HERE. 

For more information about WSOP Europe, please click HERE.
 
Four events have already been held this year at WSOP Europe.  The three previous winners were:

EVENT #1:  Phil Laak (£2,500 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em)

EVENT #2:  Jeffrey Lisandro (£5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha)

EVENT #3:  Scott Shelley (£1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em)

EVENT #4:  At the time of this writing the £10,000 buy-in High-Roller Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship had been paused in order to allow the final two players – Gus Hansen and Jim Collopy – to participate in the Main Event.  The Heads-Up finale will take place at a time and place to be announced later.