James Chen Leads WSOPE €250,000 Super High Roller After Day 1
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Event #4: €250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em
The most expensive tournament of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe has kicked off at the King's Casino and Resort in Rozvadov and Event #4: €250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em drew a total of 24 entries thus far. The late registration remains open until the end of level 10 as Day 1 was shortened by one level.
Leading the field of 16 survivors after Day 1 is Taiwan's James Chen, who already came close to winning a coveted gold bracelet earlier this year in Las Vegas. Chen finished second to Stephen Chidwick in Event #45 $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for a payday of $1,000,253 and he is on track to score an even bigger payday in Europe's biggest poker arena.
Behind Chen, Malaysian High Roller Chin Wei "Webster" Lim follows in second place with 12,265,000 and Mikita Badziakouski is close behind with a stack of 11,935,000. The only other player to more than double his stack in the nine hour-levels was Orpen Kisacikoglu, who claimed 11,155,000 to his name.
Event #4: Top 5 after Day 1
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Chen | Taiwan | 16,405,000 |
| 2 | Chin Wei Lim | Malaysia | 12,265,000 |
| 3 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 11,935,000 |
| 4 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | 11,155,000 |
| 5 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | 8,635,000 |
The German-speaking High Roller experts are also in the running for the title in Rozvadov as Matthias Eibinger (8,635,000), Christoph Vogelsang (7,680,000), Rainer Kempe (6,350,000) and Dominik Nitsche (4,020,000) all advanced. Nitsche had to fire a second bullet in the event after losing with kings against the ace-seven suited of Richard Yong.
Triton Poker founders Paul Phua (7,130,000) and Richard Yong (5,540,000) made it through Day 1, as did Anatoly Filatov (6,850,000), Ryan Riess (6,150,000), Danny Tang (5,200,000), Alex Foxen (5,165,000), Timothy Adams (4,170,000) and Tony G (1,815,000).
For Burns and Mateos it was a bad day at the office as both fired two bullets without success. Cary Katz, Koray Aldemir and Sam Trickett were also among those to enter and leave empty-handed for now. However, with the late registration open for another level on Day 2, they might be back for more Super High Roller action.
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Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha
After a long day at King's Resort for the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe, Event #2: €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed has reached its final six players, hunting the second gold bracelet of the festival and a payday of €51,600.
Almost thirteen 40-minute levels of play needed, in order for the field to reach the six finalists, and in the end it was Ukraine's Denis Drobina who bagged the chip lead with 3,875,000 chips. Despite entering the unofficial nine-handed final table as the shortest stack with just 16 big blinds, Drobina managed to dominate his opponents and close with almost six times his final table starting stack.
His mission won't be easy since he will have to face some steep competition in the six-handed final table. Two bracelet winners in Ivo Donev (2,130,000) and Dash Dudley (1,700,000), Christopher Back (2,880,000) with $680,000 in total live earnings, and experienced players Ming Juen Teoh (965,000) and Oshri Lahmani (360,000) are those he will have to surpass in order to win the gold.
Event #2: Final Table Seating
| Seat | Player | Country | Chipcount | Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denis Drobina | Ukraine | 3,875,000 | 39 |
| 3 | Christopher Back | Canada | 2,880,000 | 29 |
| 5 | Ming Juen Teoh | Malaysia | 965,000 | 10 |
| 6 | Dash Dudley | United States | 1,700,000 | 17 |
| 7 | Ivo Donev | Austria | 2,130,000 | 21 |
| 9 | Oshri Lahmani | Israel | 360,000 | 4 |
Event #3: €1,350 Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold'em
The first of three starting days of Event #3: 1,350 Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold’em has come to a hectic end at the start of Level 17 with 39 minutes and 56 seconds left in the level. There 174 entries collected which included 42 reentries and at the end of the day, there were 34 players left even though they only had to play down to 35.
With four people all-in and another monster pot, the last few minutes of the night were ones to remember. Aleksandr Merzhvinskii claimed the chip lead by taking almost all of Arturs Scerbaks’ chips when he had flopped a set of fours. Thanks to that hand, Merzhvinskii bagged 1,255,000 in chips. He is followed by Thai Ha who was the only other player to bag over a million in chips. Ha eliminated Yi Ye in the last hand of the night when Ye tried to bluff him and Ha had made the right call with two pair.
Bracelet winners Chris Ferguson, Shaun Deeb, Robert Campbell, and Julien Martini have all made it through to Day 2 but aren’t in the money yet as the tournament organization had decided to play down to 20% of the field instead of 15% to shorten the day. Other notable players to find a bag for Day 2 include Viktor Blom, Paulius Vaitiekunas, Sebastian Pauli, Aaron Duczak, Aaron Duczak, Pierre Neuville, and Fabian Gumz.
Event #3: Top 5 after Day 1a
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleksandr Merzhvinskii | Russia | 1,255,000 |
| 2 | Thai Ha | United States | 1,035,000 |
| 3 | Alain Crettenand | Switzerland | 797,000 |
| 4 | Moritz Koelsch | Germany | 795,000 |
| 5 | Stanislaw Miadzel | Poland | 784,000 |
