By Stephen Bartley

Yesterday it was Bertrand Grospellier, today it was the European Poker Tour itself setting the records. While yesterday "ElkY" played more than 60 tables at the same time online, the EPT nearly did the same in the real world - 54 tables, packed into the tournament area and beyond, and all playing at once - the biggest Grand Final field ever.

As the queues formed at the registration desks it became obvious the turnout would be big, but few predicted 935 players, complete with a €10,000 buy-in and change to play the side events, would arrive in Monaco for a shot at glory. But they did, and the story of their first day is now complete.

Of that 935, day 1b hosted 539 of them. Their mission was the same as those here yesterday - eight one hour levels played ten handed at the start, with a 30,000 starting stack. By the close of play, after 227 had fallen to the rail and into the consolation of Monegasque sunshine, two players were poised at the top of the chip lists; Ami Barer and Steeve Berdah, each hovering around 200,000.

Ami Barer

It was always a big ask for Team PokerStars Pro to match the performances of Lee Nelson and Luca Pagano yesterday, each of whom ended day 1a on mighty stacks of around 200,000. But still, a good few had a bash.

Ivan Demidov was chief among them, carrying the flag the highest, finishing on around 73,000. But the Riviera does something to the German ShootingStars. Johannes Strassmann again finished at the northern end of the chip count list, as did Johannes Steindl and EPT Dortmund winner Sandra Naujoks, each of them finishing on more than 100,000.

There was a flip side to that. Gavin Griffin was among the early eliminations, followed by Katja Thater. It was late in the day when Ylon Schwartz busted, but that still left a solid force of Team Pros. The names Grospellier, Boeken, Rousso, Hachem, Eastgate, Demidov, Ramdin, Mercier, Kravchenko and Khan will return to action tomorrow.

Still high profile after all these years, tennis legend Boris Becker, fresh from a cash in the WPT last week, picked up where he left off, surviving a tricky table of Florian Langmann and Nuno Coelho to finish the day on close to 60,000.

From the celebrity ranks fans of hip hop artist Nelly found he was unable to transfer his musical talent to the poker table, busting in the first level. All of which happened before Gus Hansen had even turned up. But while the great Dane arrived late he left early, as did French rugby star Sebastian Chabal. American David Williams fared better, bagging up 125,000 at the close.

Sebastian Chabal

Still, there are worst places to be stuck with no table to go, and even if an evening saunter around Monte Carlo doesn't stir the soul there is always a €500 shoot out tournament starting tomorrow, not to mention the high roller event the day after.

That's all ahead of us but for now we focus on day two of the Grand Final starting at high noon tomorrow.