Papazian, Pop and 888poker ambassador Saliba Among Big Stacks After Day 1a in Bucharest
The first of three starting days of the 888Live Poker Festival Bucharest €888 Main Event is in the books and Day 1a drew a total of 110 entries to put the tournament on track to meet and surpass the guaranteed prize pool of €288,000. The 888Live series was heading to the Romanian capital for the very first time and picked the perfect location for the event, the stunning JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel, in cooperation with Pokerfest Romania.
Within the first seven levels of 45 minutes each, plenty of players took advantage of the unlimited re-entry option and the eliminations kept coming at an alarming pace. The players busted so quickly that tournament staff decided to cut down the number of levels by one and bag up for the night after the end of level 11 already. At that point, only 27 hopefuls were still in contention with Nicolae Sorin Son soaring to the top of the leader board in the final level of the night.
Son took two pots of Florin Tatu to claim 203,000 to his name and edged into the top spot. 2017 WSOP bracelet winner Alexandru Papazian had to re-enter after failing with pocket deuces and three barrels on an ace-high board and the first ever Romanian to win the elusive gold bracelet ended up with a very healthy 162,000. Catalin Pop ended up second in chips with 185,500, narrowly ahead of Luca Moschitta with 185,000. Moschitta went from almost zero to hero in the later stages of the day when he first tripled up with pocket kings, then doubled through Pop and cracked pocket aces with pocket kings to score another big double.
Vivian Saliba was one of two 888poker ambassadors that took to the tables on Day 1a, and while Natalie Hof departed in unfortunate fashion, the Brazilian dominated her table with plenty of aggression. A nut flush over second nut flush setup gave the Pot-Limit Omaha specialist a shot at the overnight lead, but Saliba eventually lost queens to kings in the last hands of the night to settle for 146,500.
Other big stacks and notables through to Day 2 include Razvan Bordei (171,000), Cristian Tardea (158,000), Andrei Nodea (130,000), Carmen Zainescu (96,500), Dan Petrea (81,500) and Michael Teplitski (66,500).
Among those to enter once or more without advancing just yet were such familiar faces as Ran Azor, Federico Petruzzelli, Ozgur Arda, Silviu Baltateanu, 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest champion Marius Pertea, Pasquale Grimaldi, Viliyan Petleshkov and Florin Pandilica. Arda had to re-enter and ran with eights into kings, while Petleshkov flopped bottom set with deuces only to run into a set of jacks in the first attempt, then busted once more after the registration had just closed when his nines were no good against aces.
Most of those that busted on Day 1a are expected to join the action again on Day 1b as of 1 p.m. local time, as are the 888poker ambassadors Natalie Hof and Sofia Lovgren. Another 20 players won their seat in the Main Event satellite with the 21st place finisher taking home €194.
The €230 Opening Event was won by Narcis-Gabriel Nedelcu, who defeated fellow Romanian Eduard Norel in heads up to claim the first-place payout of €14,055, Norel took home €9,300 for his efforts. Last but not least, the €100+100+30 Bounty Event drew a field of 132 entries to create a prize pool of €11,880 and at the time of writing, only 21 players remained with 15 spots paid.
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flop gave Moschitta top set, and the 
turn and 
river failed to restore the preflop order.
for two over cards. The board came 
and Alecu doubled with a set.
. Saliba had defended her big blind against Pandilica's button raise and turned the nut flush oin the board of 
.
and the hand played itself until that point. Marius Ene was also eliminated just prior to that.
for a pair and open-ended straight draw. The river brought two pair for her opponent and the 888poker ambassador was gone.
failed to improve Cornea and he was also sent to the rail.
and Tatu paired his king on the flop to score a double knockout.
to vault into a commanding lead.
flop, Petleshkov checked and Costache bet 3,000. Stanica called that and then Petleshkov check-raised to 8,000. Costache squeezed to 20,000 and that forced out Stanica, while Petleshkov's all in for 24,000 was snap-called.
