₽191,800 EPT Main Event
Day 1a Completed
2019 PokerStars EPT Sochi
₽191,800 EPT Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2019 PokerStars EPT Sochi
Buy-in
191,800 RUB
Prize Pool
145,500,000 RUB
Entries
758
Level
30
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
120,000
Day 1a of the Main Event Concludes With Aleksandr Denisov Bagging the Resounding Chip Lead
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
After ten levels of play at Casino Sochi, 251 runners were reduced to 95 and it was Aleksandr Denisov's day without question. Denisov progressed to Day 2 with 498,600 chips, almost 150,000 more than his closest rival, Illia Korobkin (352,700). Roman Gadzhiev (240,000) finished in third, Igor Grytsak (197,500) in fourth and Artem Vezhenkov (161,000) was the fifth biggest stack at the end of the night.
Denis stormed through the day, dominating from Level 6 and eliminating numerous opponents in the process. By the time players went on their last break of the day, Denisov was already up to 200,000, a stack worthy of a top-five finish when the bell rang on the day's play. A key hand (probably the key hand in fact) involved Jiayu Ruan. Denisov cold-four bet preflop with ace-king in the hole and Ruan, who was the three-better, called. The board came king-high and Denisov was able to extract three streets of value. He didn't look back from there and ran it up to the aforementioned lead.
Denisov wasn't the only big name to take to the felt today. Team PokerStars and PSPC Champion Pro Ramon Colillas took 134,000 through. Team PokerStars Pro Online Mikhail Shalamov also survived, bagging 62,100. Anatoliy Zyrin (92,500), Artur Martirosyan (84,300), Dmitry Yurasov (84,200), Wenling Gao (80,900), Vitaliy Avanesyan (55,000), Kiryl Radzivonau (53,000), Yaniv Peretz (49,100) and Tomas Macnamara (18,700) were just some of the big names to make it through.
It wasn't good news for everyone, with some familiar faces failing to progress. Among the casualties were Pete Chen, Denys Shafikov, Anton Yakuba, Oleg Titov, Daniil Kiselev, and Viktor Kudinov. We may not have seen the last of any of them as there are still starting flights 1b and 1c to come tomorrow, with a single re-entry available in both.
Day 1b starts at midday on Monday 25th March and will feature exactly the same structure as today, with ten 60-minute levels on the clock. Day 1c kicks off at 7pm and will have ten 30-minute levels. All players who bag will secure themselves a place in Day 2 on Tuesday 26th March.
As always, PokerNews will provide coverage of all the action from the Main Event and throughout the EPT Sochi Festival.
Chip Counts (full)
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
498,600 | 93,600 |
|
352,700 | 85,700 |
|
240,900 | 160,900 |
|
197,500 | 197,500 |
|
161,000 | 48,000 |
|
|
148,200 | 148,200 |
|
145,100 | 145,100 |
|
144,400 | 144,400 |
|
143,900 | 143,900 |
|
|
140,000 | 140,000 |
|
|
136,600 | 136,600 |
|
134,000 | 52,000 |
|
123,600 | -91,400 |
|
|
117,900 | 117,900 |
|
|
107,600 | 107,600 |
|
|
104,000 | 104,000 |
|
101,300 | -7,700 |
|
97,700 | 97,700 |
|
94,200 | 94,200 |
|
|
93,000 | 93,000 |
|
|
93,000 | 93,000 |
|
92,500 | 92,500 |
|
90,000 | 90,000 |
|
|
88,800 | 88,800 |
|
|
88,000 | 88,000 |
Day 1a is in the Books
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
Play in the Main Event has ended for the night. A full recap and chip counts will be posted shortly.
Last Three Hands
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
The clock has been paused and the tournament director has announced there will be three more hands before Day 1a concludes.
Colillas Recovering Well
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
After an early elimination, Ramon Colillas quickly got back in the game. For a while is looked like his re-entry wouldn't fare any better as he dropped to less than 10,000 chips at one point. That has all changed though as the Team PokerStars Pro and PSPC Champion has been building since the dinner break. He is now on almost triple the starting stack and is in much better shape as players are poised to start bagging their chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
82,000 | 17,000 |
Photos From Around the Card Room
Zyrin Raises Flop to Take it
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
Anatoliy Zyrin has dropped in the last hour or so but he has just taken a pot on the flop to pull a little back. On a 
board, Zyrin raised a 3,500 bet and a call to 10,500 and met with no opposition.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
48,000 | -13,000 |
Updated Counts
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
144,000 | 135,900 |
|
77,000 | 34,000 |
|
71,000 | -16,000 |
|
|
65,000 | 36,000 |
|
62,000 | 19,500 |
|
54,000 | -18,000 |
|
|
48,000 | 1,500 |
|
45,500 | -35,500 |
|
39,500 | -30,500 |
|
17,500 | 10,000 |
Last Level of the Day
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
This will be the last level of Day 1a of the Main Event.