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The World Poker Tour’s latest stop is Amneville, France, where 176 players took to the live tournament felt on Day 1a. A total of 114 players from Day 1a will return to join the Day 1b qualifiers on Day 2, with Nicolas Babel currently leading the charge with 164k chips.

Babel, a native of Paris, is a well known pro who finished 38th in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, winning $206k in the process. In combination with a 13k Euro score at the 2010 edition of WPT Amneville and an assortment of other cashes, Babel has over $445k in career poker earnings.

Joining Babel on Day 2 will be respected pros including Athanasios Polychronopoulos (98k), Adrien Allain (108k), Luke Fields (130k) and Riad Mounir (154k). Worthy players including Pierre Canali, Remy Biechel, Almira Skripchenko, Antonin Teisseire, Steven Van Zadelhoff and Marc Inizan survived as well, albeit with smaller chip stacks.

One player who won’t be returning on Day 2 is Casey Kastle. In the key hand, the flop came down Kd-6d-3h before the Jh flop. Jose Rivas bet 5.5k before check-raising and forcing Kastle all-in. Kastle scored a set with 3-3, but it wasn’t enough to top the pocket jacks of Rivas. A king came down on the turn, completing the full house for Rivas and sending Kastle to the rail.

Other players that faced elimination on Day 1a included Hugo Lemaire, Jean Paul Paqualini, Benjamin Pollak and Chris Lastiwka.

The full payout schedule, including the first place prize, will not be determined until after all runners have registered on Day 1b. A larger field of at least 200 players is expected to arrive for the second starting flight, pointing to a total field of around 400 competitors.