In a pot of 28,500, big blind Damjan Radanov had check-raised button Stanislau Melhui's bet to 32,000 on a turn of 6♥9♦9♥Q♦. Melhui put in the call, leaving himself 100,000 behind.
"All-in", said Radanov as the 2♠ river hit the table. Melhui still played a little more than the pot of 92,500, but he decided to muck his cards and play on with half a starting stack.
Gergo Nagy three-bet to 18,500 from early position, getting a call from "Megas" in the cutoff. Espen Myrmo then four-bet jammed for his remaining 32,500, after which Nagy five-bet to 116,500.
"Just tell me what I need to put in," "Megas" told the dealer before quickly putting in a call.
The rest of the chips flew in on the 6♦3♠4♣ flop, with "Megas" being the at-risk player with a stack of 115,000.
Nagy's Aces were ahead, but both players had outs after the 5♣ turn. The Q♠ river helped neither of them, however, and Nagy scooped up the pot. He knocked out both opponents in the first level and ended up with over 500 big blinds.
Joachim Haraldstad and Tomas Ribeiro were tangling in a pot of 23,500 when Haraldstad bet the pot from the small blind on a turn of 6♥2♦Q♠10♠. Ribeiro cut out a call and put it in the middle before the 4♦ river completed the board.
Haraldstad sized down to 21,000 but still received a quick fold from his opponent and took down the pot.
In a pot worth 22,500, Fabian Riebau-Schmithals checked from under the gun to Daniel Tordjman in the cutoff. Tordjman made a bet of 12,000 on the 2♦10♠3♥ flop, which Riebau-Schmithals called.
Tordjman then sized up to 40,000 on the Q♦ turn, to which Riebau-Schmithals swiftly folded.
A couple of hands later, Tordjman was seen betting a pot-sized 50,000 on a completed board of 3♣5♣7♠J♠7♦. His opponent again was Riebau-Schmithals, who check-folded once more after some deliberation.
Have you heard about MyStack by PokerNews? It is a free-to-use tool built into the PokerNews website that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages. MyStack directly connects you to PokerNews' live reporting pages, making you an even bigger part of the action in the events you play.
MyStack is a free poker tool and PokerNews activates MyStack for every event it is live reporting from, regardless of that tournament's buy-in. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!
The €5,200 Opener of Diamond Poker Series' second PLO Grand Slam is on track to reach its massive €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Yesterday, Day 1a attracted 106 entries to Arena Casino Tirana, about half of what is needed to reach the guarantee.
For those not lucky enough to be among the 21 survivors of the first flight, the second and final Day 1 will begin today at 4 p.m. local time. However, with late registration not closing until the second level of Day 2, there will be nothing to worry about if Day 1b does not reach the seven-figure guarantee.
All who register today will be chasing Day 1a's leader Youness Barakat, who led throughout nearly the entire day the day to end up with a massive pile of 3,389,000 chips, almost 17 times the starting stack. Nino Pansier followed closely with a stack of 3,281,000, while bracelet winners Ronald Keijzer and Elie Nakache also found their way into the top ten.
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
Youness Barakat
The players who register today will start over again with 200,000 chips, although there is a 10 percent bonus for players who register before the start of play and a five percent bonus for those who enter or reenter during the first level. Play will begin with blinds at 500/1,000 with a 1,000 big blind ante, and players will have unlimited reentries available until the day ends after Level 11: 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante.
All levels will be 45 minutes in length, with two 15-minute breaks sprinkled throughout the day and a 45-minute dinner break after Level 5, around 8 p.m. local time.
€5,200 PLO Opener Day 1b Structure
Level
Duration (min)
Small Blind
Big Blind
Big Blind Ante
1
45
500
1,000
1,000
2
45
1,000
1,500
1,500
3
45
1,000
2,000
2,000
Break
15
4
45
1,000
2,500
2,500
5
45
1,500
3,000
3,000
Break
45
6
45
2,000
4,000
4,000
7
45
2,000
5,000
5,000
8
45
3,000
6,000
6,000
Break
15
9
45
4,000
8,000
8,000
10
45
5,000
10,000
10,000
11
45
6,000
12,000
12,000
Another exhilarating day of Omaha is in the cards for Day 1b, so stick to PokerNews to not miss any of the four-card action.
