Schiff Leads 27 Survivors on Day 1d; Vousden and Zhang Among Big Stacks

The 2021 GG Spring Festival is one step closer to covering the ambitious $10 million guarantee in one of their flagship tournaments. Four out of five starting das for the GGSF Super MILLION$ ME-H: $10,300 are now completed and the overall field size has reached 822 entries with one flight to go. The penultimate flight featured 212 players of 27 hopefuls who punched their ticket for Day 2.

It was a very call between three players to earn the biggest stack for Day 1d and a late surge of Alexander "ShtukShtront" Schiff propelled the Jamaican into the top spot. Schiff claimed 1,575,478 to his name, good enough for 79 big blinds on Day 2. Close behind him are Samuel Vousden (1,528,435) and "DonEmilio" (1,522,568).

Another three players accumulated seven-figure stacks including Michael Zhang (1,206,023), "jbubb901" (1,156,259), and David Peters (1,129,455).

Top 10 Counts GGSF Super MILLION$ ME-H: $10,300 Day 1D

Position	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds Day 2
1	Alexander "ShtukShtront" Schiff	Jamaica	1,575,478	79
2	Samuel Vousden	Finland	1,528,435	76
3	DonEmilio	Costa Rica	1,522,568	76
4	Michael Zhang	United Kingdom	1,206,023	60
5	jbubb901	Mexico	1,156,259	58
6	David Peters	United States	1,129,455	56
7	mercury41	Belarus	974,360	49
8	Ian "potamophobia" Matakis	United States	966,306	48
9	Aki "Seabossss" Virtanen	Finland	844,913	42
10	Jargo Alavali	Estonia	836,202	42

Jargo Alavali also reached the overnight top ten for Day 1 with a stack of 836,202, while GGPoker ambassador Anatoly Filatov advanced with a healthy stack of 801,459. The only other GGPoker ambassador to take a shot at the penultimate starting day was Felipe Ramos, who failed to make the cut and bowed out in level 20.

Steve O'Dwyer was among many high-profile poker pros to bust throughout the day. After the registration had closed, O'Dwyer took a flip with ace-queen suited against the pocket tens of David Peters. No ace or queen but four spades appeared and they further improved Peters a flush. Alex Foxen departed in the final level of the night. He was left with fumes after losing flush under flush to Ian "potamophobia" Matakis and hit the rail two hands later. Daniel "zafjekis" Reijmer then became the final casualty on Day 1d when ace-jack failed to hold up against the ace-ten suited of eventual chip leader Alexander "ShtukShtront" Schiff.

Among the other big names that failed to advance were Eelis Pärssinen, Michael Addamo, Wiktor Malinowski, Mikita Badziakouski, Yuri Dzivielevski, Joaqin Melogno, Daniel Dvoress, Adrian Mateos, and Lev "LevMeAlone" Gottlieb. They are all expected to take another shot during the final starting day, which kicks off at 3.05 pm GMT on Sunday. Only a few hours later at 8.05 pm GMT, all Day 1 survivors will then return to burst the money bubble and play down to a nine-handed final table.

The PokerNews team will be back to provide all the action of the final starting day and beyond for this high-stakes contest. The final table is slated to be live-streamed on the following Tuesday, April 20 as of 6 pmGMT.

The Starting Days at a Glance