Nadi Yusuf Leads 52 Players from Final Flight of Opening Event
The final flight of the 888Live Rozvadov Festival started at a peculiar time. Flight 1C was still ongoing, and there were some question marks as to whether it would attract enough players to meet the guarantee. The record for most players at an 888Live event was already smashed - in total 783 players paid €225 to enter the Opening Event, eclipsing the 700 at the 888Live London Festival late last year.
In the end, it was clear - 254 players played Day 1D; two more than who played days 1A and 1B put together. And with Flight 1C gaining 277, it is clear that Saturday is the day for poker here in Rozvadov.
The Opening Event comes with a €150,000 guarantee, and with that assured midway through the day, all players had to do was focus on getting through to Day 2. Players from all previous flights showed their faces again, this time fixed with the goal of making it through to tomorrow and a shot at making the money.
Players will sleep well tonight knowing that a stack will be waiting for them when the tournament resumes at 13.00 local time here in Rozvadov.
It's 49 players who will join the 19 players from Flight 1A, 25 from Flight 1B and 56 from Flight 1C. A total of 150 players will return tomorrow to battle it out. 79 players will get paid a minimum of €493, first place prize is €27,824.
Leading the way is Nadi Yusuf with 370,500. He had a busy day, playing both Day 1C and 1D. But after being eliminated when his pocket tens failed to hold up against Roman Papacek's Ace-King, he jumped into the second flight of the day and soon ran up a stack. Despite not being able to come close to the chip leaders from the previous days' flights, Yusuf will be brimming with confidence at the size of his chip stack when he opens his bag again tomorrow afternoon.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for a full list of players advancing to Day 2, and for the conclusion of this tournament tomorrow, which starts at 13.00 local time. Make sure to follow our coverage from 888Live Rozvadov, with the €5,300 High Roller starting on the 2nd February and the €888 Main Event the day after.