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The last stop before the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Grand Final is always a hit, and San Remo was no different this year. The 2010 San Remo tournament, the title of which was claimed by Liv Boeree, attracted 1,240 players and the prize pool exceeded €6 million. The 2011 stop looked to do nearly as well.

Action started on April 27 with Day 1A and 438 players, and though reports varied as to how many made it through the day, the official release stated that 211 players were still in the game. Leonid Bilokur of Russia was atop the leaderboard with 187,900 chips.

Day 1B brought another 549 players into the mix, and though the final registration number of 987 didn’t match the previous year, it was a strong showing and better than the last stop at Berlin.

Breakdown of the final numbers:

Total players: 987
Countries in play: 57
Prize pool: €4,786,950
First prize: €930,000
Paid players: 144

That second starting day ended with Team PokerStars Pro Ruben Visser of Holland (pictured above) in the top spot, taking the overall chip lead with 251,500. One of the casualties of the day, however, was last year’s champion Liv Boeree, who wasn’t able to make it through the evening for a repeat attempt.

Day 2 kicked off on April 28 with big names still in the field, including Joe Cada, Vanessa Selbst, Carter Phillips, Roberto Romanello, Victor Ramdin, and Martin Hruby. There were 249 survivors from the day in total, and combined with the 211 from the first day, a group of 460 players headed into another action-packed day.

The tournament will wrap its final table on May 3.

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