Youness Barakat Forfeits Stack, Then Cruises to Main Event Day 1b Chip Lead

Day 1b of the $25,000 PLO Main Event at the 2026 Onyx High Roller Series played out inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, with 91 new entries added to the fiel. By the time the clock was stopped in the final minute of Level 14, just 14 players remained, each bagging a stack and securing their return for Day 2.

Coming through with the biggest stack of 5,155,000 is Italy’s Youness Barakat. Barakat somehow scraped through Day 1a with nothing more than a chip and a chair, then made the choice to forfeit that stack, lock up a min-cash, and take another shot at making it through to Day 2.

That decision looks pretty smart now. Barakat absolutely ran over the Day 1b field, bagging the overall chip lead with more than 20 starting stacks. China’s Quan Zhou (2,755,000) sits closest behind him, while Bassel Alanaz (2,100,000) ends the night third. Zhou and Alanaz were also the ones who burst the bubble on the very last hands of the night, ensuring everyone else made it through.

Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Youness Barakat	Italy	5,155,000	172
2	Quan Zhou	China	2,755,000	92
3	Bassel Alanaz	Lebanon	2,100,000	70
4	Espen Myrmo	Norway	2,015,000	67
5	Lautaro Guerra	Spain	2,010,000	67
6	Marcel Grubinger	Austria	1,430,000	48
7	Aku Joentausta	Finland	1,370,000	46
8	Mads Amot	Norway	1,095,000	37
9	Geoffrey Mooney	Australia	1,030,000	34
10	Joni Jouhkimainen	Finland	975,000	33

Day 1b Action

The day began at noon with 12 players in their seats, and the field steadily grew throughout the afternoon, reaching 91 entries when late registration closed. Jean-Robert Bellande was in early and wasted no time getting involved, flopping top set to send Eelis Parssinen to the rail on bullet number one.

Once registration closed, plenty of big names bowed out before the tournament got near the money. Patrik Antonius, Tom-Aksel Bedell, and Basem Abudavas all failed to make it through, with Abudavas seeing his aces cracked in a three way all in. Biao Ding and Parssinnen also exited, with Parssinnen’s kings running straight into the aces of his countryman Aku Joentausta.

As the field whittled down and the finish line came into view, play tightened up. This was where Barakat really started to pull away, first by picking off a river bluff from Espen Myrmo, then by getting paid on a big river value bet with a straight against Joentausta. Those two pots did most of the heavy lifting as Barakat surged clear at the top by the time bags came out.

Laszlo Bujtas had his moment just before the soft bubble, winning a huge blind-on-blind pot to eliminate Sergei Nesterenko when both players turned flushes. That pot marked the high point of Bujtas’ day, as his stack quickly headed in the opposite direction from there.

In the end, Bujtas shared the unwanted title of Day 1b bubble boy after calling off his stack on the river with top two pair, only to see Zhou turn over the nuts. Filip Aleksic hit the rail at the same time, meaning both players were eliminated on the final hand of the night. With that, no hand-for-hand was needed, and the remaining 14 players all locked up a cash and a seat in Wednesday’s Day 2.

With Day 1c Turbo having closed late registration and drawing 54 entries, the total field stands at 199 across the three opening flights. All surviving players will reconvene for Day 2 at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11, with the blinds rolled back to the earliest finishing level and 60-minute levels starting as the tournament plays down to the final table.