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As we mentioned yesterday, the Main Event is far from the only tournament currently going down at the London stop of the European Poker Tour. Perhaps the most popular side event among players and the biggest-name pros is the 20k pound High Roller, currently underway.

A total of 75 players took the to the felt for the High Roller, creating a prize pool of over 1.5 million pounds with 520k pounds reserved for the winner. The field is similar to last year’s, in which Jose Barbero of Team PokerStars Pro bested 76 others to win 556k pounds.

The current chip leader in the 2011 event is Sam Stein, who turned his starting stack of 50k chips into 240,000 by the end of the day. Mike Watson and Isaac Haxton are close behind with 225,900 and 199,200 chips, respectively.

A wide range of Team PokerStars professionals joined the event but were eliminated on Day 1, including Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Rousso, Juan Maceiras, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Johnny Lodden and John Duthie.

A number of other non-PokerStars pros were eliminated as well, including Tony G, Tobias Reinkemeier, Matt Waxman, Theo Jorgensen, online poker phenom Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom and Justin Bonomo, who recently relocated to Malta to continue his online poker career and gain better access to events exactly like these.

A number of exceptional players remain in the field, all with their sights firmly set on Stein. Some of the biggest names include James Bord, WSOP final table competitor Phil Collins, 2005 WSOP winner Joe Hachem, Russian poker superstar Eugene Katchalov, Sam Trickett, Olivier Busquet and Mike “Timex” McDonald.

A total of 30 players will reconvene on Day 2. Only the top eight finishers will receive pay-outs, guaranteeing large cash prizes for all who make the final table.