The 2015 TonyBet World Championship OFC Main Event is about to kick off in 15 minutes. The €1,000 buy-in two-day tournament features plenty of play with 30,000 starting chips, 30 minute blind levels, and play beginning at just 100 chips per point.
Last year's inaugural event delivered a record breaking field size for an OFC event of 135 entrants, and organizers are hoping that today's event will exceed this figures. When the final cards were dealt, Norway’s Mikal Blomlie had all the chips in front of him and was claimed the first OFC World Championship Main Event winner in history to win both the coveted belt and the top prize of €35,000.
Some of the high rollers might be a little late to the action today as a winner in yesterday's €10,000 buy-in TonyBet OFC World Championship High Roller wasn't declared until around 7:30 am, when Russia's Maxim Panyak banked €110,000 for outlasting the 33 entrants.
This tournament broke new prize pool records with Russia's Evgeny Kocherov (second - €76,030), USA's Jason Mercier (third - €50,655), Italy's Max Pescatori (fourth - €37,000), and USA's Natasha Barbour (fifth - €30,410) all cashed.
The day before, it was TonyBet Ambassador Isabelle Mercier in the shining light after becoming the first-ever Open Face Chinese Poker Progressive Pineapple world champion. On very little sleep, she was seen just a few hours later ready to play in yesterday's High Roller. While things didn't go as good for Mercier yesterday, she did share with us she planned to join in on the action again today for the Main Event.
Isabelle Mercier has just been among the early eliminations in the tournament. Known by her fans as "No Mercy", the TonyBet Poker Ambassador is already back in the action with her second bullet and a fresh stack of 30,000 chips.
Mercier, whose OFC strategy articles appear weekly on told PokerNews, shared with us that, "I feel good, and I am ready to go!"
Isabelle Mercier was one of the players to not return from dinner break. She seemed disappointed that her second bullet was not successful after running it up to 100,000 before busting out of the tournament. Overall the TonyBet Ambassador appeared to have a good experience, winning her first ever OFC tournament in the Progressive Pineapple event on Sunday.
One player to wait until after dinner break to join is Italian poker pro Max Pescatori. Pescatori made a deep run in last night's OFC High Roller, taking fourth place for €37,000.
The Italian's luck wasn't so great today as he was in and out in one hand on the table of Singapore's Yuanxi Chen. With late registration now close, Pescatori has left the tournament arena.
Jennifer Shahade has just been eliminated from the tournament, however, not at the hands of Maxim Panyak whose stack also took a hit. Sergey Baranov recently was added to their table, and immediately went on a run at the expense of both players.
Last year's Main Event champ won't get a chance at a repeat performance after exiting before the money. He was able to parlay his second bullet to 100,000 chips before going on a bad run right before the dinner break.
Sergey Rybachenko was just eliminated in 21st place, six spots away from the money. His girlfriend, Alexandra Usoltseva, appears to be in good shape to cash in today's tournament with a stack of 240,000 chips or enough for a 120 point swing until the level goes up.
Russia's Maxim Panyak was eliminated in 14th place for €1,548. Despite not winning, he has reason to celebrate considering he won the TonyBet OFC World Championship High Roller yesterday for €110,000.
Play will be stopping for the day once one more player is eliminated from the field.
