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The expectations of tournament organizers were met on Day 1b of World Poker Tour Amneville, when 203 players joined the Day 1a field to form a total field of 379 runners. The prize pool is officially set at 1.164 million Euro, with over 310k Euro reserved just for first place. The champion of WPT Amneville will also receive a $25.5k buy-in package to the WPT Championship.

The overall chip leader at this point is Jean-Francoi Rigollet, who dominated the Day 1a competition to secure nearly 165k chips. Rigollet, a native of Paris, has a relatively paltry live tournament resume in comparison to Nicolas Babel, the player who led Day 1a. Rigollet has a total of $46k in career winnings, with four cashes including a $27k score that he picked up in March at the Wynn Classic.

A number of other noted pros managed to secure large stacks on Day 1b as well, including Edouard Sadoun (125k), Erik Von Buxhoeveden (143k), Jamie Rosen (145k) and Thibaut Durand (147k). Other players with chip stacks exceeding 100k including Joseph Cheong, Marvin Rattenmaier and Arnaud Mattern. They’ll be joined on Day 2 by other survivors including Ilan Rouah, Paul Berende, Roger Hairabedian, Bruno Fitoussi, Ilan Boujenah, Ozzy Sheikh and Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree.

A few of the players who will not be moving on to Day 2 including Ludovic Lacay, Kevin MacPhee, John Eames, Brandon Cantu and fan favorite Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. They were joined at the rail by Sam El Sayed, the player who took the title along with 426k Euro in the 2010 edition of WPT Amneville.

A total of 215 players will compete on Day 2. Although Rigollet has emerged as the overall leader, he’s trailed closely by Day 1a hotshot Babel who holds just under 164k chips.