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With a new location and better security, the European Poker Tour returned to Berlin for a popular stop in the series. Since it’s obvious that they want to put last year’s robbery far behind them, I will kindly refrain from all snarky comments and puns. You’re welcome.

So, action began at the Spielbank Casino. It was on April 5 that the first of two starting days launched the 2011 Berlin Main Event, and there were 315 players at the tables, though only 151 made it through to bag their chips. While several names like Henrique Pinho and Arnaud Mattern made it through, it was Phil Hellmuth’s favorite player Cristian Dragomir (pictured on the right) who led the chip counts with 205,500 of them.

Day 1B attracted another 458 players, including names like Boris Becker and defending champion Kevin MacPhee, though only 202 completed all levels and made it to Day 2. The chip leader – and overall leader of both starting days – was Sander Berndsen with 242,900 chips.

The big numbers from the EPT Berlin are:

Total players: 773
Countries in play: 50
Prize pool: €3,865,000
First prize: €825,000
Paid players: 120

Day 2 will kick off with the survivors, including recognizable players like Roberto Romanello, Thomas Bichon, Jason Helder, Sebastian Ruthenberg, and Peter Eastgate. The field of 353 will be reduced significantly as the week continues.

Interesting to note that the EPT Berlin has an official sponsor, something new for the tour it seems. Shamballa Jewels is the “official bracelet sponsor” and will be creating the winner jewels for the current EPT stop as well as San Remo and the Grand Final in Madrid.

(Thanks to PokerStars Blog for the live updates and Neil Stoddart for the photo.)