Nedelcu Tops Busy Day 1a; Bise and Alkan Bag Big Stacks at King's Resort
Europe's biggest poker arena at the King's Resort in Rozvadov is gearing up for the business end of the year. For the third time in 2022, the World Series of Poker International Circuit headed to the Czech venue near the border to Germany and it may very well attract the largest turnout.
Thanks to a total of 307 entries consisting of 241 unique players and 66 re-entries, the 2022 WSOP Circuit King's €1,700 Main Event Autumn edition is off to a fabulous start. In the previous two editions earlier this year, 808 and 648 entries emerged and an even busier second starting day is expected by the local staff.
Upon completion of nine levels of 60 minutes each, the Day 1a field was cut into more than half and just 127 players advanced to Day 2 on Sunday, October 9, 2022. A close race for the lead unfolded in the late stages and it was Romania's Narcis Nedelcu who came out on top of it with a stack of 325,000. Tom Orpaz (311,500) and Emil Bise (302,900) also bagged up more than five times the starting stack of 50,000 as well.
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Narcis Nedelcu | Romania | 325,000 | 163 |
| 2 | Tom Orpaz | Israel | 311,500 | 156 |
| 3 | Emil Bise | Switzerland | 302,900 | 151 |
| 4 | Buelent Evis | Germany | 289,400 | 145 |
| 5 | Lukasz Tomecki | Poland | 286,800 | 143 |
| 6 | Petr Targa | Czech Republic | 277,200 | 139 |
| 7 | Denis Gergoc | Switzerland | 272,700 | 136 |
| 8 | Andrea Iocco | Italy | 251,000 | 126 |
| 9 | Claudio Guadagnino | Italy | 245,900 | 123 |
| 10 | Matthew Bushell | United Kingdom | 239,200 | 120 |
Other notables with big stacks include Petr Targa (277,200), Matthew Bushell (239,200), Andreas Chalkiadakis (236,800), Jason Wheeler (232,000), and Albert Hoekendijk (209,800). The Spring edition champion Volkan Alkan also claimed an above-average stack of 191,900 to his name, giving a potential second victory in the calendar year a great start.
Further WSOP bracelet winners such as Antoine Vranken, Renat Bohdanov, Dalibor Dula, Sergiu Covrig, and Sebastian Langrock all advanced but can also enter the second starting day in order to run up a bigger stack. That option is available to all survivors as well. The late registration remains open for the first two levels on Day 2.
Notable casualties included the former champion Andrea Ricci, Aliaksandr Shylko, Clement Cure, Dawid Smolka, Symeon Alexandridis, Vangelis Kaimakamis, Pierre Neuville, Claudio Di Giacomo, and Tobias Peters to name all but a few regulars at the King's Resort. Many of them are expected to give it another shot on Day 1b when the action kicks off at 2pm local time.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor then to provide as many hands as possible on what shapes up to be an exciting day of live poker in the heart of Europe.