Flight 1C Finishes with Simon Hoffmann Top of the Pile
Some thought that the earlier start time to the two Day 1s before it might put people off - boy were they wrong! A whopping 277 entries later, the Opening Event set the record for the biggest 888Live event held, eclipsing the 700 set last year at Aspers London for the 888Live stop held there.
With a slightly different structured day to Thursday and Friday, the players settled into the same old routines. The Saturday afternoon collective of players had a more casual atmosphere amongst them, and the conversation was flowing at several tables in all manner of languages - and in some cases hand signals!
But when Flight 1D started four hours into the day, things took a turn for the more serious. Players hunkered down to concentrate. They knew that they had to make the most of this tournament, or run the risk of having to play the final flight into Day 2.
44 players had already booked their places in tomorrow's final day of the Opening Event, and there were some familiar faces from Days 1A and 1B who were here at King's Casino Rozvadov playing 1C. At the end of it, 52 players booked their places in the final day tomorrow.
At after fifteen levels of play, it was Simon Hoffmann who finished top of the chip leaderboard with 343,500. Slightly less than the 407,500 Bartosz Szafraniec amassed on Day 1A, or the 426,500 Ruben Perez managed to bag up yesterday, but enough to put him as the Day 1C chip leader.
Shortly behind him was Martin Kabrhel, fresh off a WPT final table position and an 18th place finish in the EPT Prague Main Event towards the end of last year. He bagged up 306,500 and will be looking to put in another good performance here in the Czech Republic.
Others who bagged up large chip stacks in the room include Havadzi Deilik (300,500), Stanislav Starek (258,500), Gicovanu Marius-Alexandru (285,000) Damjan Pandvrevic (280,000) and Filip Gburczyk (220,500).
Stay tuned to PokerNews for full chip counts from the 56 players advancing, as well as coverage of Day 1D - which is still ongoing - and tomorrow's coverage of the final day of the Opening Event here at 888Live Festival Rozvadov.