Johan Guilbert Tops Day 1 Chip Counts in $100,000 High Roller Championship
Day 1 of the $100,000 No Limit Holdem High Roller Championship has finished inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, with 24 entries recorded on the opening day of the 2026 Onyx High Roller Series presented by Onyx Club. After ten 45-minute levels of play, 11 players remain, all safely through to Day 2.
France’s Johan Guilbert finished the day as the chip leader after bagging 4,705,000, slightly ahead of Spain’s Adrian Mateos, who ended Day 1 with 4,320,000. Austria’s Thomas Muehlocker rounded out the podium positions with 2,755,000, while Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (2,480,000) and Jean-Robert Bellande (2,020,000) are the only other players to finish with over two times the initial starting stack.
Day 1 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johan Guilbert | France | 4,705,000 | 118 |
| 2 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 4,320,000 | 108 |
| 3 | Thomas Muehlocker | Austria | 2,755,000 | 69 |
| 4 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 2,480,000 | 62 |
| 5 | Jean-Robert Bellande | United States | 2,020,000 | 51 |
| 6 | Jessica Teusl | Austria | 1,960,000 | 49 |
| 7 | Danilo Velasevic | Serbia | 1,875,000 | 47 |
| 8 | Matthias Lipp | Austria | 1,875,000 | 47 |
| 9 | Thomas Eychenne | France | 785,000 | 20 |
| 10 | Artur Martirosian | Russian Federation | 655,000 | 16 |
| 11 | Justus Held | Germany | 565,000 | 14 |
When the cards got in the air just after noon, Mateos was first out of the starting block by winning a sizable chunk of chips from Artur Martirosian in a two pair versus two pair confrontation. It was not until the fourth level that the first elimination of the tournament was confirmed, with Danilo Velasevic heading to the rail after Mateos turned two pair against his top pair.
Emilien Pitavy had a tough time at the tables and eventually ran into Klemens Roiter’s cowboys. At the same time, Alex Kulev’s stack was almost cut in half after he triple barreled into Martirosian’s trips. Not long after, Kulev became another victim of Mateos when, despite getting it all in good with pocket jacks against eights, Mateos rivered an unlikely straight to bust the No. 1 on Bulgaria’s all-time money list.
At the start of Level 6, around three-quarters of the way through the day, Guilbert took his seat, and he quickly got off to a dream start by almost doubling up with top pair top kicker against Roiter. From there, Guilbert was frequently the one dragging in the biggest pots at the table. In one hand, he flopped trips against Mateos and won some from the Spanish professional, before closing out the day by sending Robert Heidorn to the rail with the superior ace.
As expected for the biggest buy-in event of the series, a number of notable names found their way through to the end of the night. Among them is Bellande, who ran up a stack of 2,020,000 helped by spiking a straight shortly after entering to nearly double up. Jessica Teusl (1,960,000), Velasevic (1,875,000), and Matthias Lipp (1,875,000) also advanced with stacks above the initial starting stack.
Further down the leaderboard, Thomas Eychenne (785,000), Martirosian (655,000), and Justus Held (565,000) round out the remaining players, all still with workable stacks heading into Day 2.
Late registration remains open for the first two levels of Day 2, with play resuming at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 31 at 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante. The action will be streamed on a delay later in the tournament on the OnyxLiveTV YouTube channel, with play scheduled to continue until the first trophy of the series is awarded.
Stay with PokerNews for continued live coverage and chip counts as the $100,000 No Limit Holdem High Roller Championship heads into Day 2.