The latest edition of the PLO Grand Slam got underway in style after an action-packed Day 1a of the €5,200 Opener left only 21 players standing at Arena Casino Tirana. The 106 entries made during the first of two starting flights collected around half of the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and improved upon the 95 entries of the last edition.
Ending Day 1a as chipleader is Youness Barakat. The Grand Slam Opener is familiar territory for Barakat, as he finished in third place in this event back in November. Ending Day 1a with 3,389,000 chips, nearly 17 starting stacks and good for 282 big blinds at the start of Day 2, he has made good strides for consecutive final table appearances.
Closely following Barakat in the counts is Dutchman Nino Pansier with 3,281,000 chips. Pansier made a late reentry on Day 1a but surged up the leaderboard as he won hand after hand. His neighbor, Tina Bajric, was the biggest victim of Pansier's rush as she went from chip multi-millionaire to being eliminated within the span of a level.
Harry Casagrande completes the top three with 2,435,000, being the only other player to cross ten starting stacks. Omaha bracelet winners Ronald Keijzer and Elie Nakache also found themselves in the upper half of the field, while the sole American representative so far Andrew Ige managed to squeeze into the top ten as well.
End of Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Youness Barakat | Italy | 3,389,000 | 282 |
| 2 | Nino Pansier | Netherlands | 3,281,000 | 273 |
| 3 | Harry Casagrande | Austria | 2,435,000 | 203 |
| 4 | Ronald Keijzer | Netherlands | 1,569,000 | 131 |
| 5 | Leonid Yanovski | Israel | 1,546,000 | 129 |
| 6 | Bernard Larabi | Hungary | 1,175,000 | 98 |
| 7 | Marco Di Persio | Italy | 1,011,000 | 84 |
| 8 | Spyridon Valakos | Greece | 1,004,000 | 84 |
| 9 | Elie Nakache | France | 909,000 | 76 |
| 10 | Andrew Ige | United States | 690,000 | 58 |
Nakache needed seven bullets to reach his stack, only being outdone by Tom-Aksel Bedell, who fired eight bullets on his way to bagging up 188,000. As a consolation, the two players were awarded a ticket to the €10,300 Championship later this festival. Interestingly, this marks the second time in a row Bedell has been awarded a ticket to the tournament, winning one by ending up as chipleader on Day 1a of the Opener in the previous edition.
Other notables making it through on Day 1a include bracelet winners Dario Alioto (618,000) and Lautaro Guerra (300,000), both of whom won their bracelet in the four-card game. Defending champion Aaron Pahlawani found a bag with 526,000 chips, while runner-up Pavel Izotov is hunting for revenge and ended up with 665,000.
In contrast, the likes of Fahredin Mustafov, Robert Cowen, Stanislav Zegal, Amir Mozaffarian and Hossein Ensan were among the many casualties on Day 1a and will have to try again on Day 1b.
The second and last starting flight will kick off tomorrow, Saturday, January 25, at 4 p.m. local time. The same 11 levels are scheduled then, with late registration not closing until the start of the second level on Day 2.
Tune back in then as PokerNews will continue to provide live updates from the PLO Grand Slam in the Albanian capital.
