Nicolae Balea Dominates Day 1c of the 888poker LIVE Bucharest Main Event
Nicolae Balea seized control of the chip lead and ran away with it on Day 1c of the €888 888poker LIVE Bucharest Main Event.
Balea doubled up with the nut flush over Roman Stoica’s second nut flush to take an early lead and never looked back from there. He later busted Stoica to climb near 800,000, nearly double his closest challenger, before ending the night with 663,000 and atop the leaderboard among 36 surviving players.
Marius Gicovanu busted Levente Pal with pocket jacks on the last hand of the night to jump into second place with 582,000. Nicolae Bordianu (432,000), Valentin Dumitrache (350,000), 2022 888poker LIVE Madrid champion Abel Aspas (342,000), and Josef Huber (305,000) are also big stacks.
Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicolae Balea | Romania | 663,000 | 166 |
| 2 | Marius Gicovanu | Romania | 582,000 | 146 |
| 3 | Nicolae Bordianu | Romania | 432,000 | 108 |
| 4 | Valentin Dumitrache | Romania | 350,000 | 88 |
| 5 | Gusti Sas | Romania | 348,000 | 87 |
| 6 | Abel Aspas | Spain | 342,000 | 86 |
| 7 | Josef Huber | Czech Republic | 305,000 | 76 |
| 8 | Ionut Alexandru Aldea | Romania | 285,500 | 71 |
| 9 | David Arbel | Romania | 278,000 | 70 |
| 10 | Ladislav Cerveny | Slovakia | 270,000 | 68 |
Members of the 888poker team had a mixed showing on Day 1c. Ricardo Freire Mateus, playing on his birthday, finished with 124,000, while 888poker Ambassador Lucia Navarro bagged up 106,000. 888poker Stream Team member Nick Eastwood spent much of the later part of the night playing on the main feature table but busted right before the end, as did Andrei Cosmin Calenciuc.
A total of 88 players packed into the Poker Room Bucharest over the course of 11 45-minute levels, making this the largest opening flight yet. The combined field stands at 182 through three starting flights, with a turbo 1d flight still to come tomorrow at 11 a.m. local time and late registration open until the start of Day 2. The 36 remaining players will combine with the survivors on Days 1a and 1b as 74 return tomorrow when play resumes at 5:30 p.m.
The players will approach the money bubble and the final table during play tomorrow in what will surely be an action-packed day of action. Stay tuned as PokerNews will be on hand providing all the live updates as the field begins to whittle down.