button in SafariJULIO Bags Massive Chip Lead on Day 1 of King's Million EPC High Roller
It was only the third level of the day when the Spanish player who goes by JULIO bluffed off his stack in the €3,000 EPC High Roller at the 2026 King's Million European Poker Championship. Undeterred, he quickly reentered, and that proved to be a wise decision. Six levels later, when the night ended, JULIO had turned the starting stack of 200,000 into 1,494,000, nearly one and a half times as much as his nearest contender.
JULIO was two of 92 entries on Day 1 of the EPC High Roller at King's Resort. With 48 players making it through to Day 2, just over half the field survived the first day. However, with three more levels of late registration on Day 2, as well as unlimited reentries available, more people will be joining the fray to battle for the €500,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Meanwhile, Davit Mikhanashvili was the only other player to cross the seven-figure mark, doing so with a stack of 1,065,000. Romanian powerhouse Florian Duta completes the podium with 836,000, while French regular Axel Bayout, who pulled the big €150,000 bounty in the Mystery Bounty earlier this week, also secured a spot in the top ten with 596,000.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JULIO | Spain | 1,494,000 | 187 |
| 2 | Davit Mikhanashvili | Georgia | 1,065,000 | 133 |
| 3 | Florian Duta | Romania | 836,000 | 105 |
| 4 | William Olivotti | Germany | 817,000 | 102 |
| 5 | Genpro93 | Italy | 667,000 | 83 |
| 6 | Axel Bayout | France | 596,000 | 75 |
| 7 | Andre Winkler | Germany | 563,000 | 70 |
| 8 | MajikMike | Italy | 543,000 | 68 |
| 9 | Attila Koncz | Hungary | 516,000 | 65 |
| 10 | Alessandro Predaroli | Italy | 513,000 | 64 |
Some of Europe's top talent traveled to Rozvadov for the €3,000 EPC High Roller, and plenty of them bagged up at the end of the night. Antoine Vranken was one of the final entries of the day but doubled his stack to 412,000, while his fellow Dutch bracelet winner Tobias Peters ended with 273,000.
Mystery Bounty champion Vasilis Nikolas began the hunt for his second title of the series by bagging 250,000, and Zdenek Zizka grinded his way to a stack of 428,000 while multi-tabling Day 1a of the Main Event at the same time.
Darius Neagoe, Ermanno Di Nicola, Mateusz Moolhuizen, Guy Taylor, and Max Kruse were among those who couldn't build a stack on Day 1, but they will have another shot on October 1, when Day 2 starts at 3 p.m. local time.
The blinds will start at Level 10: 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante, with levels remaining 45 minutes long throughout the day. Late registration remains open until the start of Level 13: 10,000/15,000 (15,000). A marathon session that will run well into the morning is in the cards for those who run deep, as Day 2 will play down to a champion.
PokerNews will be back on the tournament floor tomorrow to report the entirety of Day 2 live from Rozvadov, so make sure to tune back in to follow all the latest action from the King's Million EPC.