Christian Stratmeyer limped in from the cutoff before Gergo Nagy made it 54,000 on the button. Stratmeyer made the call and jammed all in for 148,000 once the 8♦8♥2♥ flop fell.
Nagy asked for a count and shrugged before making the call with the covering stack.
Christian Stratmeyer: A♣J♥K♥7♥
Gergo Nagy: K♣Q♥Q♣J♦
Stratmeyer needed an ace or heart, but neither came on the 2♠4♠ runout and he headed straight to the reentry desk.
Christian Stratmeyer raised to 42,000 on the button, leaving only 8,000 behind. Daniel Zaremba then three-bet the pot in the small blind before big blind Chris Dowling four-bet all in for 168,000.
Stratmeyer called off his final chips and Zaremba complied with the extra chips as well.
Christian Stratmeyer: K♠Q♥J♣8♠
Chris Dowling: K♥10♦J♠7♠
Daniel Zaremba: A♣8♥7♣6♣
Zaremba made a straight on the Q♦5♣6♠2♣9♠ board to earn the checkmark and send both of his opponents out.
Giorgios Tsoupras checked from the small blind on a turn of A♦5♦8♥K♣. "Diego Armando" then fired a pot-sized bet of 184,000 in the cutoff, which Tsoupras called.
The 7♠ river was checked down, with Tsoupras' A♥K♠Q♦6♥ winning the sizable pot with top two pair.
Another 11 riveting levels of poker were played on Day 1b of the €5,200 PLO Grand Slam Opener, hosted by Diamond Poker Series at Arena Casino Tirana. The 91 entries on the second and last starting flight came close to the 95 of Day 1a, and at the end of it all, Greek player Giorgos Tsoupras captured the chip lead by gathering 1,780,000 chips.
Tsoupras has only appeared on the live poker scene this year, with his three cashes coming from deep runs in pot-limit Omaha events, which seems to be his game of choice. With 119 blinds to start Day 2, he has made good strides to go deep again and add to his total live earnings. Ali Abdalla sits in second with 1,350,000, most of which he earned by winning two huge all-ins near the end of the night.
Ali Abdalla
Ukraine's Daniel Zaremba's rise to third place was a more steady one, highlighted by an early elimination with quads, while Tsoupras' fellow countryman Dimitrios Amoiridis and high stakes PLO expert Gergo Nagy also clinched spots in the top ten.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Day 2 Big Blinds
1
Giorgos Tsoupras
Greece
1,780,000
119
2
Ali Abdalla
Germany
1,350,000
90
3
Daniel Zaremba
Ukraine
1,270,000
85
4
"Diego Armando"
1,055,000
70
5
"FunnyGuy123"
900,000
60
6
Dimitrios Amoiridis
Greece
825,000
55
7
"Jay"
752,000
50
8
Stanislau Melhui
Mexico
735,000
49
9
Gergo Nagy
Hungary
666,000
44
10
Pedjman Hamie
Germany
660,000
44
Others who are among the 29 to make it to Day 2 include bracelet winners Simeon Naydenov (645,000), Ka Kwan Lau (645,000), and Hok Lee (270,000), as well as Sonny Franco (655,000), Francisco Perez (500,000), and Thomas Hueber (355,000).
Simeon Naydenov
Plenty of international powerhouses came through on Day 1b, but the likes of Chris Dowling, Oleksii Kovalchuk, Roman Verenko, Amir Mozaffarian, and Alex Livingston were not among the survivors at the end of the night.
Most, if not all of them, are expected to late register tomorrow as the possibility to do so will remain open until the start of Day 2 tomorrow, November 6, at 1 p.m. local time. The €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool has not been met yet, giving the players extra incentive to fire one last shot at victory and get a piece of the possible overlay.
Day 2 will restart in Level 12: 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 big blind ante. The levels will remain 45 minutes in length, with breaks after every three of them, and play will not stop before a winner is crowned.
Check back in to PokerNews tomorrow as the thrilling conclusion of the €5,200 PLO Grand Slam Opener promises to provide explosive Omaha action.
