€1,100 High Roller
Day 1a Completed
2019 PokerNews Cup Casino Finix
€1,100 High Roller
Day: 1a
Ivan Ivanov Leads After Day 1a of the 2019 PokerNews Cup High Roller
Level 10
: 1,500/3,000, 3,000 ante
The first flight of the 2019 PokerNews Cup High Roller attracted 28 entries (including 1 reentry), and after 10 levels of 45 minutes each, 12 of them advanced to Day 2.
Ivan Ivanov is the player who gathered most of the chips with 631,500, and he had to hit a big river in order to take the chip lead in the middle of Day 1a. He had a set and he was against a straight when the chips went into the pot, with only one card remaining to complete the board. The river gave him the boat he needed to stay alive, and he managed to keep that huge stack until the end of the day. "I knew it was coming," he said to us full of confidence after the hand.
The players had the chance to re-enter up to two times today, but the only player who took advantage of this option was Dimitrios Dimitros, raising the event's total entries to 28. The Greek bluffed off his stack in his first try but then came back and managed to hit many big hands, resulting in him finishing the day with 547,500 which is the second biggest stack of the day.
David Reef from Israel is the player who rounds out the top three stacks of the day, bagging 390,000 for Day 2.
27 players entered Day 1a which means that 15 of them left the field, having to try another day to advance to Day 2. Some of the players that didn't make it are Achilleas Nomidis, Dejan Stanev, George Efthimiadis, "POLY10", Emil Trenkov and Georgios Zarogiannis amongst others.
A full list of players left after Day 1a is posted below.
Day 1b is scheduled for tomorrow Monday the 13th May at 5 p.m. local time. Stay tuned for more updates from the PokerNews Live Reporting team during the 2019 PokerNews Cup in Finix Casino, located in Kulata, Bulgaria.
End of Day Chip-Counts (full)
Level 10
: 1,500/3,000, 3,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
631,500 | 91,500 |
|
547,500 | 197,500 |
|
390,000 | 77,000 |
|
|
273,000 | 188,500 |
|
226,000 | -4,000 |
|
185,500 | 18,200 |
|
157,500 | 44,500 |
|
|
104,000 | 52,000 |
|
|
95,000 | -50,000 |
|
|
94,500 | -63,500 |
|
|
74,500 | -172,500 |
|
63,000 | -7,300 |
Three More Hands
Level 10
: 1,500/3,000, 3,000 ante
Christina Orfanidou, the only woman who played the tournament and since she is still in, had the honor to pick one of four cards with number of remaining hands for today.
The options were from three to six hands and she picked three, getting the appraise from the other players.
Another Sick Run Out Leads to the Elimination of Nomidis
Level 10
: 1,500/3,000, 3,000 ante
Achilleas Nomidis completed from the small blind after it was folded to him and Dimitrios Dimitros checked from the big blind.
The flop came 
and Nomidis check-raised to 12,000 after Dimitros bet 4,000 on the flop.
Dimitros called and the turn was the 
. Nomidis checked, Dimitros bet 25,000, Nomidis went all in for 40,000 and Dimitros snap-called.
Nomidis: 
Dimitros: 
They both had a straight but Dimitros had the bigger one and Nomidis was drawing only to clubs to double-up. This didn't happen when the 
completed the board on the river and Nomidis is out.
We have 5 more minutes of play before the clock stops. A draw will and the last hands of the day will be determined.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |
Alexandrov Busts from Kioutsoukis
Level 10
: 1,500/3,000, 3,000 ante
Blago Alexandrov is out of the tournament after he announced all in in the turn with the board showing 
.
Alexandrov held sevens and he was against 
of Loukas Kioutsoukis who was a huge favourite and hold his lead after a blank on the turn.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
230,000 | 85,000 |
|
Busted |
Level: 10
Blinds: 1,500/3,000
Ante: 3,000
Down to 2 tables
Level 9
: 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
Two more players busted while we were trying to collect info about the biggest hand of the tournament so far, which we reported earlier.
Galustov and Gkikoulis left the field with 16 players and they merged in two tables.
The first all in after the merge was from Kiriakos Charalampidis who had 12 big blinds and put them in the middle with 
versus Hionidis' 
.
The flop ended it all early with 
giving a straight to Charalampidis and left Hionidis blaming his luck. Either he still continues in the game with more than 150,000 chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
52,000 | -23,500 |
|
Busted | |
|
|
Busted |
What a River... Again!
Level 9
: 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
The river is the street that determines huge pots lately in the event, and especially in pots where the players are all in from the turn.
We just witnessed a huge pot that catapulted Ivan Ivanov into the chip lead with more than 500,000 chips!
Dimitros raised to 5,500 from the cut-off, Halkiadakis, called from the button, and "Cossack" followed from the small blind, as did Ivanov from the big blind.
The flop came and "Cossack" checked, Ivanov bet 11,000 and all players called, except Dimitros who folded.
The turn was the 
, "Cossack" checked again, Ivanov asked Halkiadakis how many chips he has since he was the shortest of the three players, and then he decided to bet 60,000 when Halkiadakis answered that he has 78,000.
Halkiadakis folded and "Cossack" announced all in for more than 170,000 with Ivanov calling after some deliberation.
Ivanov: 
"Cossack": 
A straight for the Greek guy versus a flopped set for the Bulgarian player, and a huge pot in the middle. The 
was devastating for "Cossack" since it gave a full-house to Ivanov who stand up and celebrated his big win.
"I knew it was coming" he said to us right after the hand, and it looked like he means it because he remained very calm when he saw his opponent's straight.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
540,000 | 269,700 |
|
|
Busted |
Level: 9
Blinds: 1,000/2,000
Ante: 2,000