BY TOM SOMACH

Just 32 players remain alive at the Main Event of the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in London, England, as the tournament begins its sixth day on Sunday.

The tournament field started with more than 350 participants.

The chip-leader going into Sunday’s action is Aleksander Vathne, who has almost half a million chips.

The runnerup in chips is Theo Jorgensen, who has just 13,000 fewer chips than Vathne.

Currently in third spot chipwise is Dominic Kay, about 28,000 chips behind Jorgensen.

At the end of five days of play Saturday night, these were the 32 players left, with their chip counts:

Steven van Zadelhoff 259,500; Annie Duke 286,500; Julius Colman 78,000; Theo Jorgensen 457,000; Oyvind Riisem 401,500; Terry Cook 147,000; Erick Lindgren 54,500; Patrick Jouven 39,500; Dominic Kay 430,500; Marco Traniello 101,500 and Will Durkee 264,500.

Also: James Keys 247,500; Kenny Tran 64,500; Nicolas Levi 98,000; John Tabatabai 335,000; Marcello Marigliano 65,000; Tino Lechich 184,500; Karl Mahrenholz 297,000; Henrik Waltersson 159,500; Aleksander Vathne 470,500 and Shaun Needham 39,000.

And: Jakob Paulsen 383,500; Abishek Khaitan 178,500; Annette Obrestad 311,400; Patrik Antonius 174,000; Janne Lamsa 120,000; Magnus Persson 238,500; Pat Scanlan 200,000; Andreas Berggren 215,000; Matthew McCullough 182,500; Gus Hansen 398,000; and Johannes Korsar 346,000.

Of those 32 players still alive and kicking, the most recognizable names are Annie Duke, Erick Lindgren, Will Durkee, Kenny Tran and Gus Hansen.

And of that 32, two are women: Duke and Annette Obrestad.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)