The Viennese regulars Reinhard, Gerald, and Benedict Schneiber are all in today's PokerNews Cup Main Event Day 1B field. The three brothers are looking for a change from the Austrian poker scene they play just about every day, and found that with €200,000 guaranteed prize pool today's tournament offers, that it was worth a trip to the Czech Republic.
We had 98 entrants yesterday for Day 1A, and today is already eclipsing that number with 122 entrants ponying up the €250 buy-in for Day 1B.
Five players already left their seats during the first two blind levels, leaving 117 playing. More players are expected to join up with registration open until the end of blind level 10. Players are also allowed to re-enter one time today.
The PokerNews Cup not only features a highly attractive Main Event with a guaranteed prize pool of €200,000 but also offers a full schedule of great side events.
The €10,000 Gtd. Pot-Limit Omaha event attracted so far 82 players with 71 still remaining. We scanned the room for familiar faces, and - surprise, surprise - was Timothy Weltner.
If you have been following our live coverage, you already know that Weltner won the PokerNews Cup Opening Event two days ago, and was one of the eight players to win the Main Event satellite yesterday. He made our news coverage when he was officially the first person to bust out of the PokerNews Cup Main Event yesterday, however, he made good use of his second bullet to become one of the 19 players to survive Day 1A.
Weltner told us an hour before Day 1B started that he planned on playing the €50 no-limit hold'em side event starting in about an hour, but looks like he had a change of heart.
We noticed a few players around the room who entered yesterday in Day 1A and are back hoping to make it to Day 2 via today's action instead.
Thailand's Wansa Trensch is one such player. She currently lives in Germany, so her trek to King's Casino wasn't nearly as far as Aussie Lewis Murray.
So far we have players from three continents in Europe, Asia, and Australia. We wouldn't be surprised to learn by the time late registration closes during the last flight that there are representatives from more far-away places.
Inna Ohorodnyk is seated right next to the Australian traveler Lewis Murray. We learned that Ohorodnyk yesterday, we learned she lives in Ukraine and qualified into the event via an online qualifier run by our friends at partypoker.
She traveled here yesterday with a friend who also plans to play in the event.
Karl-Heinz Metz has been one of the regulars at the PokerNews Cup. In eight years since the PokerNews Cup has been running, Metz has attended six times including in Australia, Saalbach-Hinterglem, Salzburg, Vienna and here at the Kings Casino in Rozvadov.
Metz cashed in the PokerNews Cup Main Event in October 2014 at the Montesino Pokertainment Centre in Vienna when he took 39th place for €510.
We mentioned earlier that today would be bigger than yesterday. Already 20 minutes into the tournament, we have 100 entrants in Day 1B, which is two more than the 98 we witnessed yesterday for Day 1A.
The field will likely continue to grow with late registration remaining open through the end of blind level 10.
Australia's Lewis Murray is back in the action after yesterday thinking he would head to Prague and just an hour ago telling us he was likely to play in the Pot Limit Omaha side event.
Murray told us that, "I change my mind every second." This could be good when traveling without a complete agenda, and may prove good for him in the PokerNews Cup Main Event if he builds a stack today.
