Michal Mrakes Leads Going into Day 2; Kassouf Second in Chips
Today marked the final Day 1 for players willing to enter the 888Live Rozvadov €888 Main Event, and therefore there was a different sort of atmosphere in the air from the previous day 1s. Gone was some of the laughter and joking around (but certainly not all!). Today was now serious and presented players with almost their last opportunities to get to day 2. Late registration was open until the start of day 2, but you could tell that no player wanted to have to use this emergency option.
Despite this change in mood at the tables, it certainly didn’t stop 284 players entering, making it the biggest day 1 flight we have seen at this festival. With more than the number of entrants in day 1a and 1b combined, it was a frantic day with players busting and re-entering even up until the final level of the day.
The €300,000 guarantee was still there for all players to see. Everyone entering wanted even a small part of it, and as a result a host of big names entered for the first time, as was the case with Martin Kabrhel, Philipp Zukernik, and Stacy Matuson. Others were returning for a second attempt after trying yesterday, such as Pierre Neuville, Vojtech Ruzicka andAleksandar Tomovic.
With 59 players already assured of their places in day 2, the competition was fierce to join them, but the end a bumper field was whittled down to just 78. Out in front is Michal Mrakes with a whopping 352,400 chips. Such was the margin of his chip lead, there is no other player above the 300,000 mark.
In fact, the nearest player is none other than British pro William Kassouf who spent most of the day on the feature table. The spotlight obviously served him well, as he bagged up 259,400 and will go into day 2 third in chips behind Mrakes and day 1b chip leader Andrea Iocco.
Kassouf will be joined in day 2 by fellow Brits Ludovic Geilich (201,300) and Chris Moorman (52,900). Notables to not make it through to day 2 on this occasion included High Roller runner-up Martin Kabrhel, November Niner Vojtech Ruzicka, Stacy Matuson and Opening Event winner Marek Bartos.
In addition to Mrakes, Kassouf and Geilich, the only other stacks over the 200,000 barrier were George Drestidis (206,000) and Szymon Pieszczoch (207,100).
Tomorrow players from all flights will reconvene at the slightly earlier time of 1 p.m. local time. The plan is to play either twelve levels or until a final table is reached, whichever is reached sooner. There is also the caveat that levels will be 60 minutes long instead of 45.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for a full list of chip counts as well as a complete seat draw for Day 2.