Alexey Borovkov Bulldozes His Way to Day 1a Chip Lead
Day 1a of the $25,000 Main Event at the 2026 Onyx High Roller Series wrapped up inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa with 65 entries recorded on the opening flight. By the time play was halted, just 10 players remained, each bagging a stack and securing a spot in the money and a return for Day 2.
When play was stopped with 19 minutes remaining in Level 16, Alexey Borovkov led the field after bagging 5,335,000, the equivalent of more than 21 starting stacks. He is followed by Ottomar Ladva with 3,690,000, while Mikalai Vaskaboinikau sits third on 1,490,000. Spain’s Elias Gutierrez finished fourth with 1,440,000, just one big blind shy of Vaskaboinikau, leaving the top four as the only players to end the day with seven-figure stacks.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexey Borovkov | Russian Federation | 5,335,000 | 133 |
| 2 | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | 3,690,000 | 92 |
| 3 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 1,490,000 | 37 |
| 4 | Elias Gutierrez | Spain | 1,440,000 | 36 |
| 5 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | 930,000 | 23 |
| 6 | Parahat Nurmuhammedov | Turkmenistan | 890,000 | 22 |
| 7 | Kirill Shcherbakov | Russian Federation | 810,000 | 20 |
| 8 | Alexandre Reard | France | 635,000 | 16 |
| 9 | Istvan Birizdo | Hungary | 615,000 | 15 |
| 10 | Artur Martirosian | Russian Federation | 430,000 | 11 |
Borovkov entered just before the second break and got off to a flying start. He first won back-to-back pots to eliminate Christopher Puetz, with Puetz calling off his tournament life with trips, only to see Borovkov's rivered flush. Shortly after, Borovkov was on the right side of a cooler to send Adrian Mateos to the rail, helping his stack climb into seven figures for the first time.
Borovkov continued to run over anyone in his path, with Kenar being the next in the firing line. Kenar committed his stack on the turn with an overpair and saw he was up against Borovkov’s flopped set. From there, Borovkov barely slowed down, consistently accumulating chips as the field edged closer to the bubble.
When it came down to the direct bubble, Borokov made the call of the tournament. Gutierrez limp-called a raise from the small blind before check-calling Borovkov’s flop bet. The turn checked through, and with four spades on the board, Gutierrez fired a big bet on the river. Borovkov made the call with just one pair and was shown a complete bluff, a pot that helped cement his position at the top of the leaderboard when play concluded.
As play went hand for hand on the soft bubble, Ladva really got things moving, putting together his best level of the day and climbing into second place by the end. He started by winning a big flip, with pocket jacks against Eelis Parssinen’s ace king to send the Finnish pro out in 12th. Ladva then tangled with Adrian State, first making the right call over two streets with top pair, before ending State’s run as the bubble boy when his ace-jack held up against ace-nine.
Also bagging up their chips at the end of the night was Ramin Hajiyev (930,000), who was helped along by a classic cooler earlier in the day when his aces ran into kings. Parahat Nurmuhammedov (890,000), Kirill Shcherbakov (810,000), Alexandre Reard (635,000), and Istvan Birizdo (615,000) also made it through to the money.
Meanwhile, Artur Martirosian (430,000) scraped through with just over ten big blinds, finding himself all in and at risk on the bubble before flopping trip aces to survive and bag a stack.
The focus now shifts to Wednesday, February 4, with Day 1b getting underway at 12 p.m. and following the same structure as the opening flight. Later that evening, the Day 1c Turbo will offer 20-minute blind levels, before all surviving players from the three starting flights reconvene for Day 2 of the $5,000,000 guaranteed Main Event.
Remaining $25,000 Main Event Schedule
| Day | Date | Time | Blind Levels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1b | February 4 | 12 p.m. | 40 minutes |
| Day 1c Turbo | February 4 | 8 p.m. | 20 minutes |
| Day 2 | February 5 | 1 p.m. | 60 minutes |
| Day 3 Final Table | February 6 | 1 p.m. | Hands-per-level |
Stay locked to PokerNews for continued coverage of the $25,000 Main Event, as well as the final table of the $50,000 NLH Grand Slam that is being streamed on the OnyxLiveTV YouTube channel.