Another successful day of four-card poker is in the books at Arena Casino Tirana. On day 1b, the final starting flight of the €5,200 Opener of the second-ever PLO Grand Slam by Diamond Poker Series, 93 entries were made. At the end of the night, 21 of them were bagging up the chips, the exact same number as on Day 1a.
Germany's Fabian Riebau-Schmithals ended the night with the most amount of chips, bagging up 2,976,000 of them. Good for nearly 250 big blinds at the start of Day 2, the PLO specialist has obtained 15 starting stacks on his hunt to take vengeance as he came tantalizingly close to the money in this event just two months ago, ending up on the soft bubble.
Second in chips is American Sean Rafael, with 2,257,000, while Hungary's Gergo Nagy follows in third with 1,872,000. Like Riebau-Schmithals, the live tournament scores of the two players are dominated by Omaha results as they pursue another PLO trophy to add to their collection.
The same can not be said for Tom Vogelsang, who is mostly known for his high-stakes hold 'em prowess. The Dutchman is now slouch in four-card poker either, however, as he amassed 1,714,000 throughout Day 1b to end up in fourth place on the leaderboard. Rounding out the top five is PLO bracelet winner Tomas Ribeiro, while the likes of Espen Myrmo and Robert Cowen also squeeked into the top ten.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fabian Riebau-Schmithals | Germany | 2,976,000 | 248 |
| 2 | Sean Rafael | United States | 2,257,000 | 188 |
| 3 | Gergo Nagy | Hungary | 1,872,000 | 156 |
| 4 | Tom Vogelsang | Netherlands | 1,714,000 | 143 |
| 5 | Tomas Ribeiro | Portugal | 1,024,000 | 85 |
| 6 | "Dima" | 1,005,000 | 84 | |
| 7 | Christos Argyriadis | Greece | 980,000 | 82 |
| 8 | Espen Myrmo | Norway | 867,000 | 72 |
| 9 | "Lion King" | 838,000 | 70 | |
| 10 | Robert Cowen | United Kingdom | 690,000 | 58 |
The bottom half of the field is filled with recognizable faces as well, with bracelet winners Nikolaos Lampropoulos (579,000), Bernd Gleissner (354,000), and Ismael Bojang (225,000) all making it through to Day 2. Diamond Poker Ambassador Max Kruse also made it to the end of Day 2, bagging 293,000 after a mostly uneventful day.
On the other side of the coin were, among others, Stanislav Zegal, Amir Mozaffarian, Hossein Ensan, and Joni Jouhkimainen, and Blaz Zerjav, who all fell throughout the day. However, most of them are expected to fire one or more times tomorrow, as the late registration will stay open until the start of the second level of Day 2.
With 199 entries across the two starting flights, the €1,000,000 guarantee is almost reached. The final few entries needed will almost certainly take place on Day 2, which starts at 2 p.m. local time tomorrow, January 26. The final level of late registration will be the first level of Day 2: 6,000/12,000, with a 12,000 big blind ante. All levels will remain 45 minutes in length and the tournament is scheduled to play all the way down to a winner.
A marathon session is to be expected tomorrow, so check back in to PokerNews then to find out who will cross the finish line in first place.
